I’m currently a student at Lake Superior College studying to get my diploma in the Commercial Residential Wiring Program. I’ve lived in Northern Minnesota my entire life, and when you live in the country you learn a thing two about being hands on. Wether that was hauling wood, or tending to the garden, fixing a leaky pipe, replacing insulation inside our home, cooking family meals or changing the breaks on one of our family members vehicles we always made the best of it. Taking the Commercial and Residential Wiring program at Lake Superior College is helping me take my first few steps into my career of becoming a master electrician someday. Becoming a master electrician wasn’t the original goal though. It was to help my family. My mother has lived on low income for a majority of my life. She has a bad injury when I was little kid which ended up putting her on disability. Although we have never made much my mom never failed to make me feel like we had everything we could possibly need. As I started to get older I noticed some of the electrical work in our house wasn’t as up to date as some of the moderns homes I had seen. Concerned about this I decided to do the only thing I knew how to do and that was to fix the problem myself. My mother and I cannot afford to call an electrician and have our home inspected to see if everything is up to code, so I decided I would learn how to do it myself. Although this route will take longer I am learning a skill that can never be taken away from me and I will always be able to help my family in the future with any electrical issue they may have. This opportunity has also presented me with a life long career. I am working towards becoming an apprentice at either the Duluth or Iron Range electrical union. Joining the union will help me provide for not only myself, but my family as well. I will be able to pull my family and I out of poverty by make a living wage. I strive for my family to have more than the bare minimum. These may be the first stepping stones and some of the hardest, but they will make a world difference by the time I’m done.

When choosing a question from the list above I felt that the following suited me best: What are your personal goals and aspirations in the trades, and how will this scholarship help you achieve those goals? I originally applied for the Commercial and Residential Wiring Program at Lake Superior College back in 2023. I wasn't able to start until 2025 though due to the high waitlist for this program. Before joining this program I knew nothing about electricity and I had no past experience with it. I choose this field to help my mother. My mom is on low income and we live in a home that is little over a hundred years old. The electricity hasn't been updated since 2004. Although this isn't terrible at some point our home could potentially not be up to National Electrical Code (NEC) and that is a risk I am not willing to personal take. I have always had an interest in going into the trades because I love being hands on and want to do something productive with my time. Being an Electrician will not only benefits me, but will also benefits others in the future. I recently was able to speak with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). This is a union group that came to Lake Superior College to teach us the benefits of joining the union. After speaking with IBEW they showed me that my time in this field is valuable especially for the high risk job that electricians do on a daily basis. My current goals are to first finish school at Lake Superior College, second join the union and start my apprenticeship, and 3rd become so comfortable working with residential wiring that I can upgrade the electric on my mothers house. These are not short term goals and they will take me an extensive amount of time, but by the end I will be able to say that I did it. Since this cannot be done over night, I do need some help along the way. As I stated before my mother is on low income, this last summer before starting school I was working three different jobs to help keep us afloat with groceries, propane, household necessities and others. Receiving scholarships has allowed to me quit two of the three jobs I was working so I could focus more heavily on my schooling. My future career is extremely important to me and will be providing a lifestyle that my family has never been able to experience. Scholarships will allow me to focus on schooling so that I am not consistently worried about how the next meal or bill will be paid in my household. I’m currently working towards a better future not only for myself and my family, but for the couple who just bought a new home, and when they walk in the front door they don’t have to think twice about the lights not turning on properly. For the future hospitals and business that will need to be built and specifically wired in a certain way so they are up to code. For all the future people of society that will not have to think about plugging their laptop into outlet or screwing in a light bulb. I’m doing this not only for me, but for them.