"We grow accustomed to the Dark— When Light is put away— As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp To witness her Goodbye—" I spent many years of my life in the dark. So many years, in fact, that I grew accustomed to surviving off the dim light filtering in from under the blocked bathroom door and bowls of grits. Being taken from my home and being given a new facade of clothing and possessions didn’t change this habit of surviving on nothing but fragments. I was still only gathering tattered shreds of light, preparing myself for an inevitable return to the next darkness. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to weave together all the pieces of light I’ve collected over the years into one steady beacon; my story of survival. "A Moment—We uncertain step For newness of the night— Then—fit our Vision to the Dark— And meet the Road—erect—" There wasn’t any one moment that made me proud of my facing adversity. I have had hundreds of moments in my life that make me proud. In my biological family, I will be the first young woman to graduate high school. I will be the first to go to college. I will be the first to break the cycle of poor choices and generational pain passed down for many decades. These achievements were only possible because I survived. That’s what I’m proud of—not some title or paper, but my mere existence. "And so of larger—Darknesses— Those Evenings of the Brain— When not a Moon disclose a sign— Or Star—come out—within—" Unwanted or not, I am here. That fact has shaped my determination, my compassion, and my perseverance. In difficult times, I lean into the tilt instead of throttling back. If someone needs something done, I roll up my sleeves and get to work. When I am told something is impossible, I put my hair up and prove them wrong. I may not be fighting for my life anymore, but I still have plenty of challenges. Being 17-on-the-cusp-of-18 while also being a high schooler beginning college has been surprisingly difficult. However, my track record of surviving tells me I’ll make it. "The Bravest—grope a little— And sometimes hit a Tree Directly in the Forehead— But as they learn to see—" I haven’t been in the pitch dark for a long time, but I still look for fragments of light. Light now isn’t a shield. Instead, it’s a reminder of my survival and strength. It is a symbol of hope, determination, perseverance, empathy, and kindness. All of these things could have been taken from me, but I kept existing. Now, every moment is a moment I am proud of simply because I am here to experience it. "Either the Darkness alters— Or something in the sight Adjusts itself to Midnight— And Life steps almost straight." -Emily Dickinson

I am a member of my high school’s BETA and National Honor Society chapters. As a member of these extracurriculars, I have gotten to be involved in several volunteer opportunities both within my school and outside in the community. My favorite service opportunity I signed up for was through our NHS program, where we created care packages for our local first responders and delivered them. It was important to me that I was on the delivery team because I had wanted to reach out to our first responders since the incident at Apalachee High. Having a face behind the people who are responsible for my family and friends’ safety brought peace to something that was causing me some anxiety and I got to speak at length with some of them about their job and their lives (I feel bad I held one up by talking; it occurred to me later that I must have woken him up from a nap). I mentioned this specific service opportunity because there’s an issue that has been weighing heavily on my heart. The school shooting at Apalachee High was half an hour down the road from my high school. The tragedy that took four people’s lives happened at one of our partner schools, where several of my peers regularly attend sports events, take SATs and ACTs, and drive past on their way to visit family and friends. I thought when Uvalde, Texas happened in 2022, “It can’t get worse than this”; It, in fact, can. The terror I felt that day was nothing compared to the fear that my friends inside the school felt. Which brings me to my mission for the future. As a friend, student, and (if my plans work out) a future educator, it is my duty to make sure that what happened in Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, and Apalachee never happens again. I’m not naïve; I know that it is next to impossible to completely stop an epidemic that has been going on for years. However, there are countless activist groups I am already involved in or considering joining that are working to inspire change. Namely, a student-led organization “Change For Chee” where students are standing up to the Barrow County Board of Education to implement weapon safety laws in the middle and high schools of the county. I am attempting to coordinate another petition here in Walton County, where we have had incidences of insecurity and violence in our schools as well. In my opinion, it shouldn’t have to be a fight to keep our students safe in a school building. We shouldn’t have to be put through more traumatic experiences to see a genuine change in our communities. Our students represent our nation’s future; each deserves a bright one. I will never stop doing what I can to protect our futures.

Growing up, my access to STEM because I moved around a lot in the foster system. When I was adopted, though, my parents did the best they could to catch me up in school, and we found that I enjoyed math. I think what makes math so enjoyable for me is because I know that there is always a right answer, and there is always more to learn and explore. That is also where my love for science comes from—my favorite class in high school was freshman biology, where we learned about kingdoms, phyla, anatomy, and cell structure. The moment that I fell in love with engineering, construction, and design was when I joined the middle school robotics team that was unfortunately primarily male. Never shying away from a challenge, I decided to beat all of them in the competition at the end of the semester. I didn’t win. However, the program showed me I was smart enough to do it, and it helped foster a love for creative engineering that I would continue to pursue further in life. As it stands now, I am attending the University of North Georgia for my first two years before switching into Georgia Tech. The program I am interested in would help me graduate with a bachelor's degree in both physics and engineering that I can use to begin Tech's Industrial Design program. The Industrial Design program is divided into four specialty tracks, and I am most interested in the product design and environmental design pathways because making positive experiences for people and environmental conservation are both important to me. Industrial product designers are people who create concepts of future products or make edits to existing products to maximize functionality. One thing about this area of study that has always fascinated me is the idea of building prototypes. For the longest time, I wanted to open my own contracting business, and I explored the construction aspect of engineering for several years before I found industrial design. Environmental designers do something very similar to product designers, but they choose specific materials to make it environmentally sustainable and make it have less of an environmental impact. I think this area of study is a perfect fit for me because I can explore the more creative side of engineering by creating concepts and bringing them to life, all while ensuring the protection of our planet for future generations. After I graduate, I plan to work in the private sector as a freelance contractor to ensure that a wide range of products work to the best of their ability and are environmentally friendly. I want to harness my passion for engineering and use to it make other people’s lives better and easier along the way. I realize that by pursuing a career in STEM, I am already making a difference in changing the culture of the field and making it more accessible to future female generations. With the current state of our world, I think having a few more female role models would be incredibly beneficial. It's my mission to set a good example.

