One of the biggest things that worries me about our current system is how we provide quality care to all individuals, and the cost that comes with it. Insurance is very helpful for people who can afford the premiums, but in this country at this time, our economic situation isn't as gracious to the lower class. I saw a video of someone who was talking about how they were being charged $64k for a 20 minute flight into an emergency room, and how they didn't have insurance to cover the charge. It truly hurt my soul, because that wasn't even the actual care they received. That was just to cover the transportation. I think that transportation to medical facilities should be either much cheaper or complimentary. I also read that the average cost to be placed on an ECMO machine is about $550k for a month long visit. This does cover other charges, but I find it unfair that we cannot save people without expecting them to pay large amounts of money. I also know that socialized medicine also has its downsides, but there has to be some balance between the two types of medical systems. I hope that one day, we can look more into the fine print and make changes that will allow for every citizen to receive essential care without bankrupting them. The cost of medical care can sometimes cause people not to seek medical care even when it may be necessary. This can be a cause of death for some, and just decreased quality of life for others. If we could make a change that made emergency visits or critical care visits discounted or more affordable, we would be able to positively change the lives of more people, and create more trust in the healthcare system as a whole. There are plenty of things to be improved when it comes to medical care, that especially was pointed out during COVID in 2020. However, I think that with caring physicians, nurses, and administration, and with more effort put into it, we can create change that will improve the lives of staff and patients alike. As we strive to make these changes and create a better system for America, I believe that the healthcare system would be seen in a more positive light. We could decrease the fear of going to the hospital, and create a safer and more comfortable environment for our patients. They wouldn't worry about their whole life savings going towards a medical bill, and I believe it would also encourage more young families to consider having more children, which is a crisis that has been addressed many times by the government and citizens alike in recent years.

I think that the cochlear implant is a huge piece of technology that not only affects people with hearing loss, but also their family, friends, and those who interact with them. My mom is hearing impaired, and when she was 18, she was given the chance to receive a cochlear implant. It was a rough procedure, and it was fairly new at the time, but it made her quality of life so much better. She was able to hear for the first time in her life, and she told me that when she first heard the birds singing, it made her cry. My mother is one of my greatest role models, and I can't imagine life without her. It was her ability to communicate thanks to Oral school and her implant that helped her to fall in love with my father and eventually create my family. I cannot imagine a world without being able to hear. I work as a TypeWell transcriber at my university to basically provide live closed captioning for students that are deaf/hard of hearing at my school. From my interactions with them, I have gained so much compassion and sympathy for those students. I am glad that I can provide my services to help them to receive fair education and get their own degrees to be successful. I've talked to a few of them that have cochlear implants, and others that don't, and their experiences have truly amazed me. I am so glad that medical technology has advanced this far, and these experiences are some of the things that have inspired me to work in the medical field. I hope that one day, I will get to work with some of this technology to better understand it and maybe to contribute to better and less invasive procedures in the future to improve the quality of life of my patients.

Mental health is such an important topic that hasn't been focused on enough until very recently. In previous decades, we saw mental health as such a stigmatized topic that it was almost always either pushed off to the side and not diagnosed in individuals, which is a large cause of the increase in suicide rates. As someone who struggles with anxiety myself, I find that mental health is much more important than we think it is. After all, it's not always expressed physically, and most people can still function with a mental illness without treatment, so a lot of times, people with mental illness are in denial for a large portion of their lives. When it comes to autism and other disorders that affect people's social lives and ability to interact with others, only one girl will be diagnosed for every four boys to be diagnosed. I have friends with autism diagnosed late, and hearing their stories really opened my eyes as to how many people have it and how it can be masked, especially by women from what I've heard. A lot of my friends said that they were able to learn to mask their 'odd' behavior so that it wasn't as noticeable, and they could fit in. This is a reason why not many parents will get their children diagnosed, since they may think it was a phase. Not only autism is a stigmatized topic, though. Anxiety, depression, BPD, and other mental illnesses are rampant among teenagers and adults. In 2023, our suicide rates in the US were higher than they ever were, with over 50,000 deaths being caused by suicide. When we neglect mental health and increase the stress, especially financially due to inflation since 2020, we can see that these directly contribute to higher amounts of suicide and suicide attempts. When more people are educated about mental health, illnesses, and ways to relieve stress naturally, we can help not only ourselves, but others around us to prevent more deaths caused by suicide and even heart attacks caused by stress. I plan on going into the medical field, and I am pursuing my bachelor's degree in Neuroscience currently, before going into Physician Assistant school. I hope to learn more about mental health and be part of the change that helps the medical field to progress and catch things like mental illness and disorders before it becomes a bigger problem for my patients. I think it is so important for medical professionals to have a good idea of the nervous system and how people's brains work both normally and when affected by disorders like clinical depression, anxiety, autism, Alzheimer's, and even more than I can list. By educating myself on mental health and making it a priority for my medical career, I can help my patients to get the help that they need before it's too late for them. I can save lives by paying attention to the way they interact with me and being attentive.

