I am Chris Severson, a sophomore at Marquette University from the Fox Valley region of Illinois. I am an undecided business major between Human Resources and Supply Chain Management. Also, I am minoring in Psychology. Outside of my Marquette coursework, I work as a Student Manager in one of the dining halls, I am involved in the Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA), and Marquette University’s chapter of the A Moment of Magic Foundation (AMoM). When I was in high school, I was a volunteer in the Key Club chapter there. I did volunteer work such as cleaning up parks and donating canned food and clothing to people in need. Additionally, I have been volunteering as a Parade Pacer during the Saint Charles Electric Christmas Parade that goes on through downtown Saint Charles on the day after Black Friday each year, to anticipate and ring in holiday cheer to children and adults alike. I have done this since my junior year of high school and will continue to do it when I come home over Thanksgiving break. The jobs, clubs, and volunteering opportunities that I have been involved in at Marquette University, and in my hometown have channeled me to become a ray of positivity towards others, that takes pride in the communities I am a part of. My biggest life passion has been being a part of organizations that make a great impact in the lives of other people, whether they are my peers or underserved children. As a Student Manager at the dining hall, I make sure student workers are completing their tasks proficiently, and that new student employees are acclimated to their jobs and feel welcome. Also, I make sure that customers are enjoying their experience at the dining hall and come back there again for another meal. When I volunteer as a Magic Maker with A Moment of Magic Marquette, I get to see children have an awesome visit time with characters that came to visit. As a Magic Maker, I enrich the experience that the children have with the characters by making sure things run smoothly, and getting kids excited to see the characters visiting if they are not already. I accomplish this by using myself as a bridge between the kids and the characters, relating to both characters and kids at the visit. I will use the money from this scholarship to continue to serve the Marquette University community. I manage people in my job, and volunteer with A Moment of Magic and additional community service projects that are either on-campus or in the Milwaukee area. Like Coco Chanel, I strive to make everyone that I meet through the jobs and activities that I do feel valued and seen, because I believe visibility and self-worth are key components for making someone the best that they can be. Being a part of the LGBTQIA+ community has had a profound impact on how I accomplish my goals and dreams. It is part of why I am in the GSA at Marquette, because it is a safe space for LGBTQIA+ students and allies to hang out, talk, and do community activities together. In my major selection, I had known that there are not many LGBTQ+ students that choose to go down the path of being a business major. Business, particularly supply chain management and human resources, have been things I had been passionate about studying in school. Between my LGBTQ+ identity, and my place as a business major, it has taught me to forge my own path by being a representative for both of my communities.

My favorite aspect of Minecraft is planning and building new, fun, immersive things in the creative mode of Minecraft, while playing the game with my brother. This has resulted in having fun planning, building, and enjoying the completed Minecraft projects together. Building things in creative mode is something I really enjoy in Minecraft. Playing the game with my brother, Mikey, makes it even more fun, because he is another person to share building ideas with to make them even better. It resonates with me deeply because Mikey and I have a great time planning our world by choosing what and where to build things. The planning and designing of the structures in Minecraft is something that adds to the time spent playing Minecraft. When the buildings and other planned projects were built, they were not just blocks placed without a reason. Rather, they were placed and designed in a way to make the project that we would build to look the best it can. A couple of my favorite builds that I made with Mikey were a chicken restaurant named "Blue Bucket Chicken" and a haunted settlement that worked to tell and illustrate a scary story. Mikey had a great idea for a rotisserie chicken store called “Blue Bucket Chicken”, and we ended up building it complete with a bucket-shaped restaurant design, with blue and white exterior color choices. It’s safe to say that Blue Bucket Chicken lives up to its name from a design standpoint. With Mikey, I had also built a minecart-transit system that connects all the major buildings and villages known to be in our Minecraft world. One of the favorite things I have constructed in the world with Mikey, and I was for Halloween of 2021. I had surprised Mikey with building a haunted settlement in a spruce tree-lined forest. The settlement had a backstory to it, that its settlers had been killed by a fire, but a few of the settlers were still alive after the fire. Those who survived turned into zombies, with armor to protect them from the fire scars that they had never fully recovered from. Building the haunted settlement took multiple sessions of time on the world to build just right for Mikey to experience the whole building as I had intended him to. Behind the scenes, to make sure it stayed just a story, nether rack placed fire was on the roof of the settlement to prevent fire spreading past the settlement, and iron bars on the walls gave the appearance of the settlement in shambles. And, an empty castle moat was added to indicate that the settlers were mostly no longer active, aside from the few undead ones. Building and planning new projects in Minecraft’s creative mode is the part of Minecraft that resonates the deepest with me because of how I used it to foster time with Mikey. Coming up with new Minecraft projects, along with building them in the way they were designed, all take time. That time I spent planning and building things in Minecraft, is time well spent with my brother that I cherish.

