Pursuing My Dreams Amidst Challenges In my current semester, I find myself immersed in a whirlwind of academic commitments, tackling a substantial load of sixteen credits. These courses fulfill requirements of my double major in Music Composition and Film and Media Production. Additionally, these classes fulfill the diverse Calvin core requirements, emphasizing the well-rounded education this institution promotes. Amidst the academic storm, a particular class stands out as a source of creative freedom – my Intermediate film class. In this course, I am currently working on a short film project titled "Overwhelmed." What makes this endeavor even more special is that I serve as the director of photography. I have the privilege of visualizing and capturing the essence of our story. Furthermore, I have taken the initiative to arrange the soundtrack, despite it not being a requirement. This additional layer of creativity enriches my learning experience, allowing me to merge my profound love for music with my passion for film. Nevertheless, challenges have been an integral part of my journey. Sight singing, a skill foreign to me, has posed a steep learning curve. My goal is not just to pass the class but to bridge the gap between my creative instincts and musical literacy. I am currently on track to pass the class, but I am determined to exceed the basics. With the guidance of my professors and my composition instructor, I am dedicating more time to mastering sight-singing independently. Balancing the demands of school, work, and extracurricular activities has been arduous. I work tirelessly, dedicating 15-20 hours each week. My roles as a Live Sound, Lights, and Stage Technician on campus, and as a Live Production Intern at Ada Bible Church off-campus, offer more than just job experience. They support my daily living expenses and significantly contribute to my university fees. In addition to my academic and work commitments, I am actively involved in campus life. I organize concerts and open mic nights, participate in intramural sports, and lead Africapella, a group that brings a unique African flavor to praise and worship. This kaleidoscope of activities often feels like a juggling act, yet I've managed to maintain an overall GPA of 3.2, with a Program of Study GPA at 3.5. My commitment to act justly, think deeply, and live wholeheartedly in the service of Christ continues to drive me. My education at Calvin University is a profound blessing that has set me on the path to achieving my dreams of becoming a professional in music composition and film and media production. This education has ignited my passion and determination to see my journey through to graduation. My journey at Calvin University is a testament to my unwavering commitment to education and my relentless pursuit of my dreams. I believe that with the support of the community, my passion for music and film will flourish. The obstacles I face only serve to reinforce my resolve, and I am more determined than ever to overcome them and achieve my goals. This scholarship would not only alleviate my financial burden but also provide the affirmation and encouragement I need to continue striving for excellence in my academic and creative pursuits. With your support, I can reach new heights in my academic journey and bring my dreams to fruition. Thank you for considering my application and for your unwavering support of education.

My name is Emmanuel, I am a self-taught musician looking to learn how to make music at a professional level. I play the piano (keyboard), guitar, drums, bass guitar and ukulele. I have been playing the piano since I was eight but I do not read music scores or play sheet music. However, I am currently a freshman at Calvin University majoring in Music Composition in order to get a strong musical foundation as I begin my journey into composing music. I have been writing lyrics and composing music since I was about ten years old. Over time I have written a lot of songs but have not produced or fully finished any of them. My love for music led me to learn a little about how to produce, mix and master my raw compositions, this spiked my interest in Music production. HOW IT FEELS explores the how it feels when everything repeats. I wrote this song after I worked at a music store. It was a challenging experience. Sometimes it felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again, till it felt a bit surreal a bit repetitive. That repetitive feeling reminded me awfully of another experience I keep having in my life: How I keep failing to please God through my actions. It’s like I keep taking these pills (of sin) that make me feel good in the moment but afterwards I feel disgusted. Then I ask for forgiveness and strength not to do it again but afterwards I do it again. So once again i'm in a loop where everything repeats just like I felt doing the same thing over again at my job. This is a song with the reoccurring theme of how it feels to be stuck in a loop of repetition.

