Hello, my name is Ariana Oxendine. I am from Fort Pierce, Florida and I am currently 17 years old. I like to write poetry and I also like to journal. I love working with kids. I am a christian. I love Jesus and I am dedicated to walk out life with him. I want to go to college and get a degree in Education. I truly feel called to become a teacher. I want to be an advocate for my students when they are in need. I want to make an enormous impact on others in the way that what they are being taught sticks with them for the rest of their lives. I want to become an elementary school teacher. While I’m in college, I want to major in primary education and minor in psychology. My goal ultimately is to further my education and grow as an individual. I want to grow, learn and change in the way where I can contribute to the lives of students. I’ve had teachers I will always remember because they changed my life forever in many aspects. I am determined to become that teacher who goes the extra miles for their students not just in an academic way but in a way that provides students with mental, physical and emotional stability and support that they need to thrive. How have I overcome adversity in my past? Well, a lot of the issues i’ve been through have been family and financial related. The way that me and my family overcame all of these issues was to stay together. It was hard sometimes to be together in the same home due to money, but we always tried to make it work. We loved each other and what helped me overcome the separation was the love in my family. How much we love each other made everything else seem so insignificant and that love we shared was enough. It took time for everything to work out but enduring the suffering made it all worth it in the end. Now as I’m older, even with the most recent struggles, I’ve had God to rely on through it all. I know that even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil because God will be with me. (Psalm 23:4). The trials I have faced growing up have led me to be stronger and driven to accomplish whatever I set my mind too. I knew that if I could come out of every situation by the grace of God, I can achieve what God has set in place for me to become no matter what comes my way and what I will face in the process of it all. I always thought of becoming a teacher growing up because I specifically remember in those hard seasons of life growing up, I had teachers who genuinely cared about my well being and circumstances. They made sure to make sure everything was okay and they went out of their way to check up on me. I truly admired how caring and compassionate they were towards me. Even when we were constantly moving from place to place, I was surrounded by so much love. Not only the love of my family but by the love that I was shown at school as well. Although my life wasn’t perfect and I was constantly having to readjust myself, I wouldn’t want it any other way. If my life wasn’t hard and I didn’t go through what I did, the ambition I have to help others wouldn’t be here.

Hello, my name is Ariana Oxendine, and I am a senior at Fort Pierce Central High School. I am 17 years old. I currently have a 3.1 GPA. I am ServSafe certified, and I like to cook. I have done over a hundred hours of volunteer work between my culinary program at school and at my church. I love working with children and I volunteer as a teachers aid Sunday Mornings in Sunday school. I am very self-motivated and self-disciplined. I am hardworking and driven to succeed. I am kind and caring. I am a Christian and I strongly believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am interested in pursuing a career in teaching and education because I feel passionate about impacting children’s lives. I have what it takes to become an excellent teacher that the upcoming generations need. I want to become a teacher not only because it is extremely rewarding but because I want my students to have everything they need to learn and succeed. I want to become a teacher to challenge myself and to challenge my students to try their best in areas where they struggle. I want to be the teacher that students remember years later because of how much I put in to ensure that my students were learning and growing as human beings and as students. Like I said before, I love working with kids and teaching would be the perfect opportunity for me to do something that I love while making a significant impact on my students' lives. It takes a lot to be a teacher because they are educating people’s children, and we need teachers who will give it one hundred percent and teach with their student’s best interest at heart. I want to fulfill the role of what it takes to be a teacher who is patient, kindhearted, understanding, and willing to help their students in whatever way they need. I want to incorporate my religion into my future in teaching and education because Christianity is not just a religion, it is having a relationship with Christ and being rooted in who God is. I am called to teach, and God has given me the gift of teaching and connecting with children which I am grateful for. I want to go to college to be further educated and equipped to be a teacher that can challenge and take their students to the next academic level.

I have overcome so much adversity in my life including the death of my grandfather and having to move constantly from place to place. Ever since I was little, my family and I have been moving from house to house due to financial issues. My mom was a single mom for many years of my life, and she had to support us on her own, which was hard. Even with school, I have had to move from school to school due to my dad coming back into the picture fully and getting partial custody of me and my sister in later years. It has been hard to adjust to one house or school, to have to turn around and move again. The death of my grandfather at an early age drastically changed my life and weighed heavy on me for years. The grief was so intense and unbearable. I had lost family members before, but this was the absolute worst thing that happened to me. We were extremely close and suddenly he was not there anymore. I feel into a great depression after he died, and I went to a dark place. It took me so long to overcome that pain and sorrow I felt, and to accept the fact that he was gone. It was the hardest thing I had to get through, losing him but I recovered and became a better person because of my endurance. My future goals include becoming an elementary school teacher, preferably kindergarten through 4th grade. I plan to go to school for a BS in primary education and as I get at job at a school, I eventually want to go back for my master's degree. In college my goal is to work throughout college and start to save money to get my own apartment before graduating. I want to be well established in my career as a teacher before going back to school for higher education. As a teacher, I want to also be involved in other extracurricular activities such as tutoring to provide extra help for those who need it. Another one of my future goals is to be married and have children of my own after college and after establishing a career in education. This scholarship will help me achieve those goals because it will help me pay for college for my future. It will help me be the best teacher I can be and get the best education that I need to be the educator that I strive to be. With this scholarship it can help me not to stress or worry about the costs of college but focus on what is most important: my life and the future I can have by studying hard and doing the best I can for the career that I want in life.

I plan to become a teacher to make an impact on the upcoming generations. I want to be the teacher that students remember years later and how that teacher pushed them when school became challenging. I plan to inspire the youth by never giving up on my students and reminding them that they are capable of greatness as long as they try their best. I still remember my kindergarten teacher and I will never forget her because she was so caring and she took the time to properly and thoroughly educate her kids. In my future career as an educator, I strive to do everything in my ability to push my students forward and to challenge them so they may grow and continue to want to learn. I believe that my passion for children and wanting to be the best teacher I can be will inspire the youth because I will be an advocate for my students and I will make sure to prioritize their needs and success.