I am Emmerson Jo Ann Leach a twenty-one-year-old from a small town in upstate New York who now lives in central Maine. I am from a low-class family that was raised in the middle class during my teen years. I have a love for running, reading, education, and good food. I am currently attending Norwich University in the last year of my bachelor's degree. I am first generation college student and hope to be the first to go to grad school and work for the government. This is possible because of good scholarships, however, I am still living paycheck to paycheck and will have many student loans. I come from a five-person household with parents who had three kids before the age of twenty-one. I grew up knowing that I had food on the table and clothes because my dad worked over 80 hours a week and my mom raised us at home. My father could not attend many school and personal events because of his work schedule. I lived in small low-income housing in a dangerous part of town. This created a gap between classmates and resulted in having few friends throughout elementary school. However, it also created a love and appreciation for the "small things" in life. Family time, time outside, and generous deeds and gifts people would give. A specific example is that I love tuna casserole which is canned tuna, canned peas, and dollar spaghetti or elbow noodles. I still make this for myself today. My experience in a low-income family taught me to be aware of how I treat others and the idea that many people come from different backgrounds. I hope to be a victim advocate with a focus on sexual assault cases in the Northeast. I am currently applying to master's programs in social work to achieve this goal. I have an interest in working in women's or group shelters to aid or help out in any way I can during this process. Socioeconomic adversity has taught me the importance of advocacy and giving back to your local area and community. I am eager to get involved in this career field. I find it interesting, intimidating, exciting, and very important for people in society as a whole. My career plans involve service to the community, my high school and college career involved this as well. In high school, I helped create a food pantry for high school students and people within the community through an organization called Interact. Many people helped my family growing up and I want to pay it forward as much as I can throughout my life. In college, I regularly help with blood drives, work with kids in events like walking to school day, and talk to people within the community as much as possible. Socioeconomic adversity is something that is a significant part of my journey and will work to help people experiencing this throughout my career.

Women have had a powerful impact on my education journey both family and in school. There are too many women to name so I will highlight just a few. My grandmother Barb, my Aunt Cez, my mother Naomi and my special education teacher Mrs. Mcloud. I come from a low-income family, a first-generation high school graduate and soon-to-be college graduate. My grandmother Barb was an emt while my father was growing up. She worked three jobs as a single mom to support her two children. She is the fiercest and kindest woman I know, she taught me to set my standards high while highlighting the need to put in the work. My grandmother taught me how to be kind while understanding that perceptions of others and relationships matter, especially as a woman. My grandmother had a hard time as a young woman and has tried very hard to give me lessons and tools so I can have an easier time. My Aunt Cez is a force of nature, tall blonde with bright blue eyes, she is as smart as she is beautiful. She became a nurse while raising her two kids and is now one of the top nurses at a pediatrician's office. My Aunt Cez values intelligence as well as good music, the lesson that you have to focus on rest and self-care if you are going to do phenomenal things anywhere in life. My mom is someone I could never thank enough for the impact she had on my life. My mother is now a special needs education teacher for elementary children. She works hard in and out of the classroom for her students. Advocating for better food and communication for children who can't speak for themselves. My mother instilled a need to help others, specifically ones who cannot advocate for themselves. My mother would regularly bring us to homeless shelters and food banks, even when we had very little to demonstrate that when you have little there is always someone who has less. My mother taught me to be helpful and generous through whatever was happening in my life, which instilled a fight for others in me that I am grateful to have. Last but certainly not least my special education Mrs. Mcloud. I had her for three years and she has had the most impact on me through my years in education. I had her from the 3rd to 5th grade. She told me that was capable and fought for me to be in regular reading classes, knowing that I advanced in reading, while I struggled in math. She was the first teacher to acknowledge that even though I struggled in some areas I was strong in others. For the first time I thought I could be intelligent and learn in ways I thought would never be possible for me. I contribute her efforts along with the the other women previously mentioned to my success in college and life. I have had many women positively influenced in both a personal and educational capacity and I know I will meet many more.

