My name is Chloe Thompson. A few things you should know about me are that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, and I am a full-time college student attending Baker College to earn my bachelor's degree in Marketing and Finance in Michigan with a 4.0 GPA. I am a full-time pharmacy technician, a full-time wife, and a full-time student. When I'm not at work, cleaning my house, studying for a test, or volunteering at my church, I can be found crafting or journaling and praying. Some volunteering experience I have include participating in my Church's food distribution day. We are partnered with Compassion Ministries, who provide us with food to fill over 100 baskets to prepare and give away to our community. Being blessed enough to be a part of giving back has been not only eye-opening but life-changing. We get a lot of the same people in our lines, and I'm one of the people who put the baskets in the cars, so I get to hear their stories and pray with strangers, to then see them next month and hear of their testimonies that have happened because of prayer. Being able to participate in my church's food distribution has shown me that blessings can come in many shapes and sizes. Being able to connect with strangers is a very unique experience that I recommend everybody should try at least once. Volunteering not only helps people in need, but it also allows you to see God working in other people's lives, and then you get to share those stories with other people who can relate and see God work in their lives too. God called us to not only be fishers of men but to love one another, and making sure people have full groceries for their families is one of the ways that we can love others. In this day and age, we get people of all kinds, including ungrateful ones, and it's very hard to see the bigger picture sometimes. But those are the people that I really think about. Even if they were nasty and wanted to feel like they were pulling one over on us, we end up getting the last laugh because God's working in their life whether they like it or not. When I get to talking with some of the people in our lines, I hear a lot of people say that these baskets really help them and their families because living expenses are so high, and I can agree. With the cost of living rising and everything being so expensive, getting a little help once in a while is a blessing in itself. Being a full-time student and going to work full-time means I'm paying out of pocket for a portion of my tuition. I have been blessed with an academic scholarship that helps pay for part of my tuition but not all of it. The money from this scholarship will help me be able to pay for the rest of my tuition for either this year or next year and potentially even my books. I thank you for this opportunity to share my story and apply for this scholarship.

Scholarships are amazing tools that assist millions of people with the cost of tuition every single year. The ability to give individuals a chance to earn their degree and follow their dreams is a huge gift that many companies and organizations invest in. With the cost of living going up and the average personal debt amount skyrocketing, not only is it an amazing opportunity, but a blessing to be able to apply for scholarships and grants so that students have an opportunity to better their lives with a degree without worrying about going into debt. I am beyond grateful to have the opportunity to go to college and pursue a degree that I believe is going to help me in my long-term career, but this journey has not been an easy one. Life doesn't stop when unexpected things happen. My entire life changed in 2024. Not only did I get engaged and then married 6 months later, but we were also in the process of getting a house, starting my first year in college, and I was taking on the responsibility of working solo at my corporate job at Henry Ford for the majority of the time. To say my life was chaotic would be an understatement, and by the good grace of God, I got through it in one piece. I wouldn't change a single thing that happened because, among the chaos, were little blessings. Some blessings included my friends and family coming together to help me pull off a wedding I wasn't sure I could do, all of my needs being met exactly when they needed to when I was worried about our house not being ready after we were married for 3 weeks, or the long nights I had to stay at work past my shift time just to meet a stranger on the street and show them a little bit of kindness. If anybody reading this has ever been married, I challenge you to think about your first night after the ceremony, feeling that immense relief that the biggest day of your life was coming to an end, and you were finally with your favorite person and you probably felt like it couldn't get any better. That's how I felt after my wedding ceremony. I was the happiest, and the most tired, I'd ever been in my entire life. Until I found out that I didn't have to pay for college. And dare I say my wedding became the second happiest day of my life. So, how will the scholarship affect me and benefit my future? It will not only bring me peace of mind knowing that my hard work won't be sabotaged by the ever-lurking fear of debt, but it will help me achieve the knowledge that I need to run my business and give back to my community with opportunities not present in my hometown.

I am the type of person who loves to push myself to my max, whether that is at the gym, or at work, or when I am completing a personal project. I used to believe that success was the label you earned once your entire life was perfect. It was only obtained when you had the perfect family, the perfect house, and the perfect job. Now I have grown to realize that perfect isn’t real and success is a personal race. The pressure I put on myself to accomplish my goals was created because I have a very high standard for myself because I know I can succeed at anything I put my mind to. I define success for myself as being a better person today than I was yesterday, even if I am only 1% better. Becoming the most successful version of myself has been hard but worth it. It started when I was researching the habits of successful people and the top 3 habits that stood out to me the most were very simple. Wake up before 7:00 am, have self-discipline, and read consistently. These habits gave me a vision for my future self. They allowed me to set goals and start creating a life I could one day call successful. Since 2022 I have incorporated these new habits into my daily life, and I understand why these highly successful people do it. Waking up earlier has allowed me to get more done throughout my day, the self-discipline habit I adopted was going to the gym regularly which helped regulate my mood and build my confidence, which are both attributes that successful people have, and since embracing daily reading I have completed over 12 nonfiction books. When I think of success I almost always think of failure. I am not afraid of failure, I embrace it. Understanding that failure is an opportunity to grow and start again is one of the most important lessons anybody can learn. I have found that the hardest part of success is not failure, it is the doubt and criticism that comes from other people who can’t see your vision and sometimes it’s the people closest to you that put the most doubt in your heart. When I decided I wanted to make a change, I was surprised to find out how many people were calling me crazy. I was being told to lower my standards and ask for less, I was told I didn't have enough education to make a difference in the world, but I can’t believe that. The only voice successful people listen to is the one rooting for them in their heart. Success to me is not just about completing the goals I give myself; it's overcoming the lies that the world tells me I can't do because I'm too small, or not enough. Success is understanding that I have the ability to achieve anything I put my mind to because the potential that is within me is greater than the fear that is in the world.