I have been involved in the marching arts for a total of eight years now, four of which have been in high school and the other four have been with various amazing and prestigious drum corps. The marching arts have shaped my life greatly by teaching me personal growth, discipline, and teamwork. I intend to pursue a career in business, I hope to be involved with the marching arts and use what I learned to teach and offer lessons to others. Receiving this scholarship will provide the support and opportunities needed to continue developing my skills and achieve my long-term goals. Each new season I have marched has taught me new and important qualities that I applied to my life. One of these qualities that has shaped me is resilience. Overcoming long days of rehearsal where my entire body tells me to give up and being able to persevere through challenges while still giving my all during performances were huge triumphs during my personal growth journey. I remember during my time with The Cadets in 2023 when we were about halfway through the season when one night after rehearsal, I got a call from my mom, and she told me my grandfather was in the hospital. The news was hard to process and made it difficult for me to prepare for the show we had the next day. I am grateful to the people around me that helped me get my head in the right place to perform my best for the show. I remember that show being one of my best performances and my grandfather made a good recovery. The marching arts is filled with challenges, and I believe that these challenges are what makes people truly grow and become better marchers, players, performers, and people. I have improved my musical and playing skills drastically since dedicating time to the marching arts. I learned quickly that preparation is the cure to lack of experience and this showed me that anyone can be great if they spend time and improve their craft. I have also applied that to other aspects of life such as school and work. It has made me prepare more and spend more time doing things correctly to improve efficiency. My future career aspirations are to work as a Data Analyst, while this is not linked to music and the marching arts. Through my experience I have learned ways to stand out and become a strong member of any future team I am part of. Thinking of my long-term goals I hope to still be a part of the marching and music world. I want to teach lessons and work as a technician for marching groups. I would like to give back and offer the knowledge I have learned to help build a new generation of musicians and performers. Drum Corps is an expensive activity, and I alone am not able to afford it. This scholarship would help by relieving me of some of the financial stress. I currently work twenty-five hours a week while attending school full time. With financial stress relieved I would be able to focus more on my schooling and on improving my musical, visual, and leadership skills to prepare for the summer. I am grateful for how the marching arts have shaped my life and taught me personal growth, discipline, and teamwork. In conclusion, the marching arts have not only shaped who I am today but also paved the way for my future ambitions. This scholarship would play a pivotal role in helping me further my education and continue pursuing my passion.

The fine arts have been a form of release and expression in my life. While pursuing this I have come to realize my love for music, my true financial situation, and how I use my brain. My life has been filled with many hardships but I have found love and joy through the arts, more specifically music as a form of art expression. I have discovered that I love music. Music has allowed me to meet new people and learn so much about myself. In sixth grade, I began playing the trumpet and have been playing for nine years now. When learning the teachers I met were great role models and allowed me to be shaped into a good human being. Throughout my time learning to play trumpet I was introduced to marching band. In high school, I was a part of the marching band program. This allowed me to learn how to march and it gave me a new appreciation for leadership and people skills. Throughout this time I discovered jazz and formed a new appreciation for it. Before this all I knew was classical and concert band music, so discovering jazz was refreshing and enlightening. My family was never financially well off. We always had to live on the cautious side and be wary of what we bought. Once I got into music I was always worried if I could continue because of the certain costs such as buying a trumpet, essentials, and trip costs. What made my obsession with my family's spending habits worse was my parent's divorce. They separated in 2015 and my mother and three sisters ended up homeless for about 6 months because it was either not safe to be near my father or we just didn't have enough money. Eventually, we found a place to stay and I could focus more on schoolwork and music. My mental health was slowly declining throughout all of this and it caused me to neglect music and focus on working jobs to help my family financially. Eventually, I was hospitalized because of my declining mental health. From here we only moved up and all began becoming more financially stable we ended up moving into a better house and my older sister and I were able to work and help my single mother financially and keep the house running. We are still in need of financial help. My brain is very analytical and intuitive. I always try to think realistically and positively I try to make people enjoy life so they don't need to experience the same things I have experienced. I have been diagnosed with depression, bipolar, and anxiety. These of course have altered the way I see the world but having lived with these disorders for years now I have learned to cope and still live a fun-filled life. I have learned to love life and not hate it. I aim to show people that loving life is not as hard as many people may think. I use both the left and right parts of my brain I believe I am more right-side dominated though. Conclusion: Music is an incredible art that is filled with many people who are filled with their problems and lives. I aim to teach new musicians and teach them to appreciate life through music and express themselves in new ways.