Amna Nawaz: Fabiola Moreno Ruelas is a first-generation college graduate currently working for the California state legislature. She’s also the founder of the Ruelas Fulfillment Foundation, which aims to help high school students pursue higher education.

Tonight, she gives her Brief But Spectacular take on how anyone can give.

Fabiola Moreno Ruelas, Founder, ®MD-IN¯Ruelas Fulfillment Foundation: I was born and raised in Gonzales, California. That’s in the Central Coast.

A lot of people, their parents are farmworkers. Their families are living paycheck to paycheck. When I was 16, it was one of the roughest times for my family and I. Unfortunately, we couldn’t pay rent anymore. Both my mom and my stepdad at that point had lost their jobs.

And it was really hard because that summer I was going into my junior year of high school, and something switched in my mind and I was like, I cannot let this experience sort of repeat itself in my life.

I was the first one in my family to go to college. I knew that I wanted to go and explore more of California and see what the world had to offer. And I knew that would help not only myself but my family, my nieces, my brother. I knew that it would have a domino effect in my family.

When I was 14 years old, my friends and I decided to go to the movie theaters. We were driving down the 101 when a big rig cut the van that we were in. We hit the back of the big rig and went into a ditch. It absolutely changed my life.

I ended up with a fractured skull, with a fractured back, a fractured wrist. We ended up suing the company. We settled. And at that age, I knew that I was going to get some settlement funds when I had turned 18. It was more money than I had ever seen in my life. And at that point, I knew that I would use some for college obviously, but I also knew that I wanted to give back.

I reached out to my school counselor and I asked her how I could get a scholarship started. The Ruelas Fulfillment Foundation awards students that want to pursue a career after high school. I really give out the scholarship and I select the recipients based off of their involvement in any sort of community.

A lot of these students resonate with me because they just want to do better, be better, not only for themselves, but because they know that will have an impact on their family as well.

Woman: Escorted by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia is Fabiola Moreno Ruelas.

Fabiola Moreno Ruelas: Now I am a legislative aide. I live in Sacramento. I work for an assemblymember, and I like to say that I sort of give in two ways. I give through the scholarship, but I also help change systematic barriers that are in place that hinder students from going to college.

One person that was really impacted by the scholarship was Cindy Aguilar (ph). She’s also a first-generation student. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 2023. The scholarship allowed her to buy her school supplies and settle into college.

I think that inherently human beings want to give and they feel a sense of happiness when they do. I think I could have lost my life at that point and for one reason or the other I didn’t. And I think I didn’t because I think I was meant to do this.

My name is Fabiola Moreno Ruelas, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on how anyone can give.

Amna Nawaz: And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.