I am a very outgoing and friendly person. I strive for human interaction and find great joy in being with others. Many of my volunteer experiences have influenced my decision to pursue a career in social work. I have a passion for helping others and using my people skills to help others. All of my volunteer experiences have helped me discover my passion for helping others. I go on week-long trips with my youth group to do community service and volunteer work. One of the days during this particular trip, we went to Ian’s Boots. Ian’s Boots is a nonprofit organization that collects donated shoes, cleans them, and redistributes them to people in need of shoes. The first thing we did was learn about the mission of the organization. A tragedy happened in the founder’s family but was the inspiration for the organization. They turned a horrible accident into a blessing for many people in need. That inspired me that good can come out of bad situations, and I only need my passion to help others. After the presentation, we were divided into three groups. The first group went into a huge room with large bins of shoes. They would go into each bin and find pairs of shoes, putting them in piles for the second group. The second group will disinfect both shoes and scrub off any marks. If the shoes were dirty enough, they would go in a washing machine to be cleaned. While the shoes were going down the assembly line of cleaning, someone was typing out the type of shoes and the shoe’s size. When the shoes reached the end and were all clean, someone would attach the paper with the information to the shoe. This allows the third group to properly organize the shoes into the right bins. The third group would take the pairs of shoes and organize them into the proper size bin. The bins are grouped by men or women and by size. This keeps everything organized and allows shoes to be shipped out efficiently. I started in the first group, collecting pairs of shoes. Then halfway through I switched to the third group. I worked with many different people and learned to be flexible and independent. I was given jobs and instructions that I had to follow. I love the impact Ian’s Boots has on the community, and I am proud to have volunteered my time and effort to support their cause. My time there has motivated me to be bold and pursue my passions.

I am an ambitious young adult who is going to major in Social Work at Liberty University, with possible minors in Spanish, Psychology, and Business. I have a passion for helping others through connection, which is why I am going into social work. I also love horses and have been riding them and bin around them for most of my life. I want to combine my two passions and start my own business giving children with disabilities therapy with horses. Giving children with disabilities riding lessons that are disguised as a therapy sessions, allowing me to connect and help those kids who need help. With all of my ambitions and dreams, I am still worrying about college financially. I am nervous about all the loans I might have to use and how I am going to pay for college with no job, but this scholarship will help me focus on my future career goals. This scholarship will get me closer to paying off my college bills. With the college bills mostly paid off, I can focus on my studies and college life. College will be amazing and will grow me into the adult I will be for the rest of my life. With this financial help, I can focus on making the most out of my time in college, and growing and learning as much as I can in the next four years. Since I can focus on growing and studying, I will enter post-college life with a huge advantage. Most kids will have loads of debt, and will mostly focus on paying their debt off. I will exit college ready to pursue my passions and take the risks necessary to do so. My mom was very fortunate to not have college debt when graduating from college. My mom was able to get married to my dad, buy a house, and start a family without financial problems. My mom even started a travel business to be able to work from home, and is now running a hugely successful business. I am striving to do the same. I plan to start my own business, giving children with disabilities therapy using horses. Starting a business is risky and having the best advantage financially will definitely help me achieve my dream. I will be able to focus on raising a family, starting and running my new business, and will not have debt that is growing to worry about. Every scholarship helps and this scholarship will help me pursue my future career goals.

I am a very outgoing and friendly person. I strive for human interaction and find great joy in being with others. Many of my volunteer experiences have influenced my decision to pursue a career in social work. I have a passion for helping others and using my people skills to help others. All of my volunteer experiences have helped me discover my passion for helping others. I go on week-long trips with my youth group to do community service and volunteer work. One of the days during this particular trip, we went to Ian’s Boots. Ian’s Boots is a nonprofit organization that collects donated shoes, cleans them, and redistributes them to people in need of shoes. The first thing we did was learn about the mission of the organization. A tragedy happened in the founder’s family but was the inspiration for the organization. They turned a horrible accident into a blessing for many people in need. That inspired me that good can come out of bad situations, and I only need my passion to help others. After the presentation, we were divided into three groups. The first group went into a huge room with large bins of shoes. They would go into each bin and find pairs of shoes, putting them in piles for the second group. The second group will disinfect both shoes and scrub off any marks. If the shoes were dirty enough, they would go in a washing machine to be cleaned. While the shoes were going down the assembly line of cleaning, someone was typing out the type of shoes and the shoe’s size. When the shoes reached the end and were all clean, someone would attach the paper with the information to the shoe. This allows the third group to properly organize the shoes into the right bins. The third group would take the pairs of shoes and organize them into the proper size bin. The bins are grouped by men or women and by size. This keeps everything organized and allows shoes to be shipped out efficiently. I started in the first group, collecting pairs of shoes. Then halfway through I switched to the third group. I worked with many different people and learned to be flexible and independent. I was given jobs and instructions that I had to follow. I love the impact Ian’s Boots has on the community, and I am proud to have volunteered my time and effort to support their cause. My time there has motivated me to be bold and pursue my passions.

This was the time my family and I went to Universal one summer. There was this fun, simple ride called E.T. Adventure! You would ride on bicycles and help E.T. get home, cute right? But at the end of the ride, E.T. would say goodbye by saying your name. At the beginning of the ride, you would get a little card that you have to tell a cast member your name. Then the card will get passed and scanned onto the bicycles, so when you get to the end of the ride E.T. will say all the names of the people on the bicycles row by row. Now we saw this as an opportunity to push the limits. After the first time going on the ride and giving them our real names, we immediately went on a second time using other names to be funny. I was Luna, my mom was Bella, my youngest brother was Chad, and my other brother was Stephonstain. Nothing happened but the glory of our success, and we continued on. But when we got home we came up with a genius idea. The next time we go, we should all pick the same name! We messed around with some names but found that Gary was the perfect name. We planned for months, but then the time came. We got to Universal early to beat out the lines and headed straight to E.T Adventure. We got in, got our name cards, and when the crew member asked for our names, one by one we said, Gary. The crew member didn’t care, but we weren’t concerned about that. We went through the whole 20-minute process to just hear E.T. say Gary five times in a row at the end of the ride. We ride our bicycles and wait with excitement. The end of the ride draws near and E.T. says, “ Goood Byyye……Ethan...Sam…David…Sara…Mathew…Andrew…Kaitlyn…Samantha.” “It didn’t work!!” We shouted as we left the ride. “We have to try again,” I suggested. We all agreed and got in line for the ride again. We went to the same guy, all said Gary, got our cards and got on the bicycles. All thinking, it has to work. We get to the end of the ride and E.T. says, “Goood Byyye……Dan…Shelly…Nathan…Abby…Logan…Jacob…Ann…Caroline.” “Why didn’t it…” “Are you Dan!!” A guy from the back of the ride yells. “Is one of you Dan! Cuz those aren't our names!” I turn around and yell, “No, we’re all Gary!” The guy’s face instantly goes from angry to laughing so hard he’s crying. But through all the commotion and us getting off the ride, we all hear E.T. say, “Goood Byyye……Gary…Gary…Gary…Gary…Gary…Brian…Ben…Chad.” We all yell together, “He said it!!!” My family and I walked off that ride with three new friends who loved the Gary idea and a funny story to tell at family gatherings for years to come.