Leadership is the backbone of our society. Without those willing to take charge and be responsible for the delegation of tasks, organization of companies would be nonexistant, we wouldn't have medical professionals, business professionals, financial advisors, culinary experts, and other necessary fields. In my personal experience, leadership has been a huge part of who I am. I am the oldest of five children, with the largest age gap being 17 years. I've been babysitting for years, not for just my family, but for other family friends as well. Leadership is the only way to keep kids in check when babysitting, or it would be chaos. I found ways to keep their attention off of their parents being gone and distract them with fun activities. When I grew older, I got a job at Cafe Zupas, where I worked for two years and was promoted to a shift lead for the night shift during high school. My manager gave me compliments on how well I was able to manage my team regardless of some of the drama going on with switches of management, team members with poor work ethic, and other issues. I learned many leadership skills through my work experience. On the other hand, resilience and determination go hand in hand. As I've moved into my college career, I've noticed a major increase in my levels of anxiety, especially now that I have to worry about bills, housing, groceries, tuition payments, work, and studying. I am a premed student, hoping to go to Physician Assistant school after I graduate with my bachelors in Neuroscience. I know that I didn't choose an easy major. I demonstrate these characteristics by keeping a planner with the things that I need to do and due dates for my assignments. I map out each day so that I can plan how to get to things efficiently and how much time to alot for things. For studying, I make a list of every assignment I need to do and when I need to do it by. I organize them by priority and how much time it takes to finish, and it helps me to prioritize the right things. I am heavily dedicated to my school and well being, and planning helps me to keep peace mentally for those goals. Being unselfish goes along with that career path. If anyone needs to be selfless in their career and life in general, it is medical professionals. People's lives depend on them, and without taking responsibility and leadership seriously, malpractice would be a major problem. Having a strong work ethic is part of this as well. Without these very important characteristics, the healthcare system would crumble. I demonstrate unselfishness by looking out for my family and friends when they need help. I am a good listener, and I am always checking in on those that I love. Having a strong work ethic is something that I've had to develop with such a busy schedule, and I apply that to my schoolwork on a daily basis. I'm pursuing a degree to prove to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to with the proper dedication. I want to be able to provide for myself and my future family and to live a comfortable life, while doing what I love. I want to make a difference in people's lives, and I know that I can do it with my education and the sacrifices that I make now.

Students in the public college education system know that there are plenty of obstacles when it comes to education. We must invest our resources, time, and knowledge now in order for it to hopefully pay off later. It's a bit of a scary gamble, considering the economic state of the world and how difficult it seems to build what should be the 'normal life' of US citizens. As a student entering the medical field, there are plenty of professions that make lots of money, but working up to those positions takes a lot of time and effort. Your grades must be the best, your attendance perfect, you must have thousands of hours invested into clinicals, and you must do all of this with minimal time for yourself. I just got my CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) license this summer, and I can definitely say that those four days of clinicals for my course were probably the most difficult but rewarding days I have ever worked. Every minute, there was something for me to do. Sometimes, it was simple, like fetching a resident a glass of water or just sitting and talking to them so they didn't feel lonely. Other times, I had to calm down a resident who was panicking, hold someone's grandmother's hand while we cleaned her up, and learn how to do this in a reasonable amount of time so that we could attend to other residents. I know that my career path is not an easy one, but I know that the more I work at it, and the more I do to get towards my goal, it will pay off one day. Mental challenges are different, and although they are intangible, they can be just as scary, if not more. I've had plenty of panic attacks thinking maybe this isn't possible. What if I can't handle 5 science/math classes in one semester? What if I can't manage 30 work hours a week between my 2 on campus jobs and my planned CNA job outside of school? What if I can't pay my bills because I'm investing in my education instead of working a paying job? The one thing I've learned from taking a medical path is that becoming a doctor isn't as easy as learning medicine names and how to put a bandaid on fingers, and then making six figures. And yet, I am still dedicated to this path. I've seen what good medical professionals can do first hand. I know that this world would be a lot more painful, a lot more full of loss, if we didn't have medical professionals who care about their jobs, and who pushed through the hard times during school to make it to where they are now. As cheesy as it is, believing in yourself is the only way to get to the end. It's the only way to quiet the 'what if's' in your head. It's the only way to study and pass your exams, and it's the only way to get the outcome you hope for. I think that faith in oneself is the most important step to achieve your career aspirations, because if you don't believe in yourself, you won't make it to the next level. You won't take the hard steps, and you won't achieve as much. Without people who believe in themselves, our world could not be as progressive as it is now. It is up to regular students like me and my peers to become the world's next doctors, lawyers, teachers, administration, politicians, and more. We just have to believe ourselves to get there.

