The google definition of motivation states, "the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way". Whoever you are or what you do, there is always some type of motivation for your actions. My desire is to make a living and life better for myself and make my mother proud. To do this, I want to push myself in school every day and achieve a college degree in Environmental Engineering. Every morning I wake up to something different. Whether it's my dog beside me waking me up to go outside, birds chirping to announce their territory, or my mom's morning cleaning playlist. Whatever the case may be, there is always one thing that never changes when I wake up, my pinboard on the wall above my desk. I have many things pinned on my pinboard like school events, flyers for volunteering opportunities, pictures with unforgettable memories, and notes my mother wrote to me. Those notes inspire me on a daily basis before heading off to school. Those notes are priceless because they contain heartfelt, inspiring, and loving messages. There are also pictures of me and my mother. Looking up at those items will always give me motivation when needed. When working on homework late at night, I look up and remember why I'm doing this, who I'm doing this for, and what is motivating me.

There is hate going on around the world, and we desperately need people who offer a helping hand in order to get rid of hate. I have helped many people out through volunteering. I have been a part of Key Club for four years. I have been the President and Vice President, have led many volunteering operations, and racked up 300 hours of community service during my time in Key Club. So I can say I have a good perspective on the different ways to help people in my community. One of the most impactful volunteering opportunities I have been a part of is SACA (Southern Anoka Community Assistance), our local food shelf. My favorite way to help people is through volunteering. My club has executed monthly events where volunteers pack boxes of food and supplies for our local community. Giving these low-income families supplies and food gives them more than supplies. It gives them the hope and support they need to push on in life, and this is the type of volunteering I love to do. I regularly volunteer at SACA because the importance of having this type of help in your life is inspiring and uplifting. Seeing my efforts directly impacting my community is heartwarming and makes it stronger. It's incredible to see their gratitude and thankfulness, and it's something special to see, and I’m glad I have the opportunity to do this. Through volunteering, I’m able to impact lives in many different ways. Whether it's through food drives, recycling people's belongings, packing supplies, or writing letters all through Key Club.

My mother had me at the age of 16. It is always an exciting time for any parent to have a child on the way, but it was difficult and scary for my parents. My parents tried making things work, but my father decided that it was in his best interest for himself to leave his partner and only son behind. Now I am left with a few vivid memories of my father from when I was younger, but nothing I can fully remember. I never was able to grow up with a father, and it made life a whole lot different. While growing up, I did not understand how other kids had both parents. Growing up with a single mother was a struggle. My mom put in all of her efforts to make a living for me and her: those late-night shifts, double-jobs, doing everything to support her one and only child. Her hard-working lifestyle and efforts inspired me into the person I am today. My name is Aldo Cardoso Hilguera. My mother and I are seeking scholarships for many reasons, one of them being the expense of college. We flat out wouldn't be able to afford to pay the cost of college. Living in a single-parent household has molded me in many ways. My mother was always out of the house working or running errands. I quickly learned how to be independent and take responsibility when needed. Most importantly, I learned how to be committed to doing tasks and making a difference in people's lives. Being the President and Vice President of Key Club allowed me to do this very thing. I want to make a positive impact on the lives of people. Nobody truly knows what they have/gone through, and having someone in your life always there for you to help you can mean the world. My mom has done this for me, and I want to give this support to people I come across in life. I inspire to be like my mom. As a kid, she was my hero. I am forever thankful for everything she has done. Her dedication continues to shape me into the person I am today. I have had many outstanding achievements during my time in high school. I try pushing myself every single day to make a living and make my mother proud.

I was lost at the start of my high school career. I didn’t know what I want to do. Whom I want to be. How I wanted to represent this school. I tried joining the soccer team during my freshman year of high school, but it simply didn’t feel like home and I didn’t find too much enjoyment in the sport. I still finished the season, tried to keep my head high, but didn't feel accomplished. I was hoping to find another chance in another team that gave me a welcoming feeling. During physics class, they teacher put on the daily news network at my school, and there was a segment that went through each of the winter sports. The winter sports didn’t seem that interesting to me. Once the newsreader went through the Swim and Dive team with an interview of the coach. I was instantly intrigued by the sport and wanted to become a part of it. I soon bought a pair of goggles and a swimsuit and was excited for the first day. I even circled the first day on my calendar. It was a hard first practice, but one of the captains, Dylan Nicholes was very supportive and taught me the fundamentals of swimming. I developed my swimming abilities quickly and was able to compete at a varsity level my first year. I put in the work and came to every practice ready to push my limits. After a successful season, I felt accomplished and finally found my place at my school. During the swim season, I also met another great friend of mine, Kevin Mendez. Kevin was the President of our Key Club at the high school. He encouraged me to join Key Club and explained that it was a student-led organization and builds leadership skills through volunteering. I was very unsure of it, but he still told me to meet in room 198 after school. The next day I walked into the room for their bi-weekly meeting. After the meeting, I was interested in Key Club and wanted to become part of it. In my first year of Key Club, I soon became the Vice President, and carried out Key Club operations with Kevin. Swimming and Key Club were the foundation of my involvement in high school. I soon joined multiple clubs and organizations during my high school career like Math Team, Student-Council, Theater, Link Crew, and National Honor Society. With Swim Team and Key Club under my belt, it gave me the confidence and sense of community that I so desperately wanted. I started volunteering weekly, whether it was at the Southern Anoka County Assistance food shelf where we pack boxes of food that we send out to families in need, or Columbia Heights Recycling Center where we help residents recycle their belongings. I competed at swim sections every year in high school and during my last year of high school, I became the swim team captain, was given an honorable mention by my conference and was given the spirit award from my team. During my time in Key Club, I racked up 300 plus hours of community service and was on the board team all of my three years. I was distinguished as Vice President and as President during my last two years of the club and led many events for our club. I strive to enrich the lives of others in my community through school spirit and service to uplift others. I want people to feel that they're involved, and not what I felt during my freshman year of high school.

