In late 2015, I began my journey in the Cosmetology industry, pregnant and working towards a career that could support my growing family. With my due date quickly approaching, I took a school break to focus on motherhood and raising my son. My son was born three weeks early due to liver and gall bladder complications I faced during gestation. I had craved motherhood for so long, it was everything I dreamed of, but unfortunately, after two short months on this earth, my son passed away, a victim of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).  This loss devastated my entire family and threw me into the most profound depression of my life. I was at a crossroads; I had to decide how to channel this absolute grief and loss. Would I turn to addiction like so many in my family? Or would this be a chance to push forward towards my goals more determined than ever? I returned to Cosmetology school and graduated nine months after my son passed away, driven to succeed for myself and my son. Losing Dante was by far the most tragic, devastating event of my life, but it taught me so much. It showed me a kind of strength that I never knew I possessed, a persistent, iron-clad will and self-assurance that I can and will weather any storm. I have drawn on this experience to drive my personal and professional goals, knowing that my self-doubts and limitations are the only things standing between my dreams and aspirations. I have considered what I want to leave behind in this life since realizing how quickly life can change after the untimely death of my infant son. I hope to leave my future children and the world a wealth of knowledge regarding Hawaiian culture, history, and language. Anthropology led me down the perfect path: studying people and cultures. My goal is to pursue a long-term study of native Hawaiian culture and history and contribute to the cultural renaissance occurring in the islands. This scholarship would dramatically affect my ability to attend school with a mind free of stress and financial worry and dedicate myself to absorbing and participating in classes, field trips, and other community-organized events. One of my goals is to develop a non-profit foundation focusing on cross-cultural education from various guest lecturers or teachers. I genuinely believe that learning from others is invaluable. As someone adopted and raised outside of her ancestral culture, plenty of people lack access to traditions or languages within their own family. Imagine a community center with different guest lecturers every week to teach various classes and workshops. From dance workshops to cooking lessons and language classes, I want these centers to be a haven for learning about the world around us, and I want it to be affordable to everyone at either no cost or low cost per class. If I could only leave one thing behind, it would be a network of resources to enable people to connect with different cultures and reconnect with their own and provide financial assistance for underprivileged students. Investing in today's youth brings tomorrow's breakthroughs, and I want to give that opportunity to as many people as possible.

"What is a legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see." A beautiful quote from the award-winning musical Hamilton sums it up beautifully. A legacy is your life's work extending beyond your own and influencing the future. I have considered what I want to leave behind in this life since realizing how quickly life can change after the untimely death of my infant son. I hope to leave my future children and the world a wealth of knowledge regarding Hawaiian culture, history, and language. I also want to develop a non-profit foundation in the future focusing on cross-cultural education from a variety of guest lecturers or teachers. I genuinely believe that learning from others is invaluable. As someone adopted and raised outside of her ancestral culture, plenty of people lack access to traditions or languages within their own family. Imagine a community center with different guest lecturers every week to teach various classes and workshops. From dance workshops to cooking lessons and language classes, I want these centers to be a haven for learning about the world around us, and I want it to be affordable to everyone at either no cost or low cost per class. If I could only leave one thing behind, it would be a network of resources to enable people to connect with different cultures and reconnect with their own and provide financial assistance for underprivileged students. I thoroughly believe that investing in today's youth brings tomorrow's breakthroughs, and I want to give that opportunity to as many people as possible.

I am very blessed to be able to live the life that I currently have, and there is not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for all I've been able to see and accomplish. My life's dream has always been to travel the world and learn from different countries, cultures, and societies. It is a personal goal of mine and a professional plan. As an anthropologist, there will be times when I will move into a new community to observe how they function and research a particular topic. Open-mindedness and compassion will be essential to surviving in new and unknown environments. By traveling and learning, I aim to expand my worldview and knowledge and share parts of my culture with those who are kind enough to share with me. As someone adopted and raised outside of her ancestral culture, plenty of people lack access to traditions or languages within their own family. I want to develop a non-profit foundation focusing on cross-cultural education from various guest lecturers or teachers. I genuinely believe that learning from others is invaluable. Imagine a community center with different guest lecturers every week to teach various classes and workshops. From dance workshops to cooking lessons and language classes, I want these centers to be a haven for learning about the world around us, and I want it to be affordable to everyone at either no cost or low cost per class. A network of resources enables people to connect with different cultures, reconnect with their own, and provide financial assistance for underprivileged students. I thoroughly believe that investing in today's youth brings tomorrow's breakthroughs, and I want to give that opportunity to as many people as possible.

