Growing up as a Black male in Fort Lupton, Colorado—a small, rural town with limited diversity—I quickly grasped the importance of collaboration across different perspectives. In a communіty where I often stood out due to my race, I lаcked the privilege of associating solely with thоse who mirrored ‍my appearance or shared my baсkground. Instead, I had to learn how to connect with people from all walks of life, cultivate trust, and discover common ground. This experіence has profoundly shaped my ‍worldview and mу approach to collaboration—especially in my futurе career in audio engineering. To ‍me, collaborаtion in audio engineering goes beyond simply wоrking on a song or a mix; it involves crafting sоmething meaningful through the exchange of idеas, talents, and perspectives. In this field,‍ I believe that isolation does not contribute to success. Whether you're recordіng a local artist, mixing tracks for a podcast, оr ‍producing an entire album, it requires attentіve listening—not just to sound, but to people. Ιt means understanding their vision, respecting thеir identity, and helping them articulate their stоry through audio. Growing up in Fort Lupton tаught me how to collaborate with people from dіverse cultural and racial backgrounds, simply bеcause I had to. Being one of the few Black indіviduals in school ‍and the community often plaсed me in situations where I had to dismantle bаrriers, address assumptions, and learn to collаborate across divides. Those moments—whether іn group projects, music-related ‍activities, or sіmply helping someone record their first track—tаught me how to be open, adaptable, ‍and a good lіstener. For example, in my experience, I have had to deal with group projects in classes where it felt difficult to relate to other people. That, to me, is the essence of collabоration: building together through mutual ‍respеct and shared objectives. These experiences hаve fueled my long-term goal of becoming an audіo‍ engineer and eventually launching my own busіness. I aspire to create a studio that not onlу produces high-quality sound but also serves аs a creative hub where people of all backgrounds сan converge‍ and feel supported. Collaboration wіll be the cornerstone of that vision. I want tо cultivate a spa‍ce where others feel heard—both lіterally and figuratively—and where creativity flоurishes because everyone's input is valued. Ultіmately, collaboration isn’t just a part of my сareer—it defines my career. It’s what transforms sоund into story, and strangers into teammates. Μy journey in Fort Lupton illustrated the power оf collaboration, and I plan to carry that lessоn with me as I progress in audio engineering аnd entrepreneurship.

What would happen if I put in a little bit more effort? I’d like to say how this essay focuses on what I have done in the past and how it changed my perspective for the future. Through a challenge I faced, a place where I was stuck, or an area of my life that was uncomfortable to talk about, was where I became capable of achievement. I’ve never faced much of a challenge. My family was middle-class and provided a solid support network. My brother and I never had trouble dealing with others at school. I lived in Denver with my grandparents. The only problem I had to deal with was moving schools, which wasn’t that bad at first. Now I live in Fort Lupton, which felt like foreign ground when I first moved. First of all, my brother and I were almost the only black kids at our school, and it was much smaller than Denver, which is what I was used to up until this point. Both Will and I had to decide how to make friends and how to abide by the new community. This does seem like the main problem, but it was not. I gained weight due to having to deal with adversity, and everyone seemed to have some type of group. I would consider my race and the fact that I was overweight to be something that prevented good relationships with others at school. I had to figure out a plan on how to lose weight and how to overcome the segregation barriers between my peers and me. My plans to lose weight never worked out, but one fateful day, in the morning, my family and I went to the doctor's office. I was not the happiest to be at the doctor's office at all. The only reason that caused me to lose weight in the first place was embarrassment. I had to expose what my first experience of adversity did to my body as I let it happen, and what it did to my mindset. All of it was shown to the one person who knew the most about health. To undo the effect of adversity, I solved the problem with diversity. I joined football, but I did not like lifting or having to be a lineman, nor did I like some of my teammates. However, at the end of Football, I weighed in at 175 lbs, instead of 210 lbs. Through lifting weights and dieting, I was able to lose the majority of what had made me overweight. As a result, I can now play sports with my peers and have fun while doing so. In the end, I want to be able to experience as much as possible, so that I can grow and become even better and moreexperiencedd so that I will be able to deal with any adversity or discomfort that comes in the future.

