Fall is the season of gathering; from Halloween to Thanksgiving, to football games and study sessions, and everything in-between. These events bring family, friends, and strangers-turned-friends together. Arguably the most important part of these events are not the gatherings themselves; it's the items within these settings that facilitate relationships to spark. When thinking of fall events, something that these gatherings all have in common is food and drinks. Whether it's turkey on Thanksgiving, apple cider on Halloween, and pizza at football games, a Starbucks coffee at study sessions, fall gatherings bring people together through food. Connections are built based on the similarities in palettes that individuals share; the greatest of relationships start from the words "I like that too!" As a twenty-three year old master's student at the University of Southern California, the friendships I prize the most have arose from study sessions at Starbucks within the Trojan Village (the university's common area). What brings these friendships together is the multitude of drinks that the coffee chain offers, having flavor profiles tailored to any individual's liking. Moving to Los Angeles from North Carolina brought many feelings of anxiety, self-doubt, along with fear. Not having any friends or family members native to this area left a room full of "what ifs," along with panic regarding not being able to create new relationships. My saving grace within creating a whole new life with a whole new group of settings, environments, and people was having group study sessions with my fellow classmates at Starbucks within the Trojan Village. The first study session that was held at this location was filled with anticipation, energy, and curiosity. What brought my intimate cohort of ten classmates together was not only our study materials, but the drinks in which we ordered. From pumpkin spice lattes, to iced apple crisp macchiatos, every one of us ordered a fall flavored drinks that sparked conversation amongst each other. Arguably the drink that ignited the most conversation was my very own; a secret menu item that twisted a classic drink into a new fall treat, leaving every one of my classmates wanting a taste. A decaf iced shaken espresso with oat milk and pumpkin cream cold foam was the infamous drink that left my cohort wondering what amazing flavor was "shaken" within my venti cup. This drink sparked warm conversations between classmates, which led to a study session the following day so everyone would have the opportunity to try the fall flavored delicacy. This led to study sessions being held twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, in-turn creating friendships that would last a life time. My cohort became my family, and I no longer felt that I was missing my home. My classmates were my new family, and our "home" was Starbucks. Sitting on the couches, pulling tables together, and drinking decaf iced shaken espressos with pumpkin cream cold foam were our form of "family gatherings," in which deeply rooted connections were created. Moving across the country became worth it in many senses, but especially with having a new set of family and friends. All the anxiety, self-doubt, along with panic that I initially felt when I moved became worth it. Having a support system within arms reach would not have been possible without Starbucks. Feeling comfortable within my new home would not have happened if it weren't for the Trojan Village Starbucks decorated for the fall. Fall gatherings are much more than events that individuals come together for; they led to the creation of friendships that last a lifetime. Thank you Starbucks!

As a female Hispanic-American master's student within the field of Applied Behavior Analysis, giving back to marginalized communities along with providing support is the main priority and motivation for becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. At the University of Southern California, I will not only be studying to become a part of a field that prides itself on selflessness and compassion for underprivileged and underrepresented communities, but conduct research in order to further provide practitioners within the field with resources to ensure that individuals with ASD are being served by practitioners through ethically responsible guidelines. Not only does the field of applied behavior analysis embody selflessness, but the career opportunities within it. As a behavior technician, arguably one of the most important positions available within ABA, providing therapy services to children and adolescence with autism spectrum disorder along with other developmental disabilities is the main responsibility of this career. BT's work within clinical, home, and school settings, following a program tailored to each individual client that they serve which was written by a BCBA. These programs are compiled with skill acquisition goals along with behavioral focuses to provide clientele with the needed preliminary skills to be as successful as possible outside of the setting in which they are being served in. Along with this, a huge role of BT's is to provide behavioral support to clientele. Technicians provide behavioral support to a variety of clients, spanning from individual's diagnosed with level one ASD to level three, along with other diagnoses that a client may have (such as educational and developmental disabilities). The main goal of the behavior technician is to provide behavior support, implement skills acquisition goals written by a BCBA, and most importantly support individuals with ASD and advocate for those who are unable to advocate for. themselves. BT's embrace the meaning of selflessness and personify this virtue daily when working with clientele along with their families. Working as a BT for over three years has been the most rewarding experience and has laid the groundwork to opening my eyes to a world that I was not previously aware of prior to working within the field of ABA. Being a behavior technician and providing individuals with autism spectrum disorder with ethically responsible therapy services has been such a privilege and has ignited such a passion within myself that I cannot imagine myself earning a higher education in any other field. Embodying selflessness to provide an underprivileged community with the needed resources to become successful is my passion, and I am actively achieving the goal of obtaining a higher education to make this my life's work. Earning the John Young 'Pursue Your Passion' scholarship would provide financial support in order to pay for my education at the University of Southern California, along with conducting my own research to provide professionals within the field of ABA needed resources. Pursuing a higher education within the field of applied behavior analysis to create an impact through research is my professional passion.

