A study abroad experience leads a person to understand not only a different culture or a different environment, but a different way of life too. This coming year, I am planning on traveling to Finland, and I am already preparing by learning as much as possible about the Finnish way of life. For instance, I have been learning the Finnish language for five years. Learning to speak Finnish has changed my perspective on many things. For instance, it changed the way I think about numbers and quantities, as well as movement in everyday life. It has also introduced me to new concepts that don't exist in English, such as "sisu". Adjusting to a language difference can be more difficult in certain places than in others. For instance, German is similar to English and easier for English speakers to learn by speaking. Because the two languages are so closely related, the method of thinking for the two languages should be somewhat similar. Also, most Germans, like most Finns, speak at least some English and should be able to meet you where you are at. However, in another country like Japan or Korea, not everyone will speak English. These languages, much like Finnish, have a completely separate evolutionary path from English and hence have very different grammar and a very different way of thinking, which poses more challenges in learning the language itself. Another thing I am learning about is the environmental and waste disposal policy in Finland. Finns are very neat and protecting the environment is a key cultural value in Finland. There are seven different trash and recycling containers provided in most locations, and it is crucial that you learn how to sort your waste properly. It is also frowned upon to use non-reusable dishware and cutlery, like paper plates. I know that learning to manage waste, and being more conscious of my environmental footprint, is going to be a tough but important part of my growth over this experience. Perhaps the most difficult adjustment when participating in a study abroad experience is lacking a common history with the people you are around. Something students take for granted when studying at home is that all their peers share a similar historical background and education. Everyone learned a similar curriculum about the ancient world, America's colonization and independence, the world wars, and civil rights within the US. However, we don't learn much about other modern countries' specific histories in our curriculum, even though American history is a common subject in other countries' primary and secondary education systems. When you are stepping into a new country as an American exchange student, you begin to see how little you know about the society you're in, compared to what they know about you, and it is daunting. Lacking that feeling of historical and cultural understanding and solidarity can be very disruptive in your life and will require you to grow and learn rapidly in order to be a functioning member of that society.

My education will shape my future in numerous ways. I am pursuing a double major in music performance and pre-medicine biology. These two paths of education seem very disparate, but I have found my motivations to tie the two together tightly. I hope to pursue medical school after graduating, and to keep a part-time job in music during my medical career. I have several rare health conditions, among them narcolepsy, endometriosis, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. I am most interested in doing neurochemical research on the implications of narcolepsy on the brain, and potential ties between narcolepsy and other chronic health conditions. I would also like to participate in research regarding the development of orexin, the equivalent to narcoleptic people of insulin to a diabetic person. I have had nasty experiences with the current medications available to narcoleptic people, and I believe these experiences to be tied to comorbidities that often accompany narcolepsy. I would like to be able to do research to further explore this as well. Narcolepsy is also believed to be direly underdiagnosed, and I am hoping to use my medical and musical career to shed light on narcolepsy; I am considering becoming certified to diagnose narcolepsy during and/or after medical school as well. On a broader scale, raising awareness for disabled people in both music and medicine is a goal I wish to pursue. I have been working in the music industry as a private tutor for a few years, and there is a strong prejudice against students with physical and mental disabilities. However, through my own experience with creative and accepting professional musicians, I have realized that this prejudice is unfounded. There are ways for people to change their practices and their attitudes to accommodate for people with disabilities. For instance, using alternate notation systems or providing an ear training-based curriculum can allow students with learning disorders that disrupt the reading of sheet music, such as dyscalculia, to participate in the musical community. Having worked with many students, and having been a student in the music world myself, being a part of an ensemble, or even just feeling the solidarity of belonging to a community such as that of musicians, gives young people a feeling a support and empowerment that is difficult to find anywhere else. I especially wish to offer this feeling to students who need it most: disabled and disadvantaged people. Between medicine and music, my education opens countless doors for me. Having the education I am pursuing will enable me to help people in the best way I can, and pave the way for a better future.

