It's truly the simplest actions that I do that make others around me feel loved. Giving a hug to my mom every day before school lets her know that I love her. I help tutor my sisters and drive them to their activities. I help move boxes and paint the walls at my grandparent's house because I love them. Telling my friends that I will be there for them and would drop everything if they needed me helps build a strong and healthy relationship. From watching chorus concerts or rugby games I love to watch what makes my friends happy. I try to make every game I can to give them support from the stands. I don't just do these things out of love but I also enjoy doing them. These simple actions are the most meaningful which is why they go beyond buying any gift for my friends and family. All of these things make me present in other people's lives.

This is Checkers. She's 10 years old and is a border collie. Ever since she was brought into my life, she has brought me so much joy. I have taught her so many tricks and she challenges me in so many ways. She also loves adventures. She's hiked to the top of Mount Mitchell in North Carolina and loves playing frisbee in the ocean.

Since I was young I have always struggled with anxiety. At just 6 years old I was worried about dying or some catastrophic event happening. Many of my sentences started with "what if" followed by the worst scenarios that I imagined could become a reality. As a young girl, I feared the would and what just might be in it. My fear prevented me from living the innocent and imaginative life a girl should live. It blocked me from performing my beam routine effortlessly and it invaded my dreams by replacing them with demons and thunderstorms. My anxiety only progressed from there. When I moved for the first time at the age of 11, I also developed depression. I knew no one in my new town and it looked much different from my home town. I felt like a stranger to my own family. I saw no familiar faces at my new school which wasn't very accepting. By the age of 14, had transferred to 5 different schools. After suffering from panic attacks and high blood pressure my parents finally took me to see a therapist, but I didn't trust her at all, and I didn't trust the next two after that one. My cheer coach yelling at me for being a terrible person and threatening to kick me off the team every practice didn't help either. I had almost given up until I realized that I needed to change my lifestyle. I needed to find someone to take all my fears and suffering away. I found God. I let him be in control of my life instead of my fears. I changed my "what if" mentality to "whatever happens, happens". I joined the cross country team and found a group of positive and uplifting people who are now my best friends. At school, I became motivated and involved in clubs that I would have never envisioned myself joining. While I still currently struggle with anxiety, I'm free. Free from the chains that prevented me from living. It wasn't until very recently that I became a huge advocate for mental health. Not even a month ago my friend took his own life and so did 7 other students in my school district. These deaths brought my community very close together. Many students, including myself, banded together to share the truth behind why we struggle with mental health and how our school has failed in providing mental health support. We spoke at school boards and started fundraisers for suicide awareness. However, wearing a t-shirt that says "mental health matters" or posting the suicide prevention hotline on Instagram isn't going to stop this mental health crisis. My friends and I hope to get to the root of the problem by talking to our faculty at school and trying to develop a solution to the mental health crisis in my community. Since our school is one of the best public schools in the nation, the pressure, competition, and internal problems are often overseen by everyone, except for the students. This is why suicide is so high in my community. People view us as perfect excelling students with perfect lives. But underneath, we're just human.

I am interested in studying biomedical engineering. I want to go into this particular field of study because I want to help people through health care and make great technological health advancements. Helping people live a better life is my goal. I want every person to be happy with the technology I will create. I believe In making a positive impact on the world. By studying biomedical engineering I can do and be all of these things. I want to serve people instead of being served. I want to make this world a better place. A problem that I hope to solve by pursuing a career in technology is creating artificial organs. With over 100,000 people in the U.S. currently waiting for an organ transplant, it's important that these people can be saved. Sadly, 20 people die every day waiting for a transplant/donor. With artificial organs, these people can be saved. Through new technological advances, I can design and create artificial organs. This is quite a challenge because of how intricate the human body is. I believe mankind has the ability to solve the greatest problems and we have the ability to do anything we put our minds to. Technology can be used for so many beneficial purposes.