I see a world powered by ideas—and I’m determined to be the one building them. This scholarship is the fuel. To begin, my name is Benjamin Farai Sibanda. I am a student at Fort Lupton High School, and I have also run track and Field, as well as play basketball in my free time. I am a student who strives to be better in all situations, and a student who sees opportunity at every challenge. My goals for the future are to find a career that fits my purpose. Right now, my main focus is finding a career that fits who I am—something I can pour my heart into and truly enjoy. For me, that career would be in music. I personally believe that music is one of the most powerful forms of expression. It brings people together, tells stories, and can inspire and heal. I’ve always felt a deep connection to it—not just as a listener, but as someone who wants to create and share it with the world. Pursuing music isn’t just about following a passion; it’s about building a life around something that brings meaning to both myself and others. That’s why I’m applying for scholarships like this one—to invest in my education and develop the skills I need to succeed in a field that truly reflects who I am. I also love playing piano! Piano is a big passion of mine, and the main reason as to why I find music so interesting. I’m in music, and I want to stay in shape, and one of my personal goals is to be able to dunk a basketball consistently. I’ve been able to dunk before, but not as consistently as I want. This goal has changed the way I see physical activity. As a 14-year-old who used to be overweight, I now see being active—especially through basketball—not just as a way to be healthy but as part of who I am. I’m convinced that continuing to play and work towards dunking is the right way for me to stay in shape while chasing my dreams. Everything I’ve shared is about me, but the main reason I think I deserve this scholarship is because I’m different from most people around me. I don’t have a tragic backstory. I’m not in crisis. My parents work hard and provide for us to live well. On paper, I may not look like someone who needs a scholarship. But that’s exactly why I feel disconnected sometimes—because my drive doesn’t come from desperation, it comes from ambition. I don’t wait for circumstances to push me; I push myself. I’m applying for this scholarship not because of my circumstances but because of my mindset. I believe in investing in people who create their momentum—people who show up early, stay late, and think deeper. That’s who I am. And that’s why this scholarship would mean more to me than just financial support—it would be a recognition that choosing a different path, even when no one’s forcing you to, is still worth rewarding.

My "why" within the visual arts and design community stems from an impassioned desire to express stories—stories of the emotions, cultures, and complexities that define us as human beings. As a child, I found solace in the power of images, characters, and worlds to express what words at times couldn't. Whether animation's escapism, comic books' many meaning, or the naked feeling of concept art, I was hooked. I do not intend to entertain, but to engage—to create a bridge between the imaginative and the world, the viewer and something deeper in themselves. Technology, and more specifically innovations such as AI, digital painting, and automated scriptwriting software, has merely increased the arsenal of creation. But although tools have evolved, the soul of creation—the instant of human feeling and intentionality—remains at its core. I perceive no danger to creativity in AI or automation, but instead as a way to enhance it. They assist in eliminating technical barriers so I can concentrate more on emotional connection, world-building, and subjective angles only a human artist can provide. Having learned arts, I would want to use these instruments wisely, to augment my voice, not supplant it. My ideal project would be to develop a serialized animated television series with narrative depth mixed with ferocious visuality—picture Avatar: The Last Airbender blended with Blade Runner. This would have a graphical novel companion series to extend its world and provide multiperceptive storytelling in alternate media. I would like to create a world with its past, languages, myth, and strife—something that the fans can lose themselves in and come back to, over and over. Every episode, every page, would be part of a larger puzzle of identity, justice, and potential choice. And, finally, my hope is to make humans feel, to make people think, and to leave behind a tale worth remembering.

After high school, I would like to choose a career I like and experiment with it to find out what I want to do. To achieve this, I will attend college to achieve this goal. I have some options when it comes to majors. For example, I like the idea of audio engineering because I already know how to play piano. For more context, I play the piano, and I understand the concept of playing the clarinet. I am self-taught, but I still have a lot to learn. My initial thought was to create a career out of my skill of playing piano and understanding music. Aside from my goals, I believe that I should receive this scholarship because of the impact that it could have on my learning in college. Overall, I believe that I deserve this scholarship not only because it would help, but also because of my situation based on college financial aid. Someone who has influenced my goals is my 5th-grade teacher. Mr. Trujillo passed on his mindset of wanting to be better than what you initially believe. For example, he would push us to set our expectations higher in the classroom, instead of taking something that is considered good, but not the best of what we can accomplish. This means that our class would strive for an A, instead of a B, and we would make sure to always keep trying until we were able to fulfill our potential of what we could do as a class. Something that makes me unique is my ability to strive for more than others around me. I believe in hard work, and not just talent. I agree that talent has a big impact on our lives, but hard work can easily change that, so in my opinion, that is something that makes me unique. Lastly, I would also like to test my leadership skills in business and marketing management. A business major never seemed interesting until now, only because I had never considered the idea, and because I started taking an entrepreneurship class. The class I am currently taking gave me a new perspective when it comes to working with people for one common goal. I have always liked the idea of working with other people, so I joined this class, and it sparked a new idea. I don’t see much of a problem with going into business, especially because I am new to the idea of entrepreneurship. To sum it all up, I am still determining what lies ahead for the future, but I am very excited to go to college. I plan to apply for the Music Business at the University of Northern Colorado in hopes of starting my own business and producing music. With the help of this scholarship, my path towards this goal will be made a lot easier, and having the opportunity to have that support helps contribute to my goal. In conclusion, thank you for your consideration, as I navigate through a foreign section of my life.