The nursing industry is one that amazes me every day. I don't think we could be anywhere without brave souls who enter the nursing field to help the community in so many ways. From ER nurses, to NICU and Pediatric nurses, even to Aesthetic nurses, there are plenty of careers in the nursing field that provide essential care to people on a daily basis. My goals to enter this industry include a step that I've taken this summer to step into the shallow waters of nursing, which was to get my Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) license, and to start working in a local hospital in Reno while attending school. I had a week long clinical rotation for my course that showed me some of the inner workings of nursing in a long term care facility. I can definitely say that those four days of clinicals for my course were probably the most difficult but rewarding days I have ever worked. Every minute, there was something for me to do. Sometimes, it was simple, like fetching a resident a glass of water or just sitting and talking to them so they didn't feel lonely. Other times, I had to calm down a resident who was panicking, hold someone's grandmother's hand while we cleaned her up, and learn how to do this in a reasonable amount of time so that we could attend to other residents. I know that the medical/nursing career path is not an easy one, but I know that the more I work at it, and the more I do to get towards my goal, it will pay off one day. Volunteering and shadowing has been another section of my preparation for a career in the medical field. My youngest brother, who is turning 3 this year, was a NICU baby at Summerlin Hospital in Las Vegas. He was born 6 weeks early and had to have intestinal surgery. He was in the hospital for a month, which was very difficult for my family. There were complications with birth as well, with my mom's placenta disintegrating during her C-section. The nurses were shocked that it was a scheduled C-section, and not an emergency. I was able to volunteer at Summerlin the summer after, and after a few rotations in the ER and Laboratory, I was able to go to the NICU and meet some of the nurses that worked with my brother. It was an eye opening experience, and I was able to realize that working with parents and children in either L&D, PP, Pediatrics, PICU, or NICU is where I'd like to work in the future.

Choosing to be a STEM major was one of the best things I could ever have done for myself. I grew up in a household with an engineer father and a dedicated stay at home mother who always taught me that I could choose whatever path I decided to embark on. From a young age, I knew I wanted to study medicine. Of course, I didn't know much more than how to listen to a pulse and ask my little brother where it hurt while we played, but STEM and medicine have always played a huge role in my life. When I turned 12 years old, I received a real life doctor kit. It came with a real stethoscope, a real blood pressure cuff and aneroid, a reflex hammer, and a few other trinkets. I learned how to listen to someone's heart and hear their heartbeat. I learned how to take blood pressure, although I didn't do it very accurately most of the time, and probably gave my parents a few scares with my measurements. When I turned 18, I was overwhelmed with the thought of graduation, and I had no idea which career path I wanted to take. Life had become cluttered with thoughts of different things. I wanted to be a marine biologist, I wanted to be a therapist, I wanted to be a little bit of everything. Talking to my uncle, who is a physician assistant, I finally figured it out. I wanted to be a PA. The thought of medical school seemed daunting, but hearing his experience and how well he thought of his career, something seemed to click. I entered college at UNR, and started as a psychology major. I took a few entry level psychology classes and decided that I was more interested in the actual chemistry of the brain than the theory of it. I switched my major to Neuroscience halfway through my freshman year, and I haven't looked back. It's been tough, to say the least. Going into next semester, all of my 16 credits are STEM classes. I took a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) class over the summer and I'm going to be starting a new job at a local hospital in Reno to start getting my clinical hours. Being a woman in STEM means so much to me. I am so grateful for the women before me who got us to the point where I could even consider a career in medicine. I am grateful for the equity and equality that exist nowadays so that I can pass my classes and proceed in my career path. I used to have a bitter taste towards math, but as I've been able to apply it to how I can use it in a real life setting, I've found much more joy in chemistry and calculus, and I'm even excited to proceed in these courses. More than anything else, I want to set an example for my future family that as a woman, you can do anything you put your mind to. You don't have to wait for a rich spouse to spoil you, when you can gain the knowledge to do it yourself. I still know that I want a family. I want to marry and have children, daughters, of my own. I plan to provide the best I can for them, and to continue to teach them that there is endless opportunities for everyone to succeed in what they want to pursue.