I am primarily a musician, but I am also a visual artist. As an artist, I strive to capture the world as I experience it. I am an autistic, disabled girl living in an enormous world, and I have been privileged with many amazing opportunities. I want the world to see my inspiration, my triumphs, and my challenges. What inspires me most are the small, beautiful details scattered throughout life. For instance, my favorite piece is one of a blue topaz ring under red light. I love this piece not only for its realism, but for its beauty. In reality, this ring is less than an inch long, but when I look at it, it brings me enormous happiness The cat in the cathedral is another favorite piece of mine, and it has deep meaning to me. I created it for my AP art portfolio based on interviews with a Ukrainian exchange student at my school and my Finnish language teacher. The original subject of the piece was supposed to be how isolating being in a new country can be, and how tempting it can be to retreat into your mind, but this piece has come to represent the assembly of my entire social support network; my mother, my three best friends, and four amazing teachers. I always struggled to socialize and to find support as a child, so these people inspire me deeply. The last piece demonstrates the struggle of being an artist in today's world; we push ourselves to the limit for our art and are somehow always expected to give more. When I am tired and have nothing left to give, I look at this piece and I think about how difficult art is and how life wouldn't be the same without it.

Music has deeply shaped the way I see the world, from the time I was eight years old. It has taught me that the world isn't always what it seems. I used to believe that your seat in a competitive ensemble defined your worth as a musician, that you only had worth as a musician if you were competitive with your music, that Western music was the only music, and that all musicians need to read sheet music. I was wrong. When I was in middle school, I had two amazing band directors; they cared for me and provided me with a community when my family was falling apart. In high school, I was not so fortunate. My band director was abusive and discriminatory towards his students; two-thirds of the band quit in my freshman year. I stayed in band for three years, despite him targeting me and the rest of the flute section. I was constantly placed in last chair, even though I was the only flautist in the band that competed, and he constantly yelled at the entire section. I dropped out of band as a senior, and this turned my perception of music upside down. As a senior, I experienced music completely differently. I started taking new lessons, competing in new competitions, and trying to find ensembles to play with outside of my school. In my town, there are no ensembles for people outside of school, so I was on my own. I only realized how deeply this affected me when I was required to have a piano accompanist for a flute competition. When we played together for the first time, I cried. I realized how much I missed other musicians and how important collaboration was. Eventually, I stopped competing because I didn't have an ensemble to play with. Playing on my own didn't make me happy anymore. In my senior year, I also met a Ukrainian exchange student at my high school. He sparked my interest in traditional Eastern European music and Middle Eastern tonality. One day, I would love to learn how to play the bandura, a traditional Ukrainian instrument I would have once thought of as ancillary. I am also deeply inspired by Jamala's "1944", Ukraine's Eurovision-winning song. I know that my flute professor has a background in Iranian music and I am thrilled to learn how to apply non-western harmony to my flute playing. I tutor piano in my community, and I always traditionally taught through sheet music. However, I have one student who simply could not learn to read sheet music. She began to resent practicing, and I knew something was wrong. It turns out this girl has dyscalculia and could never learn to read sheet music. I'd sworn to myself when I quit band that I would never drive anyone away from music, so I adapted. I threw out all the exercises I wrote for her and started teaching her aural skills: how to identify intervals, how to identify chords, and how to play songs by ear. It was transformative. She is much happier and practices every day now. It brings me incredible joy to see this girl continue to love music. Music has taught me that the world is what you make it. There are cruel people, kind people, people who need help, and people who will offer help when it is needed. I learned that collaboration and competition can coexist in a world full of diverse music and diverse people. I learned also that music is what truly defines me, no matter what form it comes in.

