Sabrina Carpenter has been in my life since she was in Girl Meets World. My sister would watch it all the time and I would watch and seeing her be an actor to singer is such a cool and inspiring thing. Sabrina Carpenter has been through things of course mostly from her being an actor then a singer. Sabrina has shown me that even if you want to do something in life you can switch and maybe be even better at one thing then the other like how Sabrina was an actor to an amazing singer this has shown me that we can change what to do in life. When I was little I dreamed of being a chef but once I got into high school I didn't know what I wanted to do which was shocking because I've always wanted to be a chef but then I had trouble. Then Finally realized I wanted to work with kids and I want to be an occupational therapist for special needs children. I realized this is what I was made to do it was something I became passionate about like Sabrina with her music. I feel that Sabrina has helped a lot of people with showing her confidence and determinations and life.

My name is Chantal Griego I am 17 gonna be 18 on January the 18th. I live with my mom and dad and two older siblings. I am from a Mexican family my mom is a US citizen and my dad is an immigrant. Me and my family cherish family It's one of the most important things to us we always say Griego's stick together. I love my family with all my heart and love watching movies with them me and my sisters are huge musical nerds. I have chosen my field which will be an Occupational Therapist because this Career is something I'm passionate about since I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent. I have always been interested in helping kids and wanting kids to have happy lives where they can thrive. I work for an after school program called thrive and seeing them succeed and smile always makes me so happy and helping the kids always make me feel so proud so working for kids and helping them everyday would be such a rewarding thing to do for work. I want to make an impact in the world for the reason that there's not a lot of Occupational Therapists for special needs in the field and I want to lift some parents from losing hope and help them believe that theirs someone out there who cares about their kids and want to help them succeed in life. One of the reasons why this is my dream job is because I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through everyday and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through daily. I want to be someone that people can trust either if it's physically or emotionally and I want parents to come to me. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . I'll be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids'brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I also want to be educated with the body and mind so if anyone asks what I do or a kid does I can explain what I do and when I talk about it I'll always have a smile on my face knowing I'm actually educating someone with this kind of education. I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.

My name is Chantal Griego I'm 17 years old gonna be 18 on January 18th. I live with my mom and dad and two siblings. I'm the youngest of my two siblings 28 and 24. I come from a Mexican family who cares deeply about family and that's the most important thing to us. My Father is an immigrant and my mom is a US citizen. I care about my family deeply and wish to always make them proud. I have chosen my field which will be an Occupational Therapist because this Career is something I'm passionate about since I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent. I have always been interested in helping kids and wanting kids to have happy lives where they can thrive. I work for an after school program called thrive and seeing them succeed and smile always makes me so happy and helping the kids always make me feel so proud so working for kids and helping them everyday would be such a rewarding thing to do for work. A goal that I want is to finish collage because both my sisters left college after the first year and I am determined to make my mom and dad and my family proud of me. Right now money is scares so with this scholarship would help my parents pay for classes and books and maybe a computer for school. I want to be able to take some stress and weight from my mom and dad so they can breathe more easily. I've been determined to always work hard in my classes to get better chances to get scholarships. I want to make an impact in the world for the reason that there's not a lot of Occupational Therapists for special needs in the field and I want to lift some parents from losing hope and help them believe that theirs someone out there who cares about their kids and want to help them succeed in life. One of the reasons why this is my dream job is because I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through everyday and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through daily. I want to be someone that people can trust either if it's physically or emotionally and I want parents to come to me. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . I'll be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids'brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I also want to be educated with the body and mind so if anyone asks what I do or a kid does I can explain what I do and when I talk about it I'll always have a smile on my face knowing I'm actually educating someone with this kind of education. I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.