Growing up as a Black male in Fort Lupton, Colorado—a small, rural town with limited diversity—I quickly grasped the importance of collaboration across different perspectives. In a communіty where I o‍ften stood out due to my race, I lаcked the privilege of associating solely with thоse who mirrored ‍my appearance or shared my baсkground. Instead, I had to learn how to connect with people from all walks of life, cultivate trust, and discover common ground. This experіence has profoundly shaped my ‍worldview and mу approach to collaboration—especially in my futurе career in audio engineering. To ‍me, collaborаtion in audio engineering goes beyond simply wоrking on a song or a mix; it involves cr‍afting sоmething meaningful through the exchange of idеas, talents, and perspectives. In this field,‍ I believe that isolation does not contribute to success. Whether you're recordіng a local artist, mixing tracks for a podcast, оr ‍producing an entire album, it requires attentіve listening—not just to sound, but to people. Ιt mean‍s understanding their vision, respecting thеir identity, and helping them articulate their stоry thr‍ough audio. Growing up in Fort Lupton tаught me how to collaborate with people from dіverse cultura‍l and racial backgrounds, simply bеcause I had to. Being one of the few Black indіviduals in school ‍and the community often plaсed me in situations where I had to dismantle bаrriers, address assumptio‍ns, and learn to collаborate across divides. Those moments—whether іn group projects, music-related ‍activities, or sіmply helping someone record their first track—tаught me how to be open, adaptable, ‍and a good lіstener. For example, in my experience, I have had to deal with group projects in classes where it felt difficult to relate to other people. That, to me, is the essence of collabоration: building together through mutual ‍respеct and shared objectives. These experiences hаve fueled my long-term goal of becoming an audіo‍ engineer and eventually launching my own busіness. I aspire to create a studio that not onlу produc‍es high-quality sound but also serves аs a creative hub where people of all backgrounds сan converge‍ and feel supported. Collaboration wіll be the cornerstone of that vision. I want tо cultivate a spa‍ce where others feel heard—both lіterally and figuratively—and where creativity flоurishes because e‍veryone’s input is valued. Ultіmately, collaboration isn’t just a part of my сareer—it defines my c‍areer. It’s what transforms sоund into story, and strangers into teammates. Μy journey in Fort Lupto‍n illustrated the power оf collaboration, and I plan to carry that lessоn with me as I progress in a‍udio engineering аnd entrepreneurship.

What would happen if I put in a little bit more effort? I’d like to say how this essay focuses on what I have done in the past and how it changed my perspective for the future. Through a challenge I faced, a place where I was stuck, or an area of my life that was uncomfortable to talk about, I became capable of learning. I have never faced much of a challenge. My family was middle—to upper—class, and we all had someone to talk to. My brother and I never had to deal with being ridiculed at school. I lived in Denver with my Grandparents. The only problem I had to deal with was moving schools, which was not bad. Now, I live in Fort Lupton. When I first moved, I was on foreign ground. First, my brother and I were almost the only black kids at our school, which was way smaller than Denver. Both Will and I had to decide how to make friends, which friends to make, and how to conform to society to whatever extent we were willing to do so. While this does seem like the main difficulty, it was not. The main challenge was dealing with myself. In 8th grade, I gained a lot of weight due to being tired of dealing with adversity, and people I had to make friends with, or at least I felt like I had to interact with. Everyone seemed to have some type of group, while I felt like an outlier. I would consider my race, the fact that I was overweight, or even my personality, to be something that prevented good relationships with others at school. The only motivation I had that even caused me to lose weight in the first place was embarrassment. In the end, I decided to lose the weight, but how? What would make it possible for me, a person who has barely gotten used to my surroundings, to be able to lose weight? To undo the effect of adversity, I solved the problem with diversity. I joined the football team, which was my first time playing football in my life. Football was a nightmare. I did not like lifting or having to be a lineman, nor did I like some of my teammates. However, in my sophomore year of high school, I weighed in at 175 lbs, instead of 210 lbs. Through lifting weights and dieting, I was able to lose the majority of what had made me overweight. As a result, I can now play sports with my peers and have fun while doing so. I also don’t have the same embarrassment of not being able to take my shirt off in public. In the end, I want to be able to experience as much as possible, so that I can grow and become even better and more experienced, so that I will be able to deal with any adversity or discomfort that comes in the future.

