I feel strongly that the highest honor, is to be the servant of all. My dream in life is to create the greatest impact I can by serving others in the greatest capacity I can attain to and inspire others to do the same. Nothing brings me greater joy then when I am in the service of others.

My life has not been short of challenges. Growing up I spent years back and forth from the hospital. Everything from my gallbladder to my appendix has since had to be removed. Including a new type of aggressive benign tumor that was wrapped around on my spine. Those years in the hospital were tough. It took a toll on me physically and very much mentally; I was usually very sick and in lots of pain. The hardest part of it all was how it took me out doing things that I loved. Admittedly, it was hard to watch my friends play outside and my family go and do things that I could not participate in and it was tough to miss large amounts of school due to medical reasons, it seemed like the beauty in life was slipping out of my grasp as the years went by with continued complications. After battling through those years, though I wasn't by any means "back to normal", I felt like life turned up and I was enjoying good health and the simple things of life. Thinking I had beat it, it wasn't long until another unexpected setback came into my life. A tragic accident resulted in me suffering a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a brain bleed and what laid ahead was a long recovery process in which I battled memory loss and communication struggles with reading, speaking, and writing. had to relearn a lot of what already knew, and I still struggle with ramifications of it today. I honestly had no idea how I would end up and at times, I had to process some scary thoughts! had to ask myself if I was willing to work hard towards recovery. I did my best to put my head down and move forward. Luckily, through months and months of recovery and training, I was able to get back to where I am now. Even today a lot of people still ask me how I made it through, how I smile as I tell the stories. How I am still here. My answers are always the same. 1st and foremost God. 2nd, gratitude. I live by the virtue that there is always something to be grateful for. Always someone to say "thank you" too and on the flipside, there is always someone who has it worse than you do. That is how I maintained a positive outlook on life. I have made up in my mind that counting our blessings is far better than recounting our problems. No matter our situation, showing gratitude for our privileges is a unique, fast-acting, and long-lasting prescription for difficult circumstances. Simply stated, “In everything give thanks”. It's hard to be negative, sad, pessimistic, hopeless, etc. when you are grateful. I vividly remember a time I was taking my daily walk around the halls of the 5th floor hospital wing, I was in a lot of pain, had tubes coming in and out of every hole in my body, and admittedly, I felt sorry for myself. It was right then when a little girl, no older then 6, came rolling by in a red radio flyer wagon. She had no hair and looked to be in a lot worse shape than I was in. It was right then and there I decided I was grateful to be where I was. It is that outlook on life that has gotten me through my hardest times and continues to gift me my best. There is nothing that can't be overcome, physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually through an attitude of gratitude.

We've been pulled apart as a community, a country, and as people all over the world. In almost every sector of our lives, we find ourselves being pushed further and further apart. The remedy to this solution is the change I want to see all over the world, but one I know starts locally in our own communities. I want to see everyone come together in a spirit of love and service. Hearts knit together through that spirit of love and service is the remedy our world needs. As the world tends to trample on this philosophy, it is clear this isn't a change that happens overnight. Like all great changes in the world, it starts with one, grows one by one, until it reaches and changes the hearts of millions. This world remedy starts with a mustard seed of an act of service. Something little for someone we know and love, until we serve those we don't yet know or love. Anything from local service projects, to a elderly neighbor's yard, to reading books to children, to stopping to talk to someone who needs a listening ear, to worldwide charities, to national days of service, it is all one purpose. To knit the hearts of everyone together through a spirit of love and service. As we forget ourselves and lose ourselves in the service of others, we find within ourselves our best selves. It is those best versions of us that contribute to society and make the world a better place. I've done my best to create the biggest impact I can locally in my own community and within the organizations I'm involved in. Through it all I have learned that there is no service opportunity too small and that a world impact begins in the lives of individual people. One by one. I try to be as heavily involved locally as I can, as I want to live the words I say and strive to lead by example. I was heavily involved in the lives of my classmates and the surrounding community. I was Senior Class President and SBO President and took the lead on making a difference and encouraging others to follow and realize their own potential. Holding this position, served my school and my community by planning/supporting all school & community events, heading up service projects, executing all senior events making sure there was a service focus in each activity, and leading by example and doing by best to serve others. As a committee member on the Bountiful Youth Senate, I planned and attended service/volunteer projects multiple times a week and volunteered at school functions. Our whole mission was to serve in any capacity and find opportunities for others to serve. As an Eagle Scout for the Boy Scouts of America I served the community on a local and national level, striving to make the environment, the community, and the world a better place to live. I have attended local and represented my state of Utah in national leadership conferences to further educate myself and bring back plans of action and knowledge to my community to create an impact and make a difference in the lives of people local and nationwide. As a 5-year member of the National Honors Society, I strive to better the community through organizing service projects and promoting academic excellence. Through this program have served in many service projects, charities, and other service-oriented opportunities. I also love to volunteer outside of my organizations during my own free time. Again, illustrating to me that there is something for everyone and always an opportunity to serve. I volunteer at South Davis Community Hospital frequently doing activities and spending time with the child and adult residents. For a couple years I also volunteered daily at Washington Elementary working in their after-school program. These are children who are suffering from neglect, poverty, hunger, and otherwise difficult home situations. We would play with the kids and help them with reading/homework. I hold two leadership positions in my church organization. I am the leader of my group of young men and work directly with the bishop. I am responsible to lead my group in meetings, service projects, church service, and other leadership aspects. I also am a council member in my church congregation's youth committee. We are in charge of planning and executing service activities on a multi-city-wide basis. Through my church organization I attend to the needs of specific families in my community. We make sure they are taken care of in whatever their needs may be. I make sure to shovel snow daily and do the yardwork of several widows and elderly in my neighborhood as well. I also volunteer every week to teach Spanish speakers the English language so they can have higher quality lives and fight poverty. We run a local ESL class through English Connect that is completely free to attend and welcome to anyone who is trying or wants to learn English. I also volunteer at the Migrant Placement Center to help immigrants and refugees live higher quality lives, find asylum, and get connected with relatives and sponsors in the United States. I help with the language barrier and purchase flights, find shelter, food, and other resources top to bottom to make sure these displaced families and minorities find asylum. I frequently volunteer at the Food Bank to help fight hunger and make a difference in the lives of poverty-stricken people and to end hunger in my community. I just recently returned from a 26 -month service trip to serve the communities I was placed in and do everything I could to better the lives of those I was living among. All these things I do out of the love of service and the want to create a change and positively impact the lives of everyone around me. To one day create a worldwide environment of love and service and to knit us together in a spirit of love, understanding, and camaraderie.

