Throughout history, women’s health has often been overlooked, largely due to social norms that discouraged open discussion of reproductive health. As research on the female body continues to expand, it has become increasingly clear that it is highly complex and still not fully understood. As I continue my education in Nutrition and Dietetics, I am particularly focused on deepening my understanding of the female body and how to properly fuel and nourish it through the various stages of life, including puberty, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and pre- and post-menopause. My passion for this issue was sparked by the women in my life who struggle with how to properly nourish and care for their bodies. Many have attempted to lose weight through restrictive diets, extreme exercise, medications, and hormonal interventions, often resulting in more harm than benefit. Witnessing this, along with my own recovery from an eating disorder, has motivated me to seek deeper answers on how to care for the bodies that God has given us. These experiences have shaped my desire to approach nutrition from a place of both scientific understanding and compassion. My goal is to build a strong foundation in evidence-based research on women’s health and nutrition, with a focus on how nutrient needs change across the lifespan. I am particularly interested in studying the role of nutrition during key physiological stages and understanding how to translate this knowledge into practical, accessible guidance. Additionally, I hope to serve communities such as WIC to better understand the barriers faced by low-income women and families.Through this work, I aim to support healthier relationships with food while addressing disparities in nutrition education and access. I am also interested in researching how different types and intensities of exercise influence women’s hormonal health, and how targeted nutrition strategies can support the development and maintenance of lean body mass. To achieve my goals, I plan to continue my education at Auburn University’s graduate program, where I will gain experience through various rotations including hospitals, camps, community programs, WIC, and women’s health settings. These opportunities will allow me to deepen my understanding, engage in meaningful discussions, and gain firsthand experience working with women facing challenges in nourishing their bodies. By advancing knowledge in this area, I aim to empower women through evidence-based nutrition education, challenge harmful myths and restrictive diets, and help ensure they receive informed, compassionate care. Ultimately, I hope to contribute to a future where women feel confident in nourishing their bodies and are supported by research that truly reflects their unique needs.

People's identity found in Jesus Christ is being attacked by social media. As we scroll and scroll through social media we cannot help but compare ourselves to other people. However, though we think everyone else lives a perfect life we are only seeing single pictures glimpses into their life. We barely know half of the people that we follow yet we compare ourselves to them and base our identity on them. A false identity is a life crisis, if we do not really know who we are and we live our life trying to being someone else we are constantly going to be in a state of confusion. We feel depressed, full of anxiety, shy, shame, envy, hatred, and just full of sin and darkness as we are basing our lives on a single picture. However to address this impact of mental health and self esteem we need to take a step back from social media think deeper and find who we truly are. Take a deep look in the mirror and ask yourself who are you? My hope is that someone has told you about Jesus Christ and that you will soon discover that you are a child of God, the sinner whom Jesus loved so much that he died for, the redeemed, the saved. If not I pray that the holy spirit leads you to know him and that you accept and receive him. After years of myself scrolling through social media, constantly comparing myself, trying to get that so called " perfect" body that the world says once you achieve you will be beautiful. I starved myself spiritually and physically for a whole yet but I never achieved that body. I desperately wanted to be like all the girls on social media. What I found was darkness, depression, grief, anxiety, loneliness, shame, guilty, and anger. I pushed loved ones away and lost my soul to darkness. Yet the light shone through and continued. I begin to remember the person I learned about named Jesus. The person who dies for me and my sins who loves me even when I was a sinner. I called out to him and he answered. I read his word learned more about him and in return learned more about myself. This is where I discovered the solution to anxiety, depression. I gave up the world's expectations and now live me life for Jesus. I am now on a journey with Jesus to help others learn their identity in him and can be saved and forever have hope in darkness. Hey, my name is Arianna Howard and I am a dietetics student at Auburn University. As you can see above in my testimony I struggled with an eating disorder and it led to someone health disorders including mental health. However Jesus saved me and has directed me on the path on becoming a dietitian so that I may help others who struggled with eating disorders and body image issues just as I did. I just wanted to thank you for your consideration and thank you for the opportunity to apply for this scholarship. I did not know Solomon or his story but I pray through his story that God may be glorified and many will come to know Jesus Christ as their savior.

Anxiety is something I have faced ever since a child. I remember the first day of kindergarten being a nightmare as I would cry and cry for my mother. This went on for weeks as I was scared to talk to anyone and just wanted to go home, but luckily I had people put into my life that helped me through, such as my best friend Juliet that the Lord blessed me with. She would speak for me as I had this social anxiety and she is now still my best friend. Honestly, anxiety led me to Jesus a few years ago as I felt hopeless it gave me hope and assured me of his love and forgiveness through his amazing words. I still struggle with anxiety at times but it has not stopped from running the race my heavenly father has set before me. Now after highschool, life was weird and scary but still I just pushed on and went to a community college for 2 years to try and figure out the next step. This was when my anxiety was at a climatic point as I would hear questions constantly of what are you going to do, what is your major, and what is career goals? . I had no idea, and I felt so fearful of making the wrong steps in life, but eventually I found Jesus and the steps fell into place. I felt this gentle peace of going to Auburn University after getting my associates degree in science. I went on pursuing a major in dietetics as I struggled with an eating disorder during my anxiety points afterhighscool. Once, I got to Auburn everything fell into place and I fell in love with the people and the school. Now this is my second year at Auburn and I have to say pursuing a college degree is important to me because it is what the Lord has set me out to do in this season of life, and I believe it will allow me to truly help others around me which is what I am so passionate about. Thank you for reading this real and raw application for this scholarship. I feel that anxiety rules lot of people's life and has for my life for so long but my goal is to help motivate people to not let it determine their life. Not let anxiety say you cannot do this or cannot do that because of fear of failure, fear of heartache, fear of awkward social interactions. Yes Anxiety is here , but do not let it be the commander of its life push through it, push through the awkwardness, push through the failures, push through the heartaches as that is all apart of life which helps us to learn and grow into being more like Jesus and being kingdom ready. Wow this is something I need as an anthem in my own life.

