My mother has never settled for anything but the best for herself. I am the oldest of three, and as I grew up I watched my mother chase her dreams. My mom had decided that when I was born that she would stay home and take of me. She made sure that I was always fed, that I learned new things daily, and most importantly she made sure that I knew she loved me. After having two more kids my mom approached my dad. She wanted to pursue her career. I remember my mom talking to my dad and feeling discouraged because she only had a associate's degree in arts. My father supported her decision and told her to follow her dreams. For weeks mom applied to different jobs only to be rejected. It would be discouraging to anyone. Yet, each morning she woke up and went to work finding a job. She never gave up. Even though she spent the majority of her time applying for jobs, she still had time to be a part of the family. My mother's example showed me how to persevere. How to be single-minded in your goals and never stop trying. She also showed m how to love my family and how to be loved by my family. She was still my mother after all. Finally, mom got a job working as a florist. She had never worked as one before and designing floral arrangements scared her. Yet, every day she woke up before 6 in the morning and went to her job. She worked there until we moved to a new state. Within the first week of moving to a new state, my mom was already working for another florist company. She excelled and the owners told her how amazing her work was. But as life goes, the owners ended up selling the business several years later and mom was left without a job. Did she give up? NO! She decided to make her own business. 7 years later, my mom has successfully started her own floral business and she has won best florist of South Sound for 5 years in a row. My mom went from not knowing how to be a florist to the best florist in our region. My mother's career odyssey started 13 years ago. I share this little story about my mom because without her influence I wouldn’t have such a strong conviction that I can be, do, and have whatever I desire. I know that if I work hard and never give up that I can achieve my dreams. I have learned through personal experience and my mom's story that life doesn’t always go the way we want it to go, but we are the captains of our fate. We get to decide how our life turns out. If we pursue our dreams with all our hearts, then they will happen. My parents have been my biggest support in my decision to pursue marine biology. They have never been the richest and paying for college is a burden on the 3 of us. But, I know that in the end things will work out. I know this because my mother taught it to me. I also know that I can make my dreams a reality. I am determined to be a marine biologist. I have my parents to thank for showing me how to never stop trying.

Every day I grace the world with my perfected presence. Honestly, it's so hard being this perfect but being so broke. Don't people realize that I should automatically qualify for free money based on having so many great ideas? For example, I have single-handedly come up with a solution for war. Just don't fight each other; talks things out. My career goal is to be a marine biologist but basically, all I want to do is swim with sea turtles and take Instagram-worthy pictures of marine life. I want my friends who decided to do something boring like accounting to be jealous of how I get to swim with dolphins. Saving the environment is also important, because how else can I get the star quality wildlife pictures. An obstacle I have overcome is when I was riding the bus back home from diving, I got a bad case of a rumbly tummy. Home was still an hour away. I wasn’t going to make it. Soiling my pants was also not an option. So, I raced off the bus into the nearest bushes. Just in the nick of time, I made it. From that experience, I learned patience and perseverance. I learned how to endure hardship and take every opportunity given.