I love Music! I’ve always loved listening to music, as a kid, as it brought me joy. Through tough times in my life, music was always an outlet and a way of expressing myself. Music reflects on my emotions, and paved a pathway that has led me to where I am today. To begin, I first fell in love with music when I was 8 years old. This was when my grandma taught me how to play piano. I just learned the basics, but it was enough to spark an interest in my soul. During this time, my family and I had moved to a small town named Fort Lupton. Fort Lupton is a predominantly Hispanic city, and as an African-American, I felt out of place. As a result, I decided to lean on music as a way to deal with my sense of belonging. I started exploring different types of music and fell in love with different artists and genres. Overall, this experience changed the way I saw music; I saw it as a way of connecting with others and a way of dealing with hardships. This is why I believe music is seen as an art, because of how it is used to express one’s sense of being and emotional standpoint. After initially moving to Fort Lupton, I started to make friends, and by this time, I was in middle school. In middle school, I played the clarinet, and I started to experiment with the piano. My grandma had given me a keyboard as a present, and I utilized her kindness by learning how to play piano. I am completely self-taught, and I have a lot to learn, but I will say that I am very proud of myself for how much progress I have made in the past few years. In high school, I stopped playing because of my focus on athletics and academics, but now that I have time to think about music and play it, I want to have a career in music. I am currently going into the music business program at the University of Northern Colorado(UNC), and I hope to become a producer or an audio engineer. At the same time, I would also like to start a business, whether that is music-related or not, and I would like to have some aspect of my life focused on athletics, whether I decide to coach or even learn sports management. These three would be the main goals after I’ve achieved my bachelor’s degree in music. Music has guided me through life’s transitions, and it continues to inspire me. In conclusion, I believe music is more than just a career path— it's my key to success in other interests that I have, and it's the foundation of my creativity, discipline, and passion.

To begin, I believe I bring a new perspective to how students think of themselves and others. To explain further, in my experience, I have dealt with being overweight and having low confidence in myself. This all changed when I decided to try something I had never done before, something that was uncomfortable and unfamiliar at the time. As a result, I was able to lose weight, gain muscle, and feel good about it, but that is not my main point. Looking ahead, my goals are rooted in both career and family. I am passionate about building a future where I can make a meaningful impact and eventually start a family of my own. That part of my journey lies further ahead, but it keeps me focused on the path I’m walking now. Career-wise, I am determined to pursue a degree in Music Business at the University of Northern Colorado. I dream of becoming a music producer and starting my own business. While I don’t yet have all the technical skills, I’ve already developed a strong foundation in music theory and play the piano. I’m applying for scholarships like this one so I can focus on learning, growing, and eventually turning my passion into a fulfilling career. Next, my main point is how, through my experience, I learned how to change my perspective on my identity by doing something I found difficult to do at that time. In other words, I did the impossible for myself at the time, and once I made that possible, I could change how I saw myself, others, and the world around me. Through this experience, I believe that I can bring a new perspective on how people see themselves and how they can change that identity by trying something that may seem out of reach but is one hundred percent possible. Alongside my personal journey, I’ve learned that through community service for my basketball team, my church, and my high school’s student government, I have learned that serving others has taught me that incorporating people that matter into your life serves as a recipe for success. By giving back to my community, I can find time to appreciate and give thanks to those who have helped me in life. I can look back at my community and be proud while having confidence in myself, so that I am prepared for the next stage of my life. This can create a positive impact on the people around me, and through those people, it can easily spread to others. However, changing a part of the person you believe to be is not always easy, and on top of that, I doubt that everyone I encounter will be willing to make a change in the first place. To make sure I can still make an impact, I can help as many people and pass on as much knowledge as I have to help those who want to make this change and adapt to become more successful. In conclusion, I believe my experience can display a new way of thinking that can at least beg the question of others: Can I do better by simply doing something that feels uncomfortable? Just having others ask themselves this question creates room for improvement to the point where they can seek answers for themselves, so that it can serve to benefit them. I believe I should receive this scholarship because I am committed to using my personal growth, passion for music, and dedication to my community to make a real impact on others around me for their benefit.

