Mental health has been an ongoing battle for a large portion of my life. Starting in 8th grade, I experienced periods of depression where I would feel like there was no way out. For a long time I thought I had to manage it all on my own. I didn't want to burden others with my problems. My sophomore year of high school I made a difficult decision, deciding to reach out and ask for help. I got a positive response, which changed a lot for me. It made me feel supported and safe. I then knew I could ask for help again if I ever felt that low. The resources I was given taught me how to recognize signs of a downward spiral so I could stop them before it got too bad. If they did happen, I also learned how to get out of them. Throughout this journey, I established the belief that everyone deserves someone to talk to and lean on. Not just people who have the financial ability, the connections, or a supportive family. This didn't just change how I saw the world, it gave my life a direction to go in. During high school, I realized I wanted to become a resource for others like the one I had needed. I wanted to be a shoulder to lean on or a listening ear when someone was going through a difficult time. This desire led me toward the mental health field and eventually to my current focus, social work. I want to become a school social worker. Schools are where children already are. Every day, kids walk through those doors carrying the weight of their home life, mental health issues, and other stressors. A lot of them won't ever look for outside help, not because they don't want it, but because they don't think it's attainable. It can be too expensive, they might not have transportation, their families might look down upon it, or they may not know where to start. The hurdles are real and plentiful, keeping too many children from getting support when it matters the most. By working inside the school, I can lower the barriers. I can be an approachable and a recognizable face in the halls, the office, and in classes. I can get to children who wouldn't be able to go see a therapist, but might want to talk to someone they already know. I can notice warning signs early, connect the kids and their families to resources, and help build a positive learning environment. I know firsthand what it feels like to be so young and feel so alone. I also know what it's like to receive the help you so desperately needed. I want to the be that help for kids.

Mental health has always been something that I have work on continuously and be aware of. Throughout my life, I have gone through several periods of depression. During a particularly bad one during my sophomore year of high school, I finally went to therapy. I was able to learn many coping skills and ways to prevent myself from falling too deep once I notice my mental health is declining. Since then, I've continuously employed these skills and have been able to keep out of depressive periods. I know a lot of people were effected by quarantine and Covid, but I think my mental health in particular suffered. I was kept at home for over a year and lost a lot of friends. During my therapy sessions, I was able to work through a lot that I was holding on to from that era of my life. Learning to let go of past events is an extremely important skill. I still have trouble sometimes, but I am considerably better at leaving behind things that I can't change. This scholarship allow me give back to my community because my goal is to become a social worker. It will help me pay for my school and get me through quicker. I have to work while in school and during summers to save for my tuition. This scholarship will allow me to lower my work hours and take more classes so I can get through school quicker. The sooner I earn my master's degree, the sooner I can make positive change in people's lives. Not only do I want to be a social worker, I want to be placed in a school. I think it is especially important to help children in need. This scholarship will allow me to effect positive change in the lives of countless students. Stamp-collecting has been an important part of my mental health journey. When I felt like I had nothing going for me, it gave me something to look forward to. During 2020, I started journaling. I would save a few stamps here and there from letters I got and put them in a sort of collage in my notebook. As I continued this, I became curious on what each design meant. I started researching and developing a collection. By the end of 2021, I was a full blown collector. I would look for specific designs and save up my allowance money to order new ones. My favorite theme has been "abstract expressionist" stamps. Discovering that there was a line of stamps was so exciting, as it's one of my favorite art styles. I have used them as rewards for myself, whether for good grades or other accomplishments, as well as consolation, for a tough day or a loss. Overall, since I started stamp-collecting, it has been a consistent bright spot in my life.