In late 2015, I began my journey in the Cosmetology industry, pregnant and working towards a career that could support my growing family. With my due date quickly approaching, I took a school break to focus on motherhood and raising my son, born three weeks early due to liver and gall bladder complications I faced during gestation. I had craved motherhood for so long, it was everything I dreamed of, but unfortunately, after two short months on this earth, my son passed away, a victim of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).  This loss devastated my entire family and threw me into the most profound depression of my life. I was at a crossroads; I had to decide how to channel this absolute grief and loss. Would I turn to addiction like so many in my family? Or would this be a chance to push forward, more determined than ever, towards my goals? I returned to Cosmetology school and graduated nine months after my son passed away, driven to succeed for myself and my son. Losing Dante was by far the most tragic, devastating event of my life, but it taught me so much. It showed me a kind of strength that I never knew I possessed, a persistent, iron-clad will and self-assurance that I can and will weather any storm. I have drawn on this experience to drive my personal and professional goals, knowing that my self-doubts and limitations are the only things standing between my dreams and aspirations. I have experienced things that some people haven't experienced in eighty, something I wouldn't wish on any rival. Because of this, I wake every morning grateful to be alive and ready to pursue my goals until they become my reality.

"Life's a mountain, not a beach." I think everyone has eaten Chinese food and received a fortune. Whether it's a good, bad, mediocre fortune, they're always fun to read. This one, however, has stuck with me long after the takeout food. I received this fortune six years ago after a devastating loss in my family, and it pulled me through a lot of tough days. We all have tough days, months, or even tough years, but I think it's important to remember that it doesn't last forever and that life will be full of mountain peaks and valleys. Without the adverse events to give us perspective, we could never appreciate how precious the positive moments are. Without light, there is no shadow, and without day there is no night. Life is no different, and we have to appreciate the good things while overcoming the bad and unforeseeable. I deeply sincerely believe that some tragedies occur to place us on our track. To make it through this thing we call life, we need to have an element of flexibility to us and be aware that we cannot control everything that lands in our paths.

I am very blessed to be able to live the life that I currently have, and there is not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for all I've been able to see and accomplish. My life's dream has always been to travel the world and learn from different countries, cultures, and societies. It is not only a personal goal of mine but also a professional goal. As an anthropologist, there will be times when I will move into a new community to observe how they function and research a particular topic, and being independent will be essential to surviving in new and unknown environments. By traveling and learning, I aim to expand my worldview and knowledge and share parts of my culture with those who are kind enough to share with me. Without this sense of independence, I don't think I would have achieved half of the stuff that I have performed at this point in my life. There was a time when I relied on other people for my safety and security, but I realized that I had so many more options when I could choose those things myself.

"What is a legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see." A beautiful quote from the award-winning musical Hamilton sums it up beautifully. A legacy is your life's work extending beyond your own and influencing the future. I have considered what I want to leave behind in this life since losing my son and realizing how quickly life can change, for better or worse. I hope to leave my children and the world a wealth of knowledge regarding Hawaiian culture, history, and language. I also want to develop a non-profit foundation in the future focusing on cross-cultural education from a variety of guest lecturers or teachers. I genuinely believe that learning from others is invaluable. As someone adopted and raised outside of her ancestral culture, there are plenty of people who lack access to traditions or languages within their own family. Imagine a community center where there are different guest lecturers every week to teach various classes and workshops. From dance workshops to cooking lessons and language classes, I want these centers to be a haven for learning about the world around us, and I want it to be affordable to everyone at either no cost or low cost per class. If I could only leave one thing behind, it would be a network of resources to enable people to connect with different cultures and reconnect with their own and provide financial assistance for underprivileged students. I thoroughly believe that investing in today's youth brings tomorrow's breakthroughs, and I want to give that opportunity to as many people as possible.

There is still a significant stigma surrounding mental health and receiving treatment and therapy in the United States today. I am an outspoken advocate on mental health and its importance in self-care and pop culture. Both in my career as a hairstylist and with friends, I am adamant about destigmatizing mental illness and am willing to be an open ear for advice for both friends and clients. Sometimes they need to vent, and other times, they need some friendly advice. Regardless of what is bothering them, I am always supportive and aim to help alleviate their problems like I would want my friends to support me. If not through supportive words and advice, I love cooking and baking delicious food for my friends to help lift their spirits. Cooking with herbs and spices helps lift the mood and energy, and there are few things better than sharing good food with good friends.

