Alyssa Stevens 06/15 What are my plans for the future and how will this scholarship help me? For me, it’ll help me achieve my dream of becoming an artist as I am from a low-income, first-generation, as well as minority and single mother. It’ll help me get closer to becoming an artist while balancing education with motherhood while also having passion. Though I had many setbacks in life from falling in love, moving across the country alone without family, to having a child across the other side of the country with no family or friends nearby in a toxic situation. I ended up leaving with the clothes on my back with my daughter and going back to my hometown of Pittsburgh where I decided to go to a community college. I ended up starting with a 2.1 GPA and as of now, I have a 3.29 and looking forward to working until I graduate with a 4.0 GPA with the hopes of transferring to a bigger university when I can afford the increased expense. Throughout this, as many times as I felt alone, stuck, and even confused, I never gave up and kept pushing forward to work on my education, myself as a person, and a mother and help to become an influence to my daughter. I want to show her that it’s never too late to work on your dreams. I ended up sacrificing many hours, days, and nights, going out with friends and free time to study. For me, to show others my capabilities, I make sure that I learn as much as I can as I believe in the life lesson; “You learn something new every day.” With that, I would like to keep pushing my education as much as I can and show my daughter that I can do it. I want to show her though I had my downs, I can always learn from them and continue going up as my family was there to help get me back on my feet and help raise my daughter as I try and make a life for myself where I can support her on my own and be able to give her the best life I could do. That’s why I decided to go to college not only for my sake, but also because I brought a beautiful life into this earth, and I would love to become a role model for her to look up to as a person, a friend, a woman, and a mother.

Alyssa Stevens 06/14/2023 How am I able to paint a good example for my child through self-improvement and determination? I was in a toxic situation after high school when I moved from Pittsburgh to Arizona. I ended up falling in love and gotten pregnant and moved a few months later to Texas where I was medically neglected due to undiagnosed preeclampsia where I had to have an emergency c-section. After a month, as soon I was medically cleared, I left with my daughter with nothing to come back to Pittsburgh. Through this, I got a job and enrolled in college. In 2022, I enrolled in a community college locally to me with a 2.1 GPA and now, a year later, I currently have a 3.29 GPA and striving to achieve a 4.0 by the time I graduate. What I’m going to school for is my passion for art. I want to be an example for my daughter that it’s never too late for her dreams. With that, I want to show her that it’s ok to make mistakes as I didn’t take my schooling seriously in the past in middle and high school, however, I learned from it and strived to learn and grow from it. Though many obstacles were trying to bring me down, it would make me even stronger than before and made me more determined to work as hard as I can to achieve my goal for not only me but for my daughter. My daughter was a major reason why I went back to school, to begin with. I wanted to become an artist my whole life, however, I thought my identity as a mother was more important and was willing to sacrifice my dream for it. I’m thankful to my mother who stepped up and offered to help and help me with her so I can go to college. I want to show both of them that I am capable of improving myself in my studies so that in the future after I graduate that it’ll pay off. So far, I was invited to join the honors program and am hoping that in the future I can transfer to a bigger university for a 4-year plan. Until then, I’m going to continuously dedicate my time to studying and learning as much as I can so that way my daughter has a mother worth looking up to.

Alyssa Stevens 06/14/2023 Essay. Why am I passionate about art? My entire life I have been inspired by anything to do with art even at a young age. From musicals to painting; it always captivated my attention and was my dream to create art as it wasn’t looked high upon career-wise, I still wished to pursue my dream. However, after high school, I ended up moving to Arizona where I fell in love and got pregnant. For me, everything happened so fast, and I didn’t have any friends or family there. After a few months, I moved to Texas where the situation has gotten worse. I felt that I was there trapped beyond repair and was looked down on for being an artist. I ended up having my daughter after medical negligence from a toxic/abusive situation leading to pre-eclampsia and having to have an emergency c-section as my daughter’s life and mines were at risk. A month later, I flew back to my home in Pittsburgh with me and my daughter as soon as I was declared well enough to fly. With that, I ended up leaving everything behind and left with the clothes on my back and my daughter’s diaper bag. I have decided to work that way I’m not 100% relying on my mother to support me and my daughter and also decided to go to college. I ended up getting into a community college with a 2.1 GPA and dedicated myself to my studies to prove to my daughter that it was never too late. It’s been two years since then and I have raised my GPA to 3.29 and striving to pass with a 4.0 GPA. Art to me is an expression of struggles, ups, and downs, thoughts of giving up and commitment. My art skills aren’t where I wanted to be as I took a whole year off from creating art and most of my previous work was left behind, I want to show my daughter that it’s never too late to start your journey and to achieve your dream. Art was with me through my darkest times and was a way of expressing emotions when I didn’t know how. Art would comfort me when I was alone throughout my whole life even when I didn’t know it. Knowing the global current situation with AI taking the place of many artists' careers and futures, I still want to fight the battle and prove no matter what setbacks there are, you can achieve your dream. Though in my short 22 years of life, I have been through a lot, I want my daughter to know that it should never blind your passion and dreams. I am a proud, mother single mother to a beautiful and healthy almost 2-year-old daughter. I’m currently learning Japanese and Korean with plans of learning Spanish later on in the future. My art style is a semi-realistic anime-influence style that I mainly focus on digitally. With all of this in consideration, I’m using everything I learn, study, sacrificed and been through my highs and lows to make and create beautiful, eye-catching, and emotional art that can tell its story.