Education is such a fundamental value in our society. I know that some people say that getting a proper education isn’t for everyone and that you can succeed in life without one. While in some cases this is true, I believe that getting a fulfilling education can help us learn and improve essential skills in life For example, when pursuing an education a student learns how to communicate ideas, process information, and construct complex ideas or theories. Looking at education from the worldview only helps to enhance this perspective. Education involves far more than just schooling. It includes learning different skills and understanding various cultural backgrounds. I have been blessed with an opportunity to pursue my education at a school that has a higher population of international students than it does domestic United States students. I go to BYU-Hawaii. Because there are more international students, my campus is a mixing bowl of cultures and ethics. The schooling only goes so far, but learning from other people and learning how to create meaningful connections through culture takes the college experience to a whole new level. I have learned much from different cultures. More than I would have learned if I hadn’t decided to pursue my education. For example, I have participated in “culture nights” that teach the students how other people live. I have walked away from these experiences feeling enlightened. If I am lucky I may have even picked up a new recipe from a different culture! I have also learned how to communicate my thoughts clearer and accept people for who they are. People from around the world have inspired me to change how I live my life. The more I have learned from my fellow classmate the more I have seen that the world isn’t always as it seems. Just when you believe you have everything figured out; you learn something new about a culture or a topic. I believe that is what education is all about. Learning and growing constantly throughout life. Our education doesn’t stop once we graduate from college. It is a collected knowledge over decades of experience. The world has so many things to teach us. Once that knowledge is collected it shouldn’t be stored in just the vaults of our memory but it should be shared for all to have access to it. That is how education has shaped my worldview. We live in the information age with the answer to just about everything at our fingertips. There is one thing that the internet cannot give us though, and that is experience. Education is all about experiencing the world for how it is. Then we take what we have learned and change our lives, community, and the earth based on that knowledge. The world is full of opportunities, and education is the vehicle to those opportunities

When I took calculus the math was hard and I couldn't understand why I would need this in my life. However, Thanks to calculus when I took an advanced physics class I was able to see how important calculus was. Calculus is used in understanding motion, how electricity moves and acts, and any other spectrum as well from light to harmonics. Calculus is hard to understand, but calculus is in every physical aspect of our world. Aside from the direct applications of calculus, critical thinking in calculus is reverent to the STEM field. It encourages the participant to think of solutions that can be out of the box and practice problem solving that has a multitude of steps to it. Doing calculus requires patience, time, and energy. It is a good benchmarker for STEM workers because oftentimes the answer isn't obvious. Calculus also helps STEM workers practice both accuracy and precision much like a lab experiment requires. Calculus even applies to my major of marine biology. Calculus is used to help explain ocean waves, tectonic plate movements, currents, and even the salinity of the water. We wouldn't know as much about light absorption and the color spectrum without calculus. Light absorption in the ocean is important. The amount of light that is absorbed determines what ecosystem that part of the ocean has. As an aspiring marine biologists knowing the ocean's ecosystems through calculus only improves our understanding of the world.

One of humanity's greatest inventions is language. Language allowed us to communicate thoughts and turn ideas into reality. Our brains are complex structures. We have between 12,000 to 60,000 different and unique thoughts a day! Being able to communicate and bridge the gap between persons is what led everything that we have and everything that we hold dear to today. To understand another human we must be able to communicate with them but also to hear what they are saying Actively listening to people is more than listening to the words that they are saying. It is about creating a connection with someone. We all want to be heard. We all want to be feel like someone understands us and that we belong. Listening to others shows that we cherish their ideas and respect their opinions. To help show that I am actively listening, I often mirror the last thing that they told me. For example, if my girlfriend tells me that she is excited that she saw a dog today, I will first get more excited and ask her " you saw a dog today" !? This shows that you are paying attention to the key details of people's lives. To show active listening I will also ask them questions about what they are telling me and from that, I will reference it later on in our conversation. Active listening is all about showing interest in what others have to say. This being said, there are times when someone is talking to me and I don't care for the topic, but they do. When that happens, I will still be invested and involved in what they are saying. Not because I don't want to hurt their feelings, but because I care about how that person feels.

The top three things on my bucket list include getting certified as a diver, traveling to Nuie, studying octopuses, and documenting or observing them. I am currently working on getting my diving certification. I will be an open water diver that is certified to dive at 18 meters or 60 ft. Getting certified to dive has been expensive but I needed my certification for my career choice. I want to be a researcher marine biologist. On my last dive, I got to fulfill the third item on my bucket list. As we were diving our divemaster found an octopus and I got to observe it, touch it, and even hold it as it latched onto me. I loved that. It fueled me to keep studying octopuses and to keep diving. All of the things on my bucket list involve my future career choice. For example, going to the little pacific island Nuie is on my bucket list because Nuie has a vibrant coral reef system. Not many people live or travel to Nuie so the marine ecosystem is rich and full of things to discover. Something that I haven't mentioned as part of my bucket list is to help promote climate awareness and be a contributor to changing how we fix climate change. This is on my bucket list because not many people are aware of what is happening to our climate. The effects are being felt tenfold on marine ecosystems with coral bleaching and rising ocean acidity. I want others to enjoy the things on their bucket list in the future. That can only be possible if we work to change the Earth now. That is why I am applying for this scholarship. To get the right education so I can help save our ecosystems.