Students in the public college education system know that there are plenty of obstacles when it comes to education. We must invest our resources, time, and knowledge now in order for it to hopefully pay off later. It's a bit of a scary gamble, considering the economic state of the world and how difficult it seems to build what should be the 'normal life' of US citizens. As a student entering the medical field, there are plenty of professions that make lots of money, but working up to those positions takes a lot of time and effort. Your grades must be the best, your attendance perfect, you must have thousands of hours invested into clinicals, and you must do all of this with minimal time for yourself. I just got my CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) license this summer, and I can definitely say that those four days of clinicals for my course were probably the most difficult but rewarding days I have ever worked. Every minute, there was something for me to do. Sometimes, it was simple, like fetching a resident a glass of water or just sitting and talking to them so they didn't feel lonely. Other times, I had to calm down a resident who was panicking, hold someone's grandmother's hand while we cleaned her up, and learn how to do this in a reasonable amount of time so that we could attend to other residents. I know that my career path is not an easy one, but I know that the more I work at it, and the more I do to get towards my goal, it will pay off one day. Mental challenges are different, and although they are intangible, they can be just as scary, if not more. I've had plenty of panic attacks thinking maybe this isn't possible. What if I can't handle 5 science/math classes in one semester? What if I can't manage 30 work hours a week between my 2 on campus jobs and my planned CNA job outside of school? What if I can't pay my bills because I'm investing in my education instead of working a paying job? The one thing I've learned from taking a medical path is that becoming a doctor isn't as easy as learning medicine names and how to put a bandaid on fingers, and then making six figures. And yet, I am still dedicated to this path. I've seen what good medical professionals can do first hand. I know that this world would be a lot more painful, a lot more full of loss, if we didn't have medical professionals who care about their jobs, and who pushed through the hard times during school to make it to where they are now. As cheesy as it is, believing in yourself is the only way to get to the end. It's the only way to quiet the 'what if's' in your head. It's the only way to study and pass your exams, and it's the only way to get the outcome you hope for. I think that faith in oneself is the most important step to achieve your career aspirations, because if you don't believe in yourself, you won't make it to the next level. You won't take the hard steps, and you won't achieve as much. Without people who believe in themselves, our world could not be as progressive as it is now. It is up to regular students like me and my peers to become the world's next doctors, lawyers, teachers, administration, politicians, and more. We just have to believe ourselves to get there.