I had the opportunity to hike the 100-mile wilderness in northern Maine with my father last summer. I have never done anything like that in my life. I have had a love for hiking for a long time, however, a week-long backpacking trip is a completely different ball game. It requires immense endurance, mental strength as well as the willingness to get dirty in the wilderness. I was able to finish it in five days and throughout that time I had doubts, that I would be able to finish. My body was crying for me to stop but I knew it is something I could and would finish. It is my greatest achievement because it was something that took preparation, dedication, and mental fortitude to be able to complete. I love adventure, the outdoors, and anything that gets me outside. I love to do things that challenge me physically, however, I have a difficult time being confident in my ability to do things physically, especially when it comes to upper body strength or something new that I have never attempted before. I am scared of possible failure. However, completing the hike was a step in taking in that if I never face the fear and do things despite that I will never improve in any area of my life. Whether that be physical, or otherwise. I learned that I am far more capable than I ever thought I was and that my training was and is worth something. I just need to believe that I can do it and do the same things I do in my training. I will forever remember the day we finished. It was dark and we were on the last mole of the day. My feet were swollen and I could not walk with my legs together but I was so excited because I was almost there. I finished something that I never thought I would. My whole life I thought I was weak because I was small and that's what everyone in my life treated me as. Finishing the 100 miles showed me that I was wrong. I could be physically strong and complete things I never thought were possible. That now applies to everything else in my life. I made decisions this year that I never would have made otherwise because I had the belief that I could do them. My biggest dreams are to be a civil rights lawyer to help people in need. To hike the Appalachian Trail and to serve in the United States Army. All of which are dreams I had before finishing the 100 but never thought I would be able to do. Once you tackle a task that you think is unreachable all of the other goals seem a little easier to obtain.

I deserve this scholarship because I like cheese. I would like to work in a cheese factory to have the opportunity to buy more and more cheese. It is delicious. It is in all different forms, cake, eggs, french fries, cheese filled veggies. The options never end. Unfortunately I have a severe allergy to cheese. However, I choose to endure the pain and eat it daily.

Having an open mind and heart are important to caring for others as well as living our daily lives. My brother attempted suicide this year and saying I was shaken was an understatement. The situation made me reflect on suicide, the impact it has on our countrym specifically in the LGBTQ+ community, and what I can do to influence positive change. My brother and I believe in different religions and that caused our relationship to be strained. My brother's attempt put everything into perspective for me. Our differences were irrelevant. My love for him is the only thing that mattered. That applies to everything less in my life. Love and respect should be shown in all situations and it does not have to be earned. I take this with me every day. My friends like to say this phrase “what does it look like to pick up your cross daily” meaning what are we doing each day to battle sin and to be a positive influence on the world around us. I have a choice to be kind and compassionate and respectful every single day in everything I do and if I decide to make that choice it is a decision to put my own beliefs, opinions, and biases to the side. This is like what I had to do to fix the relationship with my brother and I think that this would help many of the issues that our country is facing today. Being open-minded is a decision that people have to make daily to be the best at what they do and to make a positive influence on the future generation. Moving forward, I am going to do my best to check my biases at the front door and to go into every situation with an open mind and heart. This will hopefully help me succeed in my hopes to go into law school to be a civil rights lawyer as well as my career in the United States Army. Trying to be open in every situation has given me a deeper perspective and understanding of my effect on other people as well as the influence I don't have on other people’s decisions and choices in life. Being mindful and open minded is something I open to improve on for the rest of my lie bad to improve on in my career and personal life. Being open minded in every situation is important to life and just being happy as an individual. It is an everyday battle and sometimes it is easier than others. However, it gives the opportunity of deeper connections with others as well as the opportunity to have fun, and go grow in ways that I will never fully know. In all, difficult situations often times give the opportunity to grow and to be a better individual.

I am looking to be an officer in the U.S. Air Force then be a civil rights lawyer. While being a civil rights lawyer I would like to help people to the best of my ability. In particular human trafficking victims as well as victims of sexual assault in areas like Michigan where it is prevalent. I hope to have a well established law firm and give back to the community I work in. I have seen many people hurt by the system we have in the United States and I would like to be someone who helps to fix the system as we know it today for future generations. In all I aspire to make change for women and children in need with a career in law.

Educational Inequity is something we should all stand for because it affects our future generations and what our country will look like as a whole. From books, letters, movies knowing how to read and being educated gives you a place in society, and without that, it makes it much harder for individuals to feel like they belong in society. Educational Inequity gives room for bias to form as well. As a whole, if we stand together in regards to educational inequity we could see positive growth in our society.

The pandemic taught me many things however the most significant was to enjoy and appreciate everything I have. I started college during the pandemic and at first, I was devastated it would not be the "normal" experience I had dreamed of but it was better than I could have ever imagined. I made steady and substantial friendships. Saw my peers and community help others more than they ever have before and most of all step up in times of great struggle. I remember speaking to my mom on the phone gushing about how grateful I was to even get the opportunity to be on a college campus because so many people around the world unfortunately were not so lucky. The pandemic made me grow more than I ever have as a person and I never want to go back.