Commitment to Excellence Scholarship

To me, “One heart, one beat” means we’re all connected by something deeper than words: by emotion, by love, by rhythm. It’s about showing up for one another, staying in sync when life feels chaotic, and choosing unity over isolation. It reminds me of what I’ve felt through music and what I’ve learned through grief. When I was 12, I lost my mom very suddenly. It was the kind of moment that divides life into before and after. Everything felt still, like time had paused. I was surrounded by people, yet I felt completely alone. I was flooded with emotions I didn’t know how to carry, and for a while, I didn’t know how to feel anything at all. But somehow, through all that stillness, music found me. One day, I picked up a ukulele that had been collecting dust in the corner of my room. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I started to play anyway. Slowly, strum by strum, I found something that felt like a heartbeat again. Not just mine, but something bigger. The heartbeat of connection: with my family, with others who understood pain, and with a version of myself who believed healing was possible. That’s the rhythm I live in now. I believe “One heart, one beat” is what happens when we truly listen to each other. Not just with our ears, but with our full selves. When we play together, cry together, lift each other up. It’s what I’ve experienced at Experience Camps, a place for kids like me who’ve lost someone close. We come from different towns, different families, different cultures, but when we’re together, there’s this unspoken understanding. We don’t have to explain our grief. We just feel it together. And when we sing around a campfire, all our different voices become one. That’s “one beat.” That’s healing. It also makes me think of people like Joseph Natale, the kind of person who builds community not just with words but with actions. Who lifts people up and leads with heart. He reminds me of the kind of legacy I hope to leave someday: one built on compassion, empathy, and showing up for others when it matters most. I think my mom would’ve loved that. And I think she’d be proud that I’m doing my best to turn my own pain into purpose. Today, whether I’m writing a song, performing onstage, volunteering with Experience Camps, or just being there for a friend who’s hurting, I try to live in that rhythm. The rhythm of listening. The rhythm of love. The rhythm of choosing to walk beside others, no matter what they’re going through. One heart. One beat. Always together.

It is difficult to live your life without seeing a trite bumper sticker or indie movie reminding you that you only have one life, and you should live it to its fullest. As someone who spent a lot of time very sick in their childhood, I am acutely aware that we only have so much time. My various illnesses proved not to be life-threatening, but they made functioning like a “normal kid” very difficult. They also made me aware, early in life, that our heart’s don’t beat forever. But, if we pay close attention and curate our lives, the beat of our heart becomes the rhythm for the meaningful life we can live. Each beat is valuable, and no two hearts beat the same. When I was at my sickest and spent hours on the couch just listening to my heartbeat, it was music that pulled me through. I was never too sick to play music. If I was too weak to play a sport, I would sing. If I did not have the air to sing, I played guitar. I gave my life a soundtrack, and it grew happier over time. If, as they say, “life is a song,” then my heart is the beating drum that sets the cadence for how I live. I do so steadily, taking advantage of each moment and working hard to make a difference in my community with the perspective that my childhood illnesses gave me. The steady beat that carries me through life, my love of music, has propelled me in good times and in bad, not only healed me, but allowed me to create better opportunities for the community around me. By paying close attention and curating my life, the beat of my heart helped foster meaningful lives for others. One heart, one beat, speaks to the value of each moment in my life, but also represents the value my life can bring to others, to my community and to the world. In high school, I never stopped running around searching for that one extra hour of practice time to make me a better musician, but I also spent my spare class periods founding and conducting a school band that allows others to feel valued too. When I began to value each beat of my heart as an opportunity to create better spaces for lots of different kinds of people, my life had more meaning. I learned quickly that when I lived for others, I could accomplish greater things. It did not matter that I had never directed, taught or conducted music before. I wanted to ensure that my schoolmates were given the outlet I did not have as a freshman, so I willed the program into existence. I made a difference in my high school. I intend to continue that pattern on a much larger scale. I have one life, and I am going to use it wisely. I have one heart which loves music more than anything and has led me to pursue music in college. That heart has one beat, the rhythm that backs my life. It was once a lonely, sickly sound on a couch; it became the sound of the drums in my high school band room; and it will drive me to a life of success. My life has taught me to take nothing for granted. Perhaps the bumper stickers and indie films were right the whole time. Regardless, I will strive to grow and become my best self and continue to find ways to bring meaning to the lives of others too