What I do to relax and take care of my mental health is I try new recipes weekly. I have a list of over 600+ recipes given to me from family members, friends, grandmothers, and sometimes pried out of communities. I love to cook. It soothes me to be able to see my creations come to life. The most rewarding part is tasting the result. Most of the time I am satisfied with the taste. If not I have already gone through a list of different spices or combinations to try next time. I usually cook for myself but I also like to help others' mental health by having them try my food. Most people agree that it is delicious. Food is a wonderful remedy in correct proportions. I learn about other people and their cultures through cooking. I have found that food is a common "remedy" for mental health problems. I don't specialize in any ethnic food. I try all cultures food. From Hispanic to Russian I will make it all. After a good meal, if I still need to destress I will meditate while listening to a self-help book. I will take notes and find ways to apply what is being taught to my own life. That is how I changed my outlook on life. I used to hate change thinking that it was bad. Thanks to the self-help books and my meditative state I now welcome change. Going further, I can thank taking time for myself and listening to my body for my optimistic outlook. I was inspired by the self-help books to be more adventurous in my cooking ability. Once I made my first meal, I was hooked. I still struggle ( as we all do) but I have a good coping mechanism in place.

My favorite hobbies include snorkeling, underwater photography, and scuba diving. Ever since I was a little kid I have loved marine life and the ocean. I knew from an early stage that I wanted to be a marine biologist. When I have free time I love to go snorkeling or scuba diving to see amazing marine life. I live in Hawaii, which in my opinion is one the best places to live to see marine life. This last Saturday my scuba diving group was out diving and we encountered one of the rarest mammals you can encounter. We were all swimming along and suddenly a Hawaiin monk seal started to swim around us. We respectfully kept our distance but he was curious about us. Our divemaster told us once we surfaced that the chances of seeing a wild Hawaiin monk seal were extremely rare. unfortunately, they are an endangered species. I love the ocean and I love to see all the beautiful creatures that live in it. I want to protect these creatures so that way future generations can learn about them and enjoy sharing the world with them. My hobbies typically blend into my career. As an aspiring marine biologist I take every chance I get to be in the water and observe the ocean. To help me in my further research and discoveries I am applying to this scholarship. This scholarship will help fund my education on marine life so that way I can more fully protect the marine ecosystem. That would include educating future generations, taking part in environment clean-ups, and promoting safer and cleaner energy by further shedding light on current pollution issues.

One thing that gives me hope in the tumultuous world is human kindness. Not everyone is kind and not everyone will show kindness. But, to those who do, it uplifts society. We all have our problems and sometimes we are in over our heads. We are not sure how we would be able to keep pushing forward. Then out of the darkness comes a beacon. This is the act of first engaging someone and second lifting some of the burdens off their shoulder. Each of us is trying to be like Atlas; holding the weight of the world on our shoulders. We are all trying our best. Yet when someone enters our lives and shows us kindness it makes life even more bearable. It reminds us that we are all in this together and that life is better when we work together. Kindness comes in many forms. From a friendly smile to assisting someone in need. For example, on my campus, I have a job where I take out the faculty housing trash. It is not a pleasant job, but it helps pay the bills. There is a little 3 year- old boy who races to see me and wave every morning without fail. At first, this was cute and now I find it endearing. It makes taking out the trash worth it. Now, when the boy sees me he races up to me to help me take out the trash. In turn, I pick him up and help him operate the trash truck. We are both showing kindness to each other. The boys' mother tells me that my interactions with him make his day. To that extent, I can say the same. This small act of kindness changes my whole mood. It takes me out of the slums and brightens my day. Little does this boy know that he inspires me to be kinder and to help others when I see they are in need. Hope can be a fragile thing. It can be crushed easily, but hope is also persevering. Hope can become an engulfing fire out of a tiny spark. I believe that kindness is this spark. If we were all kinder to each other we would be more open to understanding. Understanding would create an environment of acceptance. Ultimately, in the end, acceptance would give people a brighter sense of hope