Hey, my name is Arianna Howard and I am twenty years old and pursuing a career path in dietetics to become a registered dietician. I am currently a sophomore at Coastal Alabama Community College transferring to Auburn University. I struggled with what I wanted to major in for two years now. Last year I decided that I may want to major in business just because I did not have anything and I always wanted to open my own business. Well as time went on and the more and more business classes took I realized I had no passion for it. When it came to the point to declare my major officially at Auburn I panicked. I started to pray and thought back to what was important to me and I realized it was helping people but how? My dad and Nanna started mentioning that they thought I would be a good dietician because I loved to cook and eat healthy and nutritious foods. This made me begin to think to back to one of my darkest moments in life which is when I had an eating disorder most likely anorexia. At first, it begin when I was having stomach issues after I ate certain foods so I put myself on a FODMAP diet as I read on the internet it may help temporarily until I could go to the GI doctor. Then it progressed worse my stomach began to feel better but the FODMAP diet limited everything and I had a genuine fear of eating anything other than the FODMAP diet. While I was on the self-diagnosed FODMAP diet I also would run or do cardio workouts anywhere from 30- 1hr a day. I had no idea what I was doing to myself I honestly was clueless, I thought I was being healthy. Then I began to have warnings from my watch about low BPM at night and my menstrual cycle stopped that is when my Mom and Dad began to be concerned. They made me start counting calories and I was burning more than I was eating, I did know that was a problem. It took several hard months but I finally overcame it with lots of prayer and encouragement. To this day though I do not eat tomatoes, garlic, or onions due to stomach pain when eating them. I have had no problems with my stomach since and I gained all the weight that I lost. I feel so much better and I want to use what I learn to help others with eating disorders, and food allergies, and just educate others about the importance of food. The reason why I love to eat nutritious foods is that it gives me energy and makes me feel good. I have stomach issues so heavily processed and fried foods hurt my stomach and honestly it seems to drain my energy. I also love to learn healthy delicious recipes from Pinterest that are not so ordinary. Healthy food has become a passion for me and I want to help others experience the benefits of nutritious foods.

"You call me out upon the waters, the great unknown where feet may fail" from the song Oceans by Hillsong UNITED. This song has the most important message to me because it reminds of the great love God has for us by sending his son Jesus and that we are never alone because he is always with us. This song has helped me through some of the hardest times in my life. When I am distressed or crying I blare this song in my headphones and there would be this peace and calmness in my heart knowing everything is going to be alright because God has it in his hands. Music can really help you overcome the obstacles of life it allows you to reset and focus on one thing and allows your mind to rest from all that it is thinking of. Thank you for this opportunity to share about the love of music especially this song.

Bankruptcy! That is a word I have heard ever since I was little while losing to the monopoly game. It was just too easy to become bankrupt in that game even when I thought everything was going well. When that happened I always wondered if it was that easy to become bankrupt in real life, and I have learned without the right education it can be. So I have been trying to learn everything that I can about financials, credit cards, interest, and everything that causes debt. I have a checking account and debit card at the moment and I am slowly preparing myself to get a credit card but first I want to gain more knowledge. I am currently not having to worry about financial bankruptcy as I am still reliant on my parents but soon I will be leaving to go to a university. When I move to a University I will need to get a job and learn about the financial situations that adult has to live with, but I do not want to be overwhelmed and shocked when that day comes. My plan to become financially literate is to gather all the advice that my family members can give, research the best ways to budget, find good apps that help me create a great schedule to pay off anything due on time, and after learning all the information that I need to know about financing I will share some helpful tips to my classmates struggling as well as my younger cousins who soon will be going off to college. My family members such as my Dad, Nanna, and Uncle are the people I will be going to for advice. My Dad handles all our finances and he has a great credit score. I will definitely ask him to explain to me all his tips and the best places and apps to use. My Nanna used to be an accountant so she knows all about how that works. I am also currently taking accounting classes and will be taking economics classes next semester. One of my Uncles has been through a financial predicament so I will be asking him how he got through that and what not to dos. I will be researching through various websites, social media, and books for all the good tips and plans that will be best suited for me to pursue as I began to do finances on my own. There are so many resources around me so it is best I take advantage. Finding good apps that help me create a great schedule to pay off all my dues on time is what I feel is very critical in financing because it can make life a little less stressful and help me stay on top of things by being organized. After I apply all this information to my own finances and I am successful I will do my best to share all I learned with others because everyone needs a helping hand in this world.