I have a lot of goals but the main one is to graduate from my University to become a food stylist/recipe developer. I always knew I wanted to be a chef, I just didn't know what kind of chef I wanted to be in the hospitality industry. I tried cooking in commercial kitchens, catered, and even became a temporary personal chef. None of those things truly made me passionate about it other than the actual cooking. I one day came across a job called a food stylist, which changed my goals forever. I loved how creative you can be in your element of cooking. It wasn't someone bossing you around telling you what to make or telling you what ingredients to use. As a food stylist, you develop your creativity on a plate and show it for the world to see. I thought to myself you can make money while doing something you love? Ever since then I never took myself off the gas and I think about becoming a food stylist almost every day. In the meantime, I want to graduate from my university, get more experienced by getting another food industry job, engage with people that are in the industry so I can get more information about the job, and lastly work for companies such as Trader Joes to become an actual food stylist/recipe developer.

The wisest words I have ever heard came from myself. Through a rough time in my life with no true answer as to what the future looks like, I told myself to create memories, trust the process with my dreams and disregard unwanted criticism. I've spent half of my life focusing on what people think of me more than my actual dream. I told myself this quote because sometimes your biggest enemy can be yourself. I've learned to create memories, the memories that withholds some type of sentimental value that can make me smile 50 years from now and thank the younger me for doing it. Trusting the process reflects on hardships that can occur but, I continue to tell myself through the rough patches, tears, and triumph to trust the value of the hardships because they are always a life lesson for your successful future. Lastly, disregarding unwanted criticism makes your conscience feel free and at peace with yourself which before could have made us tic by false narratives or frustrating conflicts. The quote is a endless moto and is still one of the by far wisest thing I have ever told myself even when the trauma of life wants to make it hard for me and others.

I hope being a mentor to others shows how I beat the odds that have led me to my success. My life is complicated with a mix of accumulating financial difficulties. I found it easier to question others on why they weren't helping me get further than actually questioning myself why I wanted to be in the same place that made me depressed. 8 years ago I didn't even know exactly where I would be at, let alone be able to go back to school to further my education. I want to be the mentor that gives someone that push of encouragement since I never got that for myself. It's important to know how one pep talk can encourage someone for a lifetime. A mentorship holds a valuable leadership in someone's life, much more than establishing a good amount of personal opinions or suggestions. During my mentorship, I want to establish a friendship but most importantly I want to form a relationship with someone that would want to do the same. I want to be a part of fixing someone's life.

To be honest almost everything can make me happy no matter how big or small the excitement is but, the one thing that gives me a different type of happiness is the fact I can be in my own element, pretty much my own space of creativity when I'm cooking. I've always found cooking a therapeutic escape that didn't cost too much and made me happier the more time I put into my passion. Some may find it strange that cooking can be someone's happiness but it's honestly true. Give me some pots, pans, and food to cook and you'll see one of the brightest smiles across the room. I've always found cooking to be the only thing that can make me laugh when I make a mistake and the only thing that can punish me when I didn't get a chance to do it all week. Cooking makes my life easier.

If I was an influential figure I would have to say, the main thing that I would stand for is protecting each other's mental health. It's important to go by each day checking on those that we love to make sure that they are okay. We find ourselves worrying about only ourselves and that's okay, but I would love to be an influential speaker that uses their platform in helping others mentally. Approximately there are 132 suicides committed every day while 800,000 people commit suicide every year. This is not only a high number of deaths but a high number of people that have probably not been treated in protecting their mental health. As a public figure, I want to create a platform that speaking about our mental health is okay and should not feel in any way to be ashamed of the bad days even when we're so busy praising the good ones.

My best skill is creativity. I'm no artist but I do consider myself a culinary artist. I perfect my craft in a way that takes an intense amount of time with a drive that has been pushed to full speed. I believe how I am improving my skill is by having the attitude to keep doing it even when just yesterday or the day before I was getting ready to quit. It's almost too easy to quit but even harder to walk away from something that you are passionate about, that's why I truly believe time and effort makes us improve and not just listening to people's thoughts and opinions. I've watched for years how my art has gone from basic to professional in the amount of 5 years. That improvement took time and patience and I believe I can improve even more if I allow myself more time and more patience.