If you would have asked me when I was younger who has the most advantageous career, I think I, as well as many others, would have said doctors. However, as I’ve began to embark on the path of medicine, I’ve found that that’s quite the understatement. From clinical hours to the MCAT, and even to the hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans medical students have to take out just to get their degrees, there are plenty of other careers with less risk and more immediate reward. And yet, there are still so many of us who take the path. We stare the bumpy, rough path down, and still decide to embark on the journey. I’ve only been decided on the medical path for a few years now, but I know that I have a calling towards it. I just got my Certified Nursing Assistant this last summer, the summer before my sophomore undergrad year, and even though it’s quite a messy job, I’m excited to see the medical field from a first hand perspective and start to understand the career. Despite it being considered a ‘lower’ position in terms of hierarchy, I believe this job will be the perfect chance for me to start to interact with patients and other personnel. Difficulties, unfortunately, come easily in this path of education. Finances, of course, get in the way of this sometimes. It’s expensive to get a good career, and sometimes, it feels like the money will never come. My parents have been great help, but with a big family like mine, they aren’t able to help as much as I know they wish they could. I knew college students are broke, but I didn’t really know the amount of headache and worry that came with paying the bills regularly. I work hard to pay as many of my expenses as I possibly can, but scholarships help so much to allow me to get through school debt free, or at least low in debt. Scholarships like the Manny and Sylvia Weiner Scholarship are so very generous, allowing students like myself to pursue our dreams in medicine without all of the debt many medical students have to take on. Along with finances, grades are so important to keep up with. Many of premedical students, including myself, have a course load over 15 credits, and still are pressured to maintain a 4.0 GPA for the best results in terms of medical schools after undergrad. My classes, as a Neuroscience major, are not easy. I have struggled with even my basic math and science classes, but by taking advantage of school resources as well as online resources have helped me to keep my grades up tremendously. Dedication and effort are so important in students, and those are some skills that I admire about myself. I worked hard through high school, and now in college, while balancing external activities like a Pre-Med club I’m in at my university, which allows me to talk to current medical students, plan my personal career path, and get together with other students with similar goals to mine. However, despite these difficulties, I believe in myself and my efforts to continue to thrive through my undergrad and medical degrees. I know that I have a calling in medicine. I know that helping my community is who I am, and I want to be the doctor that my patients want to see. I want to make changes in the healthcare field, to allow more people to receive quality care and assistance. After all, where would we be without doctors who care?

The medical field has always been one that has intrigued me. I remember when I was a little girl and loved to tell everyone at kindergarten that I wanted to be a doctor to help all the moms and babies in the hospital. That's one thing that's never changed - helping children will always be a passion of mine. I grew up in a family of seven, as the oldest and only daughter, with four little brothers. I was always their second mom, almost, since I was constantly babysitting or just playing with them. My littlest brother is 2 now, and surprisingly, he's the one that really inspired me to go into the medical field. After my third little brother, none of us ever thought that my mom would have another baby. It seemed like an insanely difficult thing, especially since she was older than a typical mother of a newborn would be. With that, even she was shocked when she found out that she would be having another baby. I was ecstatic. For her entire pregnancy, I was there with her, feeling him kick and move inside her. I was intrigued by what I heard the doctors say, and when I saw the sonograms. I had never been able to be so involved and aware of a pregnancy as I was with this last one. However, that all came to a head when she went in for a scheduled C-section. We said our goodbyes calmly, and I was left to babysit the other boys while she and my father went to the hospital. The next news I heard chilled my bones. My mother had had complications, and the doctors and nurses said that if she had waited any longer to come in, my brother would not have made it out alive. They said that the placenta was disintegrating inside her, and were shocked to find out that it wasn't an emergency procedure. However, that wasn't the end of the bad news. I was devastated. I was worried that I would not only lose my brother, but also possibly my mother in the process. I had to be strong though, so I could comfort my brothers in this time. After weeks spent in the hospital and a surgical procedure to fix his intestines, I finally was able to meet my brother in person. I don't think I've ever cried so hard in my life over someone I'd never met before, but it was a moment that I will never forget. Later that year, I found out that the hospital he was in was taking volunteer applications, and I immediately signed up. I worked in the lab for awhile, and then the emergency room, and once a spot opened up in the NICU, I took it immediately. I was able to meet some of the nurses that took care of my brother when he was in the hospital, and it became one of my favorite places to visit. It was this experience that showed me how important good medical professionals are. It is literally the difference between life and death in a lot of cases, and I hope that in my career, I can be that person to somebody's family. I want to make something good out of my life, and I don't see a better place for me to be than in the medical field.