Applied behavior Analysis is an empirical based subfield within psychology that is the leading early intervention strategy for children and adolescence with autism spectrum disorder. Career paths within the field vary, but the primary certification needed to become a liscened practitioner within the field is a BCBA (board certified behavior analyst). Individuals wanting to pursue a career within applied behavior analysis must undergo a higher education in the form of a master's degree to qualify for becoming a BCBA, and then may choose to further their education with a doctorates degree. Applied Behavior Analysis is an ever growing, multi-faceted field, that dedicates itself to advocating for individuals with autism spectrum disorder along with other developmental disabilities, along with providing ethical therapy services to this population. Despite applied behavior analysis being an ever-growing empirical based field, research contributions are essential for clinicians to continue evolving ethical therapy service techniques to implement with individuals with autism spectrum disorder. As a master's student at the University of Southern California in their Applied Behavior Analysis program, obtaining the Board Certified Behavior Analyst licensure is an essential part of furthering advocacy for individual's with ASD. Although, conducting research is arguably the most important goal of furthering my education within the field. To conduct research within this field, it is important for students/researchers to have hands-on experience working with the population that is being studied prior to formulating research proposals and implementing the scientific method within study sites. Being a behavior technician has given me the exposure needed to meet research prerequisites required for conducting studies within applied behavior analysis. The role of a behavior technician is to implement skill acquisition along with behavioral goals/support on a client's program that was created by a BCBA in the clinical, home, or school setting. As a behavior technician of almost three years, this experience has been pivotal for aligning my career goals and envisioning how I am going to impact the field of ABA in the future as licensed professional. During the three years of being a behavior technician, I have worked in the clinical, home, and school setting. Working within the school setting gave much insight into the areas that the field of applied behavior analysis needs improvement through further research. Seeing students within the educational system with autism spectate disorder along with other developmental disabilities that were not being provided the resources needed to be successful at the most important stage in their development sparked a vision in me to dedicate my educational career and research to providing aid to this setting, in order to bridge the gap between ABA and the educational system. It is imperative that students at all ages, grade levels, socio-economic level, ethnicity, race, and cognitive abilities are provided with equal and accessible resources to become prosperous not only in the educational setting but in the natural environment as well. At the University of Southern California, I will be conducting research within the clinical setting in order to become an advocate for individuals with autism spectrum disorder within the educational system, along with working closely with educators and administrators within the setting to provide further education on applied behavior analysis.. To do so, I will work with a low income school to establish and build rapport with this setting and the educators within it. Along with this, I would request to work with the student that has the most recorded problem behaviors, and implement ABA interventions to show empirical evidence of improvement over time. This project is necessary to provide practitioners with data within the educational system.

