My journey as a Christ follower has been one that has faced many ups and downs. My faith has been my guiding light, empowering me to overcome life's challenges and accomplish my goals, even though I have found myself struggling and must work on it daily. Two significant turning points in my journey involve becoming a mother at the tender age of 16 and subsequently finding my path as a firefighter to provide for my daughter. Becoming a teenage mother was a life-altering moment filled with uncertainty and fear. However, my faith taught me to trust in God's plan and the power of love and resilience. Since then, I have been reminded that God's grace and love are boundless, and His presence in my life gave me the strength to pursue my goals, even in the face of adversity. My daughter is now 9, happy and healthy. My journey to becoming a firefighter was born out of my unwavering commitment to providing the best life possible for my daughter. She needed not only a mother able to support her but also health insurance. As I embarked on the path towards firefighting, I encountered countless challenges and obstacles. Yet, my faith instilled in me the belief that I could overcome them. Just as Christ's teachings emphasize resilience and enduring faith, I was determined to apply these principles in my pursuit of a career that would secure a better future for my daughter. Moreover, my faith has always driven me to use my life experiences to make a positive impact on others. The Bible's teachings on compassion and selflessness have reinforced my commitment to helping those in need. As a firefighter, I've had the privilege of serving my community, mirroring Christ's call to love and care for our neighbors. My faith has given purpose to my career, allowing me to protect and assist others, especially during their most vulnerable moments. Compassion remains a central value in my life, guided by the teachings of Christ. The She Reads Truth Bible continually reminds me of the transformative power of empathy and kindness. My faith compels me to live out these principles daily, seeking opportunities to extend compassion and understanding to those in need, both in my personal life and as a firefighter. This compassion not only enriches my life but also fuels my determination to achieve my goals and be a positive influence on my daughter. I got The She Reads Truth Bible a few years ago and it has been a constant source of strength and inspiration, teaching me the values of faith, determination, compassion, and resilience. As I continue my journey, I am grateful for the wisdom and guidance that my faith provides. I look forward to a future where I can achieve my goals with unwavering faith, a strong work ethic, and a heart filled with compassion, all inspired by the lessons of faith and the invaluable wisdom gained from the word of God.

Being a nineties kid, I can honestly say I have lived in the BEST era of Disney. Not only was Disney thriving after Toy Story, The Little Mermaid and the Lion King, but Disney Channel was rocking. I LIVED for High School Musical. I loved to sing and sing at the top of my lungs and wish I could meet a Troy of my own. The first-ever concert I went to was High School Musical in concert. I truly felt like a wildcat. A friend of mine held a High School Musical 2 watch party in her basement for the premiere. I remember hitting the remote on accident and shutting the TV off. Could you imagine my horror? About 6 of us girls started screaming trying to get the TV back on. I saw High School Musical 3 in the movie theatre for Girl Scouts. Their graduating from high school made me so sad. It was the end of High School Musical. The end of Troy Bolton. The end of me feeling like Gabriella. Hannah Montana also held my heart. Miley Cyrus did such a fantastic job of portraying her, and her dad...just being her dad. My second concert ever was Miley on her breakout tour, the first tour that she performed as just Miley Cyrus. I will always be a little sad that I never got to see Hannah Montana perform, but I will say I have sat down and watched the Best of Both Worlds Concert Movie. I was 10 when it came out, and I hung upside down on the back of my parent's couch for the majority of the first viewing. I think I just wanted to feel the excitement, and that is just how I did it. I am in my twenties now. I am a mom, and I am a wife. I stop and think about how much I miss these things and how I felt when I was young. I now have an 8-year-old daughter who has found some of these titles on Disney +. She is now on season 4 of Hannah Montana and asks me a million and ten questions about the show...Lucky for her, I am an avid fan. We now sit in my side room, both in recliners singing the theme song and talking about how Jackson should stick it to Rico or how Lilly looks silly in her bright pink Lola wig. I love that not only did I have an early 2000s Disney Channel, but that my beautiful girl gets to sit and enjoy the wonder of it too. It was different then. It was personally the best time I had as a child. Now, just don't get me started on the Jonas Brothers, or we will be here all day. <3 Thank you for taking the time to read my little story. Lots of Love.

