1. I deserve this scholarship because I once ate a lot of soup and then took a nap. That was a pretty big accomplishment. 2. My academic and career goals are to be a cloud and live up in the sky even though I'm afraid of heights. 3. No.

Life comes with so many opportunities. Trying to find out what I wanted to do was not an easy thing to do. After I graduated high school I worked in the "real world" for three years. I was a working as a technician and engineer at my family company. This involved a lot of strain on my physical and mental world. I loved working for my family company but I knew in my heart it wasn't suppose to be my career. I didn't want to go to school until I absolutely knew what I was going to do. It took awhile to figure that out. Once I did figure it out, I realized I wanted to become an artist and help bring awareness to what it meant to be an artist. A lot of nature is centered in my art to bring awareness to the ever-changing world. I also want to help preserve the art that was already created by the masters so that future generations can still be inspired by these works. Art is all around us from the 3-D pieces that you can sometimes touch such as couches, ceramics like mugs and bowls and sculptures to 2-D works that showcase drawings, paintings and collages. I want to help serve the art community in any way I can. Art has become an incredible outlet to show different problems in the world and help me cope with my own struggles. My freshman year of college I got a student loan with wells fargo, my sophomore year I got a private loan and my junior year I am trying to pay monthly out of pocket. This scholarship would help me immensely. While I am still trying and struggling to pay off my junior year while I am in the semester. It's incredibly hard because I can not work a lot due to classes and I am a commuter as well. Inflation has caused an increase in gas, food and other amenities which is making it more difficult. This scholarship would allow me ease, and peace at mind knowing that I would have funds that can help me further my career goals. I know that with my career goals I need to go to graduate school in order to get into the field that I want. This scholarship would help me save for graduate school while helping me pay for my school bills now.

Nature brings me comfort like putting on a sweater and sitting in front of a campfire. It's always been there for me and will always be there for me. My adoration for nature started with my family. Those memories are something that I cherish deeply and have shaped the way I appreciate the world around me. My parents started us children with hikes, slowly getting harder, the elevation gain getting higher and the view getting so much sweeter. They would take me ice skating on our pond in the winter, kayaking in the summer and rock climbing in spring. I owe it to them for how much I love the outside world. Through these experiences I make my own path in loving this world, and my dog and I go on the best adventures. I love the element of growth and energy that this natural world has; it beams with light that I try to enjoy as much as I can. My appreciation for nature is deep rooted; I try to go on as many adventures as I can, experiencing new lands, and places wherever possible. To enjoy the land as much as I can I try to leave the place better than I can. I pick up trash wherever it is and try to make better choices to try to influence a change. As an art student, nature is constantly showing up in my work. In order to bring awareness to nature, to bring peace to myself and to display the beauty that our natural world holds. I try to be an advocate for this world so that it will still remain for future generations to come. That way I can take my own children on all the adventures my parents took me on.

I am not a very patient person. I have little to no patience at all and when I do have patience it happens to very circumstantial. As someone who wants things done quickly and moves on to the next thing in a rush I don't usually think of patience all too much. I haven't really thought to much on being patient until I became older. Now as I age, I've experienced what it means to be patient, what it is to wait for something you want. It's not about waiting in line at a coffee shop in order to get your drink of choice. Patience is a beautiful thing for me, its watching the growth in my family, the strength in my friends and the murmur in nature. Patience allows me to spend a little more time in the kitchen with my mom while she's baking cookies, allows me to watch my niece figure out how the world works, and allows me a better understanding of my dog as he learns knew tricks. It allows me to enjoy the little things I would quickly move through life never taking a second glance. The saying goes in hand, "stop to smell the roses". Patience would mean never enjoying the moments with my partner knowing one day we may get engaged or being with my friends during difficult times and helping them any way I can. Patience is a virtue, and one that I try to strive for as much as I can.

Being an artist means an immense amount to me. The title itself holds such a high meaning because without art the world wouldn't turn. The best part is that I get to be apart of it. Me. I get to be described with the same title that some of the greats had. Being an artist means that I am lucky; that I am allowed to showcase current, emotional, historical events through my own art. Not many people get the privilege that I do, and I am unbelievably grateful that I can create. It allows me to create freely. Being an artist allows me to pursue something that makes me extremely happy in a form of a career. Art drives me to be the best possible me and artist that I could be. I want to be able to show myself and my creations through art. Allow people to see a side of me that I wouldn't necessarily show. It drives me to be as creative as possible and hopefully get my name up there with the greats. I want to use the platform that I have as an artist to document the things that I see, to show the world through my eyes. I am connected to art in the way that I am living and breathing. Art is not just something that is put on a canvas. It is all around the world. The design and structure of even the most mundane of things are art. Art is apart of nature, of household items, of humans and even of trash and trying to connect and capture it all is where your creation can shape it. I want to use my art to help influence the way the generations after me view art. I want to go into the restoration and conservation of art. Therefore I want people to be able to look at the great works of art and pull inspiration from them like I did. I want to help shape the way art is viewed. I want individual to look at my own creations or practices that I have helped shaped and become inspired. So inspired that they think of new ways to go about certain creations or even change the concept entirely. That is what art is about. It is about taking something that you want to create and putting your own spin on it; making it reflect you.

What drives my passion for art? An absolutely loaded question. There are way too many to even think about one that drives my passion. I could say the world and everything in it. Everything that an individual looks at and views is art or a form of it. The delicate veins in a flower that provide nutrients throughout is similar to the veins in a human body. Such a beautiful similarity and capturing it in a way of production, unmatched. I could say my love for creation which has me looking at things from a different perspective. I look for all the ways I could tackle a painting or designing clothes. Seeing new techniques and trying to accomplish them myself. The learning that comes from new journeys that creation brings. I could say that its the past artists before me. They they laid the stones out that so that future artists including myself could walk on and draw wisdom from their ideas. How they had little to no paint and they used the world around them to influence them. Paint was created from limestone, specific kinds of clay, and even foods such as nuts and berries. Now today paint is made quickly and cheaply that the artists of today can create quickly and efficiently. They created from nothing and turned it into masterpieces that are sought after only to catch a glimpse. Each artist after them continuing their traditions and then making their own. New techniques, new paints were invented. The artists wouldn't have been able to do any of that if those before us hadn't started it. The truth is all of it drives my passion for art. To try to single out one specific thing would be ludicrous especially when I consider that every aspect has influenced me drastically. I am so grateful and lucky to have been born during the time period that I have been. I have all of this knowledge and wisdom from the people before me at my fingertips. It is beautiful. This scholarship would help me pursue my passion by allowing me to get a degree in my art field. It would allow me ease to pursue more schooling after my bachelor's degree so I can get my dream job and help contribute to the art world. This would allow me to place my own stepping stone for the thousands of artists that are behind me.