During my junior year (2023-2024 School Year), I was nominated for the Governor’s Honors Program as one of ten from my high school in Walnut Grove. I ended up making it to the second round of interviews, but I was competing against many more candidates who were better academically equipped to receive the position than I was. I got nominated for communicative arts (English/Language Arts), which was always a subject that I have been passionate about. Throughout my high school experience, I have taken every English class my high school offers except for British Literature because my schedule simply couldn’t fit it. Which brings me to my first point. I started my schooling in Gwinnett County, where they have a 6-period schedule. Students can take six classes a semester; if they are all semester-long courses, they have the opportunity to take 12 classes in one year. Then, I moved to Walton County with a block schedule (4 2-hour blocks in a day). Some of the courses I took were year-long, which effectively took my opportunity to take 8 classes a year and turned it into 7 or even 6. As a student, I think that every school should have the same number of periods in a day. Not only does this help each student have an equal number of chances to take the classes they want (in my case, Brit. Lit.), but it also gives the students who got shorted on the number of classes they could take have equal footing in the college race. Yes, most colleges in Georgia have a holistic review of each student within the context of their high school, but I also think that an application with 7 classes a year will not look as glamorous as one with 12 a year. Implementing this isn’t hard; All that needs to be done is a group decision of each county’s BOE to make a standardized class amount and length. But this isn’t the only problem. When comparing a student’s resume from Walton County with a student from Gwinnett County, you will see a glaring difference. AP courses. We recently had a student transfer from a school in Gwinnett who mentioned he had taken some AP courses that I didn’t even know existed. Because of the boost that AP courses offer to a student’s GPA, he came in with a much higher GPA than many other seniors at my school. What happens—in my school, especially—is that we offer more AP courses than we have enough students to fill. Because we don’t staff to cover small class sizes, if enough students don’t sign up to meet the threshold, the classes don’t “make” (get created). There have been some years when we didn’t have basic APs that are given in other school systems like AP Statistics, AP Calculus, AP US History, or AP World History. I know that this solution requires more staffing and ultimately funding, but that gets rid of opportunities for our students to earn college credit or boosts to help them in the college race. Honestly, I’m not sure how to fix this problem. Whether it means expanding school zones to incorporate more kids to make the additional staff “worth it” in a way, or if it means creating more student outreach programs to encourage more students to sign up for APs, it would benefit everyone for this change to occur. In reality, I think our education system works, but it is unevenly distributed across our state. The issues that are present in Walton County are likely present in other rural counties; We need change.

For me, books have always been an escape—being absorbed in the worlds conjured from another’s mind is one of the most beautiful sensations. There are so many things to learn from books. And not just from the content being written, but about the style itself. Reading books has helped me become a better writer myself. This is funny, though, because I didn’t learn how to read until after I was adopted, which was a couple of years past when all of my peers learned. I despised my mother for making me learn how to read. Back then, I didn't understand how empowering the act of reading truly is. I used to run and hide just to get out of reading these little beginner books — “Bob Books,” I think they're called. But, as time went on, I figured out that reading wasn’t so bad and I craved books. When the rest of my friends were averse to books, I was seeking out Lemony Snicket, or enjoying Osborne’s Magic Treehouse series. I even got in trouble for reading in class when I should have been paying attention to the lecture (Sorry, Mrs. Ham). I’m not sorry, actually, because each of these books taught me a meaningful lesson about the importance of perseverance and the unlimited potential that every person has inside them. Each chapter was a confidence boost that I did not know was shaping who I was growing up to become, molding me into a kind, positive, hardworking person because of those simplistic lessons they contained. Throughout high school, I have had the privilege of being taught by an amazing teacher for several years who introduced me to the book Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. In this novel, Enger explores the boundaries of morality in the context of family and religion using a really beautiful style. For a long time, I struggled with my identity in religion because of poor examples I’ve seen around me, but the powerful connection Enger created between his characters and God helped me overcome a lot of the mental obstacles I was dealing with. This book in particular helped motivate me to work for and build a stronger relationship with my faith, and I've been much happier and satisfied with my life since then. It also helped me build deeper connections with my family and friends because it helped me realize how precious the time we get on Earth is, and loving each other to the fullest extent is important. Enger taught me how to have serious conversations about things that matter, and not just assuming the worst about the negative things that have happened in life. There have been many, many books that have left an impression on me and my mind—too many to reference in this short essay. Every book I’ve read stays with me, and they all have contributed to who I am today. I’ll leave off with a quote written by Tim Burton that inspires me every day. “The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.” College is possible. Life is possible. Kindness and compassion are possible. And I will keep fighting for all of those goals with the help of so many authors' words by my side.