Growing up, I wanted to be a firefighter for a living. My father was a firefighter, my uncle was a firefighter, my grandfather and grandmother were volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians. I was told many times that I would not become a firefighter by those other than my family. I started volunteering at the local fire department when I was twelve, and then went on to become a career firefighter at twenty one. I am the first woman to be a career firefighter for the department I work for. I plan on spending the rest of my life helping others through conservation of life and property. I am currently trying to take more classes to go towards a bachelors degree in my field. I want to further my education so I may be more knowledgeable in my actions of helping others. By completing a bachelors in my field, I will be more eligible upon the next opportunity to test for fire officer. I am making it my goal to further myself so I may become a leader in the fire service. Not only would this leadership be to guide others, it would also be to prove to young girls and other women that it is possible, and that you can achieve anything you work hard for. Thank you for taking the time to listen to a little bit about me, and leadership in my field.

Growing up, I was raised in the catholic church. I remember attending CCD, singing, kneeling and listening to the priest. I remember falling asleep during the sermons, and my mother shaking me awake. To be honest I was not interested. When I was twelve, my mother decided we should try a baptist church. I was much more interested, but honestly did not feel like I belonged. This could be because I also had a child at sixteen, which made me feel super isolated. As an adult I tried two other non-denominational churches, one which I still attend today. When I sing I feel relief, and when there are sermons I feel like I can absorb and relate. I also video tape the sermons for youtube, for those who could not attend. I think that now as an adult I view my faith differently. I believe that God has helped me become the person I am, and is still molding me. I am a career firefighter, and I try to help others the best that I can. I pray for my safety, I pray for my children, and I pray for my husband who is also a career firefighter. I believe that God will use me where he sees fit, and I just pray that I listen as he puts opportunities in front of me.

Going through school, I found that I always excelled in mathematics. Every other subject seemed to cause me stress, where math always came so easy. At sixteen years old I started attending community college at night instead of attending high school, as it counted as duel enrollment. One of the first classes I took was college algebra, followed by trigonometry the next semester. Later on, I found that I had wanted to become a firefighter. This required education and training for Emergency Medical Technician, Emergency Medical Technician Cardiac, and nationally accredited firefighting training at the Rhode Island Fire Academy. All of these trainings required math at some point or another. For the emergency medical services trainings, I was required to do quick math for dosing of medications in emergency situations. For the fire trainings, I was required to know equations and how to solve them to figure out water flow through a fire hose from a pumper. Now that I am a firefighter, I am looking to go back to school to educate myself further on my field. I find that I am always doing some sort of mathematics on every shift, every run, and while training. My world has shown me that mathematics will be with me the rest of my career, as I use it every day. I am very glad that it is something that I am comfortable doing, and that it comes so easy to me. I appreciate you letting me tell you about myself.

