My life forever changed in 2012 when my family agreed to adopt a baby girl from a sweet teen mother. Within a month of this milestone, we witnessed the birth of the newest addition to our family, and to call us excited would have been a vast understatement. We named my sister Eliana because the name means “God has answered our prayers.” Being part of an adoptive family has taught me priceless lessons about the unconditional worth of all human life. Eliana truly is an answer to countless prayers, spoken and unspoken. After losing our baby boy in 2008, Eliana has saturated our lives with the joy, love, laughter, and adventure we needed. I am eternally grateful and proud to call Eliana my sister. My mother's incredible heart for teaching has inspired me from the moment I was old enough to walk. Since preschool, I have promised all my teachers that I would follow in their footsteps. As an elementary student, nothing fulfilled me more than playing teacher with my stuffed animals, serving as my teacher's helper, or spending hours after school and during breaks assisting my mother in her classroom. While I am fervent about teaching because of my natural gift and passion for loving children and helping them feel valuable, my sister has tangibly shown me how profoundly special each child is. Eliana is a priceless testimony that every child has a unique gift to offer the world. I have witnessed teachers’ positive and negative impacts on her learning and confidence, showing me that students need teachers who intentionally invest in them academically and personally. I firmly uphold that teaching is a calling, and I am determined to live out that God-given mission. I am always the first to jump at any opportunity to serve youth. One of my favorite experiences is getting to work as a camp counselor at Camp Thurman every summer. The Christian camp environment has allowed me to practice developing Bible study lessons to teach my campers how we are reflections of God’s creativity. I am always overjoyed beyond words to look each camper in the eye and tell her God made no mistake creating her. My sister’s adoption has led to struggles with self-esteem, and witnessing those effects deepen in recent years has opened my mind to the emotional battles children are up against in our present age. This adversity is why I am devoted to being a source of nurturing love and encouragement for children, whether at camp or in my future classroom. I plan to pursue an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education with an Educational Psychology minor in Creative Studies to inspire my students to think outside the box and embrace their true colors. Because of the rewarding encounters I've had working with campers with special needs such as cerebral palsy and nonspeaking autism, I hope to eventually earn certification in Special Education after gaining more experience with teaching. The Lord has blessed me with abundant opportunities to marvel at the effects one child can have on the world. I will stop at nothing to help children grasp how they are a version of an Eliana, an answered prayer.

Imagine hearing a chord that sits still but simultaneously moves forward at the speed of light. Eric Whitacre claims that the opening chord of his newest composition resembles such a mysterious phenomenon. These stunning chords are why I love choral music. We sprinkle our compositions with dissonance, we suspend and don't always resolve, we add seconds and sevenths, we gradually build up tension into a modulation, we sing in Mixolydian mode, and we gladly switch back and forth between 5/8 and 7/8 within the same system. We conquer the unconquerable, get comfortable with the uncomfortable, and dare to dig deep into the highs and lows of human emotion. Music allows me to process, express, and experience my heart's innermost thoughts, fears, hurts, desires, and secrets. If we stuck to the typical one, three, four, five, and six chords present in today's pop music, we would be robbing ourselves of the full breadth our soul longs to explore through the tensions that emerge with the more spicy and flavorful chords. This revelation has taught me that we must intimately know the world's sorrows to appreciate pure joy's beauty. Another invaluable lesson music has granted me is a greater understanding of world history and culture. Singing Italian Art songs for Solo and Ensemble, dissecting Bach's Magnificat or Mendelssohn's sacred hymns for All-State, marveling at Handel's Baroque masterpieces, and learning Brahm's romantic requiems are just a few examples of how I feel increasingly connected to the past through music. Singing the great works of contemporary composers is also an enriching experience because I have gotten to meet many of my favorites when singing their songs in the national honor choir for the American Choral Directors Association. Hearing their thought process and feeding off their creative energy always blows my mind. The composers' individualities testify that success comes from embracing your unique passion and experience to create something bold and meaningful that no one else has within them. Dr. Aspaas of Texas Christian University told my 2022 All-Region honor choir that music is made between the notes. Yes, the score might call for the choir to sing a half-diminished seventh chord, but that means very little until you add a sforzando or something to make it shimmer. Now that I'm in my fourth year of working on auditioning for the highly-coveted Texas All-State Choir, I have abundant training in the intricate practices that turn a melody into music, so I have seen how expression and phrasing can turn a song on its head. We crunch up our chords when singing about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but we crunch them up just as much when singing about dreams of soaring through the sky and being suspended in space. The difference is the artistry used to paint the picture of these moments. I have learned that a subito piano or tenuto can significantly transform the emotion portrayed in a given line of music, which has taught me that small forces can have an immense impact on the world. A subtle crescendo of love and a ritardando on our urge to respond can significantly improve our mood and relationships. It took music for me to see how something so small can be so important. I wish I could put a fermata on the profound joy of singing in a choir. From the dynamics of the music to the dynamics of the friendships I have built, I have learned that music makes the world beautiful, artful, colorful, expressive, and deeply connected.

My life forever changed in 2012 when my family agreed to adopt a baby girl from a sweet teen mother. Within a month of this milestone, we witnessed the birth of the newest addition to our family, and to call us excited would have been a vast understatement. We named my sister Eliana because the name means “God has answered our prayers.” Eliana truly is an answer to countless prayers, spoken and unspoken. After losing our baby boy in 2008, Eliana has saturated our lives with the joy, love, laughter, and adventure we needed. I am eternally grateful and proud to call Eliana my sister. My mother's incredible heart for teaching has inspired me from the moment I was old enough to walk. Since preschool, I have promised all my teachers that I would follow in their footsteps. As an elementary student, nothing fulfilled me more than playing teacher with my stuffed animals, serving as my teacher's helper, or spending hours after school and during breaks assisting my mother in her classroom. While I am fervent about teaching because of my natural gift and passion for loving children and helping them feel valuable, my sister has tangibly shown me how profoundly special each child is. Eliana is a priceless testimony that every child has a unique gift to offer the world. I have witnessed teachers’ positive and negative impacts on her learning and confidence, showing me that students need teachers who intentionally invest in them academically and personally. I firmly uphold that teaching is a calling, and I am determined to live out that God-given mission. I am always the first to jump at any opportunity to serve youth. One of my favorite experiences is getting to work as a camp counselor at Camp Thurman every summer. The Christian camp environment has allowed me to practice developing Bible study lessons to teach my campers how we are reflections of God’s creativity. I am always overjoyed beyond words to look each camper in the eye and tell her God made no mistake creating her. My sister’s adoption has led to struggles with self-esteem, and witnessing those effects deepen in recent years has opened my mind to the emotional battles children are up against in our present age. This adversity is why I am devoted to being a source of nurturing love and encouragement for children, whether at camp or in my future classroom. I plan to pursue an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education with an Educational Psychology minor in Creative Studies to inspire my students to think outside the box and embrace their true colors. Because of the rewarding encounters I've had working with campers with special needs such as cerebral palsy and nonspeaking autism, I hope to eventually earn certification in Special Education after gaining more experience with teaching. The Lord has blessed me with abundant opportunities to marvel at the effects one child can have on the world. I will stop at nothing to help children grasp how they are a version of an Eliana, an answered prayer.