I think the most adversity that I've had to overcome has been adjusting to living away from home, both mentally and physically. I'm going to school six hours away from my home, and it has been really hard for me to be away from family as well as attending school full time and balancing work life and fun. I struggled with anxiety badly my senior year of high school as well as the transition from home to college, but I've been able to manage it by taking time for myself and giving myself the opportunity to put some things off until tomorrow, or next week, or just on the table for later. Mental health is extremely important when it comes to going to school, and I think that it's been a good opportunity for me to experience the real world away from the protected view of home. When I felt comfortable enough, I started to get off of my anxiety medication, which was really difficult for awhile. I was worried that I might spiral and it would become worse, but with some needed meditation and confirmation that I know what I'm doing, it gradually became easier and easier to get through the days without medication. I still keep an emergency supply in case things get worse, but for now, I've been doing okay. My struggles with mental health have led me to a career path looking into medicine and the pharmaceutical world. I want to be able to help other people find peace in their journeys, no matter the background or where they are in life. I believe that every person deserves exceptional medical care, and by devoting my time and energy to going into medicine and gaining the education I need to succeed, I am helping not only myself but also the people in my community to improve tomorrow's world. Some of my most foundational medical experiences came from my own family and the decision to volunteer in the NICU in my senior year of high school. My mother had a baby who had to undergo intestinal surgery when he was only a few weeks old, and it scared us terribly. We weren't sure if he was going to make it, but after a few months of living at the hospital, late nights and many tears, he finally came home healthy. I made contact with the hospital soon after that and asked them if they had a volunteer program. When they did, I was quick to sign up, and I was able to work in a few departments of the hospital, looking at the jobs of medical professionals and nurses and studying what I thought might suit me. It was there that I realized my passion was in the medical field. I truly hope that one day, people can look fondly at me as I do the medical professionals that saved my baby brother.

Ever since my brother was in the NICU of our local hospital for a month undergoing recovery from intestinal surgery, I felt the desire to serve my community to give back for what they offered my family. I was researching different careers and fields of study to go into, and one of my interests was the medical field. However, I had no idea what any of these were like, so I went onto the hospital website to learn more. I discovered that they hosted a program for high school students to perform volunteer work in a branch of the hospital. Intrigued, I filled out the application and received a call a little bit later that there was an opening in the NICU that my brother was in, which I took quickly. I was able to meet some of the nurses that took care of my brother for the grueling month that he was admitted. It filled me with such great thanks for the people that create environments such as there, where parents and families of patients know that their loved one is receiving the highest quality care that they could get. It warmed my heart to be able to hold those babies and to think about what they would grow up to do. To look at them and be a part of their lives for a small second in time, which they'll never remember, and I'll never forget. While I worked in the emergency room for a couple of weeks due to a schedule change, I witnessed a patient not make it after coming in from a stroke. He passed after about twenty minutes of CPR. It was a hard thing to watch, and it hurt my heart because death is never easy to watch. Regardless, it has helped to show me different perspectives of life and shown me how short life can be, and how much I need to make the most of it. Volunteering in my community has been one of the greatest experiences that I have gone through during high school, and I plan to continue when I find it possible. I've also helped to inspire a few of my friends to join the volunteer program as well, and we have all shared our experiences and are learning and growing together. I have experienced things that I never would have had I not taken the opportunity when I did. I've met people both in the profession as well as patients and made different connections with people.

I have put others first in my life mostly at home, but also in a lot of my close friendships and relationships. As the oldest daughter in my family with 4 younger brothers, my parents don’t always have all the time to be able to watch all of them all of the time, so I find myself babysitting or taking care of them when needed. I love my brothers, and I try to do all in my power to help out where I can. When my youngest brother was born, he had a lot of medical issues which caused him to be in the hospital for a month before he was able to come home. During this time, my parents were at the hospital quite a bit, making sure he was okay and checking up on him with the doctors and nurses. My grandparents helped out with us, but when they weren’t there, I was in charge of taking care of my siblings. The hardest part of it was the emotional burden of helping them to process the fear of losing my mother or brother during their recovery. I made sure to stay strong though, and helped them to be taken care of and happy, so that they didn’t have to worry too much about what was going on. I hope to continue to do this through my life, as I pursue a career in which I will be helping not only humans but the environment as well, and I would like to give back as much as I can despite the circumstances I am put in. Being kind and strong during this was a huge factor in my ability to get through this experience with a positive view. Helping my family allowed me to focus on other things so that I could be a light in their lives. Serving others, in my opinion, is the gateway to success and happiness. I feel overjoyed when someone offers me a smile in return for brightening their day. I will forever believe in the philosophy that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and by making the world better for others, others will make yours better too, and even without anything in return, a single act of service repaid over and over and over again could create a better day for everyone, even for something as simple as a compliment or a plate of cookies.

