Financial freedom allows for me to pay my rent on time, provide for my partner and I, while still having enough money to spend on essentials and the things in life that make us smile. I consider financial freedom to be the state of a person who feels financially stable, and can afford their bills and necessities, as well as moments of enjoyment. At the moment I am in a financial predicament. I cannot afford my rent each month, as I depend on a job that pays $10 an hour, without employee benefits. I have applied to many jobs and have yet to been accepted, since they have already filled up their vacant positions. I have noticed that at the end of each month, I have only acquired enough money to pay half of my rent. Although I am in a difficult position of financial instability, I have great hopes for my financial status in the future. I expect to eventually achieve financial freedom after I open several stores that I have been considering for the past many months. The first shop I wish to open is an online crystal shop, where I will have to package and ship the boxes of crystals I can sell. I expect to begin this business soon, and hopefully make extra income from it. I also expect to open a custom clothing designs website, where I will accept customer's custom requests and paint it on their desired clothing object such as jeans, jackets, shoes, etc. I have already painted my first pair of jeans to sell on this website, but I wish to launch the site once I have more sample pieces of clothing ready to be purchased. Being granted this Loan Lawyers 2021 Annual Scholarship would impact my studies in a positive way. I would have less financial stress to carry, if this scholarship could be applied to my studies during the following spring semester at my university. I feel as though being financially unstable has really limited my ability to be happy in my everyday life, since I am constantly stressed about how to pay off the following monthly rent dues. It seems like at the end of each month, I spend the entirety of my hard earned money, which does not suffice as enough to cover the full payment of an apartment in the busy city of Miami. However, I know if I continue my two business plans I can achieve the financial freedom that will make life feel less stressful.

Educational inequity refers to the treatment of different students. When one student is often picked on by their peers and teachers, they tend to slow down their habits of studying and maintaining the proper grades they need. Neighborhoods with unfair treatment to their students are often ones with an increased crime rate and financial instability. This is something people should stand for, as an accepting environment in one's school can affect them positively.

My first language was the language of Spanish, taught to me by my Cuban parents. Since I was able to learn in the U.S. from a very young age, I was able to adapt to the language differences. Learning English right after I learned my Spanish made it very hard for me to distinguish which words in my vocabulary were English words and which other words were in Spanish. I remember I used to speak very bad formatted sentences that would be composed of words from two distinct languages. Music has impacted my life because it is the biggest aspect of my partner's life. My partner wants to be a famous musical artist, and I hope to participate in this lifestyle as an artist's manager. In the future, I hope to become well-known for managing my artist. I believe music itself is able to bring people together. The future performances that I will host for the artist I manage will bring all sorts of people together that have one thing in common: They each love the performer's musical style. The audience will be united with hundreds of people that share the same music interests as them.

The past few months have served as a time period where many families have had to overcome financial struggles due to the increasing unemployment rate, as a result of the current Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout this essay, my community is defined as my neighbors, family, nearby friends, and local essential workers. Since I noticed the impact the pandemic has had within families and communities near me, I decided to take advantage of my skills and local opportunities to help benefit my own community. In attempts to support my community, I have used my sewing skills to make and donate masks to the essential workers at El Brazo Fuerte Bakery, where my father is employed. I made a total of 20 matching masks for the employees and sent them to El Brazo Fuerte Bakery. However, I am currently in the process of making another set of reusable masks to donate to these workers, because I was told they were in need of more reusable masks. I plan to send 20 more masks to El Brazo Fuerte Bakery. By giving each employee two reusable masks, I hope to reduce the amount of money they spend on the blue disposable face masks they had to wear prior to receiving my donation. I decided to help my family, friends, and neighbors by providing them with meals I picked up from community food drives. I spent one day a week from May to October picking up food (with my mother’s assistance) from a local food drive. I would then separate the meals into packages and take them to my grandmother, my mother’s friend, and my two neighbors. By increasing access to meals within several families in my community, I was able to relieve some of the economic stresses they may encounter. I have also found ways to support my community, in relation to issues surrounding the racial injustice movement and voter engagement. I decided to take action in relation to the racial injustice movement because it is an issue I feel strongly about since I have many black family members, friends, and loved ones. I used my personal Instagram account (alyssacamachoo) as a private platform to announce recent news, covering the Black Lives Matter movement that has been present in most communities these past few months. When one of my followers had a response to my posts, I was able to educate them on the topic and raise awareness for black community member’s fights for equality. I have also motivated other people to do their research on the current candidates of the presidential election. By promoting votes from those members of society who can now vote, I hope to increase the number of voters within my community. Overall, I hope my actions will have a long-lasting impact on the targeted members of my community. I believe I have successfully increased health and safety measures within my community by donating masks to local essential workers and increasing meals within some families. I expect my actions of raising awareness for the racial injustice movement and voter engagement will positively aid the future of my community. In the future, I hope to see a racially accepting community, as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement. I learned that volunteering for the benefit of others will emotionally benefit me. I also learned that there are many ways to participate and get involved in life-saving opportunities. Being involved through my donations and services helped me feel as though I was directly contributing to my community. It felt great to be involved in supporting those members of my community.