My mother is the person who has supported me the most, not only on my journey to university but on my journey to becoming a person. When I was eight years old, she passed on her old student-model Artley flute to me, sparking a life-long love and passion for music. When I was 10, she divorced my alcoholic, narcissistic father and we set out on our own. She went from being a housewife with a part-time job to working a full-time job at a small accounting practice. While my father was constantly sabotaging my efforts towards studying, practicing my instruments, and being myself, my mother encouraged me constantly. Even though she made one-third of my father's income, she paid for me to have flute lessons until I was old enough to get them myself. She also paid out-of-pocket for me to receive therapy for the childhood trauma I had endured. She took care of all my needs so that I could focus on my education. As a musician herself, she also inspired and motivated me to play competitively and branch out to various instruments. When I began high school, my health started to decline. By my junior year, I was largely unable to function on my own. I was exhausted and constantly in pain. My father, who paid my health insurance at the time, refused to take my illness seriously, claiming my symptoms were "psychosomatic." My mother did not take this sitting down; she instead went back to school, to the Charles Widger School of Law at Villanova University, to receive her Master's in Taxation. She did this while working full-time and taking care of me to get a better job and get me on her health insurance. In January 2022, she succeeded in resuscitating her "big 4" accounting career and took me on her health insurance. Shortly after, I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Type 1 Narcolepsy. She advocated for me when none of my doctors believed my symptoms. Because of her, I am now on medication that gives me a relatively normal life and that makes focusing on education substantially easier. At the same time that my health was declining, I refused to let my grades slip. I continued to complete my assignments from home. In my sophomore year, one of my teachers recommended that I enroll in the dual enrollment program offered by my high school and a partnering community college. I initially refused, since I felt sick all the time, but my mother suggested I rethink my choice; I was bored in my classes, and as I was taking school remotely more and more, I had increasing amounts of free time on my hands. I ultimately pursued dual enrollment and graduated with my Associate Degree in Art in December 2022, before my high school graduation in June of 2023. I believe her most substantial contribution to my education is not simply her contribution to my primary interest, music, but my secondary interests as well. I am proud to say that she has supported my choice to pursue a double major in flute performance and biology. She has also encouraged me to study Finnish and Ukrainian as extracurriculars, which I am deeply proud of. My mother is my hero. She advocated for me when no one else did, stood up for me when no one else would, and cleared the path for me to pursue the best education possible. She continues to fight for what is best for my education, putting me before herself, and if there is anyone I aspire to be like, it's her.

I think I'm a decently unique person. I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Type 1 Narcolepsy (T1N), two rare and invisible diseases. My EDS causes me a great deal of joint weakness and pain. My N1D causes me to experience extreme fatigue, occasional bouts of muscle weakness (cataplexy), and extreme difficulty with controlling my emotions. My illnesses have forced me to take most of high school from home, but I didn't let that stop me. Instead, I saw it as an opportunity. I enrolled in the dual enrollment program offered by my local community college and completed my Associate Degree in Art in a little over a year. I am finishing up my last semester at my high school and self-studying for my AP Music Theory Exam. I am also studying Finnish and Ukrainian on my own time, as I have deep connections with both countries. I have been accepted to Western Carolina University's School of Music. There, I plan to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Flute Performance. Afterward, I am hoping to attend Sibelius Academy in Finland. However, Flute Performance isn't my only passion. I love instrument repair! When I was in 8th grade, I was about to play in a concert with my middle school band when a 6th-grade clarinetist came into the band room, panicking. Her clarinet wasn't working, and the only other people in the building at the time were me and my band director. My band director asked me to get the instrument repair kit out of his office, and by the time I came back, he was gone! I told the clarinetist I would let her use my clarinet (I have played every instrument in band and orchestra; I was learning clarinet at the time) if we couldn't get hers working. We waited for my band director and he didn't come back, so I got out my clarinet, assembled it, and compared it with the girl's clarinet. I noticed a spring was out of place on her clarinet and a screw was missing. I used a spring hook in the kit to fix the spring, and we found the missing screw in the girl's clarinet case. By the time our band director got back to the band room, the girl was warming up on her clarinet for the concert. He got mad at me for messing with her clarinet without him there, but he had to admit that I got it working. After that, whenever he had to do work on a student's instrument, he would wait until I was around and he would show me how to do it. I kept doing repairs in high school too. I can re-pad a flute and tune pianos now as well as do small emergency repairs on woodwinds, but I am working on overhauling an oboe and restoring a trashed lever harp. As I advance in my performance capabilities on the flute, I intend to continue studying instrument repair as well. Being able to repair that girl's clarinet, to help her when she needed it most, was an incredible experience. My community is a community full of musicians, and being able to help them at an embarrassing low, like having a broken instrument before a concert, is something that is within my physical capability. It is also a highly unique, specialized, and in-demand service to be able to provide. I want to be able to help other musicians throughout my life and career. Along with being a performing flautist, I hope to open my own repair shop someday, to help my community at large.

