Generosity means giving of yourself and being of service to people around you, in any situation. It can be as simple as holding open the door for someone and letting them go through first, letting someone merge in front of you in traffic. Small, random acts that give of your time, rather than money. Generosity can mean making a phone call to check on a friend you know is struggling, or taking the phone call from someone when you feel like you are 'too busy' to sit and chat. Generosity goes far beyond the dollars we donate to charity. I volunteer at The Women's Home, which is a residential treatment and transitional housing program, which has two permanent supportive housing programs, and a collaborative service center that offers support services to help prevent and end homelessness in our community. I give of my time, my attention, and my love for the women that come through The Women's Home. By giving to them, I receive more in return. I get to see the light come back in their eyes, I get to see them rebuild from a hopeless state of mind and body to be productive and useful members of society, as well as reconnect with their families and be happy again. In generously giving of my time, I get to see miracles every day.

"You are enough. You are so enough it is unbelievable how enough you are." In this day and age, we get so many messages from outside of ourselves, saying we aren't enough: social media, magazines, marketing messages for the latest fashions.... they all tell us that we aren't enough. We aren't tall enough. We aren't thin enough. We aren't active enough. We aren't rich enough. Those messages heard over and over again, are demoralizing. They can even be paralyzing. We get locked in thinking we have to be someone else or something else before we can take action. If we're thinner we'll be happy. If we are smarter we'll get the raise. If we were 'enough', we would be more loved. It places us mentally in a position of negativity and loss, so that is what we believe and what we see. However, we rarely get the message we are enough. I love this quote. I've had it printed on signs. I've had stickers made that I mail out to people I know need encouragement. This message is on my laptop, and it's on my coffee cup. When I am 'enough' of a student, I can learn in college, I can write a student essay (that doesn't have to be perfect) on our discussion boards, I can draft and revise papers. I can be 'enough' of a friend in my own quirky way, even if I don't have the money or brand name clothes my friends have. If I am 'enough' of a mom I can do my best to balance work, life, parenting, and going to college full time. I've shared this quote with others and seen it bring people to tears because they have never been told they are enough. So, dear reader, whoever you are and wherever you are. YOU are enough. YOU are so enough, it is unbelievable how enough you are.

I am a late-in-life swimmer. I learned to swim in 2017, taking classes at my local pool. I trained for almost 2 years in swimming, biking, and running. I swam in small pools, Olympic distance pools, flowing rivers, and murky, scary lakes; with wetsuits and without. I decided to entire Ironman Waco a 70.3 distance race - 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run. Attached is a picture is of me during the bike and two on the finish line carpet in Waco in October 2018.

I think society can most effectively empower women by explicitly, legally protecting women's rights: the right to body autonomy. When a woman is told she cannot make choices for her own body, that a politician - most likely a man - in power dictates what she does with her body, she is made less than human. She is disempowered. She is trivialized and marginalized. We, as a society, are saying "I'm sorry, you are not smart enough to make decisions for yourself. A man you don't know, a politician you will probably never meet, knows more about what is good for you, so he can make that decision." This strips women of the most basic power that everyone is born with - the right to choose. Body autonomy is a critical component of the right to privacy protected by the Constitution, as decided in Griswold v Connecticut (1965), McFall v Shimp (1978), and most famously Roe v Wade (1973). Consider a different case. When you die, if you have not explicitly consented to donate your organs, they cannot be harvested after your death. No matter how useless they are to you in your grave, or how helpful they would be - how many lives they might save if they were harvested and donated to those in need. That's the law. Upheld under the constitution. This right - body autonomy - is even extended to the dead! Further, consider where perhaps you are the perfect match for someone who might die if they do not receive a bone marrow transplant. Consider that no other person on earth is a match for the patient and that patient will, without a doubt, die without your bone marrow. If you decide you do not want to donate your bone marrow - for a great reason or a trivial reason - it is your body and you get to decide that. No one has the right to tell you or MAKE you donate your bone marrow to save that patient. Your decision to donate your bone marrow must be voluntary to be constitutional. The use of a woman's uterus to save a life is no different from the use of bone marrow to save a life, or the use of a dead person's organs to save a life. The uterus must be offered voluntarily to be constitutional. Philosophically and morally, there might be many positions to discuss and many 'shades of gray' where one's opinions might dictate a 'right' and a 'wrong' choice of when and how to use one's uterus. However, legally, it must be the owner of the uterus - a woman - choice what to do with that uterus.

