I believe that education offers the fastest route to economic mobility. I grew up with a family of strong, accomplished, and educated women. I believe, as they say, that you can't be what you don't see, and since I saw a lot of smart women in my life, education being at the center, I just mimicked that behavior. There was never a question that I'd go to college. In fact, I was the last person in my family to get a master's degree, so that tells you I'm actually the underachiever!

There's no amount of money that would make me decide something for a career.

The Eva Longoria who worked at Wendy's flipping burgers - she needed a tax break.

Michelle Obama is going to be an amazing First Lady: She's intelligent, capable and motivated. She just embodies everything that an American woman should represent.

If I were single and had my career, I'd be happy. You have to be happy with what you're doing.

I won a scholarship to come to LA and compete in a modeling and talent completion and was amazed when I won it. I had never acted before in my life and won the acting category. I began to wonder what this is about and then decided to see what happened.

In my family, there was one cardinal priority - education. College was not an option; it was mandatory. So even though we didn’t have a lot of money, we made it work. I signed up for financial aid, Pell Grants, work study, anything I could.