I have chosen my field which will be an Occupational Therapist because this Career is something I'm passionate about I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent. I have always been interested in helping kids and wanting kids to have happy lives where they can thrive. I work for an after school program called thrive and seeing them succeed and smile always makes me so happy and helping the kids always make me feel so proud so working for kids and helping them everyday would be such a rewarding thing to do for work. A goal that I want is to finish collage because both my sisters left college after the first year and I am determined to make my mom and dad and my family proud of me. Right now money is scares so with this scholarship would help my parents pay for classes and books and maybe a computer for school. I want to be able to take some stress and weight from my mom and dad so they can breathe more easily. I've been determined to always work hard in my classes to get better chances to get scholarships. I want to make an impact in the world for the reason that there's not a lot of Occupational Therapists for special needs in the field and I want to lift some parents from losing hope and help them believe that theirs someone out there who cares about their kids and want to help them succeed in life. One of the reasons why this is my dream job is because I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through everyday and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through daily. I want to be someone that people can trust either if it's physically or emotionally and I want parents to come to me. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . I'll be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids'brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I also want to be educated with the body and mind so if anyone asks what I do or a kid does I can explain what I do and when I talk about it I'll always have a smile on my face knowing I'm actually educating someone with this kind of education. I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.

When I was a child I first wanted to be a police officer one of the first things half of kids want to be growing up. Then when I was in first grade that's when I really figured out what I wanted to be I wanted to be a cook of my own restaurant. I always had a passion for cooking for my family or myself. I wanted to make a restaurant with all different foods I didn't care if they were from different cultures I wanted to make everything so people from around the world could eat at my restaurant. I always wanted to name my place Holli's from tribute of my dog I've had for fifteen years. Even before she sadly passed I wanted to name it after my favorite family member. When I got to high school and freshmen year they ask what do you want to do for college I would answer without hesitation I want to be a chef and go into business. It was until sophomore year when they asked again and I hesitated I was so confused all my life I wanted to be a chef do something with cooking but when they asked what I want to go into I stayed still thinking. Did I really want this? Was I gonna be successful in this? Do I really love cooking? Do I love It enough to make a living out of it? For my Junior year I wondered what I really wanted to do with my life. It was until a trusted teacher told me "you should become an occupational therapist for special needs you have the patients and you work with kids I think you would do a great job." So I thought about it and did a lot of research about the job and what they do and I realized helping kids figure out ways to live a life where they can do things for themselves without so much help and be independent is such a rewarding job. When I sat with my counselor and she asked me what I wanted to do I sat up smiling as I said I wanted to be an Occupational Therapist. This Career is something I'm passionate about because I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent. I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . Ill be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.

In January of 2024 I lost my Tia from my dads side she was my dads younger sister. She was always so happy full of life and always made sure to put my dad in his place which was something he needed.My dad ha a drinking problem and my Tia was the one to always say something when he would yell at me and my sisters and she lived in Mexico and she would visit a few times a year for a month sometimes more. I love her so much and thought I'd have more time but life makes unexpected turns. Her passing was a heart break for my family but I know shell always be watching over me and my family. Her passing has made me think about how short life could or can be and how we need to seize moments that can make us succeed. This experience has shown me to appreciate what you have and don't take family for granted because you don't know how long you'll have with them till its over. you can never really overcome a tragedy like this but how you can heal and try overcoming it is by never taking people for granted and appreciate everyone in your life because once their gone you'll never know how much you needed them till their gone. This scholarship will help achieve my goals in collage by lifting some weight from my parents their always doing so much me for and my sisters and this Scholarship would really help them including me into doing what I really want in life. I'm planning on being an Occupational Therapist for special needs kids. This Career is something I'm passionate about because I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent . I want to make an impact in the world for the reason that there's not a lot of Occupational Therapists for special needs in the field and I want to lift some parents from losing hope and help them believe that theirs someone out there who cares about their kids and want to help them succeed in life. One of the reasons why this is my dream job is because I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through everyday and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through daily. I want to be someone that people can trust either if it's physically or emotionally and I want parents to come to me. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become .

I have chosen my field which will be an Occupational Therapist because this Career is something I'm passionate about since I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent. I have always been interested in helping kids and wanting kids to have happy lives where they can thrive. I work for an after school program called thrive and seeing them succeed and smile always makes me so happy and helping the kids always make me feel so proud so working for kids and helping them everyday would be such a rewarding thing to do for work. A goal that I want is to finish collage because both my sisters left college after the first year and I am determined to make my mom and dad and my family proud of me. Right now money is scares so with this scholarship would help my parents pay for classes and books and maybe a computer for school. I want to be able to take some stress and weight from my mom and dad so they can breathe more easily. I've been determined to always work hard in my classes to get better chances to get scholarships. I want to make an impact in the world for the reason that there's not a lot of Occupational Therapists for special needs in the field and I want to lift some parents from losing hope and help them believe that theirs someone out there who cares about their kids and want to help them succeed in life. One of the reasons why this is my dream job is because I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through everyday and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through daily. I want to be someone that people can trust either if it's physically or emotionally and I want parents to come to me. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . I'll be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids'brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I also want to be educated with the body and mind so if anyone asks what I do or a kid does I can explain what I do and when I talk about it I'll always have a smile on my face knowing I'm actually educating someone with this kind of education. I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.