I am on a marathon, jogging through diverse terrain. I have sprinted across euphoric reunions and crawled through painful goodbyes. I have endured weeks of grueling isolation and have been endowed with random spurts of motivation and joy. I don’t know when the marathon will finish. No one does, but I’m still going to run and enjoy every minute of it. These waves of thoughts were inspired by the movie “Soul”. At the end of the movie, Joe Gardner, the protagonist, is given a second chance to live life. As he is about to embark on this renewed journey, he’s asked, “How are you going to live your life?” Joe replies, “I’m not sure, but I do know I’m gonna live every minute of it.” That was it! I was going to start embracing life as it is. I was going to live through every moment of my life embracing all the emotions coming my way. The past few months have been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. As the year began, I was accepted into university and shortly afterwards I was able to return to my boarding school in India despite covid restrictions. Reuniting with my friends, my family, was heartening. However, my school shut down two months after reopening because of a spiraling covid situation in India. My final exams were cancelled--months of revision gone down the drain--and our class was unable to have an in-person graduation. We did it online. Moreover, I couldn't go home because the UAE shut their borders to India. I watched as my friends left one by one, while I was stuck in a place I couldn't call home without them. The events that followed toppled one after the other. I stayed at a hospital, unable to console my friend after his father’s passing, because of my bruised retina. I lost my Uncle to a stroke and was unable to go to the burial. My hopes of finally leaving school were shot down by a positive covid test result, and I was slapped with a 17 day hospital/self quarantine. Life was awful, but it was during this time I watched the movie Soul. Joe’s final line was inspiring. He was living through every moment of life appreciating everything that life had to offer, the good and the bad. He had learnt to live a fulfilled life. I realized that for me to do the same, I had to not only push through dreadful experiences but embrace them to live a fulfilled life. But what does that mean? To live a fulfilled life? What is fulfillment? I realized that fulfillment is appreciation of being human. Being human means being sad; it means being happy; it means being content; it means grieving. It means being able to appreciate the plethora of profound emotions found in life, like squeezing the water out of a perpetually dripping rag. This appreciation is an appreciation of life, of embracing life. I am going to finish my marathon. Fulfilled.

Audition Piece #2: My Demons I have come to realize that there is something therapeutic about music. Whenever I feel down, I’ve learnt to either listen to music or make a song that expresses how I feel. This is like my coping mechanism, almost like writing a journal. With this song (at the time) I felt like I had a lot of issues and problems I had to deal with. These issues and problems were like demons that stole my happiness from me daily. I found myself making the same mistakes over and over again and losing my faith. So, I decided to write about it and express my negative emotions through words and this song was the outcome. Second Piece - My other work

My name is Emmanuel, I love music and outdoor sports. The sports I've had opportunity to be apart of is basketball and football. When I hit my growth sprout about four years ago I was diagnosed with scoliosis. This hit me very hard because I was really practicing and putting in my best to pursue being recruited for the NBA. I have been longing and I had done some research and written a research paper on the lives of famous NBA players, which further challenged me to practice hard to be like the men I had seen, Shaq O'Neil, Stephen Curry and late Kobe Bryant. Scoliosis brought pain and reorientation of my back and my whole body and I was grounded for over a year. The whole process of hospital runs, x-rays and appointments and checkups brought so much uncertainties to my life and initially made me feel hopeless. Many days and nights all I had for consolation were video games. Tried to drown my physical and emotional pain in them. My pain and fear was I would not be able to play basket ball again. I will not be able to pursue my life dreams. I would become handicapped. A year after diagnosis while the doctors were pressing for surgery, my parents found a non surgical exercise training of my body and spine that could bring healing and restore my body orientation and enable me to play sports again, at least to a degree. I went to the UK for a month scoliosis treatment and after that not only was my body on the way to healing, also my heart and emotions and confidence to pursue my dreams returned. The struggle with constant headaches, body rotations and demoralization I went through in 2019 and changes I have continued to see with my body as I continue to train my body to work against my bending spine, has taught me never to loose hope. I have also learned determination and consistency in pushing my body through various daily body exercises, and pushing at any challenge that comes my way. My motto now is, "Don't let anything drown you." Going ahead, I hope to still participate in varsity basketball and football. I am determined to put in my best and pushing my body to the limits and fulfill my desires in sports. I also intend to use the sheer doggedness I've learned and dedication and consistency to press in the area of music composition and learning to play different musical instruments. I desire not only to play in musical bands in the future but to set up my own musical band. All my dreams and ambitions for the future are things I have to develop, so I will need to be tenacious and determined and consistent in trying to excel to bring out the best in me.

