At the risk of sounding like every other scholarship applicant, I will begin by explaining that I have always been an extremely hard worker. At the age of thirteen, I began my first job-- working for my parents' newly-opened restaurant and catering business. Most days, I would go to school, work at the restaurant, attend my dance classes, go back to the restaurant to help close for the evening, then work on my homework; I often did not get to sleep until midnight or later by the time I had completed my homework. On weekends, I would attend my dance rehearsals before catering a wedding. This routine of mine continued throughout high school, on top of taking dual enrollment classes with my local community college to hopefully graduate college early later on-- also on top of completing college admissions applications. I am so proud to have graduated college within three years, as was my goal, while also being extremely involved in school, working several part-time jobs, and still making the hour-and-a-half drive home almost every weekend to work at my parents' catering business and since-evolved wedding venue. Now, I am in my second semester of graduate school, pursuing my Master's of Science degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at McDaniel College. The program is online, so I am able to still help my parents with their business, which is booked and busier than ever. I also work odd part-time jobs here and there since I am paying for my graduate school tuition out-of-pocket with no financial help. Back when my parents first began their businesses, they initially hired ex-convicts and people on probation/ parole as the majority of their staff, in hopes that they could give them another chance at making life work. From a somewhat young age, I was able to understand some of the issues that they had gone through, and I truly believe this is where I developed my ability to have empathy for others. I realized how privileged I was and am as I learned about how my older coworkers had struggled with substance abuse, child custody battles, teenage pregnancy, family problems, selling substances, different types of recovery, and mental health issues in general. Looking back, I have realized this is where my passion for psychology and mental health began; I realized that meeting people who have struggled with their mental health and learning their stories meant that I could help people who have told or will tell similar stories. Since then, two of these coworkers have passed-- that I know of-- as the result of their thinking patterns. I became quite close with one of them and considered his passing to be the loss of my family member when he died of an overdose last year. He always told me to make him proud in school, and I will forever regret that I could not be there for him when he relapsed before he could attend my college graduation. While my late friend is not the sole reason I am striving to be a therapist, he could be considered an example of someone I wish to help in the future. I sometimes hear of people say they regret their major/ concentration of study; I am fortunate to have found that is quite the opposite of myself. I am genuinely learning therapeutic approaches/ techniques in my current graduate program and I am so lucky to know that I will make a difference in the lives of others. Whether someone has mundane day-to-day problems or those of my old coworkers, I am confident that I will help.

I first discovered Chappell Roan early last year, along with most of the world. I was immediately drawn to her music after hearing her hit songs, "Casual" and "Good Luck, Babe!" As an avid lover of concerts, it is always thrilling to witness a new star rise to fame and be so deserving. Chappell's all-out outfits and costumes in drag only enhance her performance, which was already outstanding with her singing ability and light choreography. I graduated college with a major in psychology and a minor in biology just last year, and I am now studying clinical mental health counseling as a graduate student. As someone with this educational background, I love that Chappell Roan is so open about her mental health, especially in her journey with Bipolar Disorder. She is living proof that people can manage their struggles with mental health and still have an exceptional career. She has no issue setting boundaries with anyone, including paparazzi and fans. I admire this because she knows her worth and I am sure she figures that a true fan or a true lover of her music would understand her need for boundaries. Additionally, I admire that Chappell Roan is essentially an activist first and an artist second-- or, at least, this is how I see her. She is always promoting awareness-- whether she is announcing that she turned down a visit to the White House due to the political state of the country, or calling for improved health care for rising music artists during her Grammy acceptance speech. She is constantly speaking out to support a cause, never afraid of adverse reactions. Due to this and her musical ability, she is a woman extremely deserving of her platform.

I have been a fan of Sabrina Carpenter since watching her hit Disney Channel show, "Girl Meets World." When she began her music career, I would choreograph short combinations to her songs as a somewhat young dancer and I still use her music today as a dance teacher. Carpenter is only a few years older than I am and she is native to Pennsylvania-- as am I. It is a cool feeling being able to relate to celebrities with simple things such as where I grew up; this is a reason as to why I have always similarly admired Taylor Swift. Today, I admire Sabrina Carpenter not only for her music, her career, and where she grew up, but also because of how she presents herself. There is a stereotype that many girls go through a phase of hating the color pink. It sounds odd, but as many girls grow up-- myself included-- we notice that being "girly" is generally frowned upon, and that girls who parallel characters like Elle Woods from "Legally Blonde" or Cher from "Clueless" will not succeed in life as the result of never being taken seriously. I began to hate the color pink around my late elementary to early middle school years. I rarely saw adult women embrace their girlhood, so I thought I could get ahead this way. Truthfully, I did not even see many female celebrities embracing their "girly" side, nor the color pink, which confirmed my negative thinking pattern. Sabrina Carpenter truly began embracing her girlhood with her album, "Emails I Can't Send"-- or that is when I began noticing it. Her tour outfits, mannerisms, dances, and hairstyles (and hair-ography, or hair choreography) all screamed that showing off one's "girly" side does not have to be a bad thing; in fact, it can be a good and fun thing. I transitioned into wearing pink again and no longer felt ashamed of being a girly-girl. Sabrina Carpenter is so confident in embracing both the femininity of her girlhood and her sexuality, which makes her an amazing role model for women everywhere (not just in Pennsylvania). Additionally, while she presents herself as such, she is still able to be taken seriously. When I saw Sabrina Carpenter on her Short and Sweet tour with two of my friends in October of last year, I absolutely loved being a girl. We dressed up in cute outfits, put kiss marks on each other's shoulders with lipstick to match Sabrina's album cover, and screamed our hearts out to her lyrics. Now, I can confidently say that I love the color pink.