Ring ring! The alarm clock is silent then in a moment it starts to ring and move violently until the person turns it off or it will keep going. What I have carried since I was a little kid in elementary was anxiety and worry . Like an alarm clock I would be fine then out of nowhere I would panic and think the worse till my panic passes or I distracted myself. It's a burden to carry this , I never wanted to leave the people I knew .I have always wished to put it down and let it wash away like when the rain takes all the trash with it and carries it into the drain to never be seen again. The anxiety had always been there, but one day when I was 15 it became apparent to others I needed support. I never really noticed or thought about my anxiety as something unusual until I would get panic attacks from just being with people I didn’t know or didn't want to know.When I was younger I never knew I had anxiety my parents just thought I was to embarrassed to do things , I didn’t want to go to school and when I didn’t want to do school spirit , scared I would be the only one, looking at the dates to make sure it's the right day. When I was younger I would have never thought all my worries would be anxiety or depression. Going into high school it started to get worse panic attacks like a cat okay with life then the tiniest thing triggers making it worse than it should be. My feelings of not wanting to be a burden to people with my thoughts . I never opened up to people scared of judgment or looks saying It's not bad, it could be worse. So I always said “suck it up it could be worse right?” I never realized that saying that every time I was scared, angry, sad or having panic attacks just made it worse. Once it was enough I would burst not realizing that’s not emotionally healthy at all. Finally having the courage to ask my mother if I could get help even if its just a therapist So after months of convincing her she finally let me have one and it was working having to force myself to talk I didn't realize till then how much hurt and sorrow I had till my first session. After a few sessions she finally asked that I should get medicine because my anxiety levels were through the roof it was so high like a balloon just kept going up till it was too late to stop. So again after months of convincing my mom she let me get checked. I also didn't realize how bad it was till the doctors told me I had multiple anxiety disorders out there and they're all sky rocked. After that I got medication and it’s been a lot better not as bad as I use to be but it will always be with me Even though it's a struggle, it's who I am . My goal for this is to get better every step of the way even though it's gonna be little steps. At the end the alarm clock will start to soothe itself only ringing once in a while and someday the alarm clock will no longer work and the cat will finally be able to sleep peacefully.

What I have carried since I was a little kid in elementary was anxiety and worry . Like an alarm clock I would be fine then out of nowhere I would panic and think the worse till my panic passes or I distracted myself. It's a burden to carry this , I never wanted to leave the people I knew .I have always wished to put it down and let it wash away like when the rain takes all the trash with it and carries it into the drain to never be seen again. The anxiety had always been there, but one day when I was 15 it became apparent to others I needed support. I never really noticed or thought about my anxiety as something unusual until I would get panic attacks from just being with people I didn’t know or didn't want to know. When I was younger I never knew I had anxiety my parents just thought I was to embarrassed to do things , I didn’t want to go to school and when I didn’t want to do school spirit , scared I would be the only one, looking at the dates to make sure it's the right day. When I was younger I would have never thought all my worries would be anxiety or depression. Going into high school it started to get worse panic attacks like a cat okay with life then the tiniest thing trigger something making it worse than it should be. My feelings of not wanting to be a burden to people with my thoughts . I never opened up to people scared of judgment or looks saying It's not bad, it could be worse. So I always said “suck it up it could be worse right?” I never realized that saying that every time I was scared, angry, sad or having panic attacks just made it worse. Once it was enough I would burst not realizing that’s not emotionally healthy at all. Now I started taking medication and it has helped me through schooling and working better with people I don't know but still sometimes it comes back but everyday I work with it and you realize its who you are. Pursuing a college degree is important to me for many reasons one is I want my parents and family to be proud of me because my sisters lasted a year in college and quit when things got hard but I'm determined to finish collage and go through my hardships like I do with anxiety. What I want to be in life is an Occupational Therapist for special needs kids and a degree would help where I want to go. This career is really important to me because I have multiple close cousins that have Autism and knowing that I could help them and other families with hardships is the reason why an education and degree is so important to be. With this scholarship it could help me achieve my dreams.