If I had a 1000 dollars right now I would take 140 dollars out of the initial amount and use that for groceries. I can live off of 140 dollars in Hawaii for 2 weeks. With the rest of the money, I would use it to pay off part of my tuition. Any little bit that I can use to pay off my tuition is a god send.

Not many people know what they want to do with their lives growing up. I am part of the rare few who knew what I wanted to do with my life at an early age. When I was 6 my parents took me to the Seattle aquarium. I fell in love with everything that I saw. At that moment my life was changed forever. It was my lightning in a bottle. Since going to the Seattle aquarium I knew I wanted to study marine life. I knew I wanted to protect and preserve the ocean's beautiful life forms. From that point, I have chased this dream with enthusiastic zeal. With every challenge, I have found a way to overcome it just so that I can make this dream a reality. I applied to schools that had amazing marine biology programs. Eventually, I got accepted into BYU- Hawaii. There are moments in all of our lives when the opportunity falls into our lap. We can either take the chance or we can pass up on the opportunity. I knew that if I wanted this dream to develop I had to take a leap of faith. Like almost all college students, I don't have the finances to be secure in pursuing this dream. It can be stressful not knowing where the funds will come from. To pay for my dream, I work several jobs and pay every penny I can for schooling. But, I know every penny is worth it. I know that if I get the proper education and training that I can make a difference in saving our oceans and the wildlife that lives in them. I will raise awareness about ocean pollution and how we can reverse its effects. I will also help conserve our great reefs that host millions of species. I will research marine life and give a perspective about the ocean. We depend upon the ocean to survive as a species. Without the resources found in the ocean or marine life, we could face catastrophic consequences. It is my goal to help preserve the oceans so that future generations can be enchanted by the discoveries to be made in the ocean.

Ask anyone and they will tell you that they have had their fair share of challenges that are unique to their life. Life is full of suffering. It cannot be avoided it is part of the human experience. This being said, we are not defined by our suffering, we are defined by what we choose to do when we are suffering. When we hit our lowest point we are open to our greatest change. Those who find meaning in their suffering are melded stronger. My challenges were unique to me. A few years ago I found out that I had a genetic mutation that only 20% of the population of the world have. I was born with an extra bone in my ankle. This wasn’t a bone spur or anything like it but an actual bone. This bone wrapped around my ankle next to my Achilles heel. Most people with this bone go their entire lives without problems with this bone. This was not the case for me. My entire life I never had any problems with this bone. I actively played sports and was generally pretty active. I was unaware I even had this bone. I grew up in a religion where we go on missions to share our beliefs and help communities around the world. I made the decision that I wanted to do that in my life. I wanted to help uplift others wherever I could. I got assigned to go to Baltimore, Maryland. This mission would last 2 years. I would be away from friends, family, and even college for 2 years. I was not swayed because I knew there were people out there who needed my help. As I was out I happen to twist my ankle one night. I thought I was fine. I thought it was a normal twisted ankle. So I gave it a week. Well, a week turned into 2 weeks, then that turned into a month. The pain kept getting worse. It was excruciating. It felt like someone was beating my ankle with a white-hot spike. Doctors couldn’t figure out what the problem was. They ran tests, gave me shots, and pills but nothing was working. I could barely walk now. On top of that, I was still on my church mission. So I was still out every day helping people even though I could barely walk. I felt pain with every step. This ordeal lasted 9 months. I was always in constant pain and agony. But I didn’t quit. I had work to do. So I would grit my teeth, take my pills and do whatever I could in my condition. After 9 months of almost unbearable pain, the doctors decided I needed to get surgery to get my extra bone out. What had happened was the bone had been moved out of place and was scraping against my Achilles heel with every step. I was sent home to get surgery. Once the bone was removed I was faced with a new challenge. I had to relearn how to walk. This process was slow and in some ways equally challenging. After 6 months of physical therapy, I was stable on both feet. Now, 2 years later it's as if nothing ever happened. I tell this story to people to show them that there is always a way. We can make our dreams become reality. We can do hard things. From this experience, I have strived to uplift and encourage others. We all go through challenges. But that doesn’t mean we have to go through them alone.