My goal is to become a school social worker. I want to make a noticeable difference in my community and help those who need it the most. From a young age, I have wanted to go into a career that involves serving others. Social work has stood out to me because I can create a real change in people's lives. It is important to me that I work with kids in some capacity, so choosing to not only be a social worker, but one in a school, combines all of my goals into one career. Children are the group that should be protected the most, and far too often they are exposed to problems they shouldn't have to deal with at such a young age. Whether it's family issues, struggling with mental health, or poverty, many children carry burdens that make it harder for them to learn. Connecting them to the correct resources and giving them emotional support feels like something I can do that will make a positive impact on their lives. I want to be some body that they can trust and feel comfortable coming to when they are struggling, whether that is with a personal problem, a difficult home situation, or just a bad day that they want to talk out. Being placed in a school will allow me to reach a lot more children than working as a general social worker. Schools are one of the few places that kids are every single day. This makes them an environment where I can identify students who may be struggling and get them help before their problems become overwhelming. I can work directly with kids in a location where they are already comfortable, which makes it easier for them to open up or ask for help. The feeling of having nobody to turn for support is hard to deal with, even for adults who have more experience with hardship. Children shouldn't have to experience that feeling of being alone. I want to make sure that the students I work with know they have someone there for them. Since high school, I have been committed to this career path. I worked hard to put myself in a good position to achieve this goal. I sacrificed a good amount of my social life to make sure that my education remains a priority. Doing this ensures that I will have plenty of opportunities available in the future. I earned college credit throughout high school so give myself a head start. Even now, academics are still my stop priority. I spend hours studying for classes and put my best effort into every assignment. I know that what I learn today will impact the quality of the care I can provide in the future. The sacrifices made now are worth it by far, if it means I can make a positive difference in people's lives in the future.

I was first introduced to Sabrina Carpenter when I was 7 years old. She was my favorite character on the Disney Channel show Girl Meets World. I tuned in to every episode to watch her. When Sabrina started releasing music, I instantly loved her. From "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" to her newest album Man's Best Friend, I've always connected with her music. Sabrina's confidence, self-expression, and relatability have been a constant throughout her career, keeping me as a loyal fan for most of my life. As I've grown older, her music has grown with me. In middle school, I was unsure of who I was and trying to figure out where I fit in. When she released "Sue Me", it helped me feel more confident in myself, empowering me to show people around me my true personality. Throughout her songs, Sabrina has stayed honest about the realities of growing up, which helped me feel comforted and understood in high school. Even now as a freshman in college, I still enjoy the way she combines that honesty with more light-hearted lines. It reminds me to not take everything so seriously. Sabrina's ability to reinvent herself has also helped me realize how fluid self-expression can be. She started as a Disney actress and shifted to such a huge, confident pop artist without sacrificing her authenticity. Watching her journey has made me feel more comfortable making changes, big or small. Overall, Sabrina Carpenter's career has impacted my life by giving me more confidence, comforting me when I feel down, and allowing me to grow and change with her.

Throughout all of my schooling, math has always been something that I just understood. Whether I'm doing geometry or AP calculus, it has been a challenge I look forward to most days. Nothing about math is subjective, there is always a correct way to do things and one answer to each problem. This is somewhat comforting. Nothing is up for debate and there are no gray areas - your answer is either correct or incorrect. In college, I have realized skills that are taught in math can be used in many other areas of life. I use the problem-solving and analysis skills I developed in math classes every single day. When I create a schedule for my day or work through personal problems, I use the same logical reasoning taught in math. The ability to break bigger problems down has been one of my most important takeaways from school, and it was largely developed by math. One of the biggest reasons I love math is how it balances individuality and structure. I really enjoy seeing how many different paths people take to arrive at the same conclusion. Overall, loving math for the majority of my academic career has shaped how I think, solve problems, and how I interpret the world around me. It's reach is bigger than a lot of people realize and trying to figure out just how far it goes has only grown my love for it.

Quarantine began at the end of seventh grade and I was thrilled to stay at home, like most other kids my age. By eighth grade, most students were going back to school, but my parents decided to keep me and my sister at home as remote learners for another year. I was okay with it at first, though as the year continued it became more and more difficult. At the start, I knew many other kids who weren’t returning to school either. I kept in contact with most of my friends and still felt close to them. As the year progressed, most other remote learners went back to in-person learning. I became one of the very few students to stay at home the whole time. I fell out of contact with all but two friends because I wasn’t experiencing the same things as any of them. I didn’t leave my house or go into stores, while many of my friends would still hang out and go on vacations. I felt so alone. I didn’t know anyone experiencing the pandemic the way I was. By the end of eighth grade, I was depressed. I only talked to one friend regularly and I was becoming miserable without more social interaction. I went back to school in 2021 as a freshman, and I was so excited to be inside a building, not just on a Zoom call in my house. I made a few friends and reconnected with some old ones. Even though I had more of a social life, I was still struggling with my mental health and trying to figure out how to fit back in with other students. I tried to deal with it alone because I didn’t want to put anything else on my parents’ plate. It took me until the beginning of 2023 to tell anyone how I was feeling. I finally asked my parents to go to therapy. I had a lot of unresolved emotions from the year I spent at home and the difficulty I had re-entering a school environment. After about two months in therapy, I felt so much better. I learned how to let go of what was bothering me and developed techniques to get myself out of any periods of depression I may have in the future. I’ve become happy with myself and more confident in who I am. I’m not afraid to talk to my parents about how I’m feeling and I know it’s okay to ask them for help if I ever need it. It has sparked an interest in psychology so I can help others the way somebody helped me. I know what it is like to feel like things won’t ever change and I have come out on the other side. I want to show other people that they can do it too. Though the experience wasn’t easy for me, it truly turned my life around and is one that I needed to live through to become who I am today.