My heritage has shaped how I am today because my people are very hardworking culture we understand the meaning of hard work to get what we want. My mom and dad are both Mexican and work hard for where they are. They know that working hard is a reason for where they are. It influenced me to work hard and try even if you fail you can try again till you achieve your goals. A goal that I want is to finish college because both my sisters left college after the first year and I am determined to make my mom and dad and my family proud of me. Right now money is scares so with this scholarship would help my parents pay for classes and books and maybe a computer for school. I want to be able to take some stress and weight from my mom and dad so they can breathe more easily. I've been determined to always work hard in my classes to get better chances to get scholarships.I'll be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids'brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I also want to be educated with the body and mind so if anyone asks what I do or a kid does I can explain what I do and when I talk about it I'll always have a smile on my face knowing I'm actually educating someone with this kind of education. I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.

In January of 2024 I lost my Tia from my dads side she was my dads younger sister. She was always so happy full of life and always made sure to put my dad in his place which was something he needed.My dad ha a drinking problem and my Tia was the one to always say something when he would yell at me and my sisters and she lived in Mexico and she would visit a few times a year for a month sometimes more. I love her so much and thought I'd have more time but life makes unexpected turns. Her passing was a heart break for my family but I know shell always be watching over me and my family. Her passing has made me think about how short life could or can be and how we need to seize moments that can make us succeed. This experience has shown me to appreciate what you have and don't take family for granted because you don't know how long you'll have with them till its over. This has also shown how much of the glue she was for my grandparents house and siblings because my family in Mexico don't get to get her as they use to but they still would check on their little sister and the house but now that she passed its a piece that's missing and that house is just a symbol of what it use to be. This has shown me we never know how much time we have so we need to work hard for what we want and what we want to be in life. I want to be able to accomplish life so when the time comes I know I did the most I could and me and my family are proud of what I did. It's been a rough year not being able to see her cheerful smile and loud laugh she always has opinions and she spoke her mind not caring if someone agreed or not. For a while I was learning Spanish more and more because I wanted to be able to talk to her more but I never got the chance to. Sometimes I wonder if its still worth it but I think I still have my dad and other Tia's and Tio's and my nieces and nephew I can learn for. I had to really think that I wasn't the only one affected She was loved by many friends and coworkers. we all grieve differently but we all grieved together she shaped my life in ways I can't even explain but I'm gonna work hard for her.

I'm a 17 year old going to be 18 in January. I am a big family person and I love to socialize with them. I am a very happy person and I have always been a jokester but I also am a serious person when it comes to my studies. I love to help people. I've never been able to walk past someone who needs help even when I was a kid it was dangerous to help strangers but I couldn't stop myself from giving a hand to anyone who needed it. Even for the Hispanics that needed help with translating things like their orders or ask me questions when they couldn't speak English and even though I don't really know Spanish that much I still tried my best because I didn't want that person to feel helpless. This scholarship will help achieve my goals in collage by lifting some weight from my parents their always doing so much me for and my sisters and this Scholarship would really help them including me into doing what I really want in life. I'm planning on being an Occupational Therapist for special needs kids. This Career is something I'm passionate about because I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent. I want to be someone that people can trust either if it's physically or emotionally and I want parents to come to me. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . Ill be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.

