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Cal State Fullerton Student with an Entrepreneurial Mission wins Thrive Scholarship


Pamela Martinez Sierra (Left) won the Thrive Financial & Bookkeeping Services Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Karla Amador (Right)
Pamela Martinez Sierra (Left) won the Thrive Financial & Bookkeeping Services Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Karla Amador (Right)

Pamela Martinez Sierra’s ingenuity, passion, and hard work made her the best choice for this year’s Thrive Financial & Bookkeeping Services Entrepreneurial Scholarship sponsored by Karla Amador, the founder of Thrive.

Pamela is a native of Chile and the daughter of a governor. Like her father, Pamela is a leader as evidenced by the fact that she was twice elected high school president and she was the captain of her soccer team three years in a row. Being a leader is good but her family also stressed the importance of giving back and she took that to heart by frequently volunteering in the community.

As a school leader and an active member in the community, Pamela saw many of her peers excel in their studies but were ultimately unable to pursue a degree due to a lack of economic opportunity, which also makes it hard for many Chileans to find stable employment. For Pamela, this wasn’t the case. The financial stability of her father’s job afforded her the option of pursuing higher education. She took the opportunity and promised herself that one day she would return to Chile and be a leader for those who are trapped by circumstances beyond their control by building “new opportunities, generate jobs, and facilitate success” for those that have been left behind.

But first Pamela had to get her education and she decided to get her education in America. She started out at Orange Coast College and now she attends Cal State Fullerton where she is pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with concentrations in Entrepreneurship and Operations & Supply Chain Management. Here, she is learning many lessons that she will be able to use to achieve her dream.

Everything was going according to plan but then the unthinkable happened. Pamela’s father had a heart attack and he ended up having to step down from his job due to his health. Having sold off many of the family’s assets to pay for the successful bypass operation, the money that her parents had been allocating for her education was cut off.

Finding the funds to pay for college and to live off of has gotten tough but she is driven to accomplish her mission and persevere. Pamela will be going into her senior year as a student of California State University, Fullerton and will use the Thrive Scholarship money to pay for a portion of her tuition and school fees. This scholarship will help Pamela achieve her dream of creating an “organization with social and economic values.”

The Thrive Financial & Bookkeeping Services Entrepreneurial Scholarship was created by entrepreneur Karla Amador. Karla established the Thrive scholarship due to her own experiences with struggling to pay for school. Karla overcame her struggles and now owns her own accounting business. A portion of all the sales from her firm goes toward starting scholarships for well deserving students such as Pamela.

Karla, like Pamela, worked hard to persevere and pursue her dreams. She told herself “When I’m successful I want to pay it forward.”

For more information for this and other scholarships please visit the CSUF Office of Financial Aid at http://www.fullerton.edu/financialaid/.


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For more details on CSUF Entrepreneurship:
http://business.fullerton.edu/Center/Entrepreneurship/

For more details on how we help people become entrepreneurs:
http://business.fullerton.edu/Center/Entrepreneurship/Incubator

For more details on how CSUF Consulting can help businesses thrive:
http://business.fullerton.edu/Center/Entrepreneurship/Consulting

Attend one of our events for entrepreneurs or sign up for a free mentoring session:
http://bit.ly/CSUFEntrepreneurEvents

Knowledge @ CSUF Entrepreneurship video series:
http://bit.ly/csufknowledge


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