The Nintendo game that is my favorite to play in co-op mode, is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch. The many game modes that Mario Kart has such as Versus and Battle, coupled with recent course expansion pack available for purchase, made the game timeless in playability for fun memories with friends and family. A fond memory of playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is when my brother Mikey and I played the game online over the summer of 2024. Mikey and I, after working jobs over the summer, would usually play Mario Kart as a way to wind down from the workday and have some fun, bonding with each other. A moment that was particularly memorable was when he and I were playing online multiplayer racing. We picked our character and vehicle combinations, Mikey picked Rosalina to play as because of her cool hairstyle, I chose Koopa Troopa because of him being a classic, iconic part of Mario-related games. Koopa Troopa was going to be riding a Sport Bike with roller tires and a Peach Parasol glider. Then, after Mikey picked his vehicle for Rosalina, we went to the course selection screen. Four course options were being presented, with one of them being a random course. The three known ones were Sweet Sweet Canyon, Grumble Volcano from the Wii, and Neo Bowser City from the Nintendo 3DS. Mikey and I thought about which one to play for only a few seconds, we both immediately said, “Neo Bowser City”, due to the dark, rainy skies, and a standing picture of Bowser on a screen in the course. As luck would have it, Neo Bowser City was the course chosen, Mikey and I had a blast playing it due to the rain on the course adding a slippery element to the course, it had fallen off the course countless times, making it a challenge. Additionally, the futuristic skyline combined with the images of Bowser added a nice touch to the course. The theming on Neo Bowser City made the course memorable, despite Mikey and I not doing the best in the race itself, as I had finished twelfth out of twelve racers, and Mikey finishing in tenth. After this race, it had increased the time I had played Mario Kart with him because of the fun memories made during that race regarding the course design. But the online Neo Bowser City race was the one that kept getting talked about over and over throughout the summer due to the course dynamics, along with me and him playing it with each other. That enriched the experience and made it significantly more memorable than if I had played it by myself.

I have learned to accept myself, for who I am in my life, and what my gender identity is. Before 8th grade, I had always felt uncertain about my gender identity, because I didn’t really fit in with most boys or girls at that time period, but I easily connected more with girls than guys. In health class that year, I had an awakening about my identity, when my teacher was explaining the gender spectrum, and it led to me realizing that I was non binary. Things finally made sense to me about how I was, and the tendencies that I had. Embracing my gender identity, as opposed to hiding me being different, has allowed me to be my true self, and develop meaningful relationships and fun times with my friends. Realizing who I am changed my perspective on life, because it allowed me to realize my passion for friendships that didn’t align with my assigned sex at birth, and for feminine clothing items that I can picture myself wearing and looking adorable in, was a key part of who I am. I am proud to be myself at school, being friends with people who support me, and I give support to as well, enjoying them for who they are. Accepting and realizing who I am, has led me to feel more confident in who I am as a individual, and express that through cool clothing pieces and outfits that I like to pair with each other, creating looks that are cute, comfy, and make me happy and confident!

I plan to leave an impact of kindness, positivity, and inclusiveness on the world, because those are the values that I see as important to the character of who people are. I plan to do this, by treating and serving others as I would myself, if not better than how I do myself. I am nice to others, noticing the good that they do, making sure that they are recognized and appreciate for those things. Also, I plan to support and be kind to my friends by attending their sports events, or helping out with fundraisers that my friends are doing for their clubs and activities. I am positive to other people, by being kind and seeing the silver lining in times that aren’t great. And, in times that are great, I like to celebrate them and have fun with my friends, for what either I or my friends had done that was worthy of celebration. Also, I support minority groups, especially LGBTQ+ individuals, because I am one myself, and I believe that being positive and open about who I am is a great way to change the way LGBTQ+ individuals are seen for the better, in the U.S, and in countries where people are discriminated for being LGBTQ+.

I live with gratitude and appreciate everything I have, by respecting what people had done to earn what they had given to me, and I am compassionate and kind to others. I live with gratitude, by serving other people before myself, and making sure to spread positivity in the school community, along with my job and home. I compliment others for things and outfits that look amazing, and things that go well. I make sure that other people are being accepted for who they are, and being recognized not just for the good that people see, but also how nice of a person that they are to be around. I appreciate everything that I have, by genuinely caring about it, not letting things that I have in my possession get treated badly, so it can maintain its value. I also appreciate time with my family and friends, by spending time with my family whenever I can, and going on fun vacations with them. I also spend time with my friends as well when I am free, and express my gratitude for the great relationships that I have with my friends.