I've never been one to take the easy road, whether of my own volition or out of the luck of the draw, I have always seemed to find myself on the road less traveled by. That was especially the case growing up, I battled multiple chronic diseases including aggressive spinal tumors and multiple traumatic brain injuries (TBI's), through years spent in the hospital, facing much uncertainty and hearing many times from doctors "we don't know what will happen" or "we're not sure he's going to be okay", I find myself not only "okay", but thriving in life. I owe that large in part to God, Jesus, the angels that mentored me, the surgeons who didn't give up on me, and the doctors/nurses who cared for me. The medical field has always been a huge part of my life, I owe my life to those who chose the field. It has sparked a passion in me to pursue that path and fulfil my dream of helping families and children who are suffering similar circumstances that I once did. I hope to be a means of hope and recovery in the lives of each individual, each family, and the medical world as a whole. I work full time out of necessity, I average 10 hours day, all week, during the school year to provide for myself. During the summer those hours often climb to 14-16 daily. I have been doing this since my freshman year in high school and have always had some form a working job since 6th grade. Through it all I've been able to keep tip top grades, win national competitions in sports, remain active in my church, and serve my community as much as possible. I work hard to be self-sufficient and help relieve the medical debt that has been placed on the shoulders of my parents. I feel responsible for that debt because I'm the one who needed the medical care. Both my parents work multiple jobs and have since I was a child in order to provide for us. I have a great desire to give back and make an impact in the medical world, so I am choosing the medical field as my career. I believe the greatest honor, is to serve. Nothing brings me greater joy then when I am in the service of others. This occupation would allow me to do that on a daily basis, I've lived the lives in some capacity of every patient and family that will walk through my door, what better way to serve, when you can do so with understanding and empathy. I am bilingual, making it possible for me to make a greater impact to a whole 14% of my state's population who struggle to find healthcare in their native language, scholarships will allow me to greatly impact my community, serve minorities in my area, and fulfil my dream of helping families and individuals who have experienced similar heartache and struggles as I did in my youth and still struggle with today. Any scholarship and grant will allow me to allocate time spent previously at work, to studying and to ensure my competitive standing in medical school acceptance. Nothing meant more to me during those hard and trying times, than a kind nurse, an understanding doctor, or an empathetic surgeon. I plan to be that kind of doctor and create a medical world full of doctors, surgeons, and nurses to where each and every child, parent, patient, and family can receive the care they deserve no matter the race, orientation, income, or social status.