I believe that I am the ideal candidate for this scholarship because both of these categories are huge passions of mine. I recently came out as lesbian to a few people, although I am still closeted to my family, being that I come from an LDS family that is extremely religious and unsupportive. I am looking to move away for college to try to find an environment where I can be embraced by those who accept me and my sexuality and passions. I am hoping to go into a career in marine biology, with an end goal of a PhD in Marine Biology, where I hope to focus on the study of conservation of sealife and aquatic plants due to the effects of climate change. I am hoping to be able to go to undergraduate school this fall, but I am unsure that I will have the money to be able to afford expensive housing along with other costs, and I don't know if my family will continue to support me financially once I've revealed that I am in a WLW relationship. This scholarship will greatly allow me to have some help financially while I go through college without having to take out huge amounts of student loans which are more and more difficult to pay off with the state of the current economy. My experiences with my situation as well as other things that I have gone through have given me a high amount of empathy for everything on this earth. I find myself drawn to the ocean, as I have since I was a child. Oceanic health and studies was something that I was told over and over was just a dream far away, and that nobody does that for a real career. That it was just for dreamers, and most people aren't able to actually have a future in that. However, I feel that it isn't just a dream. I am choosing to put my dreams first and try to make them come true, to show my inner child that dreams are possible. To show those around me that I can make my own decisions, and that I can think logically as well as emotionally. The thing that first drew me to oceanic health is when I found myself stuck in a loop watching videos and documentaries about orcas that had been put into captivity, put in an environment that was severly damaging to their mental health and physical health. It made me think, and the more that I watched, the more grateful I was to the scientists that were able to help make that change, to show the world that holding creatures with that level of brain capacity is abuse, and needed to change. I hope to become one of those figures to people and to marine life. As a member of the LGBTQ community and a person dedicated to the conservation of life of others on this planet than humans, change is something that I will always fight for. Rights are something that I hold dear to my heart - rights that belong to everything with a brain and feelings, including organisms that are not human.

Recently, I watched a documentary that was titled "The Loneliest Whale in the World". This film was about a whale that, as researchers documented it, had a different frequency of whale calls that no other whale would respond to or even hear. These people came together with technology along with UCSD's marine biology professors and students and tracked the calls of this whale and others around it to find out if it truly was the loneliest whale. By the end, they couldn't, but there were so many humans already that had heard of it and were invested. The film only increased awareness of this situation which put a large number of people in curiosity and intrigue to find another whale so that they could know that this whale, a member of an entirely different species, with no way of real communication, wasn't alone. Months later, I saw a post that they had finally found that there were two whales at least with that same frequency of whale calls. I was ecstatic, as were the other commenters and viewers of the news. Without that technology, not only would we not know that whales have to be at the same frequency to hear each other, but it brought so many people together in an emotional sense that the research continued, and ended up with a happy ending. I found this story intriguing, and although it wasn't necessarily a life-changing experiment, it put a smile on my face to see so many humans united in the well-being of another creature of an entirely different family of living organisms. The technology in this story began with the military's use of hydrophones underwater to communicate and to try to find hidden information during wartime. Marine biologists and other oceanographers were finally able to gain access to the system and were able to use that equipment in an entirely different way than originally intended. Technology, new and old, may have new uses that we don't even know yet. It's amazing the way that humans have been able to manipulate such equipment in so many ways. I feel that the technology we use now will be able to expand and grow so much that the possibilities for STEM will be nothing less than infinite.