My turnaround story started 3 years ago. I temporarily left college because I wanted to make money and pay bills and I felt school was interfering with that. Months after getting a brand new job I felt depressed, out of place, and knew this wasn't the career I anticipated for myself. Soon After being in a deep depression I became involved in a car accident where a drunk driver struck me and nearly took my own life. I was in a coma, with numerous injuries and something just immediately clicked to me. I needed to go back to school, do something with my life that made me happy. A year later after my car accident, I was back as a college student and prospering more than ever before. By next year in 2022, I will be graduating culinary arts school with a AA degree and will be transferring into a University for a Bachelor's in Hospitality Management. I have never been so proud of myself for accomplishing such a huge goal that also reflects on one of the most troubling times I have ever lived. In the year of 2021, this is my most prospering year and I want to continue impacting lives not just for myself but for people that have a heavy milestone in finishing school just like me.

The best way to live a long healthy life is by accumulating little to no stress from both your physical and mental health. Stress gives us fear, anxiety, and heavy emotions so if we can project things that only accumulate more stress, I believe we can live much longer than those that have loads of stress to carry with themselves. Many may say that having the right diet is also a reason that we live longer but I believe the best way for us to live long is by protecting our mental health and blocking out people that continue to be in our lives with no helpful reasoning other than making our mental health worsen. If you ask yourself or even research the more we follow a routine, meditate, relax, and do not allow distractions to interfere with things that make us happy we are destined to see our 80s, 90s, and even 100s.

When it comes to my growth mindset they have simply came from experiences. When I experience something that becomes so effective by being either positive or negative my admiration for growth kicks in quickly. Meditation has been a great help along with adding new goals to my goal sheet as a way to stay focus on things that really matter. How I stabilize a growth mindset is to take experiences and use them as effective appreciation. Growth is about learning, growth is about carrying yourself with self-encouragement in ways that misguide all self-conflict. When I decided to have this mindset I realized we shouldn't be so quick to throw out the negative aspects that happen because we don't want to relive them again. Instead, we need to relive all experiences that made us happy and also that made us frustrated and sad. The most stablest growth mindset has overcame things that effectively place them from a "fixed mindset".

To start, I'm 26 years old. I am from Los Angeles California. I lived in the beautiful state of California my whole life with the blessing to have family close by. as of today, I see myself one day becoming a food stylist/recipe developer. For those that may not know what a food stylist is, think of a magazine full of delicious food pictures that make you want to jump in the picture and eat the entire plate. Have you ever thought about who makes the food? If you have that would be a food stylist. A food stylist is a chef that comes in creates a beautiful dish and allows a photographer to take hundreds of photos until the perfect one is displayed on either magazines, food ads, blog, or websites. Currently, I am studying culinary arts at a 2-year college soon to be transferring to a 4-year university fall of 2022 to earn a bachelor's in Hospitality Management. The reason I want to attend college is because of how life has directed me to understand the importance of education. During my high school years, I was a young immature kid that didn't realize how growing into adulthood would reflect on the importance of education. When we began to start our lives with numerous responsibility most of us get a reality check on how different a job and a career is. Being in an unstable financial environment as a child made something in my conscience click. Not being able to afford stuff that every basic household carries makes you determine not to relive those hardship moments. Hardships make your determination stronger. Maybe it's life, maybe it’s a milestone that's meant for us to live in order for us to gain knowledge of what not to do. Either way, those trials, and tribulations are the reason I want to attend college. I want to make a positive impact by not only helping myself get through a meaningful accomplishment but also helping others get through it as well. Since I am still studying the culinary aspect, I would love to share my knowledge with young children, including preteens and teenagers for those that would want to be in my shoes one day. I want to be able to help my classmates to succeed as much as possible to guide them in the careers they placed themselves in. I believe if we can create a stronger union, this generation top the biggest stats of college graduates.