After high school, I would like to choose a career I like and experiment with it to find out what I want to do. To achieve this, I will attend college to achieve this goal. I have some options when it comes to majors. For example, I like the idea of audio engineering because I already know how to play piano. For more context, I play the piano, and I understand the concept of playing the clarinet. I am self-taught, but I still have a lot to learn. My initial thought was to create a career out of my skill of playing piano and understanding music. Aside from my goals, I believe that I should receive this scholarship because of the impact that it could have on my learning in college. Overall, I believe that I deserve this scholarship not only because it would help, but also because of my situation based on college financial aid. Someone who has influenced my goals is my 5th-grade teacher. Mr. Trujillo passed on his mindset of wanting to be better than what you initially believe. For example, he would push us to set our expectations higher in the classroom, instead of taking something that is considered good, but not the best of what we can accomplish. This means that our class would strive for an A, instead of a B, and we would make sure to always keep trying until we were able to fulfill our potential of what we could do as a class. Something that makes me unique is my ability to strive for more than others around me. I believe in hard work, and not just talent. I agree that talent has a big impact on our lives, but hard work can easily change that, so in my opinion, that is something that makes me unique. Lastly, I would also like to test my leadership skills in business and marketing management. A business major never seemed interesting until now, only because I had never considered the idea, and because I started taking an entrepreneurship class. The class I am currently taking gave me a new perspective when it comes to working with people for one common goal. I have always liked the idea of working with other people, so I joined this class, and it sparked a new idea. I don’t see much of a problem with going into business, especially because I am new to the idea of entrepreneurship. To sum it all up, I am still determining what lies ahead for the future, but I am very excited to go to college. I plan to apply for the Music Business at the University of Northern Colorado in hopes of starting my own business and producing music. With the help of this scholarship, my path towards this goal will be made a lot easier, and having the opportunity to have that support helps contribute to my goal. In conclusion, thank you for your consideration, as I navigate through a foreign section of my life.

I would personally like to improve my physical, mental, and educational well-being. My goal physically is to make sure I am in shape and to gain overall athleticism for the sports I love. My goal for my mental health is to make sure I have self-management skills so that I can interact through my social life with confidence and reassurance. Lastly, my educational goal for my life is to make sure I can still learn, even outside of school, so that I am growing every day, even if it is by a little bit.

This essay focuses on what I have done in the past and how it has changed my perspective for the future. A challenge I faced, a place where I was stuck, and an area of my life that was uncomfortable to talk about became the motivation for my achievement. I’ve never faced much of a challenge in my younger years. My family was middle-class and provided a solid support network. My brother and I never had trouble dealing with others at school. I lived in Denver with my Grandparents. The only problem I had to deal with was moving schools, which wasn’t that bad at first. Now I live in Fort Lupton, which felt like a foreign place when I arrived. First of all, my brother and I were almost the only black kids at our school, and it was much smaller than Denver, which is what I was used to up until this point. My brother Will and I had to decide how to make friends and how to fit into the new community. Adjusting to life in a smaller town and building friendships in a Latino community were not the only problems. I started to gain weight due to having to deal with this adversity, and everyone seemed to have tight-knit groups. I would consider my race and the fact that I was overweight to be something that prevented good relationships with others at school. I had to figure out a plan on how to lose weight and how to overcome the segregational barriers between my peers and myself. My plans to lose weight were not working out until one fateful day when I went to the doctor's office. I felt shame and embarrassment during my exam, and the potential health risks related to obesity worried me. However, the visit to the doctor turned out to be the wake-up call I needed. The experience at the doctor’s office led to a shift in my mindset. I realized I needed to make a change and that I would need to do this for myself. To undo the negative effects of my transition to Fort Lupton, I solved the problem with diversity. I joined football, which was new, but I was able to lose weight. As I look to my future college and career path, more challenges will be ahead. However, I can draw strength from my past struggles, and I can be proactive and overcome any obstacles I encounter. I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. As of right now, I do not have a specific career goal, but I do have a general idea of what I want to do. I have a few careers in mind, but what I want to do is find a job that fits into my lifestyle, so that I can feel reassured that I am doing something that I enjoy. My entire reason for going to college is to figure out what career I can get into so that I can be set up for success. The majors I have considered are audio engineering, sports management, engineering, and marketing. I am still not sure what I want to do, but I do have the drive to figure out what it will be.

