As an undergraduate student double majoring in criminal justice and sociology, I take a lot of classes that deal with a large variety of social issues. My sociology classes have helped me to better understand the systems that are in place in our society and how to better work to change those systems and improve them in order to create a more equitable society. My criminal justice classes have helped me to understand the issues in the criminal justice system especially related to things such as race and sex and given me the knowledge and skills to make changes in the existing system in order to make it work better for everyone. I am also part of an organization that is connected to the center for women and gender equity where we discuss issues that are affecting women and other minorities. We recently hosted an event to educate people about women's reproductive health and at the beginning of this past March, we hosted an event for women's history month where we learned about and celebrated influential women in history. Women's rights is an issue that is very important to me. I am planning on studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain in spring 2024, and I believe that this will help me to gain more of a global perspective. I hope to gain knowledge while in Europe that I can bring back to the United States that I can use in my future education and career goals. After I complete my undergraduate degree, I plan on attending law school and becoming a civil rights lawyer. I want to use my law degree to help women and other minorities get the legal help that they deserve. I want to work for an organization such as the American Civil Liberties Union and work on cases that have an impact on issues surrounding women's rights and minority rights and equity in the United States. Women's reproductive rights and immigration are issues that are especially important to me and these are areas that I will likely focus on during my legal career. I want to make sure that all women have access to quality reproductive healthcare and that their rights to this are protected. I am also passionate about improving the United States immigration process and making it easier for families to remain together and be more comfortable throughout the process of immigrating to the United States. I plan on doing a lot of pro bono work as well because I believe that the people in the community who are most in need of legal aid are often those who can least afford it. In addition to helping others through my career, I will also continue to regularly volunteer with various organizations throughout my community. I started volunteering in high school as a way to get community service hours and improve my college applications, but it became so much more than that. One organization that has become especially important to me is a small food pantry at a church in my hometown. I volunteered there every week and formed close relationships with the other volunteers as well as the people who we were serving. It was so rewarding to be able to give back to my community and to be able to see all of the people we helped and know we were having an impact on their lives. That is a feeling that I want to achieve in my work as a lawyer. I want to work to create a society that is more equitable for everyone and help those who need it the most.

As an undergraduate student double majoring in criminal justice and sociology, I take a lot of classes that deal with a large variety of social issues. My sociology classes have helped me to better understand the systems that are in place in our society and how to better work to change those systems and improve them in order to create a more equitable society. My criminal justice classes have helped me to understand the issues in the criminal justice system especially related to things such as race and sex and given me the knowledge and skills to make changes in the existing system in order to make it work better for everyone. I am also part of an organization that is connected to the center for women and gender equity where we discuss issues that are affecting women and other minorities. We recently hosted an event to educate people about women's reproductive health and at the beginning of this past March, we hosted an event for women's history month where we learned about and celebrated influential women in history. Women's rights is an issue that is very important to me. I am planning on studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain in spring 2024, and I believe that this will help me to gain more of a global perspective. I hope to gain knowledge while in Europe that I can bring back to the United States that I can use in my future education and career goals. After I complete my undergraduate degree, I plan on attending law school and becoming a civil rights lawyer. I want to use my law degree to help women and other minorities get the legal help that they deserve. I want to work for an organization such as the American Civil Liberties Union and work on cases that have an impact on issues surrounding women's rights and minority rights and equity in the United States. Women's reproductive rights and immigration are issues that are especially important to me and these are areas that I will likely focus on during my legal career. I want to make sure that all women have access to quality reproductive healthcare and that their rights to this are protected. I am also passionate about improving the United States immigration process and making it easier for families to remain together and be more comfortable throughout the process of immigrating to the United States. I want to work to create a society that is more equitable for everyone.

I have always been passionate about leadership. My first experience with leadership was when I was in eighth grade and I became the fastest girl on my rowing team. Even though most of the other kids were older than me, I stepped up and became a leader and eventually became a captain later in my high school career. After that experience, I was hooked. I started looking for opportunities for leadership in everything that I did. I became an officer of my school's Key Club which gave me the opportunity to connect with community service providers in my local community and organize volunteer opportunities for other students at my high school. This was a great experience because it helped me realize how much I loved getting out in my community and doing something where I could see the difference that I was making in other people's lives. When I got to college, the first organization that I joined was the Student Government Association. I knew that I wanted to be a leader and make a difference on campus and I thought that this would be the best way to do it. I was also accepted into a program with Campus Recreation where I regularly attend seminars where I learn about professional leadership skills from people with a lot of experience. This has been a very beneficial experience for me and my professional development. I want to continue to be a leader and help others in my community in my future career as a human rights lawyer. I want to provide people in underserved communities with the legal help that they deserve and use my position to empower other young people and help them to gain the same leadership skills that I did throughout high school and college.

I was in eighth grade when I became the fastest girl on my rowing team. It was a small startup program and most of the kids on the team were not very good. I was younger than most of the other kids, but I had faster times so I naturally stepped up and became a leader. As I went on to high school, the team as a whole got better and we started to win more races. I was still among the fastest girls and continued to be a leader for my teammates who were at the same performance level as me as well as for the younger girls I became someone that they could look up to. This was the first time that I had been in a position of leadership or had anyone look up to me like that. I have two older siblings so I did not have that experience in childhood. I embraced the role and. tried to be the best version of myself in order to inspire my friends and teammates and anyone else who was watching. My junior year I became captain of the rowing team. This gave me the opportunity lead my team and organize activities that would bring us together and make us better as a whole as well as individually. I also began to embrace leadership in other aspects of my life. I decided to run for an officer position in my school's Key Club which I had been a part of since freshman year. I won the election and was given the opportunity to work with others in my community to organize service opportunities for other students at my high school. This really helped me to build relationships with people in my community who were working toward causes that I really care about such as ending food insecurity and homelessness. As well as organizing service opportunities for others, I was also given countless opportunities to get out in my community and actively volunteer for various wonderful organizations and make lasting connections with the people who run and organize them. All of my experiences with leadership and service to my community have helped me realize that I have a passion for helping people and giving back to my community. After I earn my Bachelor's degrees in criminal justice and sociology, I plan to attend law school in order to become a human rights lawyer and help people in underserved communities get the legal representation that they deserve. My biggest goal in life is to make the world a better place and I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunities to gain the skills and knowledge required to achieve that goal.