Mushu’s Journey I would say that my favorite Disney character would have to be Mushu. Eddie Murphy does a spectacular job at making a beautiful and inspiring children’s movie watchable for all ages. Although Mushu’s reasons for helping Mulan reach her goals of taking her father’s place in the war and protecting her family's honor are initially selfish, I believe it has a deeper message, especially concerning imposter syndrome. He has this great line in the movie after it’s discovered that Mulan is a woman and she is left on the snowy mountain Mushu confesses and says, “The truth is, we're both frauds. Your ancestors never sent me, they don't even like me. But you risked your life to help people you love. I risked your life to help myself. At least you had good intentions.” I think it says something about doing things that you never thought you would be able to do despite how down you are on yourself or what everybody else believes you are capable of. That you always had that potential inside of you and all you had to do was spring into action and take the first step out the door. After watching the movie, you can see that Mushu makes a lot of careless mistakes along the way, as the plot continues, he learns from these mistakes and once again becomes a guardian for the Fa family. He also accomplishes this without ever losing his identity or forgetting who he is or where he started. It is his fallouts and imperfection not just his wit and humor that makes him such a lovable character. Being an early 2000’s baby I grew up watching Mulan and even now being a sort of older Disney animated movie it’s still a classic and a film that my family and I love to sit down and watch every so often.

I recently took a summer art college course where I discovered Salvidor Dali's artwork. He was a surrealist painter that brought fantasy and dreams into reality. He suffered from nightmares and often would incorporate these into his painting. My favorite thing about him is that all of his paintings have deeper meanings than just the surface level as well as common motifs and images he uses in many of his paintings to represent certain themes and ideas.

One of the wisest pieces of advice that my Mom once told me was that "the time is going to pass anyway." Meaning that even though you might be worried that the thing you are considering doing may take up a lot of your time, what is important to keep in mind is that life waits for no one and you might as well do that thing that you really want to do even if it might take a little extra effort on your part. At least you can look back on the experience with no regrets as well as have a sense of accomplishment.

My name is Ava Pruitt and I am a Freshman attending Central Washington University. I am working towards a bachelor of science in clinical physiology. By receiving this grant I would use the funds to further myself towards this goal as I am currently taking classes to fulfill my general education requirements. Looking into the future after completing my bachelor's degree I will then try to get accepted into an occupational therapy program and eventually hope to become a licensed occupational therapist. I hope you will consider my application as the funds would be put towards paying for my tuition.

My name is Ava Pruitt and I am a Freshmen at Central Washington University. I am currently taking classes in the hopes that I can earn a Bachelors of Science in Clinical Physiology. Having this degree would mean that I would have a base line education so that I may pursue graduate school in the future to work towards becoming an occupational therapist. I would like the opportunity to be able to help people in their daily lives while working at a job that I am passionate about. With your funds I would become one step closer to accomplishing this, because I will no longer have to worry as much about paying for tuition and classes. I promise if picked that the funds would be put to good use and I would be that much closer to pursuing a career goal of mine as well as to become financially independent.

This is a picture of me and my sister right after we got to the top of pyramid mountain in Kodiak, Alaska, my hometown. We have this annual summer contest where people join and climb certain popular mountain in Kodiak and then can be entered into prize contests if they take a picture of themselves with the 7 summits stickers. This was just after my sister and I got done with a 3 day camping trip out the road last summer and this is how we decided to end the trip by climbing this mountain!