If a person were to ask me what I thought a concert was at the age of five, I would've told them a concert is a group of family members getting together on the weekend's in one of the member's backyard. I would've explained to them that my cousins and I would practice "dance numbers" and "perform" them to the adults, whilst singing Shakira and Carlos Vives at the top of our lungs. To me, concerts were a place that family and sometimes close friends gathered to share laughs, enjoy each other's company, and make memories together. A concert was a safe place for loved ones to show each other devotion through a common similarity, music. As I grew older, my definition of concert refined to encompass the traditional experience that most individual's endure throughout their lifetime. Therefore, being asked at the age of twenty-three, my first concert memory was attending the Justin Bieber "My World 2.0" show in Greensboro, North Carolina, for my tenth birthday. Justin Bieber was the most important artist in my life at the mere age of ten, and I remember the passion that I felt for the words that I would hear being sung through my mother's Chrysler van stereo system on the purple "My World 2.0" CD. The lyrics traveled with me along with Atlantic coast on family vacations, through the Appalachia mountains during fall hikes with my mother and elementary school friends, all the way down to Florida for soccer tournaments. Listening to the lyrics being sung in an enclosed, mainly dark, arena with thousands of individual's singing the same words as the artist on stage was almost like a dream. A dream that even though seemed dim due to the ambiance, was brightened by the memories that played across my mind as I heard Justin Bieber singing the set list for the event. Looking around the arena to see thousands of girls, just like myself, within differing stages of life, venturing from locations I didn't even know existed, enduring hardships that I was unaware of, was a sight that has stayed with me nearly thirteen years later. Music not only brings together family members in someone's backyard, but thousand of people who have never met each other, but have one common similarity. Music. For the first time in my life, I was experiencing something that was greater than myself. It was greater than venturing through the Appalachia mountains with a handful of friends. It was bigger than exploring the Atlantic coast with my mother on our family vacations. It was larger than traveling twelve hours and listening to the "My World 2.0" CD on repeat to Florida for a soccer tournament. The Justin Bieber "My World 2.0" concert was a safe space for thousands of people who sought refuge through the lyrics, melodies, and charisma of the songs that meant more than life to everyone in that arena. What started off as an enclosed, mainly dark arena, turned into a life experience that has traveled with me through my own stages of development. At the age of twenty-three when I hear the lyrics from the album "My World 2.0," I remember being ten years old in the Greensboro Coliseum seeing a glimpse for the first time at how vast the world is. This experience opened my eyes to the great expanse of the world in which my tiny body resided in, and how I yearned to explore it. I am now exploring the world by obtaining a higher education at the University of Southern California. I owe it all to music.

Selflessness is a virtue that is embodied within the field of Applied Behavior Analysis. ABA is a subfield within psychology that is the leading early intervention strategy for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Obtaining a higher education within the field is essential in order to become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and further contribute to providing empirical based services to this marginalized community. As a female Hispanic-American master's student within the field of Applied Behavior Analysis, giving back to marginalized communities along with providing support is the main priority and motivation for becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. At the University of Southern California, I will not only be studying to become a part of a field that prides itself on selflessness and compassion for underprivileged and underrepresented communities, but conduct research in order to further provide practitioners within the field with resources to ensure that individuals with ASD are being served by practitioners through ethically responsible guidelines. Not only does the field of applied behavior analysis as a whole embody selflessness, but the career opportunities within it. As a behavior technician, arguably one of the most important positions available within ABA, providing therapy services to children and adolescence with autism spectrum disorder along with other developmental disabilities is the main responsibility of this career. BT's work within clinical, home, and school settings, following a program tailored to each individual client that they serve which is written by a BCBA. These programs are compiled with skill acquisition goals along with behavioral focuses to provide clientele with the needed preliminary skills to be as successful as possible outside of the setting in which they are being served in. Along with this, a huge role of BT's are to provide behavioral support to clientele. Technician's provide behavioral support to a variety of clients, spanning from individual's diagnosed with level one ASD to level three, along with other diagnoses that a client may have (such as educational and developmental disabilities). The main goal of the behavior technician is to provide behavior support, implement skills acquisition goals written by a BCBA, and most importantly support individual's with ASD and advocate for those who are unable to advocate for. themselves. BT's embrace the meaning of selflessness and personify this virtue on a daily basis when working with clientele along with their families. Working as a BT for over three years has been the most rewarding experience and has laid the groundwork to opening my eyes to a world that I was not previously aware of prior to working within the field of ABA. Being a behavior technician and providing individuals with autism spectrum disorder with ethically responsible therapy services has been such a privilege and has ignited such a passion within myself that I cannot imagine myself earning a higher education in any other field. Embodying selflessness to provide an underprivileged community with the needed resources to become successful is my passion, and I am actively achieving the goal of obtaining a higher education to make this my life's work. Earning the Micheal Rudometkin scholarship not only fund's my personal education, but provides the field of ABA with needed research to further support individual's with autism spectrum disorder. I will be conducting research based on my own proposal within the school setting in order to bridge the gap between ABA and the education system. Children with ASD within the school settings are not getting the needed resources to be successful because of the lack of education on ABA. It would be an honor to earn this award, and pay the selflessness forward.