Treating others with empathy is important, as it gives people a chance to be human and understand what other people are going through. In my life, and my experiences, I make sure to treat people with empathy, by providing sympathy for them when they aren’t in the best state of mind, mental or physical. If it is something physical, I make sure to help my friends with anything they need in terms of taking a load off of them, because I know that it is hard to do things while injured, and I want friends that are injured to recover well, and to do that I empathize with them, feeling sorrow for their pain that they are going through, and keeping an optimistic mind that the injured person will get better, along with telling them good news about things going on. If it is a mental issue, I try and emotionally cope with the pain that individual is going through, and understand it. I also try and help them succeed, by relating to them with any similar experiences in life that I have had. I also give them my phone number for support, so the person could reach me anytime that they would need to, and I would be there for them when they need someone to emphasize with them. In other cases, I show empathy by waving and saying hi, along with texting, to people who I can see aren’t happy, and want something to cheer them up. These are some of the ways that I show empathy towards other people:

To maintain a growth mindset, I try and focus, not on the negative going on right now, but instead on what I can learn from the mistakes I make, and how they can make me a smarter, and better person. In classes, when I didn’t do well on quizzes and tests, I reviewed them, looking at I did poorly on. I also looked at what went well, to build confidence in me. Then, I would prepare for the test if it was a quiz I didn’t do well, or try and schedule a retake if it was a test that I did worse than I expected. Socially, I also keep a growth mindset, by allowing change in society to happen, and trying to do better in games I play as well, thinking of and applying strategies I learned to those games. I also, have a positive outlook on my relationships with friends, trying to encourage a positive attitude in the times that we have together, and allowing me to help them when needed. I do this, because it allows my friends, to have a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset with only seeing the mistakes they made with regards to schoolwork. To conclude, I manifest a growth mindset in myself, by learning from my mistakes, and working hard to do better. I also help my friends with achieving a growth mindset, by pointing out their mistakes, and showing what could be done better.

In my life, joy means positivity and kindness going on. Being joyful about things has made a difference in my attitude of how I see things, looking for how good something can be, compared to having a glass half empty and judging things unfairly. I seek out joy in my life, by being a positive influence to others, being kind, and doing nice things to others. Some of the nice things I do, is supporting my friends at their events, giving them gifts for their recent accomplishments, making time to text, call, and hang out with them outside of school, and have fun together. I try and see positive things in the world, and focus on the memories of joyful times in my life, and see what I can do to have more joyful moments in life. I also take positive, calculated risks, to increase happiness and have more joyful moments in life, along with being proud of others for their accomplishments and risks that they have taken.

Giving is important to me, because it shows how nice of a person I am, and it makes me feel happy and good inside. It also makes me feel gracious for others, and me being kind allows me to do these opportunities often. I am a member of Key Club International, and currently have done volunteering projects, such as food drives, cards for veterans and senior citizens, and making dog toys. I have also done volunteer experiences outside of school, like assisting at a Cookie With Santa event put on by The Tri-Cities Mothers of Twins & Triplets Club. I try and serve the community, in ways of kindness and compassion. I also give items to my friends if they need anything. I give back to the community by going to school events, and spending money on concessions and merchandise when I can. It is important to support my friends, especially when they are doing well, in things that they care about, and I also like to give monetarily, hoping for long-term stability for events and businesses, as unfortunately some have closed over the past couple years, that I have enjoyed dining and shopping at.

Math is important, because I plan to go into the business field. It is important to know calculations, formulas, and more for this reason. It is also useful in my life for solving unknown variables and things like that. I enjoy taking Math classes, and currently am one year ahead of most juniors. I currently take Pre Calculus Honors this year, and have enjoyed the class, and have stuck with it despite it being challenging. With the class being challenging, that is a reason I took precalculus honors, is that it was challenging, and I would learn a lot if I did well, given how I have improved in prior math classes. I have taken more diligence towards my schoolwork, compared to when I was in 6th grade. I have had a growth mindset, and have gotten help when needed, and bringing a positive attitude to the classroom, along with getting my work done on time. I also see math as fun, because I like to solve problems, and figure out the number of solutions, whether there is one, and what it is, or infinite, or no solutions to the problem. Math will be important to me in the future, as calculating the right scale and measurements for cooking are important to ensure proper taste. Also, I enjoy learning about the different types of math, and using it to predict patterns that go on.