My four younger sisters and I are absolute best friends, and though our house is loud, it is constantly filled with love and laughter. I think Kalia would have fit right in. Because I’m usually the one who makes the jokes in our house, I think Kalia and I would have had an especially great time together. Growing up we had such a loving home life that we wanted to pass what we could on. When I was 7, we became a host family for a short term foster care program, Safe Families. Over the next few years we had about 11 children stay with us for varying amounts of time. I learned to love strangers from completely different worlds than me like my own siblings and cried bitterly when they had to leave. When I was 11, I cried again for my brother, who died of SIDS. It marked a turning point in all of our lives, revealing the shortness of life and the need to redeem the time. Moving seven times over the next six years, I learned resilience and adaptability. I jumped into community wherever I was transplanted and am so thankful for friends I will always cherish from sea to shining sea. In 10th grade I competed in Track and Field, lettering and making lasting memories. Unfortunately, recurring mono which worsened after each meet and practice kept me from returning the next season. Instead, I began dual enrollment, staying involved in my youth group and helping with Sunday school at church while I got associate degrees in Business and Economics. Learning my limitations both physically and emotionally was humbling especially when it felt like we would never stop moving, or I would always be sick. But I am so grateful to have started learning a balance early between ambition and contentment. When I graduated high school a semester early, I decided to travel to Indonesia for a spring to intern for a cultural tourism business. The village I lived in has a population of about 1,120 people and is one of the most impoverished regions in the country. I learned some Indonesian from my roommate and regularly visited with the people in the village, assisting in community outreach events. Arriving in the midst of a tuberculosis epidemic, with 7 people dying within the first 10 days of my arrival, I visited a 25 year old man on his deathbed and went to more funerals than housewarmings or weddings. Again, I felt the urgency and reality of death all around me, a spurring onward to live with purpose. When I returned from Indonesia, we made one last move from Santa Cruz to Folsom and I am now 19, completing my junior year at UC Davis. It would be a privilege and an honor to be considered for this scholarship. If I was chosen, I would use the money to help pay for tuition, as working two jobs while commuting to school is difficult with my health. I know that it is by grace alone that I can look forward to applying to law school this fall, meeting each new day with hard work and hope. I hope to use my degree to be an advocate for others, especially children, through either family law or prosecution. I hope it will better equip me to live a life of purpose, loving and serving others with all my heart and might. What excites me most though, about the rest of my life, is the love of friendships I’ve already made and the joy of all those yet to come.

An Education in Empathy The last time I saw my brother, I was eleven and Knox was 2 months old. He was sleeping peacefully, swaddled in his blue blanket. I gave him a hug and jumped in the car with my dad until we got a call that changed my life forever: my brother was in the ambulance and the EMTs were trying to resuscitate him. Two days later, I passed out with a high fever, and my mom had to do CPR until I began to breathe again. I laid unmoving on the emergency bed for hours, dazed from the upheaval that had penetrated my life. Our homeschool was at a complete halt for a while and when we started again, school was scattered. In the wake of Knox’s death and funeral, I questioned the purpose of academics. Intellectual pursuit felt so superfluous in the face of all else, which felt so real. A book seemed a silly tool in the valley of the shadow of death. But one day, I read in a biography that Abigail Adams had lost a baby. Reading with opened eyes, I understood profoundly the depth of loss that the words on that page represented. Slowly, I began to understand the value of education as preparation for the soul. And I came to realize that continuing to study stories, history and ideas throughout time and space allows us to see the common human experience and respond compassionately. When I was 16 I was diagnosed with recurring mononucleosis which lead to Chronic Fatigue and POTS, and new issues continue to unfurl as I deal with Immune Disorder Syndrome. but despite almost every day being a fight against weakness and exhaustion, I am finishing up my junior year at UC Davis and applying to law school. My hope is that higher education will better equip me to turn empathy into action and I can become an advocate for others. This scholarship would make a tremendous impact on alleviating some of the financial burden of paying for school on my own, allowing more rest for my health conditions. As I continue to learn resilience and determination with each new challenge, I am hopeful that the character which is built in me in my weakness will allow me to better serve others.