I’m passionate about a topic such as natural foods due to the health concerns that have been elaborated around the world and through those that are close to me. My mother is a diabetic that has had a battle with unhealthy foods for years. While I continue to study culinary arts and nutrition, I struggle with getting her to love our natural foods the way I do. I believe everyone can live a longer life if we establish a relationship between health and natural foods. Although I’m not against a little cheating on your diet or having that ice cream in the refrigerator that calls your name at night, I do believe strongly in having a more natural diet that doesn’t pertain to process and manufactured products. I’ve been in the culinary arts industry now for over 5 years and have studied both culinary arts and nutrition for 3 years. It’s really taught me a lot about the health concerns we look past every day. I was one of those people that ate what I wanted when I wanted without any care for my health or the foods that were being digested into my system. Sadly it took my mother’s health scare for me to realize how important natural foods can take over many diseases, future diseases, and the false narratives that we can’t establish a diet from the foods we grow instead of the foods that are being manufactured for our enjoyment. The reason why I’ve become so knowledgeable about natural foods has been my dedication to my schoolwork along with critical health articles that have helped me establish a diet where I can be neutral on various of diets. Websites such as Fresh and natural foods, BBC good foods, and The sage gourmet have been helpful to create my knowledge on healthy recipes as a chef. The reason I chose to do as much research as possible for this diet is to have the opportunity to touch people’s lives in a way that can change them physically. We promote so much fast food but very little promote natural foods. I can make anything look and taste great including foods that come from our natural ground. Natural foods are in the category of controlling a better environment with a beneficial impact on our physical and mental health. I am proud to express the growth of natural foods and I cannot wait for the food to take a stance and a better understanding

As a black woman, I have been raised by a generation of strong black women that endured a mix between hate and love. I am proud to see we are built with an open mind along with a body built with constructive gold inside and out. I have seen and experienced the statute of liberation that black women have faced over these continuous years. I have witness colorism, I have witnessed the lack of protection, I have seen black women embracing self-love along with captivating every moment on the importance of our mental health. Social activism for us starts with a constructive mind that can embrace and share with others. How I plan to fight for black women is to prepare myself for the hate that comes with embracing my own, pick the battles I choose, and be open to progress even when permanent closure seems miles away. I want to uplift black women how they motivate me of my worth. I want to uplift us even through small gestures, "I'm proud of you", "Keep going Queen", "You are a strong black woman" that can substitute any hatred that reflects on us by a body of words that can process a lifelong encouragement.

My story is just the beginning on what's to come but, to start off short my name is Briana I'm 25 years old and I'm from the city Los Angeles. Growing up I was raised by a single mother that always did the best she could do under any pressure, under any circumstances. I always wanted to take care of her I just didn't know how. As I grew up to be a young woman I realized I had a passion for not only eating food but cooking it too. Cooking began to be all I ever thought about it was my mind , heart, body and soul. I want to be a personal chef or own a food truck called "BriL Cajun Kitchen". I love the thought of being my own boss being able to cook recipes that I created. I love the knowledge of growing my experiences even further even if it makes me frustrated. See dreams are not meant to be easy but every creative goal is not meant to be easy to take. I worship every struggle my mother ever went through because it taught me to work harder, it taught me that education is much more important then actually dreaming without any realistic goals. I have now an idea on where my dreams can take me. I don't see this as a big dream, I see it as a dream I've been wanting my whole life that life wasn't ready to be created just yet. My goal is to make every walk of life happy in a arts form pertaining food. As cliche or corny as it might seem my interaction with the public is critical for this dream, it's to actually work and see the light of success even if I'm not willing to make the people across from the light happier. In today's world to give people happiness through my food , I give away food to the homeless at least once a month to Skid Row located in Downtown Los Angeles just east from Beverly Hills. Although I cannot legally give my own cooked food away to the public I do donate food such as fruit, premade sandwiches, water, juice and chips. Every single time I give food to the less fortunate I feel this heavy weight that lifted off my shoulders that became lighter from doing a good deed. I love to interact with these people because that could of been me and my mother, they could of been somebody I know. I never forgot where I came from because I remember the times where all we had was food to make us happy and these people don't even have that. I reflect on the dreams these people might of had that got tangled from the storms of life. With that being said this is more then a dream this is the beginning of a well-balanced structured career. Years to come gives me years to better myself and others. I am ready for what life gives me. I am ready for these dreams to takeover me.

My name is Briana and I'm majoring in culinary arts. I was born and raised in Los Angeles but not near Hollywood or the many locations that the tv shows that are 5 miles away from the beaches but in the struggle of South Central, Los Angles. As a kid, I can honestly say I never had a lot but I was always grateful for what my mother could give me with the little bit of money she earned. I looked around and just knew I wanted a career badly enough that I was willing to give my all to create for myself and others. Cooking found its way to my heart when my career dream was undecided. Now I can honestly say the one thing I hope to achieve in my life is making people happy through my food. I want to be either a head chef, personal chef, or a food truck owner that travels all through California or even the world. Getting prepared to achieve that dream is to continuously put myself out there, promoting, graduating school, be confident but be cocky enough to make people see you. When you want something badly the only thing that can interfere with your goals is yourself.