From a young age, I used to go to my grandparents house next door with my mom to take care of my grandmother. She was my fathers mother who had battled brain cancer. That battle had left her in a wheelchair with no use of her left side. I remember writing her letters at the dining room table because she couldn’t hear me very well. She passed when I was twelve of colon cancer. I remember being so distraught, trying to text my aunt to ask her what was going on only to find out I had her number wrong in my phone. When I was sixteen I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl. That same year, my great grandmother had come to live with my parents and I. I took care of my daughter and grandmother during the day while my mother was teaching, and my mother took evenings while I was taking early college classes instead of going to high school. My grandmother loved my daughter, watching her play on the floor while I made sure all of their needs were met. She ended up in the hospital and I had gave her an invitation for my daughters first birthday. She told every nurse and doctor that she could not wait to go. She passed one month beforehand. In the start of my twenties, my grandfather became ill. Congestive heart failure and COPD had finally caught up with him, and it sucked. He was my rock. My father worked a lot so any fatherly thing I needed I called my grandfather. I don’t think a day went by that I didn’t see him somewhere or another. He ended up on long term hospice, and needed someone in his home at night. My husband, daughter and I gladly moved in, and I am thankful that I spent his last two months full time with him. I still have his dog, a shepherd mix. I can tell she misses him. We never left his house. My father says it is so much better than it being empty. I now have two more children, boys. I love all of my children dearly and believe that they and my beloved family come first always. I think that having so many family members that I got to cherish final moments with makes me remember that life is too short to not love fully. I also think that these experiences pushed me to get a career and go back to school, each person cheering me on at a different point in my life. I am a career firefighter now, and help people everyday. I go out of my way to also volunteer to help others with projects they cannot complete on their own, as well as make bags full of goods for the homeless we see on the corner by the supermarket. I hope that my daughter will learn to love everyone fully, even more than I am capable, and help anyone she can when she is grown. I appreciate the opportunity to tell you about myself and for a chance at this scholarship.

My story starts at fifteen years old, when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. My father was determined that I would go to school and eventually finish college, but could not afford it at the time. My mother still has student loans, and had just finished her masters in teaching. Sixteen rolled around and I had the most beautiful girl. I went to the school district and found out that I could take classes at the community college, and that it would count as dual enrollment. Luckily, I was able to take night classes. The school district paid for 28 credits over my last two years of high school. Fast forward a little, and I was was determined to get into a career where my baby could have health insurance. I took two EMT classes, achieved 3 different licenses, then went to the firefighting academy. I took 7 physical agility tests over the two year span. When I finally passed, I was hired for a full time department and went through the municipal fire academy. We were retrod health insurance back to my first day on the job. My daughter's father broke up with me when she was six months old, and I found myself figuring out on my own how to be a good mother and provide, while also trying to be a loving mother who was present. I finished an Associate's Degree in general studies from the Community College of Rhode Island, and sat in a field to get pictures taken with her. She is one of my greatest achievements, and pushes me every day to accomplish something new for her or my family. I am married now, with two more children, boys. I never would have gotten to where I am today without her being my guiding light. I honestly think that I would not have of pushed so hard to achieve goals that I have wanted since I was a child without her. Without needing to be there for her. Without loving her. I appreciate this opportunity to tell you a little about me.

I have had animals my entire life. From the earliest of ages I can remember hugging my kitty KC, which stood for kitty cat. Throughout my childhood we had a few cats, a few dogs, a rabbit and a guinea pig. As I became an adult, I also got my own puppy Holly. Holly was the last from a litter of oopsie puppies my neighbor had. Her mother was a blue heeler, and her father was a black lab. I have loved her since the first minute. Her constant barking bothers others, but she is our fierce protector of the home. I have pictures of her snuggled in my bed up against my daughter. I also adopted my grandfather’s dog Tali when he passes away. She is a German Shepard mix who is super afraid of thunder, and makes anyone with a treat her friend. She loves to sneak up on the recliner when I’m not looking, and snooze the night away. I also have a beautiful boy Henry, who is a long haired domestic kitty. I adopted him from the town animal control, as he was the last kitty for his litter. He is all white with the fluffiest orange tail I’ve ever seen. We also have chickens and a rabbit, which my daughter has learned to care for and shows at our county fair. I am super proud of her and how she takes responsibility for her animals, which I assist with. Recently, I took my children to the bike path a town over so my daughter could try a pair of roller skates that were given to her. We found a kitten on the path with an obvious injury. After checking with the houses close by, I brought the kitten to the animal control who then in turn rushed it to the vet before we were even done with paper work. It hurts me to think about the people who just passed this beautiful animal by, not helping on that busy summer day. I love pets because they have always been there. Every step of the way I have had an animal that have helped me get through whatever was going on on my life. I look forward to coming home and loving on my beautiful cat, and seeing the smile on my sons face as he hugs our lab. I think animals know when we are happy and when we are having tough times. I swear they change based on how we need them in that moment. Thank you for letting me tell you about my wonderful animals and this opportunity!