We are all born with a clean and empty slate. As we grow, we experience things that change our perspective on the meaning of life. Some find meaning in religious pursuits, others find meaning in the pursuit of achievements, while others find meaning in things found both in the world and of the world. To state that the meaning of life is just one secular thing would be too broad a generalization. This being said, we all strive towards one common goal. The pursuit of happiness. The most common underlying tone of everything we do is for the pursuit of happiness. Happiness comes in many forms and is specific from person to person. There is nothing more fulfilling than feeling safe, secure, and having our dopamine receptors activated. My pursuit of happiness is striving to be a marine biologist. I believe that this is one of my missions in life. To fulfill my meaning of life, I learned how to dive. By getting my diving license I opened up more opportunities to be a marine biologist. Alongside that, I go snorkeling almost every week. When I am not in the ocean studying marine life, you will find me learning all I can by focusing on my classes. I know that these classes will catapult me, further along, to being a marine biologist. To me, there is almost nothing more fulfilling than following my dream. Our dreams give us hope for a better future. They push us to go beyond our current capabilities. Looking back at all I have achieved for my dream I get help but feel proud of myself. I did hard things to get where I am. It has all been worth it. That to me is my meaning of life.

When I am put in a mentoring position there are a couple of things I want those in my tutelage to learn and understand. The first thing I want them to discover is that nothing is impossible. It doesn't matter what their background is; they can overcome their environment. They can achieve whatever they dream of. I try to portray this by uplifting conversation and pointing out to them how they can do hard things. Life is hard for everyone. We all have our own ordeals, but that doesn't mean we can't overcome them. When people get discouraged,( which happens to us all), I like to remind them to look back at what they have already accomplished. We are often more successful than we give ourselves credit for. Another thing I want them to realize is that it is ok to both need and ask for help. We all have different skills and abilities. My weaknesses might be another's strengths. When I find myself mentoring someone I try to uplift their weakness. Just because we have weaknesses doesn't mean that we are useless. We can all contribute to building a better world together. Ask questions, learn new things, and challenge yourself constantly. We are all here to learn and improve. One of the last things I want them to realize is that I wasn't the one who made them successful. They were! They saw what they wanted and they worked hard for it. I was only in their lives to give them a gentle nudge in the right direction. We all need somebody who supports our goals and decisions. When we falter on those dreams; we need encouragement to keep trying. I was just a rock to just help steady them

It would be fair to assume that Covid-19 has created havoc in all our lives. Everybody is tired of the negative things that Covid has brought unto us. Despite all the negatives, some positives came from Covid in my personal life. Before Covid struck, I was struggling to find a job. I kept getting rejected. After our first national lockdown was over I applied to a small delivering and installing company. They needed a driver because their previous driver quit. I was more than qualified and got the job. This job not only helped me pay my bills but also helped me save for college. In September of 2020, I did something that some considered strange and outlandish. I started applying to colleges. My thought process was my application might stand a better of being accepted in a global pandemic. Not only did I get accepted into a college, but it was also the college of my dreams. All my life, I have dreamt of being a marine biologist, so I wanted to go to a school that had an amazing marine biology department. I wasn't going to let a global pandemic stop me from chasing my dreams.

