Hello, my name is Emberlynn Thayer and I am a low income student attending Stevenson High School and a Running Start program at Clark College. I am pursuing a dream in business and would like to have a chance to continue my education after High School. I have a few future goals in mind for myself, starting off with graduating with a High school diploma, bachelor’s degree, and finding a business that I can put my trust in and be financially stable. Personally I wasn’t interested in anything until last year which was my sophomore year. At the time, I wanted to work on myself and figure out my future and I ended up enjoying the aspects of business. The moment I figured out what I wanted to do, signing up for Clark’s College Running Start program was about to close and I am so lucky that I was able to get in before the deadline, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten a good opportunity to start half of two of my future goals. Clark College doesn’t have a program for finance but they do offer classes with credits to transfer to another college with a finance program, which is helpful to me because I will have two years of college credits and I would only have two years to finish to graduate with my bachelor’s degree. To be fully honest I wan’t a future that is stable, and stability in this generation is low due to inflation on everything. I believe my future in business will help me significantly with feeling secure and happy. Although financial stability is a wonderful feeling, I want to be happy as well in what I am doing. Statistically, 60 percent of U.S. workers are unhappy with their jobs and get a negative impact like burnouts, low recognition and health issues. That is what I do not wan’t, I want a life where I am financially stable, happy, and can live how I want to live and not live by an impending doom of miserable problems. I believe business is right for me and I wan’t to pursue my dream. You don’t need college for every job, but what I wan’t requires higher education and I am willing to go on that journey, but financially that is difficult. I would appreciate help to achieve my goals in my future career, thank you!

First, I’d like to start off with a little bit about myself. My name is Emberlynn Thayer, I am 16 years old, and currently a junior in Stevenson Highschool. I am planning to apply into Pullman’s college after highschool and I need a lot of financial support to be able to continue my education. Tennis is what I love and look forward to the most. I’ve been playing since freshman year and I fortunately got varsity my second year playing doubles with my bestfriend. Since freshman year, my coach has put my bestfriend and I against varsity players which I believe helped us with a lot of our skills. The varsity players were sharp but we were able to create rallies. We both got many compliments from varsity players and coaches from different schools, half of them not believing we were freshman which made us proud of ourselves even if we lost a game. One of my proudest moments during freshman year was in Hoodriver, Oregon. It was very windy and I and my partner haven’t played in such a condition and that made it difficult at first, but, we eventually had a strategy that worked despite it being super windy. It was my proudest moment because once we had a strategy against our oppents, they were having difficulties receiving. Not only that but I overheard that their coach said not to hit towards me because I will always get the ball in no matter how short or far, which boosted my mood. After that game their coach personally went up to me and complimented me on how I always got the ball in and also inputting that I looked effortless hitting the ball back to my oppents. Another one of my proudest moments during a game was sophomore year, it was the first match of the season. I and my partner were varsity players for the first time and that made us feel very nervous. I love telling this story to others because the girls we were playing had poor etiquette and the game lasted two hours. During the first match we were tying at first but unfortunately our oppenents got ahead of us, it was 2-5. It was our oppenents turn to serve and my teammate was crying under her sunglasses because she felt she was playing bad. At the same time my partner was saying sorry to me, our oppents were saying the score(which they called wrong) and then giggled. Hearing that made me angry, and hearing my teammate apologize made me more upset because she shouldn’t have apologized, and I told her “Don’t be” when she said she was sorry, and my words made her realize something. They served to me and I hit it where they couldn’t get and when they served to my partner she did the same. Eventually we had to do a tie breaker, 7-0. The next match we had to do another tie breaker, 7-1. Our coach was so proud and so was the rest of our team. I’ve learnt a lot from coaches and varsity players on the team, not only them but the opponents I’ve played against from other schools. From them I learned proper tennis etiquette, form, vollies, quick reflexes, quick thinking, etc. It shapes my future because I always look forward to it, I learn so much from it, and it’s a hobby my friends and I love to do. And during summers I join a tennis camp, and even now during the cold months I still practice tennis because I enjoy it a lot!