Over the past year, I have become more involved in my community by seeking out new opportunities to give back through meaningful contributions. I have committed myself to leadership, volunteering, and hands-on service projects as a means of connecting with others. Through 4-H, Key Club, tutoring, and even spending time with senior citizens, I have worked to become more connected to my community in any way I can. The largest way I have involved myself further this year is through 4-H. As a member of the Ohio 4-H Teen Leadership Council, I have had the opportunity to work alongside other youth leaders throughout Ohio in organizing community events, mentoring younger members, and promoting leadership development. It has placed me in a position where I can be a resource for others while growing as a leader myself. Furthermore, my role as a 4-H camp counselor has been very rewarding. I have been leading and supporting children in several activities within camps. These experiences have further strengthened my relationship with children and even prepared me to pursue a role in early childhood education. I have furthered serviced my community through my high school Key Club by organizing and participating in many projects that involve helping less fortunate individuals. I led a project for the members as club president, where we collected and donated over 300 handwritten encouragement cards to participants involved in one movement of improving one's mental health. It was amazing to see how even a simple message of encouragement could brighten up the day of someone in need. Our club also organized a food drive, collecting more than 900 packs of mac and cheese cups and ramen noodles for the Columbus Star House, a shelter that offers resources for homeless teens. Beyond leadership and service projects, I have sought out personal, hands-on ways to connect with my community. Some of the most satisfying experiences this year have been visiting senior citizens in nursing homes with my 4-H therapy rabbit to brighten their day. Many residents do not get very many visitors, and seeing the look of joy on their faces when they get to interact with my rabbit is truly heartwarming. Well, it taught me that sometimes those smallest acts of kindness-meaning just being there for someone can go a long way. Another thing I've done to involve myself deeply with the community is tutoring. This year I've been volunteering in a fourth-grade classroom where extra support might be needed for a few students. One of the best feelings is seeing a kid struggling with some sort of concept and then it finally clicks in his head. This experience truly solidified in me a love for education and a desire to teach. Throughout my volunteering experiences, every action this year has been another step toward deepening my contact with the community and making a difference in other people's lives. Directing service projects, mentoring children, addressing mental health issues, and offering happiness to those in dire need are so rewarding. I can be proud of what has been achieved so far and I plan to continue to lift and support others around me with my strengths.

I'm a pretty blunt person, and I'm not going to lie: I have ADHD and dyslexia. No matter how hard I tried to love the subject, English was never my strong point due to those challenges. It just never clicked with me like science and math did. Although science can prove women with ADHD often have a hard time with focus, it also proves people with ADHD excel in creativity, pattern recognition, and observing things from different points of view. Similarly, dyslexia can make reading difficult because of how the brain processes letters. As a counterpoint to dyslexia, researchers have also found people with dyslexia often excel at remembering important information and are great problem-solvers. It was math and science that really let me come to terms with my strengths and my weaknesses. They've shown me that, yes, I do have weak areas, but I excel in many other areas. I see ADHD and dyslexia as actually an advantage that works for me. It has obliged me to seek out other modes of learning that could set me part as an educator. I am excited about using my love for science and math to teach those who have struggled in other educational settings. I know what it's like to feel frustrated staring at a problem and not understanding when all my classmates make it seem so easy. But I also know the thrill of finally seeing the solution and making a connection no one else saw. I want to bring that same excitement to my students. Math and science are often made out to be very rigid subjects with rules, but I don't think of them that way. I think they're very adaptable fields where problem-solving and thinking outside the box are just as important as memorizing formulas. I want to show students that math isn't just numbers on a page, but it's the basis for architecture, technology, music, and even nature. Science is not just facts in some books; it is curiosity, it's discovery, and it is innovation. I believe that my personal learning challenges will allow me to connect with students who may become discouraged in the classroom. I understand the frustration with subjects and I would like to build a learning environment where no student feels defeated. Instead, I want to help them discover their strengths, rather than emphasizing their weaknesses. I will bring creative and engaging teaching strategies into my classroom, using hands-on experiments, real-world applications, and visual learning techniques to make math and science come alive. My goal as a teacher is to help students not only understand math and science but find joy in them. I want to encourage curiosity, problem-solving, and confidence in their abilities. If I can show just one student that they are more capable than they believe, that their struggles do not define them, then I will have done my job. I am the proof that learning differently doesn't mean learning less. My experiences with ADHD and dyslexia have shaped how I view the world, and I plan on taking those strengths to shape the education of my future students.

Being a senior faced with a life-changing choice of selecting a major was terrifying. I was afraid to make the "wrong" choice as if I chose one thing, there would be no going back. The pressure of having to choose something I'd be stuck with forever overwhelmed me. I didn't want to regret my decision, so I kept second-guessing myself. Being the people-pleaser that I am, I'd give different answers every time someone asked. Sometimes it would be computers, then other times it would be business, language, architecture, or even interior design. These were my patent responses because I just didn't know. Much later, I sat down and reflected upon what truly interests me. I thought about being a camp counselor and my influence on "my kids." I remembered the feelings of helping them grow, teaching them new things, and being that role model they could look up to. At the same time, I loved computers, they fascinated me so much. So I signed up for a computer class, but I also enrolled in a class called "Service Learning Academic Tutoring" also called SLAT. I knew that by taking both, I could find out what truly called to me. That decision changed everything. One class of 23 fourth graders completely shifted the course of my life. They may never know it, but I hope someday I can thank every one of them. They have shown me just how deep my connection is with teaching. Helping those kids to improve and seeing them reach that magic moment when finally something clicks in their minds. When the light in their eyes finally turned on and they grasped something they had struggled with, or even when I could bond with them over some of the most random things, it made my day in ways I never expected. It was in that classroom that I realized teaching is more than just a job; it's a purpose. It's about guiding, inspiring, and shaping the minds of the next generation. I am under no illusion that teaching will all be rainbows and sunshine. My experiences as a camp counselor and tutor have shown me there will be challenging days: days when students struggle, patience wears thin, or things do not go as planned. Yet even on the worst days, to have that chance to make that difference with a child makes it all worth it. Furthering my journey in and out of school, I will always keep growing. I plan on attending workshops, mini-courses, and, perhaps, acquiring of Master's in education. Education moves and changes all the time. I also want to evolve with it. I love the motto "you never can learn enough", I plan on fuffilling that motto by always striving and learning how to be a better teacher for my students. It took me a while to choose the path, but I can proudly now say that it has been a very right decision. This is what I had to do teaching. I am excited to start my life's work, which is to help students' growth, learning, and potential to come out.