Vivian Srouji Memorial Scholarship

As I am ending my high school career and looking forward to my future at college, I have been reflecting on how I have ended up where I am. There have been so many people in my life that believed in me and helped me succeed. At San Ramon Valley High School, I have been a part of the marching band. My freshman year, my senior year drum major, Katrina, was running auditions for the next leadership team of the band. I was very shy and was scared to put myself out there and audition, so I walked away from signing up to audition. On my way out of the door, Katrina stopped me and handed me the form. This one simple act changed my high school experience as I decided to give it a try. Her act pushed me into trying a new experience, where I was forced to lead large groups of people who were older than me and take on much more responsibility. At first it was very scary being in front of over fifty band members, and I definitely did not do well on my first days of the audition, but Katrina kept pushing me to get better. Eventually I began to gain confidence and began to socialize more with the other students. Ever since I got the role, I have spent my last four years meeting and learning about all the different members of the band, which has led to many special memories and moments that I carry with me into my future. I am so grateful for her believing in me, and seeing that I could be a good leader even when I couldn’t four years ago. Another experience that I am grateful for was taking AP Calculus with Mr. Meyer my junior year and senior year. Originally, I just signed up for calculus because it was the next level math class and I wanted to take math every single year to meet the college requirements. However, Mr Meyer’s class was the most interesting class I had ever taken at SRVHS. While the class was hard, he showed me how rewarding it was to spend time on difficult math problems when you finally got the right answer. His class structure made me enjoy doing math problems, and eventually inspired me to continue doing math in college as a data science major. Without his class and his vibrant teaching style, I would have never discovered how much I enjoy math and I never would have gone further into math in college. I am very grateful for the support of my parents throughout my life. My parents have always taught me that no matter what I do, they are and always will be proud of me. I especially felt this going into high school, when most of my friend’s parents were always pressuring them to take one more AP class or do one more extracurricular activity, my parents always said that I was enough. The way they raised me made it more meaningful when I myself decided to take AP classes or take on a challenge, as it was because I wanted to. As I am now a senior, I am grateful for all the experiences in high school that shaped me into who I am today, and I carry all the new skills and experiences I’ve gained at SRVHS into college. I did apply and get accepted to both UCLA and UC Berkeley, and I am so excited to attend UC Berkeley in the fall as a data science major.

I have been accepted into both UCLA and UC Berkeley and have decided to attended UCLA this fall. What am I grateful for? Probably the most obscure object, the red checked lounge chair in my parents’ home office. At night after dinner was done and the kitchen was cleaned up, my mom would retreat to the home office to sit in the red checked chair. In this chair, with a solo floor lamp shining over, she would take the time to catch up on work and plan for the next day. Night after night she would be in that chair. My nighttime routine consisted of getting ready for bed, then walking to the opposite side of the house to say goodnight to my mom. I never had to ask where she was because I knew she would be in that chair…until she wasn’t. As a nutritionist, my mom has always made healthy living a priority. She was the picture of health and practiced what she preached. It never crossed my mind that she would have a severe issue, she was invincible, picture perfect. Unfortunately that picture was shattered when the night came she wasn’t in the red checked chair, but in the hospital. She was rushed into the ER and in surgery for eight hours. During those eight hours, the doctor and nurses prepared my dad that she might not make it, but he had no idea how to explain this to me and my siblings. As we begged my grandma for updates, she just kept telling us to pray - so I did, in the red checked chair. My mom’s health was unstable after surgery, so night after night, I would go to the red checked chair before bed and say a prayer. The chair gave me peace, kept me calm, made me feel safe, everything my mom would give me in her hug before bed. As the nights went on, my little sister started joining me and then our brother began joining us. We all knew what the chair meant to us even though we didn’t speak about it. We sat there and quietly prayed for the day our mom would once again be in the red checked chair. As the days passed, our family fell into a new routine. After school, while my dad worked in his home office, I would make snacks for everyone, my little sister would empty lunches and my brother would take the trash out. It wasn’t our favorite routine, but we all did it without any complaining. On a Tuesday after school, I brought my dad his snack into the home office and my shattered picture was fixed. The red checked chair was finally occupied with my mom. But this picture was even more perfect than before because it illustrated more than just peace and comfort, it painted hope and resilience. The red checked chair had the most perfect picture I could ask for and I couldn’t be more grateful.