My favorite scientific discovery has to be the steps to creating the engine. First, I think it is very interesting and love researching about how it came to be, from the gas turbine to the internal gas combustion engine and so on. I think it is my favorite discovery because it makes me think about how the fire station I work at first started with a horse drawn fire pump, and eventually moved on to being the first motorized fire engine in the state of Rhode Island. That motorized fire engine was put into service in March of 1911, 101 years ago. It is so much fun going through the records at the station and learning about its past, then researching how we have come to the technology we have today. The valley falls motorized fire engine has come a long way, currently being run by a 2022 E ONE engine.

My life revolves around my family. From a young age, I used to go to my grandparents house next door with my mom to take care of my grandmother. She was my fathers mother who had battled brain cancer. That battle had left her in a wheelchair with no use of her left side. I remember writing her letters at the dining room table because she couldn’t hear me very well. She passed when I was twelve of colon cancer. I remember being so distraught, trying to text my aunt to ask her what was going on only to find out I had her number wrong in my phone. When I was sixteen I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl. That same year, my great grandmother had come to live with my parents and I. I took care of my daughter and grandmother during the day while my mother was teaching, and my mother took evenings while I was taking early college classes instead of going to high school. My grandmother loved my daughter, watching her play on the floor while I made sure all of their needs were met. She ended up in the hospital and I had gave her an invitation for my daughters first birthday. She told every nurse and doctor that she could not wait to go. She passed one month beforehand. In the start of my twenties, my grandfather became ill. Congestive heart failure and COPD had finally caught up with him, and it sucked. He was my rock. My father worked a lot so any fatherly thing I needed I called my grandfather. I don’t think a day went by that I didn’t see him somewhere or another. He ended up on long term hospice, and needed someone in his home at night. My husband, daughter and I gladly moved in, and I am thankful that I spent his last two months full time with him. I still have his dog, a shepherd mix. I can tell she misses him. We never left his house. My father says it is so much better than it being empty. I now have two more children, boys. I love all of my children dearly and believe that they and my beloved family come first always. I think that having so many family memebers that I got to cherish final moments with makes me remember that life is too short to not love fully. I also think that these experiences pushed me to get a career and go back to school, each person cheering me on at a different point in my life. I appreciate the opportunity to tell you about my family and for a chance at this scholarship.

"It's just a baby. A baby is a good thing." That is what my grandfather said to my mother when I was sixteen years old. My grandfather; Papa I called him; was one of my heroes. My grandmother was very sick from the time that my father was fourteen years old, until her death when I was eleven. Papa was her caretaker, her rock. She had multiple cancers just through my life alone, never mind the brain cancer that put her into a wheelchair at just forty. My Papa was my biggest cheerleader, my ultimate friend. When I had my daughter as a teenager, he held her in his arms. I bought my first car, a Honda minivan with fourteen hundred dollars from savings bonds he had given to me as gifts when I was young. The first week I had it he took me to get new tires at the local garage. My Papa was the volunteer fire chief in town, who started the first ambulance in town. He felt like the citizens of our streets needed to have access to emergency medical care just like the big cities. He started a revolution. He saved many lives. When I was twelve, I became a volunteer at his station in town. I believed that I wanted to be just like him, and my father who was also a fireman. I studied hard, got my EMT license and then my Cardiac license (in RI, AEMT nationally). I also got on a career fire department at twenty one years old. "You beat the boys!" He exclaimed when I told him the news. Not only did one career department want me, but two. I had been the youngest in our family to get on the job. Papa had cancer twice after my grandmother had passed, but beat them both. COPD and congestive heart failure caught up to him though. I got pregnant with my second child at the beginning of 2020, and my husband and I decided to get married. He let us into his home with open arms, helping us rip up old carpets and paint bedrooms. Covid didn't scare him, he said he had seen worse things. We married on my family farm in July. My grandfather got out his John Deere tractor and mowed the entire field, prepping for our big day. He watched us take our vows, he watched us dance the night away. He was tired, but he stayed the entire time smiling. Papa passed just over a month later in August. Just a few days beforehand he was moving electric fencing to relocate the cows from one field to another, his puppy following his every move. We miss him. I miss him. My boys would have loved their Papa, I even blessed one with his name. The tears start flowing every time I tell them he would have loved them. We still live in his house. We still drive his tractors. We still care for and love his dog Tali. We fix things just because he would have. We do things "for Papa". He fought so hard to be here with us. He tried every day to get the most out of this life, and helped us at every turn, which I am so grateful. I want to fight to live every day like him. I want to fight to put my family first and love like crazy. I want to fight to put myself the rest of the way through school so I can excel at work and take care of my beautiful family. I want to fight to make this world a better place, even if it is one action at a time. I want to fight for every life that I can save along the way, because he did that until his last breath. Thank you to Cat Zingano for this opportunity to tell you about my Papa, as well as being an inspiration to me.

