Growing up with the kindest mother ever is the most blessed gift I'll ever have. She's taught me a lot of things in life and has shaped me into the person I am today. She is my number one best friend that I could ever ask for and is the only person who has seen all of my highs and lows. Every weekend, I do things with my mom, whether it's going for walks outside, shopping, to the movies, day trips or vacation, and going out somewhere to eat. I became successful in school thanks to my mom. During seventh grade, I never really cared about grades. I never really thought that it would reflect onto how I do and I didn't know that you can fail classes. When my mom saw how badly I was doing in my math and English classes, she heavily encouraged me to redo all of my assignments I did terribly. After several weeks of spending lunchtimes working on assignments, my grade in English has raised from an F to a B. It was all thanks to my mom that made me care all about my grades and my work. I don't think I would be in college if it weren't for my mom. How I am giving back to the community right now is through my art. I draw and paint the things I love and share them to the world for everyone to see. I gain friends and opportunities outside of that and I'm hoping in the future I can either be a concept artist for movies and video games or a film maker. I also am contributing to the community by interning at my University's sponsored community farm called the Tucson Village Farm. I am a part of the Animal Education Center for which I take care of their animals, plan and create summer camps, and volunteer to help out on things when needed. I also am a part of their art studio where I and the supervisor come up with ideas to make the studio look more welcoming and I come up with the designs and create them. Another thing on how I am contributing to the community is that every year, I help my god mother out with folding graduation programs for high schools in Tucson High's print shop. It would take me 2 weeks to do so where I would fold 5,000 programs on average. Thank you for the opportunity of this scholarship!

The dinosaur I drew is Deinocheirus. Deinocheirus was an ornithomimosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia, 70 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period. It is the largest of the ornithomimosaurs (dinosaurs that include Gallimimus and Ornithomimus) as it reached 11 meters (36 ft) long and weighed 6.5 tons. It was omnivorous, meaning it had a diet of plants and fish. It most likely would have lived in freshwater and wetland ecosystems and it lived alongside the hadrosaur, Saurolophus, and the tyrannosaur, Tarbosaurus. Fossil evidence shows that bite marks from one Deinocheirus specimen were shown to fit Tarbosaurus teeth, meaning that they were predators to Deinocheirus. Why Deinocheirus is my favorite dinosaur is because I love how weird it looks. It looks like a Frankenstein creation of a goose, a camel, and Spinosaurus. When Deinocheirus was first discovered in 1970, only it's arms were uncovered which were massive hands that had curved claws which is what gave Deinocheirus it's name, meaning "Terrible/Horrible Hands". Paleontologists thought it belonged to a giant meat eating dinosaur as the rest of the body was a complete mystery at the time. It wouldn't be until 2013 when two specimens would be discovered with partial remains of not just their arms but the rest of the body as their bizarre appearances flipped expectations of Paleontologists. We now know that Deinocheirus is a lot weirder than what we expected it to be. How I drew this is mostly with pencil. I finalized the background, water, and the details with a black coloring pencil to make the whole drawing pop more and to prevent any unnecessary smudging. I wanted to give off a mystical feel to it as Deinocheirus rises from the water as its having it's afternoon snack. This took me 56 hours to do and I honestly think this is my best pencil drawing ever because I have never took this much of my time to render and shade this drawing. Cash seemed like a good kid and I'm sure he would appreciate this drawing!

I am fascinated by the natural world and it is one of the things that inspire me to create my art. I love animals, both living and extinct, and they are the main factors whenever I want to gain inspiration to draw or paint. To me there is a great beauty of animals because of how diverse they are and that there are endless ideas and ways that you can create of them. Animals are a part of our everyday lives and in so many cultures, past and present. From a 10,000 year old bone sculpture of a lion headed person to someone painting pet portraits for commissions. We see animals throughout our lifetime and we coexist a long side them ever since we first evolved 4 million years ago and one of those ways of integrating them in our lives is art. I love drawing animals because I am a really detailed person and I love drawing the many materials that are on them like fur, scales, and feathers. With this scholarship, it'll help me out by perusing a career in concept art where I will utilize my knowledge of the natural world as my vision for future movies and video games.

Growing up with the kindest mother ever is the most blessed gift I'll ever have. She's taught me a lot of things in life and has shaped me into the person I am today. She is my number one best friend that I could ever ask for and is the only person who has seen all of my highs and lows. Every weekend, I do things with my mom, whether it's going for walks outside, going shopping, going on day trips or vacation, and going out somewhere to eat. My mom has taught me all of the important things that are crucial to my life. She's taught me how to get ready for the morning, making breakfast, getting ready for school, doing house chores, taking care of myself when I'm sick, and other day to day life skills that I would need to be independent. My mom has taught me how to be a kind and respectful person and how to put myself in people's shoes. This has made me an accepting and kind person that has developed many friendships. If it weren't for my mom, I probably wouldn't have as many friends as I would have today. Whenever I feel down, angry, worried, or sad about something, my mom is always there to keep my head up. She is understanding and listens to me. She does her best to provide me with things to make me feel better. My mom is my biggest fan, sounding board, and reviewer. She goes to every art show, performance, and film screening I'm in and is really supportive of the things I do. She encourages me to pursue my dreams and boosts me on resources to achieve them. Whenever something doesn't feel right with my work, she is always there to give me suggestions. I became successful in school thanks to my mom. During seventh grade, I never really cared about grades. I never really thought that it would reflect onto how I do and I didn't know that you can fail classes. When my mom saw how badly I was doing in my math and English classes, she absolutely encouraged me to redo all of my assignments I did terribly. After several weeks of spending lunchtime working on assignments, my grade in English has raised from an F to a B. It was all thanks to my mom that made me care all about my grades and my work. I don't think I would be in college if it weren't for my mom.