I choose to stay fit by exercising at home in the mornings and trying to eat a great diet when I can. I do not restrict my eating because I strongly believe that my body knows best. Therefore, when I feel a craving for a portion of certain food (regardless of its calories) I will make sure I allow myself to eat it. Relating to physical exercise, I walk my two dogs to the park located near me as often as I can take them out to excersice. If I do not walk them to the dogs to the park, I will wake up early and do bicep and tricep exercises with my resistance bands. After I use my resistance bands, I like to strengthen my core through exercises such as situps, crunches, planks, side bends, leg raises, bicycle leg movements, and butterfly kicks. I have recently added three-pound weights for my workouts that I like to put on my ankles to make the leg raises, bicycle movements, and butterfly kicks a bit more difficult. I have noticed that when I continue to focus on my exercise and diet regimen, I tend to feel better throughout the night and day. I realized that I can fall asleep easier and more peacefully. Before I started to exercise daily, I would dread having to wake up in the morning. However, being more conscious about my diet and workout routine has helped me wake up early in the morning more energetically, prepared for the rest of my day. I consider it to be fascinating that focusing on things that will benefit my body and overall health has had a great effect on my mental health while giving me the opportunity to look at things from a more positive point of view.

As a woman growing up in Miami, Florida, I have been blessed with the chance to see beautiful downtown city lights, pink sunrises, and a sunset at the beach. I am planning on using the idea of traveling as a form to educate myself on other cultures' customs, ideas, and forms of expression. I will begin my travel choices this month by going to Pennsylvania for a month to explore the city and enjoy new sites. I believe that this experience will help me stay motivated to write new papers and paint new images. After I visit Pennsylvania, I plan to visit New York to see snow for the first time ever. Then, I expect to visit my sister in North Carolina. After my visits to Pennsylvania, New York, and North Carolina I would love to visit California. I expect to complete these trips by the end of 2021 because I know this following year I will not have much time to explore due to the fact that I will be enrolled in an in-person college program, rather than the virtual program. Hopefully, after I visit some of the other states in the U.S., I can explore other countries and continents. I would love to use my social media platforms (alyssacamachoo on Instagram and Tiktok) to show other people what I experience in all the locations that I end up visiting. Eventually, I hope to see that these accounts become a popular site for people who wish to see beautifully captured travel images. Traveling and exploring the world will give me the chance to become a successful photographer and grant me the opportunity to share my experiences with many people. I would love for my photography to influence my followers to travel and explore new sites because I think this type of activity represents the most freedom a person could possibly experience.

One problem that interests me the most, relating to climate change, is the forms of transportation that humans use and their effect on the CO2 emissions that are released into the atmosphere. Society is directly contributing to the increase of atmospheric CO2 emissions, throughout the common dependency on vehicles as a means of transportation. The natural environmental system is affected, as it is an open location. Emissions rapidly escape a vehicle’s tailpipe and directly contribute to the atmosphere. The emissions of CO2 from vehicles is an important topic, as it partially determines the Global Carbon Cycle, which provides an account of carbon throughout the Earth’s atmosphere and bodies of water. The emissions from vehicles affect the increase of CO2 concentrations throughout the earth, resulting in an increase in global warming. The emissions contributed to most combustion vehicles could simply be reduced, as long as the vehicles are used wisely and carefully. One should take caution when using a combustion vehicle by attempting to only use it when necessary. A solution to help reduce the toxins in the environment due to transportation is to reduce the popularity of combustion vehicles and increase the use of electric vehicles. Although electric vehicles produce CO2 while they are being created and destroyed, they do not release it into the atmosphere every time they are used, unlike combustion vehicles. Electric vehicles are an easy solution to these emissions, as they do not require the burning of different types of gases, or fuels. They only emit a large amount of CO2 during the process of creating the vehicle, due to its battery. However, a smaller electric battery will result in fewer emissions throughout the development of creating the vehicle. An electric vehicle can obtain the electricity needed to power it in an environmentally safe manner, as it can be charged through solar panels in one’s own home. Charging these vehicles could also be environmentally friendly, as long as they are charged through non-disruptive methods, such as through the use of solar panels. This method of charging an electric vehicle will not only result in being a safer method for the environment, but also a cheaper method for one’s personal gain. It is a safer method of charging an electric vehicle for the environment, as it does not require the burning of fossil fuels to transport the energy. Instead, it takes the energy from a natural, renewable resource. The disposal of these batteries would not negatively impact the environment if they are disposed of properly. There is no limit to obtaining electricity from solar-powered energy sources, therefore one can repeatedly use this method to gain electricity. The use of renewable power, such as solar and wind, could possibly result in the reduction of emissions by 90%. By switching to an electric vehicle, one would be able to reduce their carbon footprint and expose the atmosphere to less CO2 emissions.