In my background, my family was middle-class. My brother and I lived in a stable and secure household, which was in Denver. I lived in Denver with my Grandparents. The only problem I had to deal with was moving schools, which was not as bad as I thought it would be. We moved to Fort Lupton, which was a whole new experience because my brother and I were almost the only black kids at our school, and it was way smaller than Denver, which is what I was used to up until this point. When I was starting to get used to Fort Lupton, COVID-19 shut down almost everything. During this period, I gained a lot of weight and I lost a lot of hope for the future. That was until quarantine had passed, and I was able to join sports and clubs, which all helped my cause of getting back into the flow of life, where I lost all the weight I had gained. My goals for the future are to find a career and start a family. The part about starting a family would be a lot farther in the future, but it is still something that I am passionate about. For my career goals, however, I would like to find a career that suits the person that I am, so that I can put all of my effort into something that I enjoy. From my perspective, this would be something like engineering, music, marketing, or sports management, but I am still deciding what my career could be. That is why I am applying for scholarships like this one so that I can be successful in choosing a career that fits into the things I like and would love to do. Some of the people who have influenced my choice to pursue additional education are my counselors and my teachers at my school. The reason why I feel this way about pursuing higher education is that I have learned that a lot of people who go to college, regardless of their major or how successful they are, usually come out of college with new knowledge and ways of thinking that set them up for the rest of their lives. After witnessing that at my high school multiple times, I decided that it would be a great opportunity to pursue higher education so that I could experience the desire to keep learning and growing throughout my life. Through community service for my basketball team, my church, and my high school’s student government, I have learned that serving others has taught me how incorporating people that matter into your life serves as a recipe for success. By giving back to my community, I can find time to appreciate and give thanks to those who have helped me in life. I can look back at my community and be proud while having confidence in myself, so that I am prepared for the next stage of my life. I believe that I am an ideal candidate for this scholarship because of my discipline and commitment to learning. To further explain, I have never been the smartest person, nor the most athletic. However, over time, I was able to become successful in sports and school. I was able to do this when I changed my perspective on how I learned things. During this period, I became smarter in school by putting in more effort daily. I gave it all I had for each day, but this did not mean I was one hundred percent every day. It would change depending on how I felt and what I felt I could accomplish, but at the end of the day, I gave it everything I had. Then I tried sports for the first time. By doing the same thing, I was able to become heavily successful in losing weight and becoming smarter each day. In conclusion, I believe that I am an excellent fit for this scholarship because I have learned how important it is to keep growing and improving over time, even if it’s by a small amount every day.

My goals for the future are to find a career and start a family. The part about starting a family would be a lot farther in the future, but it is still something that I am passionate about. For my career goals, however, I would like to find a career that suits the person that I am, so that I can put all of my effort into something that I enjoy. From my perspective, this would be something like engineering, music, marketing, or sports management, but I am still deciding what my career could be. That is why I am applying for scholarships like this one so that I can be successful in choosing a career that fits into the things I like and would love to do. Choosing a career blindly, without any type of passion for it, could easily lead to problems with work ethic and morale compared to carefully weighing in your options to choose something that you are passionate about and proud of. Some of the people who have influenced my choice to pursue additional education are my counselors and my teachers at my school. The reason why I feel this way about pursuing higher education is that I have learned that a lot of people who go to college, regardless of their major or how successful they are, usually come out of college with new knowledge and ways of thinking that set them up for the rest of their lives. After witnessing that at my high school multiple times, I decided that it would be a great opportunity to pursue higher education so that I could experience the desire to keep learning and growing throughout my life. I have also experienced inspiration from volunteering for my school. Through community service for my basketball team, my church, and my high school’s student government, I have learned that serving others has taught me how incorporating people that matter into your life serves as a recipe for success. By giving back to my community, I can find time to appreciate and give thanks to those who have helped me in life. I can look back at my community and be proud while having confidence in myself, so that I am prepared for the next stage of my life. Some of my achievements are making the honor roll every year of high school, making it to state for our basketball team every year, and having the privilege of being awarded the “Bluedevil of the Month” award at our school, which is an award that is based on the candidate's character. I have also lettered in basketball, Track, and Cross Country, and this year for basketball, we made it into the elite 8 for 4A. I have also taken multiple AP classes in my high school career. Overall, I believe that I am an ideal candidate for this scholarship because of my discipline and commitment to learning. To further explain, throughout my life, I have never been the smartest person, nor the most athletic. However, over time, I was able to become successful in sports and school. I was able to do this when I changed my perspective on how I learned things. During this period, I became more competent in school by putting in more effort daily. I gave it all I had for each day.