One way? A better question would be, "what is one way you haven't changed?". Words cannot describe the beautiful gift of personal growth I received over the last 2 years. The event I experienced and situation that inspired this exponential growth in my character was the last two years living away from family on a 26-month service tenure, paid for out of my own pocket, during which I received no payment and lived off of what was saved in the years prior. During this time there were no breaks, no vacations, or visits from family and friends. It was 24/7 dedicated service to others and the community I lived in. I moved to an unknown place I had never been with an unfamiliar people, whom over the course of those 26 months became my second home filled with beautiful people whom I loved. I put aside scholarships, sports, college acceptance, work, relationships, everything to give 26 months to the people I was destined to serve. The greatest lesson I learned was how to take the "impossible" and make it "possible". My whole 26-month experience I was placed in areas of the city and surrounding areas that were deemed "dead or impossible to work with". Each time, I couldn't take negativity as an answer and decided to work as hard as I could and to flourish where I stood. I learned that the way to make the impossible, possible, is through a principle of "forgetting yourself and going to work". Before long, I was being sent into "impossible" areas on purpose, because of the reputation I gained of going in and leaving them the strongest, most flourishing areas, in regards of what we were trying to accomplish in San Antonio. I have still remained the people loving, service-oriented person I have always been. But now I am so much more. I tried my hardest to develop myself over those 26 months into the best version of myself I could be, because I felt like the people around me whom I was tasked to serve deserved nothing but the best. Through blood, sweat, and lots of tears . . . so much changed. I strongly believe the best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others. Through this beautiful experience, I found myself. I am now in my mind the last of all, the servant of all, always striving to be humble, I do not judge others and willingly share all I am blessed with. I'm so much more empathetic to those who struggle with poverty, racism, discrimination, and other hardship. I mourn with them, I let them know they are not alone. I am so much slower to anger, I've developed and abundance of patience and have finally surrendered my ego. I not only now take the right path when no one is watching, but I help others to take the right path. I'm trusting with others, I now always give them the benefit of the doubt, even when it costs me. And I am now so quick to forgive others first and through that I've finally learned to forgive myself. I've been able to cultivate purity in my own heart and I can see it so much clearer in those around my, no matter what is in front of it or how it looks on the outside. I now seek to dispel contention and achieve peace in all my relationships. Above all, I have an unshakable resolve to continue this path of personal growth and discovery and won't let anyone steer me off my path.

I've never been one to take the easy road, whether of my own volition or out of the luck of the draw, I have always seemed to find myself on the road less traveled by. That was especially the case growing up, I battled multiple chronic diseases including aggressive spinal tumors and multiple traumatic brain injuries (TBI's), through years spent in the hospital, facing much uncertainty and hearing many times from doctors "we don't know what will happen" or "we're not sure he's going to be okay", I find myself not only "okay", but thriving in life. I owe that large in part to God, Jesus, the angels that mentored me, the surgeons who didn't give up on me, and the doctors/nurses who cared for me. The medical field has always been a huge part of my life, I owe my life to those who chose the field. It has sparked a passion in me to pursue that path and fulfil my dream of helping families and children who are suffering similar circumstances that I once did. I hope to be a means of hope and recovery in the lives of each individual, each family, and the medical world as a whole. I work full time out of necessity, I average 10 hours day, all week, during the school year to provide for myself. During the summer those hours often climb to 14-16 daily. I have been doing this since my freshman year in high school and have always had some form a working job since 6th grade. Through it all I've been able to keep tip top grades, win national competitions in sports, remain active in my church, and serve my community as much as possible. I work hard to be self-sufficient and help relieve the medical debt that has been placed on the shoulders of my parents. I feel responsible for that debt because I'm the one who needed the medical care. Both my parents work multiple jobs and have since I was a child in order to provide for us. I have a great desire to give back and make an impact in the medical world, so I am choosing the medical field as my career. I believe the greatest honor, is to serve. Nothing brings me greater joy then when I am in the service of others. This occupation would allow me to do that on a daily basis, I've lived the lives in some capacity of every patient and family that will walk through my door, what better way to serve, when you can do so with understanding and empathy. I am bilingual, making it possible for me to make a greater impact to a whole 14% of my state's population who struggle to find healthcare in their native language, scholarships will allow me to greatly impact my community, serve minorities in my area, and fulfil my dream of helping families and individuals who have experienced similar heartache and struggles as I did in my youth and still struggle with today. Any scholarship and grant will allow me to allocate time spent previously at work, to studying and to ensure my competitive standing in medical school acceptance. Nothing meant more to me during those hard and trying times, than a kind nurse, an understanding doctor, or an empathetic surgeon. I plan to be that kind of doctor and create a medical world full of doctors, surgeons, and nurses to where each and every child, parent, patient, and family can receive the care they deserve no matter the race, orientation, income, or social status.