Quarantine began at the end of seventh grade and I was thrilled to stay at home, like most other kids my age. By eighth grade, most students were going back to school, but my parents decided to keep me and my sister at home as remote learners for another year. I was okay with it at first, though as the year continued it became more and more difficult. At the start, I knew many other kids who weren’t returning to school either. I kept in contact with most of my friends and still felt close to them. As the year progressed, most other remote learners went back to in-person learning. I became one of the very few students to stay at home the whole time. I fell out of contact with all but two friends because I wasn’t experiencing the same things as any of them. I didn’t leave my house or go into stores, while many of my friends would still hang out and go on vacations. I felt so alone. I didn’t know anyone experiencing the pandemic the way I was. By the end of eighth grade, I was depressed. I only talked to one friend regularly and I was becoming miserable without more social interaction. I went back to school in 2021 as a freshman, and I was so excited to be inside a building, not just on a Zoom call in my house. I made a few friends and reconnected with some old ones. Even though I had more of a social life, I was still struggling with my mental health and trying to figure out how to fit back in with other students. I tried to deal with it alone because I didn’t want to put anything else on my parents’ plate. It took me until the beginning of 2023 to tell anyone how I was feeling. I finally asked my parents to go to therapy. I had a lot of unresolved emotions from the year I spent at home and the difficulty I had re-entering a school environment. After about two months in therapy, I felt so much better. I learned how to let go of what was bothering me and developed techniques to get myself out of any periods of depression I may have in the future. I’ve become happy with myself and more confident in who I am. I’m not afraid to talk to my parents about how I’m feeling and I know it’s okay to ask them for help if I ever need it. It has sparked an interest in psychology so I can help others the way somebody helped me. I know what it is like to feel like things won’t ever change and I have come out on the other side. I want to show other people that they can do it too. Though the experience wasn’t easy for me, it truly turned my life around and is one that I needed to live through to become who I am today.

Quarantine began at the end of seventh grade and I was thrilled to stay at home, like most other kids my age. By eighth grade, most students were going back to school, but my parents decided to keep me and my sister at home as remote learners for another year. I was okay with it at first, though as the year continued it became more and more difficult. At the start, I knew many other kids who weren’t returning to school either. I kept in contact with most of my friends and still felt close to them. As the year progressed, most other remote learners went back to in-person learning. I became one of the very few students to stay at home the whole time. I fell out of contact with all but two friends because I wasn’t experiencing the same things as any of them. I didn’t leave my house or go into stores, while many of my friends would still hang out and go on vacations. I felt so alone. I didn’t know anyone experiencing the pandemic the way I was. By the end of eighth grade, I was depressed. I only talked to one friend regularly and I was becoming miserable without more social interaction. I went back to school in 2021 as a freshman, and I was so excited to be inside a building, not just on a Zoom call in my house. I made a few friends and reconnected with some old ones. Even though I had more of a social life, I was still struggling with my mental health and trying to figure out how to fit back in with other students. I tried to deal with it alone because I didn’t want to put anything else on my parents’ plate. It took me until the beginning of 2023 to tell anyone how I was feeling. I finally asked my parents to go to therapy. I had a lot of unresolved emotions from the year I spent at home and the difficulty I had re-entering a school environment. After about two months in therapy, I felt so much better. I learned how to let go of what was bothering me and developed techniques to get myself out of any periods of depression I may have in the future. I’ve become happy with myself and more confident in who I am. I’m not afraid to talk to my parents about how I’m feeling and I know it’s okay to ask them for help if I ever need it. It has sparked an interest in psychology so I can help others the way somebody helped me. I know what it is like to feel like things won’t ever change and I have come out on the other side. I want to show other people that they can do it too. Though the experience wasn’t easy for me, it truly turned my life around and is one that I needed to live through to become who I am today.