Growing up as an only child with few friends, I struggled a lot early in life with making conversation and connections with others. However, as I've grown and become more confident, I am a much more outgoing person and have had an easier time making friends. My career as a hairstylist has pushed me to become more social as it's now part of my job, but I have extended these social skills from just my career into my personal life, and it has helped me communicate more effectively. I have always suffered from anxiety, especially when speaking in front of large groups. Still, my job and friends have helped me step out of my small box, and I have greatly enjoyed being a more outgoing, charismatic person instead of being quieter and reserved. Of course, there are always ways to improve existing skills, like practicing more public speaking or singing karaoke, which is my preference. I look forward to continuing to pursue more knowledge and improving my varied skill set.

If someone told me ten years ago that I would become a hairstylist and pursue a second career in anthropology, most likely, I would have laughed them off because my life plan looked drastically different at seventeen. I suppose I didn't have a plan at seventeen, and I harbored quite a bit of anxiety about going to college for something I didn't enjoy and sending my single father into debt. I never intended to become a hairstylist but fell into the craft after becoming ineligible for military service, my first plan. I enrolled in summer 2015 at two months pregnant, excited to pursue a career to support my growing family. My pregnancy was high risk due to liver problems, and I gave birth in early February 2016. My beautiful son was born, and unfortunately, two short months later, he passed away in his sleep, leaving my world and life plans in tatters. The next six months were a blur; I returned to beauty school and returned to working as a server. My son's father and I grew distant, unable to bridge the gap between us with communication. Less than a year after our son's passing, we went our separate ways, and the following summer I moved from Gettysburg to Philadelphia to start a new chapter in my life with my new career. I have been in Philadelphia four years now and I have come so far since losing my son in 2016. He is my primary motivation and has kept me going through the ups and downs. I strive to become a better person for myself and also for my son, who I know is watching over me.

As an individual, there are numerous ways a person can reduce their carbon footprint and positively impact the environment. I use reusable shopping bags and water bottles to reduce plastic waste, and I also drive a car that gets great gas mileage per gallon. I live close to my job, and I will occasionally walk to work if the weather permits. My shower also has a low-flow showerhead to conserve water. I am attending the University of Hawaii for my education, and Hawai'i has a very delicate ecosystem and leads the world in species extinctions. Part of living on an island is also helping to improve its conditions and reduce the prevalence of litter and trash around. Our future depends on a collective effort by people worldwide to reduce their carbon footprints and hold companies accountable to effect long-term change. It is as much my responsibility to hold large corporations accountable as it is to hold myself accountable.

In late 2015, I began my journey in the Cosmetology industry, pregnant and working towards a career that could support my growing family. With my due date quickly approaching, I took a school break to focus on motherhood and raising my son. My son was born three weeks early due to liver and gall bladder complications I faced during gestation. I had craved motherhood for so long, it was everything I dreamed of, but unfortunately, after two short months on this earth, my son passed away, a victim of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).  This loss devastated my entire family and threw me into the most profound depression of my life. I was at a crossroads; I had to decide how to channel this absolute grief and loss. Would I turn to addiction like so many in my family? Or would this be a chance to push forward, more determined than ever towards my goals? I returned to Cosmetology school and graduated nine months after my son passed away, driven to succeed for myself and my son. Losing Dante was by far the most tragic, devastating event of my life, but it taught me so much. It showed me a kind of strength that I never knew I possessed, a persistent, iron-clad will and self-assurance that I can and will weather any storm. I have drawn on this experience to drive my personal and professional goals, knowing that the only thing standing between myself and my dreams and aspirations are my own self-doubts and limitations. I have experienced things that some people haven't experienced in eighty, something I wouldn't wish on any rival. Because of this, I wake every morning grateful to be alive and ready to pursue my goals until they become my reality. In the five and a half years since, I have flourished in my new found strength and experienced things I never saw in my future like moving two and a half hours from home with only the stuff in my car to traveling alone in Italy for 14 days and maneuvering the complexities of a new country and new language. My son showed me in birth, life, and death that the only thing holding me back from achieving everything I've ever dreamed of is my own anxieties and insecurities. Everything I do is to honor my only son's memory and to try to make the world a place I would want to raise him or a future sibling in.