The word joy can mean something different to the person next to you, and everyone has their own way of finding joy in life. Joy is something every human strives for in life, as it helps us find our happiness and keep pushing forward through difficult times. As for me, joy means finding something in life that makes you happy and develops you into the person you want to become, the best possible person you can be. People can do various things that will make them “happy”, but there are only a few things that can give you your true joy in life, and it’s different for everyone. Finding this joy is essential, as it builds on your character and strives for the good in life. Finding your own joy can be a difficult task, and it comes at different points in your life. It can be as soon as you’re young or as an adult. Simply trying opportunities in front of you can help you find your joy in life. I discovered this during my freshman year of high school. I was looking through the list of clubs at my school, and I found a club called Key Club. It is a student-led organization that strives to build leadership skills through volunteering. After the first meeting, I fell in love with Key Club and wanted to become an integral part of it and serve my community. I quickly racked up hundreds of volunteer hours and became Vice President and then President of the club during my high school career. Volunteering soon became my happiness in life, and this is how I seek out my joy in life, by helping others and making their lives better through service.

Growing up with a single mother was a struggle. When I was younger, I did not understand how other kids had both parents. My mom put in all of her efforts to make a living for me and her: those late-night shifts, double-jobs, doing everything to support her one and only child. My mother's efforts and hard-working lifestyle have inspired me to be the person I am today. Not having both parents and growing up with only one parent was very hard at times, not only for her but for myself. The more I grew up, the more I realized how difficult this was, but it was the norm for me. Since my mother worked long shifts, I had to come back home alone. The stress of high school and being a part of many clubs was difficult to manage all at once. I quickly learned how to become independent, but at the time, it was strenuous. Some nights I had to sleep without a good night kiss from my mom, which made me feel very lonely sometimes with my mom picking up the late-night shifts. When faced with adversity, there are many ways people deal with it. I deal with adversity by looking at the situation and having an optimistic outlook. Having a positive attitude about things makes a big difference in your everyday life. I live by this outlook on life and hardships. There have been many instances where I have felt overwhelmed by school. Looking at the optimistic things when working towards my assignment and projects helped me a lot. Simply giving myself credit for writing a paragraph or brainstorming what I want to write about gave me that extra push I desperately needed. Giving yourself credit for doing the little things will ultimately motivate you to work towards and complete the scary obstacles at hand, and that is what I still do to this day. I want to help people discover this way of thinking, and by being positive-minded, you can push through anything. I can enforce this way of thing to other people by volunteering. Before I started volunteering, I loved the idea of impacting people's lives for the better and making them feel appreciated. The best way I was able to achieve this is through volunteering at my local food shelf (Southern Anoka Community Assitance Food Shelf), and there I was able to help my community greatly. Once a month, I would participate in these monthly operations, where we would send hundreds and hundreds of pounds of food and supplies to people in need around my community. Having people look forward to these monthly food packages, made them look toward the future and it gave them the opportunity of having a positive outlook, even if it looks hopeless at times. I know how they feel, living with little money, the void of emptiness, and wanting to look forward to something to give them the extra motivation. I plan to give back to my community in the future by continuing to volunteer at my local food shelf and volunteering for people in need. People need that extra support in their lives to wake up and look toward the great aspects of life. I want to become an Environmental Engineer, and receiving this scholarship will help me reach that goal and help me push toward my dream job. I want to help the environment and make the world a better place one step at a time, and have people appreciate what we have on our beautiful planet.

When reflecting on how I got to this point, I believe many factors contributed to the person I am today. One factor that was essential to getting me to this point was the friendship of my first best friend in high school. His name was Drake, and he was a one-of-a-kind guy. He was very involved with the school and had amazing characteristics. There were many instances where he treated me with kindness and helped me whether it was with homework, opening many new experiences to me, or teaching me great life lessons along the way. Those experiences stuck with me, and I wanted to be just like him. He was the President of the Columbia Heights High School Key Club and he also introduced me to Key Club. As my final year in high school comes I can say that I have had a successful and eventful high school career. I have achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA, graduating with honors, currently still participating in many clubs and volunteering at my local food shelf, and have surrounded myself with great people. All of this and more couldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Drake and the character that I looked up to from the very start of school.

A memory that has forever changed me and defines who I am as a person today is my final moments during my last swim meet. As a senior, I had and will continue to say hard goodbyes, including my high school swimming career. My swim level was at a variety level, and so that meant I was able to compete at the section's conference swim meet against other top swimmers. I was very close to advancing to the second day with my two individual swims, but at least I was able to advance with my 400 freestyle relay swim. We were all proud of our team and looked forward to competing for a medal and a chance to go to state on day two of the conference meet. Once the second day came around, we were all focused, but had to hold our excitement throughout the meet. Once our relay swim came around, we all were determined to place well. I was getting very emotional, even before the race started. I was shedding a few tears due to excitement and sadness that my season will soon come to an end. The moment the buzzer went to start the race, I didn’t think about anything else, but to swim. When the race ended, we learned that our relay got disqualified due to a false start. This was devastating. I couldn’t believe that this is how my season ended. At the moment I couldn’t see the lesson of this, but I believe everything happens for a reason, and this isn’t any different. This has taught me that life is very unpredictable and it’s never good to look at the reward before you go through the journey because you’ll overlook something small and miss the opportunity, and now I live by those lessons.