1. When I was five years old, I joined a flag football team. I was the only girl, the fastest runner and among the strongest players. Whenever I got upset because the boys were mean to me, my would say ‘suffering builds character’, which I just thought was plain, old mean. During our championship game, our coach, knowing that I consistently caught, evaded and outran our opponents, kept me in the game on offense and defense. I was physically exhausted and emotionally stressed. When I fell snatching a flag from one of my opponents’ belts, I cried even though I wasn’t hurt. My parents came to the sideline, kissed me and told me to go back out there! For the rest of the game, I heard the opposing team’s coach yelling, ‘watch the girl, watch the girl!’ I knew he was talking about me but didn’t understand why he kept saying that. As the game ended and we lined up to congratulate one another, a mom from the other team approached me and said, when our coach screams for the entire game to ‘watch the girl,’ that means you are the threat to our team. We didn’t win, but I finally understood ‘suffering builds character.’ It means that I can be tired, stressed, and hurting, but still pose a threat to my opponents. I was a “YOU GOT IT GIRL” during this game because I demonstrated good sports-girl-ship and came out stronger! 2. I started in sports acrobatics in 2019 at Brown’s Gymnastics, during which time I improved as an athlete, became more confident and outgoing and my team grew to feel like a second family, so I didn’t notice or care that we were consistently outranked by our competitors. My accomplishment was my growth. 3. By 2022, I realized I wasn’t improving as an athlete and began noticing the difference between my gym and another Las Vegas gym, AGC, that consistently outperformed Brown’s at competitions. AGC’s training regimen was more frequent and intense than Brown’s and I didn’t know if I was good enough to keep up with their level of rigor. At the 2023 USA Gymnastics National Championship, Brown’s was once again among the lowest ranking athletes and AGC was at the top. I realized that my Brown’s family had taken me as far as they could and I would need to leave in order to grow. I auditioned for and was invited to AGC Las Vegas' top group. I told my head coach at Brown’s that it wasn't best for me to remain with her gym. We cried, hugged, and she told me she was proud of my decision and appreciated that I came to speak to her in person. The adjustment to AGC was difficult. We practiced more frequently and with greater intensity. We performed at community events and participated in fundraisers. Soon, I looked and felt stronger, was able to keep pace with the rigorous practices and in December 2023, within three months of joining AGC, I placed first at the Pan-American Games in Colombia. In June 2024, my trio earned the gold medal at the USA Gymnastics National Championship. Then we did it again in June of 2025! 4. My coach at Brown’s helped me overcome a lack of confidence that prevented me from wanting to compete at all. As much as it hurt to leave her gym, she knew that was best for me. My coaches at AGC pay attention to detail, critique and perfect our performances to improve scores, and foster a sense of teamwork through rigor, endurance and fun! They have introduced me to remarkable training opportunities, international competitions, and my greatest athletic accomplishments to date, USA Gymnastics National Champion for two consecutive years. 5. I want to be a marine veterinarian, and what better place to begin that journey than Hawaii? The cost of living on Oahu is expensive. I'm paying tuition and housing through loans, work study, merit and athletic scholarships, and support from my parents. If I am awarded the YGIG Scholarship, I will use the award to pay toward my housing. 6. My journey from ‘suffering builds character’, to ‘watch the girl’ to national champion has taught me that when I doubt myself, I am my fiercest opponent, and when I believe that I can, I am the threat. 7. I am on the Hawaii Pacific University Stunt Team and receive a partial athletic scholarship for my participation. The adjustment from acro to stunt has presented me with yet another opportunity to mature and improve in my sportsmanship. I like being part of a team because when I feel discouraged or tired, I know that there are people counting on me to keep going and if I can’t push through for myself, I push through for them.