I have had animals my entire life. From the earliest of ages I can remember hugging my kitty KC, which stood for kitty cat. Throughout my childhood we had a few cats, a few dogs, a rabbit and a guinea pig. As I became an adult, I also got my own puppy Holly. Holly was the last from a litter of oopsie puppies my neighbor had. Her mother was a blue heeler, and her father was a black lab. I have loved her since the first minute. Her constant barking bothers others, but she is our fierce protector of the home. I have pictures of her snuggled in my bed up against my daughter. I also adopted my grandfather’s dog Tali when he passes away. She is a German Shepard mix who is super afraid of thunder, and makes anyone with a treat her friend. She loves to sneak up on the recliner when I’m not looking, and snooze the night away. I also have a beautiful boy Henry, who is a long haired domestic kitty. I adopted him from the town animal control, as he was the last kitty for his litter. He is all white with the fluffiest orange tail I’ve ever seen. We also have chickens and a rabbit, which my daughter has learned to care for and shows at our county fair. I am super proud of her and how she takes responsibility for her animals, which I assist with. I believe that keeping animals safe and cared for is a top priority. I could never imagine my beautiful babies being abused or neglected. Recently, I took my children to the bike path a town over so my daughter could try a pair of roller skates that were given to her. We found a kitten on the path with an obvious injury. After checking with the houses close by, I brought the kitten to the animal control who then in turn rushed it to the vet before we were even done with paper work. It hurts me to think about the people who just passed this beautiful animal by, not helping on that busy summer day. I hope that I can make a difference in the life of animals, even if it is just setting an example to my children and others in my path.

After I had my first child at sixteen years old, my goal was always to find a career that would allow me to take care of us. At twenty one years old I became a career firefighter, a dream I had had since I was a little girl. I spent my teen years volunteering at my local fire department, and to get paid for what that entails was my goal. When I got hired, not only was I making more than my waitressing job, but I also was able to get health insurance for my daughter and I. On top of covering our basic needs, I now find myself overjoyed to help others in need. I respond to medical runs, fires, car accidents, water emergencies, and many other things. While at work I am able to do a plethora of things to assist others in their time of need. I am now enrolled in a program for a BS on fire administration. This is the next stepping stone for me to not only excell at my place of employment, but also be my step towards my next dream, being a Physician’s Associate. As a physician’s associate I could help others past the initial incident. I would love to treat patients and aid in their ailments. The healthcare system is lacking workers through these tough times, and I feel that I could be a good fit. I also believe in treating people the way that I would like to be treated, with dignity and fairness. I think that my contributions would not only change current day to day life, but also impact the world by showing everyone I meet the kindness they deserve as well as serving them in a public service manner.