One of my proudest accomplishments is being a working student. I understand the challenges of balancing many responsibilities between work, school obligations, and personal time. In preparation for the costs of graduate school, I simultaneously held three jobs to fund my independent living and educational goals. I currently work in the childcare, customer service, and research fields. Each job has offered me the opportunity to learn valuable life skills, such as creativity, collaboration, and leadership. Working while in school has also taught me crucial money management skills that will carry me through the rest of my life. As I pursue my clinical doctorate in audiology this fall, I am prepared for the rigor and reward of such a program. I began working at the Recreation and Physical Activity Center (RPAC) at my university in 2021 as a way to connect with my peers and get involved in my campus community while making a little extra money. Through this job, I have had the privilege of working for a staff of over 100 people, all striving for different career and educational goals. I started as an assistant and worked my way up to my current position as a supervisor. Now, I oversee a staff of six people per shift at three different service points. I also have the privilege of training new hires. Because of this experience, I have learned the strength that diverse perspectives bring to problem-solving and leadership. I have also refined my leadership skills and grown my self-confidence. My job as a research assistant has pushed me out of my comfort zone in many ways and I am so grateful for the opportunity. My team is working on a child speech corpus with hundreds of transcripts and audio recordings that follow a comprehensive transcription code. Firstly, it is remote and requires personal initiative to meet my expectations. It has also increased my attention to detail. Part of my job has been checking each transcript and audio to ensure uniformity across the code. Finally, it has allowed me to give and receive constructive feedback professionally and respectfully, a skill that will be important in any workplace. I have worked as a nanny for seven years across three families. As a nanny, I have grown very passionate about the care and development of children of all ages. There is so much children can teach us, too. I have been with my current family since their baby was two weeks old. She just turned one last week. I love the trust and responsibility that comes with childcare and the bond between myself and the children I watch. Being a nanny has also inspired my interest in pediatric audiology, something I look forward to exploring further in graduate school. Working while in school has been a uniquely challenging and gratifying experience. I have learned so much about a variety of fields and myself. Because of my work, I have been able to provide for myself and pursue my dreams through higher education. I have developed prioritization and organizational skills and demonstrated a strong work ethic that will carry into my future as a graduate student and future audiologist.

In 2023, I surpassed my reading goal of 50 books, a goal I was proud to accomplish. I learned that when I let reading take me away, I can explore new perspectives as long as I am open to discovering them. With this in mind, I would have the world read Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This book hit me harder than I ever anticipated. I am not being dramatic when I say that this book changed my life. Braiding Sweetgrass is a collection of essays that combine Kimmerer’s scientific and Indigenous knowledge of the teachings of the living world. It is about the human relationship with the Earth, past, present, and future. I have been feeling disillusioned with the state of the world. I worry that the life I dreamed for myself since I was a child will never come to fruition. The cost of living is continually rising while wages are stagnant. We are witnessing acts of violence, murder, and war unprecedented in my conscious lifetime. Plant and animal life is extinguished before our eyes. On top of it all, incessant greed and overconsumption fuels everything and everyone around me. Braiding Sweetgrass made me feel connected to life again. Finally, I had someone else understand how I have been feeling because Robin Wall Kimmerer feels it too. I used a dual method of reading this book, both listening to the audiobook and reading the paper copy. When listening, I opted to walk around my neighborhood in the sunshine and breathe the fresh air. It felt as if Kimmerer was speaking directly to me. While reading, I was invited to consider the stories of several different nations, including the Potawatomi, Onondaga, and Ojibwe peoples. I could choose a piece from every single chapter that impacted me. It has been difficult for me to express in writing just how thankful I am that this book exists. I feel the lessons presented can apply to many different aspects of life. Kimmerer believes that we should work together with the Earth, like a team. The message I take from this book is the importance of connection with all living things and how we can take care of them through our gifts. I think everyone in the world deserves to hear that message.