I was almost four years old when I saw Dolphin Tale, a movie about a dolphin injured in a fisherman’s trap, then rehabilitated at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. That Halloween, I wore a wetsuit and carried a bucket of fake fish, pretending that I was working at an aquarium. Then when I was five, my mom surprised me with a trip to Clearwater Marine Aquarium where I got to meet Winter, the injured dolphin that starred in the movie. On the ferry ride back from the aquarium, I told my mom that I'm going to save dolphins like the characters in the movie! When a kid says they want to be a doctor, or astronaut or president when they grow up, their parents pretty much have to say “you can be anything you want!” When I was little, I thought that meant I could be anything I want, just because I want to be that. As a young adult, I have learned that while being anything we want is possible, actually becoming who we want takes discipline and dedication. Since middle school, I have participated in competitive sports acrobatics. Although I was competing at a high level, I couldn’t achieve 1st, 2nd or even 3rd place when I competed regionally and nationally. Just like the day on the ferry, I looked at the teams on the podium with their medals and decided I wanted that. Dreaming about that victory only took desire, achieving it is where discipline and dedication made the difference. Unsure that I was even good enough to be a national champion, I made the difficult decision to leave the gym where I’d grown up for so many years to join a gym with a stronger coaching team and more opportunities for training and travel. Joining the new gym meant more frequent and intense practices, community performances, volunteering, fundraising and, among the most difficult, being the opponent of my former coaches and teammates at competitions. As physically and emotionally taxing as the experience was for me, it was worth it because I went on to win the gold medal at an international competition in Colombia in December 2023, and again at the USA Gymnastics National Championships in 2024 and 2025. When I am facing a tough decision, afraid of what happens next or think that I’m not good enough to do something, I remind myself that I can be anything I want – as long as I’m willing to do what it takes to become that person. Leaving my home, family and friends to study marine biology in Hawaii was scary, but part of the dedication I know it will take to do more than just play dress-up when I wear a wetsuit. I plan to pursue a career in marine veterinary medicine and graduating will be my gold medal, positioning me to make an impact by rescuing and rehabilitating marine animals. Dolphin populations are threatened from chemical pollution, collision from vessels and accidental capture by commercial fishing - which is how Winter the Dolphin became injured. I will use my education in the field of marine biology to educate humans, who often love dolphins and other marine animals from a recreational perspective, to understand how we are negatively impacting them and what it would take to demonstrate our love for them through changes in how we consume and dispose of products, how we shop for seafood, how we interact with dolphins in the wild and what it means for a dolphin to live in captivity.

Hold up your dominant hand like you're giving someone a high-five. Recently you publicly shared with your family, friends, job, book club and religious community, that although you were born male, for as long as you can remember, you felt like a girl and you have decided to start presenting yourself to the world as who you truly are. Your parents are embarrassed by you, threaten to kick you out of the house and say you can’t be around your younger brother anymore. Fold down your thumb. It is no longer available to you. Your friends are supportive and your best friend invites you to live with him and his mom as long as you need. Your index finger is still available to you. Your employer’s policies prevent them from discriminating against you so you still have a job but co-workers who used to be friendly toward you no longer eat lunch with you and you have caught them pointing toward you and laughing. There were some slanderous comments written in the bathroom. Even though you feel ostracized and humiliated, your middle finger is still available to you and you need it, so you keep using it. Your book club said they support you but someone deleted you from the chat and the organizer hasn’t responded to your texts. Fold down your ring finger. It is no longer available to you. Your religious leader tells you that God loves us all and you are welcome to continue to attend services. She even connects you with some community organizations to help LGBTQ+ youth. Your pinky finger is still available to you. You can no longer button your clothes, hold a fork or put on make-up. You're learning to do things with your other hand but you feel self-conscious that people are staring at you in public so you prefer to only go to work and home, even though you don't feel welcome there either. You're grateful for the fingers that are still available to you, but still, you’ve lost so much and feel more and more isolated. The change I wish to see in the world is that people are judged by the qualities that really matter and form their character. Family, friends, job, book club or religious community should not require you to be a boy or a girl to be loved and accepted. While it is not my wish that people have to suffer, it is my wish that people who are in a position to judge or exclude others, understand what it would feel like to lose the use of their thumb and ring finger on the same day, and for it to be painful every time you use your middle finger. We should not have to lose the people we love, to be the person we are.