One aspect of my life that really took a toll on my mental health was the idea of "failure." I always felt that in order to make myself and everyone around me proud, I would have to be a perfect student, dancer, musician, artist, etc. I associated the idea of perfection with the idea of respect for myself. One of the most influential changes I’ve faced in my life was during my sophomore year of high school. I had been dedicated to my school’s dance team for over a year. I sacrificed many things for the team such as: leaving my dance studio of 8+ years, putting less effort into my schoolwork and diverting my focus away from my friendships and relationships. While I was a member of this dance team, I participated in the NDA Nationals, won first place, and performed in other team shows and workshops. After being told I was accepted into the team for the following year, I was unfairly removed from the team. The coach told me she changed her decision because I “had asthma.” I was extremely upset over this for two reasons. Reason one: I was not diagnosed with asthma, and I passed my medical exams. Reason two: In the case I did have asthma, kicking me off a team due to a medical condition was illegal. I didn’t manage my denial well by blaming myself for her choice. However, she didn’t remove me from the team due to my physical state. She kicked me off the team due to rumors she heard from a student, who refused to see me as the team’s captain. After being removed from the team, I noticed my mental health was at its worst place it has ever been. I was no longer motivated to pursue my dream of becoming a dancer, and I noticed that it had become more difficult to focus on my education. I felt as though putting my hopes towards other things would result in hurting me the same way my dance team had hurt me. I considered this to be my greatest betrayal of the year, and I felt every bit of it. My lack of motivation resulted in a cycle of unhealthy habits, that I could not seem to fix on my own. I had not realized that I was obsessing over the past until I became the captain of my next dance-related team. It took me about 3 years to build a greater sense of resilience. Now, I am able to say that being removed from the team was one of the best things that could have happened to me. I now see that the way the coach treated me was toxic and unhealthy. I became obsessed with being a member of this team, even when it was only causing me harm. I was blinded to her unfair treatment, while I was a member of the dance team. Although the issue with my high school dance team occurred many years ago, it still has an effect on me because I no longer participate in serious competitions for dancing. Instead, I remained as an independent performer, who sometimes works with smaller teams.

To begin, I am a Hispanic member of my community, who has been practicing the art of dance for the past 14 years. I initially started my dance classes as a form of exercise. After I realized I can utilize my skills of dancing as a means of expressing my feelings, I became more invested in the art of dance. I performed in many competitions and was a member of several local dance teams in my state. I am inspired to continue dancing because it has always felt very rewarding. The feeling of "freedom" that I feel when I am dancing motivates me to keep dancing. Recently, I have had to take a step back from my dance classes because my university classes are taking up too much of my time and money. I feel as though any money I make goes directly to my classes, which are extremely costly despite the fact that I have only been able to take online classes (due to the global pandemic). However, winning this scholarship would be a great step for me to get back into my dance classes. I could utilize this scholarship to pay for the next few months of my dance classes, which would place me back on the road to dance my way towards my dreams in the arts and entertainment world.

Although it may be common for students in the United States of America to graduate, my high school graduation was my most recent 'boldest' moment. At the young age of 17, I graduated high school with my International Baccalaureate Diploma and my Superintendent's Diploma of Distinction. The fact that I could not attend my own graduation ceremony, due to Covid-19 was extremely difficult for me. However, I have been able to focus on my education and successes. I am extremely proud of myself for now having the credits of a sophomore/junior in college, while I am still 17 years old.

I am currently enrolled as a sophomore at Florida International University. After graduating from my university, I intend to open an online clothing and supplies business. I have started designing the clothing items that will be sold at my business. If this business becomes successful, I will then be able to open a physical business to work alongside the online version of the store. I already have a partner who has been interested in being a part of my business for the past few years and I plan to start my business with this partner. Although not diagnosed, we have both suffered through severe anxious and depressive moments. However, this setback in our mental health has not affected our sense of motivation for success in a negative manner. My partner has recently told me that she was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). I have seen her have episodes where she forgets her true personality and will seem as though she is a completely different person. In these moments, I have been able to support her and assist her until she comes back to her main self. I have noticed that I become highly stressed and alert when I am trying to help her through one of her episodes. My partner's mental illness has not made me feel as though she would not be a trusted business partner. Instead, I have built a great sense of respect for her and increased my knowledge on the effects mental illness can have on a person. I trust and believe that she will participate in my business to the best of her ability. We have both attempted forms of self-care that are able to suppress our issues of mental health. She has exercised in order to reduce her amount of episodes. Meanwhile, when I feel stressed, anxious, or the beginning of a depressive state, I will increase my self-care aspects of my daily routine. I prefer meditation to control my rapid thoughts, baths to relax my feelings of stress, and listening to music to calm my mind. My partner and I found that as long as we focus time on our goals and ourselves, we can get passed our mental setbacks. My experiences with mental health have influenced my entrepreneurial goals in a positive way, as they have motivated me to prove I can and will become a successful figure. Due to my partner and I's support for mental health, we have decided to include a section of our business dedicated to mental health awareness. Our products for the mental health awareness section of our business would depict wholesome and mindful images. Once these items begin to sell, we would ensure that a percentage of those sales would go towards a mental health awareness organization of our choice. I do not doubt that my partner and I can become successful, while taking care of our personal issues that relate to mental health. I hope those people around the world who suffer from disabilities do not let those disabilities control their lives and goals because they deserve to accomplish everything they dream of accomplishing.