I have always been fascinated by Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night Sky and have recreated the painting in numerous mediums in my life. As someone who struggles with mental illness, art is an escape for me and I often imagine what Vincent's average day was like around the time he created this masterpiece. The dynamic energy of the Cypress tree compared to the still quiet town below the hills is breathtaking and every stroke has such variety in color, no matter how many times I see it, I still find new colors in the sky and the earth. There is something very symbolic about the way the cypress tree reaches towards the heavens and the moon while the world is asleep that gives the painting its unique dynamic. Seen through Van Gogh's artistic lens, it's a beautiful way of showing that we are all similar yet different (same paint strokes, different colors).

Throughout history, numerous women have influenced the events of the world, whether from the front lines or a supporting role. One woman in history that I admire and would love to have a conversation with is Queen Lydia Lilioukalani, the last reigning monarch of the kingdom of Hawai'i. She faced many obstacles in her life but handling a military occupation was, by far, the most renown. Hawai'i was a sovereign nation with a King or Queen until the United States miltary occupied the islands in 1893. The Committe of Safety led by Sanford B. Dole charged Queen Lilioukalani with treason, a crime punishable by death. She was not executed but instead inprisoned in her palace, Iolani Palace in Honolulu for 9 months while they took control of the island. If she contested, they assured her they would kill everyone on the islands, so she begrudingly took her sentence. In her isolation, she sewed a quilt, composed multiple pieces of music, and also wrote an auto-biography of her life titled, "Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen." A tell-all of her childhood as a member of the royal family and of her life as the crown princess in 1877 to the overthrow in 1893 and beyond. The only connection she had to the outside world was a bouquet of flowers wrapped in the days newspaper that was regularly delivered to her. While some may say she didn't take enough action, refusing to engage has given Hawai'i the legal justification for restoring independence that many activists still seek out today. Queen Lilioukalani was a pillar of hope for the Hawaiian kingdom and continues to be one today in memory.

Since I was a child, I remember enjoying the summer storms and the winter snowfall. Unfortunately in recent memory, the seasonal weather has changed and climate change has worsened substantially in the last few years. There are more hurricanes, wildfires, and lightning storms than there have been since thee 1930s. Without addressing climate change, in a few decades, the world will not look the same and it will be our children and grandchildren who pay for it. There are multiple ways we can help reduce our carboon footprint as a species. On an individual level, there are numerous websites that allow you to take a quick survey to estumate your personal carbon footprint and ways it can be reduced. While this is helpful, over 70% of carbon emissions comes from large corporations and with continued support from the federal government, this won't change anytime soon unless we speak out against large corporate fossil fuel use and demand our representatives make changes. Just recently, the U.S. Senate passed the new Infrastructure bill that included resources for e-vehichle charging stations, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, However, this bill also included $10 Billion for new carbon-capture technology, which develops new means of harnessing carbon energy, instead of switching from carbon energy entirely. WIth tax incentives for alternative energy and tax hikes on fossil fuel use for corporations I believe this will have a large impact on fossil fuel use and the condition of the earth. I fear that people won't take the initiave to change until its too late.

I believe there are many practical solutions to address the mental health crisis today. As someone with ADHD, anxiety, depression and PTSD, improving mental health resouces is a very important cause to me, and many of my loved ones who suffer as well. Many Americans don't have access to proper/affordable mental health care due to lack of insurance, so making mental healthcare insurance more prevalent or easily accesible would dramatically improve the mental health of the entire population. Also providing mental health resources free for primary and secondary students during some of the most stressful periods of their life would show a hige improovement as well. This may also impact drug and alcohol abuse rates as many people use substances as a way to deal with trauma. Making mental healthcare more accesible will also reduce the stigma arorund seeking help for non-physical problems, which would help show others and encourage them to help as well. I believe also having more BIPOC practicioners in the medical and mental health fields will also help overall as unintentional racial and gender bias is still prevalent in the medical and mental health fields. Many people experience medical trauma as well and the root issue has to be addresed to solve the problem long term. By implementing various changes and improvements, mental health issues can be imporved dramatically which wil limprovee other areas as well. Lower drug and alcohol abuse rates, lower rate of suicide, domestic violence and other issues.