As I closed my laptop, ending my TeleHealth session with a mental health professional, I began to cry. I texted my best friend, "I was just diagnosed with ADHD. I finally know what's wrong with me." I was in my second year of college, living away from home, and I had just begun the new spring semester following my worst academic semester yet. While applying to graduate schools, I felt so ashamed having to answer for my one poor semester, always being asked, "I see you had decent grades before your Fall 2022 semester and your grades were stellar after then. What happened there?" I tried my very best to explain that I was not trying to make excuses for myself, but rather explanations. I do tend to take on too much at times. It is a habit I have since worked on, but that is not enough to have saved my grades that fall. I was working twenty-five hour weeks at a local outlet store, plus a minimum of twenty hours every other weekend working for my parents' wedding venue/ catering business an hour and a half away from my undergraduate institution. Because I was not very involved in high school, I took it upon myself to make up for it in college. I became a tour guide giving tours each week to prospective students and their families, I ran for an officer position (and won) with my college's FTK (For the Kids) club which raised money for childhood cancer, I was on my school's dance team, I became an officer with the Women in STEM club, and I joined the Health Professions club. Additionally, at the time, I was a double-major in Psychology and Biology with the intention of attending medical school following graduation to become a psychiatrist. I soon realized this dream would never be a reality if I could not pass my Organic Chemistry class. After some time and thought, I knew I was not going to pass this class with all my focus elsewhere nor being so far into the semester with not a single passing exam score. I decided to drop the class, but I had already drawn so much attention from my other courses that I had caused those grades to suffer. I felt like I was a failure and that I was forced to give up on this dream of becoming a psychiatrist. As if this all was not enough of an explanation, I had undiagnosed, unmedicated ADHD. The following spring semester, I buckled down, religiously took my ADHD medication I had recently been prescribed, and earned grades better than ever before. I decided to only work at the outlet store during seasonal breaks from school-- though of course I would ask for as many hours as possible during then to make up for the lost hours during the school years. I quit the dance team right before my senior year to focus on graduate school applications. It was still a punch to the gut when I did not receive the honors cords I had always dreamed of for graduation, but I can still say I am now a successful graduate student with a 4.0 GPA. I now take my medication almost every day, I give myself time to work out in between solo study sessions, and check in with myself regularly about how I am feeling and what goals I can set (and achieve). Though I still work multiple jobs to pay for my graduate school tuition, I am very quick to tell myself if I am taking on too much.

When I was in the tenth grade, my AP Government teacher would constantly find a way to relate Ruth Bader Ginsburg to what he was teaching. This included completely irrelevant topics like federalism or small general district court cases. One day, he explained that she was always relevant in government and politics because of how influential she had been; he said it was basically her field. My teacher showed me that men can and should lift women up. Having grown up in a somewhat rural or suburban area of central Pennsylvania, sexism was all around me. I truly had not thought it was possible for men to help women and praise them, rather than putting them down with misogynistic micro aggressions or simply coexisting without genuine support. Since then, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always been an inspiration to me-- so much so that my family has gotten me RBG sweatshirts for Christmas. Though it is not something I would be interested in as a career, I have always considered myself to be very involved in politics. I educate myself on current social and economic issues, and volunteer at organizations that I believe do general good. The way Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought against gender stereotypes to become the woman and Supreme Court Justice that she became inspired me to be politically correct, and she showed me that I can be a female leader if I aspire to be, even if in a totally different field. I am currently a student at Mount St. Mary's University as a Psychology and Biology double-major. I am in many clubs at the moment, which includes my position as Vice President of Campus Events for Women in STEM. I will lead the Women in STEM members this coming school year by reaching out to find female guest speakers in STEM, who can hopefully inspire them like Ruth Bader Ginsburg did for me. I also plan to find research and volunteer opportunities to further our educational careers in STEM. After college, I plan to attend medical school in hopes to become either a psychiatrist or an obstetrician-gynecologist. Eventually, after many years of education, I will become an attending, and I will need to guide my residents and those who will be taking a similar route as I will have done. I definitely feel that my experience here at the Mount will prepare me for such a leadership experience. I hope to eventually be a great leader in my career and in life in general.

When my brother's Jack Russel-Chihuahua mix bred with my mom's Yorkie, I didn't know what we were going to do. However, this unconventional experience brought me Cupcake, my adorable, and spoiled, dog. I helped deliver his litter and was with him from the moment he was born. He now has his own closet for his clothes and accessories, and we love going to Starbucks together. These pictures are of him at two years old versus at four weeks old. We bring each other so much joy, and we both love our daily playtime. He is the sweetest dog ever.