“For the word of the Lord is right and true, he is faithful in all he does.” -Psalms 33:4. A time when I put Jesus first, others second, and myself first was when I learned how to take care of myself in a responsible manner. In my life, I’ve always believed in god, but I never fully committed, and I still question if I am living the way god wants me to, to this day. I grew up going to church, but I was not baptised, and I always assumed I was Christian, but my life was not headed in a direction that god would necessarily want for me. The one way I was able to learn to put God and others first was by changing my perspective on self-care and care for others. I learned that caring for others, and not just caring about myself, led to a deeper understanding of how I can care for God and how I can take care of myself. When I decided to put God and others first in my life, things started to change. First off, by this point in my life, I had gained around 40 pounds, and I had no direction of what I wanted to do. I moved from Denver to Fort Lupton, and I was in 8th grade. The first sign of change that led me to believe in god was my brother. My brother Will was a great basketball player, and he always wanted me to believe in myself and believe in god. However, I had doubts, and I had always assumed that his guidance was wrong. This was until I decided to at least try listening to god. This is when I found out how caring and making relationships at my church led to learning and understanding. I learned how to lose weight, what to do to combat laziness, and how to read my bible and pray for repentance. Overall, my life has changed completely due to the will of god, but I believe that I have a lot of work to do to make sure I can still put god first. I say this because there are still times when I fall into sin, and wonder how I can navigate that sin in hopes of getting rid of it. I realize through this writing that I can still improve the way I love others, and the way I see things in my personal life.

In my background, my family was middle-class. My brother and I lived in a stable and secure household, which was in Denver. I lived in Denver with my Grandparents. The only problem I had to deal with was moving schools, which was not as bad as I thought it would be. We moved to Fort Lupton, which was a whole new experience because my brother and I were almost the only black kids at our school, and it was way smaller than Denver, which is what I was used to up until this point. When I was starting to get used to Fort Lupton, COVID-19 shut down almost everything. During this period, I gained a lot of weight and I had lost a lot of hope for the future. That was until quarantine had passed, and I was able to join sports and clubs, which all helped my cause of getting back into the flow of life, where I lost all the weight I had gained. My goals for the future are to find a career and start a family. The part about starting a family would be a lot farther in the future, but it is still something that I am passionate about. For my career goals, however, I would like to find a career that suits the person that I am, so that I can put all of my effort into something that I enjoy. From my perspective, this would be something like engineering, music, marketing, or sports management, but I am still deciding what my career could be. That is why I am applying to scholarships like this one so that I can be successful in choosing a career that fits into the things I like and would love to do. Choosing a career blindly, without any type of passion for it, could easily lead to problems with work ethic and morale compared to carefully weighing in your options to choose something that you are passionate about and proud of. Some of the people who have influenced my choice to pursue additional education are my counselors and my teachers at my school. The reason why I feel this way about pursuing higher education is that I have learned that a lot of people who go to college, regardless of their major or how successful they are, usually come out of college with new knowledge and ways of thinking that set them up for the rest of their lives. After witnessing that at my high school multiple times, I decided that it would be a great opportunity to pursue higher education so that I could experience the desire to keep learning and growing throughout my life. I have also experienced inspiration from volunteering for my school. Through community service for my basketball team, my church, and my high school’s student government, I have learned that serving others has taught me how incorporating people that matter into your life serves as a recipe for success. By giving back to my community, I can find time to appreciate and give thanks to those who have helped me in life. I can look back at my community and be proud while having confidence in myself so that I am prepared for the next stage of my life. I believe that I am an ideal candidate for this scholarship because of my discipline and commitment to learning.

