Hi, my name is Adrian Lopez and I am an 18-year-old high school senior with a 4.8 GPA, ranked 6th in my class. I first wanted to say how sorry I am for your loss, Ryan sounded like a great guy and it’s tragic that he was taken so soon. I think it's amazing that you would offer to pay for the education of someone who shares Ryan’s passion for politics, history, and culture. Whether I win or not I just wanted to say thank you for this opportunity. It really means a lot. First of all, I am very passionate about politics, history, civil rights, criminal justice, and political division all of which I plan to study in college and learn more about. On my own, I like to research, listen to experts' opinions, fact-check information, and analyze my own worldview and biases and I also love a good debate! One of my favorite classes that I took in high school was AP US History. I loved it because everything we learned was inherently political. Many people see that as a bad thing, but for me it was revolutionary. It sparked my passion for politics. Learning about the historical basis of social issues we still have today, and thinking about how they originated and evolved and how some were solved was utterly fascinating. It inspired me to pursue a major in Political Science because I love the challenge that comes with it; understanding nuanced, complicated issues with all the opposing viewpoints and trying to make sense of all the different factors that come into play is very fun for me. I think it’s a great thing to be able to take in all sides of an issue and to use critical thinking and evaluation to come up with an educated opinion. Too often these days people get locked into a fixed mindset and refuse to hear anyone else’s point of view because everyone is too afraid to be wrong. Learning and growing is an important part of life and it should be applied to politics as well. Another thing about me I feel is worth sharing is my ability to traverse language and culture through Spanish and Chinese. I have been fortunate to be able to fully immerse myself in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese and become fluent in both. Thanks to years of hard work and practice, and the help of many amazing teachers, I can read, write, and speak in all three languages. Because of this, I can theoretically communicate with the majority of the world's population. It is a great honor to have this ability, and it has brought much diversity and culture into my life, especially with travel. Like Ryan, I also loved visiting Spain. After having learned all about the country's rich history and art in my Spanish class, visiting in person and experiencing it all firsthand was an incredible experience, and acting as the sole translator for my family and the bridge between our worlds was even more meaningful. Coupled with my passion for politics, I believe my tri literacy will help me break down language barriers and increase understanding between people of all cultures to innovate and create solutions to the many problems that we as a society face today. With all the skills I have acquired and the new information I will gather, I believe I can make the world a better place and hopefully bring about more positive change. This scholarship would really help me to begin achieving that goal. Thank you for your consideration.