To me, feminism means a lot of things. As a woman in this world, I’ve seen that yes, women today have more than we used to. However, there are still clear prejudices and stereotypes that prevent us from becoming truly equal to how men have been. Feminism is important to me because that is my entire life. I am a female, and I deserve the same rights and equality as anyone else in this world. I deserve the right to my own body. I deserve the right to vote. I deserve the right to enter any male-dominated society and be respected for my knowledge, regardless of my chromosomal sex. Not only am I a woman, but I am also a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and I have seen countless examples of women who love other women being put down for their sexual orientation, being put out of religious organizations wrongly, and looked down upon for not having a man in their lives to depend on. I come from an extremely religious family, and I have grown up with gender stereotypes in every aspect of my life - expected to marry young, have children, and dedicate every second of my life to my future family, and not to myself. As I’ve grown, and my ideals and values have shifted, I recognize now that I owe nothing to anybody but myself. However, I choose to speak out and help the people in my communities and around the world who cannot speak for themselves. I have empathy for those in situations where they physically cannot say anything for the risk of their lives or places in society. A woman that I look up to highly in society is Drew Afualo, a social media influencer on TikTok and other platforms. She speaks her mind regardless, and with so many people viewing her content, she receives a lot of backlash for it, insults, and ungodly comments that would bring any person down. But Drew never has. She continues to speak her mind, laughing instead of complaining. She turns her weaknesses into strengths. That is a trait that I find truly remarkable, and I have nothing but respect for her. I contribute to the feminist movement as much as I can by showcasing my talents, my worth, and my identity freely. I post stories on my Instagram to spread awareness to the few followers that I have, but I have received so many messages from women who agree wholeheartedly and I find that if I can help make one person feel better, I have done my part for the day. I discuss it with others in my community that agree (and disagree sometimes) with me, and share the information that I have learned, as well as learn from them to expand my views as much as possible. Feminism is a topic that I am extremely open about, and I hope that one day I will be able to become as much of a light for other women and femmes just as many of our past and present feminists have been.

Math is a concept that may seem like a jumble of numbers and symbols to most, but to me, I see it as a formula to how life works. Many sciences are based off of the basics of math, and for most, it is used regularly in one's life. What draws me to math is the liberation of knowing that you can never know everything about math. There's always something new to learn, some new formula to discover, and so many secrets about this world that can be unlocked by mathematics. What would our world be today if Pythagorus never discovered the pythagorean theorum? Or if the quadratic formula was never invented? The geniuses in our world that have put their lives solely towards mathematics are, in other words, the creators of our world. Without their research and knowledge, we wouldn't be as technologically advanced or know the mysteries of space and the ocean. Many believe that it is not required to have an extensive knowledge of mathematics, and it can be true in some cases, but many people require math for their fields of study or work, and without learning calculus, or algebra, there would be no way for them to accomplish all of the work that they do to save and improve lives. My understanding of the world has changed because of math because having a common knowledge and also a more advanced knowledge can prove useful not only in education but in the future when finances or my career requires me to use that to further myself in the tasks that I am assigned to. I also feel like a lot of the principles taught in math should be common knowledge to the people of the world. They help us to better grasp the world that we live in, and if everyone had a good basis in math education, it's possible that our world would have many more discoveries and uncovered mysteries. We might be able to solve issues such as global warming or the millions of creatures that live in our oceans that have yet to be found. The world isn't just culture, or just history. The world is deeper, and involves complex calculations, complicated ideas, and formulas that make up the galaxies, the universe. Using mathematics is one of the most important things in this world, and we need more students that are interested in topics such as this to contribute to the constant development of the world we live in, and the possible other worlds we could migrate to, as well.

A few weeks ago, I helped serve a community of elderly people in an assisted living home for a birthday party. They had this party at a community garden, and I was able to communicate with these beautiful people and it truly opened my eyes to how amazing the circle of life is. By serving them and offering them the first interaction in two years with the outside world, I felt like a successful part of my community. These simple actions are sometimes what means the most to the elderly people in the community. Seeing young faces and being able to interact with the next generations can be an experience that brings them back to their youth and allows them to feel more lively for a little bit of time. I believe that by going outside of one's comfort zone and truly helping others, so many amazing things can come to pass in the lives of both parties.

In a family of seven, things are never easy. My littlest brother had a lot of complications with birth and with my parents being gone, I was left in charge, as the oldest, to take care of my 3 other little brothers. Even though sometimes, it was easy to want to break down, I had to stay strong for my brothers to help them progress despite my parents being gone a lot of the time. Being optimistic in less than ideal situations can be difficult, but by taking the time for self care as well as trying to stay calm, taking deep breaths, and going through life one step at a time. By taking baby steps, it can lead to progressing farther than trying to bite off more than one can chew. Self-care is important, because neglecting one's soul may bring about a withering of the person, and degradation that may lead to other negative consequences. Some things that I have used are reading uplifting books, watching a movie I love, listening to calming music, or talking to my friends and family who I trust. By doing these things, it's easier for me to focus on the task at hand. While taking responsibility for ones' siblings is a huge step for me, there are so many more obstacles to come and I believe that if I stick to these principles, I'll be able to conquer even the most challenging problems.