I am a single mother of three wonderful boys and also a late college entrant. I re-entered college for the first time in 2011. I was working full-time in finance and accounting in the oil and gas industry in Houston and raising my three sons who were then 16, 12, and 4 years old. They saw me work many evenings, nights, and weekends on homework and projects. After dinner each night they would go to play with toys or video games and I would be at the kitchen table. Often, I would implore them to "go to college the first time" once they had completed high school; as juggling a career, raising children as a single mother, and going to college online was a huge challenge. I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Communication in May of 2015. Now I am returning to college for my MBA, while still working full time. So much has changed from that first time in college, but much has remained the same. My oldest son is now in college, also a late college entrant. My youngest son is in junior high school and often has homework now. There are some fun nights where we sit together after dinner at the table and do homework together. It gives us a common struggle to commiserate together, talk about strategies to handle big projects, or talk about how we like some teachers'/professors' teaching styles and assignments and others... not so much! I still work full time, so everything is a budgeting and balancing act. I read textbooks on my lunch break and listen to them - if they are available - on my commute. I don't spend a lot of time watching tv or scrolling social media. Any time that I'm not working or studying, I'm spending with my boys - playing board games, trying to play video games, or watching them play. I say "trying to play video games" because no matter how often they invite me, I'm just horrible at them! But it is great to be able to meet them where they are at and spend time doing things they love. Financially it is tough. As a single mom, I have a limited budget even while working full time, so I've taken out loans to start my first semester of my MBA. I recently discovered Posh Mark and have been selling old speciality clothes to make extra money. Just 5 - 8 sales can cover the cost of a textbook! I also have a side hustle. When holidays roll around I bake speciality cookies, candies and meringues. I have to be creative each holiday and come up with new flavours and themes. Of course, at Christmas, this also helps boost the present buying budget. My long term dream career is to be the director of a non-profit organization that helps single mothers. Early in my time as a mom, we were very poor and I didn't understand all the resources available to me. We struggled, often to just put food on the table or pay the light bill. There were, and still are, good programs to help moms, but they were spread out, confusing and overwhelming. I really needed a "mom" type person to help me navigate those waters and walk me through what I needed to do to access the network of services that exist. I believe my MBA will give me the tools to launch this non-profit and help other moms that were just like me. Winning this scholarship would lift the financial burden of a full semester of classes pursuing my MBA. It would mean so much mentally and emotionally to be chosen as the LIttle Bundle Supermom winner - to know that someone believed in me and my dream enough to support me financially. A little encouragement goes a long way for single moms, as we are the ones doing the encouraging most of the time. I would be forever grateful to win your support and encouragement!

I am a mother of three wonderful boys and also a late college entrant. I re-entered college for the first time in 2011. I was working full-time in finance and accounting at the time in the oil and gas industry in Houston and raising my three sons who were then 16, 12, and 4 years old. They saw me work many evenings, nights, and weekends on homework and projects. After dinner each night they would go to play with toys or video games and I would be at the kitchen table. Often, I would implore them to "go to college the first time" once they had completed high school; as juggling a career, raising children as a single mother, and going to college online was a huge challenge. I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Communication in May of 2015. In 2019, my middle son Jackson who was then 20-years-old was tragically killed in May. I had to call his father to tell him the news. I had to call my parents to tell them. I had to tell my remaining two sons that their brother had been killed. I had to make all the choices for Jackson's visitation and celebration of life. It felt like the weight of the galaxy, not just the world, was on my shoulders. Both events were an amazing display of love and all the lives that Jackson had touched. So many of his friends, schoolmates, and coworkers came up to me directly to tell me how wonderful Jackson was and what a positive influence he had on their lives. The grief I faced in the next few months while continuing to take care of my family was indescribable. I had to fight to take care of my mental health while dealing with this grief, while also helping my two sons learn to deal with the grief of losing their brother. This great loss affected every aspect of my life. At times, I was nearly nonfunctional. I sought help through counseling and a grief support group. I found I could not work and took two months away from my job. I suffered physically. I had little appetite and no interest in food. I lost twenty pounds in two months. Grief and anxiety were my constant companions. My friends and family were lifelines during this time. A meal train was organized and wonderfully generous people dropped off whole meals to feed my family. They sent Uber Eats and GrubHub gift cards. I learned to accept this help with grace, dignity, and a lot of handwritten thank you notes. One friend came to pick me up and drive me to grief group each week when I found I was too anxious to drive. Slowly, I fought my way back from drowning in grief and found I was able to function in my family and in society again. I resumed working part-time. I completed the grief support group. As the years pass, I find myself constantly 'fighting' to achieve my dreams and the things I want to do, instead of putting them off for 'some day' or 'maybe later'. That's why I have returned to college to get my MBA. Life is too short to stay stagnant and not keep growing, in my education, in my career, in my travels and the time I spend with my children. Every day, every choice I make is a fight - to not prioritize what the world says is important - and to prioritize time with my children and my family, as I know it can all end way too soon.