I've never been one to take the easy road, whether of my own volition or out of the luck of the draw, I have always seemed to find myself on the road less traveled by. That was especially the case growing up, I battled multiple chronic diseases including aggressive spinal tumors and multiple traumatic brain injuries (TBI's), through years spent in the hospital, facing much uncertainty and hearing many times from doctors "we don't know what will happen" or "we're not sure he's going to be okay", I find myself not only "okay", but thriving in life. I owe that large in part to God, Jesus, the angels that mentored me, the surgeons who didn't give up on me, and the doctors/nurses who cared for me. The medical field has always been a huge part of my life, I owe my life to those who chose the field. It has sparked a passion in me to pursue that path and fulfil my dream of helping families and children who are suffering similar circumstances that I once did. I hope to be a means of hope and recovery in the lives of each individual, each family, and the medical world as a whole. I work full time out of necessity, I average 10 hours day, all week, during the school year to provide for myself. During the summer those hours often climb to 14-16 daily. I have been doing this since my freshman year in high school and have always had some form a working job since 6th grade. Through it all I've been able to keep tip top grades, win national competitions in sports, remain active in my church, and serve my community as much as possible. I work hard to be self-sufficient and help relieve the medical debt that has been placed on the shoulders of my parents. I feel responsible for that debt because I'm the one who needed the medical care. Both my parents work multiple jobs and have since I was a child in order to provide for us. I have a great desire to give back and make an impact in the medical world, so I am choosing the medical field as my career. I believe the greatest honor, is to serve. Nothing brings me greater joy then when I am in the service of others. This occupation would allow me to do that on a daily basis, I've lived the lives in some capacity of every patient and family that will walk through my door, what better way to serve, when you can do so with understanding and empathy. I am bilingual, making it possible for me to make a greater impact to a whole 14% of my state's population who struggle to find healthcare in their native language, scholarships will allow me to greatly impact my community, serve minorities in my area, and fulfil my dream of helping families and individuals who have experienced similar heartache and struggles as I did in my youth and still struggle with today. Any scholarship and grant will allow me to allocate time spent previously at work, to studying and to ensure my competitive standing in medical school acceptance. I have no financial support from parents of family for my schooling endeavors, so the burden of financial support rests squarely on my own shoulders. How incredibly grateful I would be to be given a gift of financial aid and most of all, the opportunity and gift to serve a cause and career so near and dear to my heart.

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” It's been a journey to not only understand that statement, but live it and make it part of who I am. A long road of trial and error, blood, sweat, and lots of tears, but through it all I've obtained the characteristic I value the most in myself. That is charity. Chairty. Pure love, the giving oneself wholeheartedly to the serve of others, the want to serve and give, I want to do all I can to improve the lives of others. I do it not for my own gain, but out of love. In the 1970s, researchers set up an experiment to examine the effects of diet on heart health. Over several months, they fed a control group of rabbits a high-fat diet and monitored their blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. As expected, many of the rabbits showed a buildup of fatty deposits on the inside of their arteries. Yet this was not all! Researchers had discovered something that made little sense. Although all of the rabbits had a buildup, one group surprisingly had as much as 60 percent less than the others. It appeared as though they were looking at two different groups of rabbits. To scientists, results like this can cause lost sleep. How could this be? The rabbits were all the same breed from New Zealand, from a virtually identical gene pool. They each received equal amounts of the same food. What could this mean? Did the results invalidate the study? Were there flaws in the experiment design? The scientists struggled to understand this unexpected outcome! Eventually, they turned their attention to the research staff. Was it possible that researchers had done something to influence the results? As they pursued this, they discovered that every rabbit with fewer fatty deposits had been under the care of one researcher. She fed the rabbits the same food as everyone else. But, as one scientist reported, “she was an unusually kind and caring individual.” When she fed the rabbits, “she talked to them, cuddled and petted them. … ‘She couldn’t help it. It’s just how she was.’” She did more than simply give the rabbits food. She gave them charity! At first glance, it seemed unlikely that this could be the reason for the dramatic difference, but the research team could see no other possibility. So they repeated the experiment—this time tightly controlling for every other variable. When they analyzed the results, the same thing happened! The rabbits under the care of the loving researcher had significantly higher health outcomes. The scientists published the results of this study in the prestigious journal Science. Years later the findings of this experiment still seem influential in the medical community. In recent years, Dr. Kelli Harding published a book titled The Rabbit Effect that takes its name from the experiment. Her conclusion: “Take a rabbit with an unhealthy lifestyle. Talk to it. Hold it. Give it affection. … The relationship made a difference. … Ultimately,” she concludes, “what affects our health in the most meaningful ways has as much to do with how we treat one another, how we live, and how we think about what it means to be human.”. This is the life and legacy I want to leave, with my family, my colleagues, my neighbors, my patients, and every single person in the world around me. As my dreams will take me into the medical field as a Pediatrician, I want to always value this characteristic of mine to heal the world around me.