Since I was a little kid in elementary I had anxiety and worry . Like an alarm clock I would be fine then out of nowhere I would panic and think the worse till my panic passes or I distracted myself. It's a burden to carry this , I never wanted to leave the people I knew . My mom always had to tell me when I talk to adults to look at them in the eyes I could never do that from the awkward and scared pit i felt in my stomach so when I was a kid they tested me for autism since that is a symptom but I didn't have it. I have always wished to put it down and let it wash away like when the rain takes all the trash with it and carries it into the drain to never be seen again. The anxiety had always been there, but when I was 15 it became apparent to others I needed support. I never really noticed or thought about my anxiety as something unusual until I would get panic attacks from just being with people I didn’t know or didn't want to know. When I was younger I never knew I had anxiety my parents just thought I was to embarrassed to do things , I didn’t want to go to school and when I didn’t want to do school spirit , scared I would be the only one, looking at the dates to make sure it's the right day. When I was younger I would have never thought all my worries would be anxiety or depression. Going into high school it started to get worse panic attacks like a cat okay with life then the tiniest thing triggers something making it worse than it should be. My feelings of not wanting to be a burden to people with my thoughts and feelings . So I never opened up to people scared of judgment or looks saying It's not bad, it could be worse. So I always said “suck it up it could be worse right?” I never realized that saying that every time I was scared, angry, sad or having panic attacks just made it worse day after day . Once I couldn't take it anymore I would burst not realizing that’s not emotionally healthy at all either . Finally having the courage to ask my mother if I could get help even if its just a therapist So after months of convincing her she finally let me have one and it was working having to force myself to talk I didn't realize till then how much hurt and sorrow I had till my first session. After a few sessions she finally asked that I should get medicine because my anxiety levels were through The roof it was so high like a balloon just keeps going up till it's too late to stop. So again after months of convincing my mom she let me get checked. I also didn't realize how bad it was till the doctors told me I had mostly every anxiety out there and they're all sky rocked. After that I got medication and it’s been a lot better not as bad as I use to be but it will always be with me. Even though it's a struggle, it's who I am . Hopefully as I progress I can get better with different strategies and different people to help me through the way. Something that Ill help with recovery is asking for help when I need it and not to just sit there and make it worse and that's what I'm planning to do is help myself and others in the same issue

I have chosen my field which will be an Occupational Therapist because this Career is something I'm passionate about since I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent. I have always been interested in helping kids and wanting kids to have happy lives where they can thrive. I work for an after school program called thrive and seeing them succeed and smile always makes me so happy and helping the kids always make me feel so proud so working for kids and helping them everyday would be such a rewarding thing to do for work. A goal that I want is to finish collage because both my sisters left college after the first year and I am determined to make my mom and dad and my family proud of me. Right now money is scares so with this scholarship would help my parents pay for classes and books and maybe a computer for school. I want to be able to take some stress and weight from my mom and dad so they can breathe more easily. I've been determined to always work hard in my classes to get better chances to get scholarships. I want to make an impact in the world for the reason that there's not a lot of Occupational Therapists for special needs in the field and I want to lift some parents from losing hope and help them believe that theirs someone out there who cares about their kids and want to help them succeed in life. One of the reasons why this is my dream job is because I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through everyday and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through daily. I want to be someone that people can trust either if it's physically or emotionally and I want parents to come to me. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . I'll be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids'brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I also want to be educated with the body and mind so if anyone asks what I do or a kid does I can explain what I do and when I talk about it I'll always have a smile on my face knowing I'm actually educating someone with this kind of education. I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.

My whole life my parents have always said you can do it you just need to work hard if you really want it and if you fail suck it up and try again. The word Success means the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. I think the meaning of success is so much more. Even though success means to accomplish what you're doing sometimes it's harder to do so but if you keep trying to get what you want I think that's success. Not giving up on what you want is success. If you fail but you get up and keep trying till you get it that's a success. The meaning of success means a lot to me I want to be able to graduate and make my parents and family proud seeing them proud of me is success. My family has always lost hope with graduating collage my sisters both left collage and I'm determined to see it through and make my parents proud and If I graduate It will feel like me and my family graduated together because their the most supportive people with whatever I want to do. To succeed in college has always been a goal for me. This scholarship will help achieve my goals in collage by lifting some weight from my parents their always doing so much me for and my sisters and this Scholarship would really help them including me into doing what I really want in life. I'm planning on being an Occupational Therapist for special needs kids. This Career is something I'm passionate about because I want to be able to help kids work on daily needs so they can live a normal life where they can do simple things for themselves and be independent. I have close cousins with Autism and I see the struggles they go through and I want to be able to lift their spirits plus the parents from the stress they go through. With this scholarship Ill be able to take psychology classes which will help me get to where I want to be and what I want to become . Ill be able to take multiple classes about the adult brain and child development on how kids brains work. With these classes Ill be able to do more for special needs kids and understand the body and be able to be my own Therapist where I work for myself . I want to be able to understand the development of the kids and how to help them with their daily needs. This Scholarship will help achieve my dreams.