My all-time favorite scientific discovery was when scientists found that they could replicate, alter, and reprogram genes and DNA. This is a broad discovery with many applications. For example, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna are working on a tool that can alter DNA. The use for this is we could start to eliminate hereditary diseases or help people with cancer. We aren't there yet but we are working on advancements that could take us there. We are also researching to see if limb regrowth is possible. From hereditary diseases to missing limbs, DNA could be the key to fixing such problems. The more we learn about our genes and DNA the better we can advance our lives. When we make advancements in our lives our technology gets better, our learning increases, and overall there is just a betterment of life.

Album/playlist name: The Illusionary paradise paradigm artist name: Lil' depresanxiety 1) Ten Thousand Hours by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis- The mood that this song captures is that Macklemore has put in some much time and energy chasing his dreams. He is finally seeing the results of all his hard work. He puts in ten thousand hours to be where he is. He has achieved many of his goals. The subtler message behind this song is that even while he is chasing his dream he is struggling with personal demons. Life isn't perfect. This is my first song because I am following my dreams but I have struggled to get here and am struggling to stay here 2) Don't Throw Out My Legos by AJR- This song has a vibe of nostalgia to it. AJR mixes beat with emotions to express how hard it is to grow up. We all long for days that have passed. AJR talks about how they don't want their parents to throw away their legos in case they come back home. This song makes me think of all the good times that I have experienced but it also makes the listener feel excitement for moving on with their adult lives. 3) Electric Love by B0rns - This song makes your pulse jump and showcases the emotions you feel when you are in love. Part of my dream was to go to Hawaii for schooling. Once I made it here, I fell in love with the islands. The song also makes you feel adventurous to go explore the world around you. To make memories that you will cherish as you grow old. As the song states being here feels "like lightning in a bottle" and I can't " let you go now that I got it" 4) Can't Sleep by K.Flay - this vibe describes the whole student experience. From the long nights of studying to trying to fit in. We are discovering who we are and what we truly want. While we struggle to fit in and be ourselves. We also get a sense that the world is in our hands 5) Cloudbursting Kate Bush- This song gives the vibe of getting back on your feet when you are knocked down. We keep trying because we hope for a better day. We put in all this hard work in our lives because we feel it will be worth it. 6) Industry Baby by Lil Nas x - This song may be newer but what a vibe it captures. This song is all about triumph and overcoming hard things. This song captures the feeling when we meet our goals. Even though my college experience is hard I feel such pride when I prevail in harder courses or classes.

Legacy. That is a word that carries some weight to it. We are all looking to leave our mark on the world. Some do this by completing grand accomplishments or becoming powerfully wealthy. For me, legacy is not only about what you leave behind, but what you teach others along the way. Many life lessons can't be taught outside of experience. For example, when I was growing up my parents struggled to make ends meet. One of our biggest struggles was when my father lost his job. That was our main source of income. The very next day my father applied for a job working at 7-Eleven. There is nothing wrong with working at 7-Eleven, but my father has 2 master's degrees in psychology. He was willing to swallow his pride and take a low-paying job to provide for his family. Early on this showed me what hard work and determination really are. Sometimes you have to roll with the hand life deals you. This did not sway my father he kept working at 7-Eleven until he found a better job. He never gave up. He showed me that if you want something bad enough you can conquer any obstacle in your way. Life might not go the way you expect or want it to so you have to be patient and work hard for what you want most in life. That has stuck with me to this day. I have followed my dreams, I had to go through some tough times to get where I am now, but the end goal is worth it. That is a legacy my parents have left for me. No dream is impossible. I see many people who dream of a bigger or better life but they get discouraged when an obstacle. Life was never meant to be easy. We shouldn't let our trials slow us down. They are to build us up and make us stronger. That is the legacy I wish to leave when my time is done. I want to help others know that their dreams can become reality.