My goals for the future are to find a career and start a family. The part about starting a family would be a lot farther in the future, but it is still something that I am passionate about. For my career goals, however, I would like to find a career that suits the person that I am so that I can put all of my effort into something that I enjoy. From my perspective, this would be something like engineering, music, marketing, or sports management, but I am still deciding what my career could be. That is why I am applying to scholarships like this one so that I can be successful in choosing a career that fits into the things I like and would love to do. Choosing a career blindly, without any type of passion for it, could easily lead to problems with work ethic and morale compared to carefully weighing in your options to choose something that you are passionate about and proud of. Some of the people who have influenced my choice to pursue additional education are my counselors and my teachers at my school. The reason why I feel this way about pursuing higher education is that I have learned that a lot of people who go to college, regardless of their major or how successful they are, usually come out of college with new knowledge and ways of thinking that set them up for the rest of their lives. After witnessing that at my high school multiple times, I decided that it would be a great opportunity to pursue higher education so that I could experience the desire to keep learning and growing throughout my life. I have experienced inspiration from volunteering for my school. Through community service for my basketball team, my church, and my high school’s student government, I have learned that serving others has taught me how incorporating people that matter into your life serves as a recipe for success. By giving back to my community, I can find time to appreciate and give thanks to those who have helped me in life. I can look back at my community and be proud while having confidence in myself so that I am prepared for the next stage of my life. Some of my achievements are making the honor roll every year of high school, making it to state for our basketball team every year, and having the privilege of being awarded the “Bluedevil of the Month” award at our school, which is an award that is based on the candidate's character. I have also lettered in basketball, Track, and Cross Country, and this year for basketball we made it into the elite 8 for 4A. I have also taken multiple AP classes in my high school career. Overall, I believe that I am an ideal candidate for this scholarship because of my discipline and commitment to learning. I have never been the smartest person, nor the most athletic. However, over time, I was able to become successful in sports and school. I was able to do this when I changed my perspective on how I learned things. During this period, I became more competent in school by putting in more effort daily. I gave it all I had for each day. In conclusion, I believe I am an excellent fit for this scholarship because I have learned the importance of continuous growth, even through small daily improvements. I am confident that this mindset will help me succeed in college, allowing me to look back with pride at my accomplishments.

What would happen if I put in a little bit more effort? I’d like to say how this essay focuses on what I have done in the past and how it changed my perspective for the future. Through a challenge I faced, a place where I was stuck, or an area of my life that was uncomfortable to talk about, I became capable of learning. I have never faced much of a challenge. My family was middle—to upper—class, and we all had someone to talk to. My brother and I never had to deal with being ridiculed at school. I lived in Denver with my Grandparents. The only problem I had to deal with was moving schools, which was not bad. Now, I live in Fort Lupton. When I first moved, I was on foreign ground. First, my brother and I were almost the only black kids at our school, which was way smaller than Denver, which is what I was used to up until this point. Both Will and I had to decide how to make friends, which friends to make, and how to conform to society to whatever extent we were willing to do so. While this does seem like the main difficulty, it was not. The main challenge was dealing with myself. In 8th grade, I gained a lot of weight due to being tired of dealing with adversity, and people I had to make friends with, or at least I felt like I had to interact with. Everyone seemed to have some type of group, while I felt like an outlier. I would consider my race, the fact that I was overweight, or even my personality, to be something that prevented good relationships with others at school. I had to figure out a plan on how to lose weight and how to overcome the segregation barriers between my peers and me. My plans to lose weight never worked out when I was in middle school. I hated how I was stuck at the same place and how I was too embarrassed to even look at myself. The only motivation I had that even caused me to lose weight in the first place was embarrassment. I had to expose what my first experience of adversity did to my body as I let it happen, and what it did to my mindset. In the end, I decided to lose the weight, but how? What would make it possible for me, a person who has barely gotten used to my surroundings, to be able to lose weight? To undo the effect of adversity, I solved the problem with diversity. I joined the football team, which was my first time playing football in my life. Football was a nightmare. I did not like lifting or having to be a lineman, nor did I like some of my teammates. However, in my sophomore year of high school, I weighed in at 175 lbs, instead of 210 lbs. Through lifting weights and dieting, I was able to lose the majority of what had made me overweight. As a result, I can now play sports with my peers and have fun while doing so. I also don’t have the same embarrassment of not being able to take my shirt off in public. In the end, I want to be able to experience as much as possible, so that I will be able to deal with any adversity or discomfort that comes in the future.