Carla Quimson's Bio 

First and foremost, I wanted to give you my appreciation and many thank you for choosing me as your scholarship winner. It is for people and organizations like you help students like me to succeed. I hope one day I could repay your generosity. Thank you again!

About my bio, I have put together a small portfolio of my academic life, because I think pictures explain more than what I can in words.

But a little about me. I am an immigrant from the Philippines and migrated here at 16 years old. I developed my passion for landscape architecture from horticulture, I LOVE plants, and gardening. After HS I decided to pursue a career in retail management instead of finishing college to help my family. Now, 12 years later I realized a career in retail does not align with what I want to accomplish in life. So then, I decided that I needed to go back to school to achieve this.

Enrolling at Southwestern College changed the course of my life, here, I met people who are passionate about helping students achieve their goals and was also passionate about plants like I am. I started my school year in person and shortly after went to virtual for two years. It was different but it was still a great experience. Now that I am nearing graduation, and I have completed AS in Environmental Horticulture and AS in Landscape Architecture later in May. I have decided that I want to pursue being a Landscape Architect and get licensed, so I have decided to transfer to Cal Poly Pomona in Fall of 23.

Living in National City I have experienced food apartheid or food injustice firsthand. Nowhere within one – two miles of where I live, I can find organic produce. These past few years living here, this issue came to light, and I became very close to it, so I decided I would like to learn more. I applied for an internship at Olivewood Garden and Learning Center, here they teach local students and their families, holistic nutrition that starts with planting what you eat to then preparing it in the kitchen. I have learned so much on how to take care and maintain a large working producing garden. I appreciated all the hard work it takes for farmers to grow food.

Transferring to Cal Poly Pomona will help me achieve the skills I need to be able to help our community with this issue. I also want to be able to give back to my school Southwestern College and possibly teach students like me the knowledge I learn. Being able to receive scholarship like yours help make all these goals possible for students like me. So again, thank you Mission Hills Garden Club.