I am Emmanuel, l love music. I love to listen to music that speaks to the heart in a very subtle but catchy way. I also love to write music. I frequently turn my feelings and thoughts into a song. This has helped me get through some difficult times in my life. I have used music to heal loneliness, hurts, and longings. My listening and composition of music has drawn the best out of many times. I play the piano and drums. I am learning the bass guitar and Ukulele. I also love basketball and play soccer as well. My experience with my spine bending (scoliosis) at age 14, was a great challenge to me pursuing my dreams, but now though the challenge is still there, I am pushing to see that nothing stops me from attaining those dreams. I have always desired to write music and make music. My dream is speak to the world with my music. My dream is to use music to bring healing to the world around me. In just the same way I used to drown out my troubles singing to myself on my piano. I know that there's a world out there that needs songs of the heart. I plan to study music composition in the university as one of my Majors. This will give me opportunity to equip myself in writing. Plan to write music for me and for others. And not having so much opportunity to study music in depth apart from being self taught most of the time. I believe that College will enable me to go all out in terms of preparing to learn more about Music Theory and composition in the standard way. Presently am preparing myself by writing my own songs. I have a book with all the songs I've ever composed. I also try to write songs for special occasions and present them as opportunities arise on birthdays for family and friends. In church talent hunt competitions. I write and play in school youth bands. I present whatever work I have written even in it's raw forms. I have formed a band with secondary school mates and we use every opportunity to present our music to the school community during programs. I want to see my music minister change, relaxation, give hope and enable or give coping mechanisms. I have also helped other younger ones with lessons on drums. I have tried also to give a lead in our youth group in school and in church in the area of learning to play any available musical instrument for the edification of ourselves. I didn't enjoy church services for young people without our kind of songs that could speak to us, so encouraged our leader and we started our own band away from the adult section. We formed our group and led our children church worship. Which we enjoyed and we could express ourselves better. I have been involved in all the various ways above, though I do enjoy them but they are ways I have been using to prepare myself for the future. I hope to have a career in music, but also it's a service with music. I have grown to love music and love the effect it has on the hearer. Am believing through my college to keep developing my talent to fulfill my dream of seeing lives helped by my music .

I have always loved music. My father exposed me to the piano maybe at the age of seven and encouraged me to write my own songs from my heart and from experiences I have had. I was ten when I wrote and played the piano to my first song. I performed for friends and family at an end of year get together. The reaction and effect the song and its presentation had on them, prompted me to continue to write and and present songs on various occasions as the opportunity arose. Listening to good music and playing musical instruments has always made me come alive. I have used music to console and encourage my heart. My parents moved a lot and I would always loose my friends with every move. I discovered that sitting on my piano and composing songs and singing about those friends and all we shared together, and a times crying alone on my piano, gave me strength to go out and make new friends in my new environment. Music always healed my heart and helped me face new challenges, over and over again. I am passionate about writing music that speaks to the heart of the hearer and helps the hearer navigate life and possibly find answers and help to face challenges and not give up but keep pressing on. Am also passionate to develop or train young people to play musical instruments, form bands and perform with their talents in music. They could use the skill as a recreation and also as a career if they invest in it. So I have also been passionate to bring my friends together, to develop ourselves together as we practice and compliment each other with our strengths in music. I play the piano and drums. I was mostly self taught and didn't have all the opportunities financially. I am learning the Ukulele, and Bazz guitar. I can easily fill in when there is no instrumentalist in a show or church meeting. I have enjoyed being useful in that regard at school and in the various Churches I have attended. The service I give and the usefulness of those services has propelled me to develop myself more in the area of music. I plan to study music composition in college. I plan to use the college time to further develop my music writing skills and learn more on Music theory. I plan to become a lyricist, writing my own songs and writing for other musicians. I also plan to play in bands. I Intend to form my own music band and wax records that will speak to different age groups, especially the youth. While in College for starters, I will be involved in the school bands and choir. I Intend to learn and develop my musical talents more. That is why I have been deliberate in choosing universities that have strong musical inclinations. In 2018, I was diagnosed with scoliosis which was bringing serious pain and discomfort in sitting, concentration and involvement in outdoor sports that I love, like basketball. The first months were very depressive, especially as my dream to play in the NBA was looking more and more impossible as my spine curve worsened. It was like I was sinking in my room. Again I went back to the piano. As I wrote and sang my heart out in my room, I found hope to push no matter what was happening to my back. I got to do an exercise training therapy for my back the next year. I am stronger to keep pursuing all my passions.