I decided to pursue a double degree in studio arts and flute performance because art is my true passion. I love music, I love art, I love expressing the truths of the world for all to see! Art also allows me to express my view of the world, as an LGBTQ+ person and as a disabled person, in a way that others can understand and relate to. Most of all, I love making people happy with the art and music I create. I have taken art classes off and on throughout my life, and I am in AP art now. Taking AP art has put into perspective just how much work being a studio arts major is. It also reminded me how much I love art, even if it is a massive amount of work. When I share my projects with my 3 other classmates and my teacher, I watch their faces light up. I listen to their every critique and vow to improve on what they say. Seeing my work bring happiness and reflection to other artists, it makes me especially happy. When I create my pieces, I often interview other people about their experiences of the world. I am friends with exchange students who have spent time in the US, people with disabilities, people with a various array of interests, passions, and ideas about the world. I have the best team of teachers, tutors, and doctors who have varied views on the world, and a few close friends who introduce me to new ideas all the time. Recently, I completed a piece for AP art featuring word art from Ukrainian, Finnish, and English. It allowed me to experience part of the cultures of a friend of mine and a teacher of mine, broadening my perception of the world and exposing me to different styles of art. When researching Ukrainian art, I decided I want to make pysanky this spring to expand my artistic capabilities and experiences. My AP class has made me far more culturally aware and inclusive. Being an artist has made me think more broadly about the world. It has made me want to tour the world, learning about different kinds of art. I don't know yet what I want to do with art as a career. I have thought about being an illustrator, but I am still not sure. I know that the more I work on art, the more people I meet, and the more I learn about the industry, I will figure out what exactly I want to do. I also know that the only way for me to be truly happy in this lifetime is to do what I really enjoy, and that as long as I put work into my art, networking, and finances, I will find a place in this world for me eventually!

The change I would like to see in the world is that I would like to see more people act with consideration of, and kindness towards, other living beings. I live in a town full of xenophobic people; anyone who is different from the social norm is ostracized. I have ehlers-danlos syndrome, a disability that affects most of my day-to-day life, and I receive a notable amount of bullying and harassment for it -- not only from my peers, but from people I see in the streets who don't even know who I am. I also see other people harassed in my community all the time, sometimes for no apparent reason. On a global scale, I have seen some of the most horrific things I've ever seen mankind do in the past year. One of my best friends lives in Ukraine, and sometimes I help him with his volunteer work translating materials from Russian and Ukrainian into English to help with humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. Some of the things I see happening to the Ukrainian people through this work -- Russia soldiers mutilating Ukrainian people, burning women and children alive, digging mass graves and mass executing civilians -- has opened my eyes to the kind of cruelty that mankind is capable of. I try to help my friend out with these translations as much as possible; he speaks English very well, but I help him edit the translations for ease of understanding. Even though this work isn't in my community, I feel that making information about these atrocities public and easily understandable is important to helping the Ukrainian people as much as possible. In my community, many of the horrors I see comes from my own volunteer work. I work at SAFE Haven for Cats, a no-kill cat shelter in my town. During my time there, especially working in the isolation floor, I have seen what people do to unwanted cats. I have seen litter after litter of emaciated, abandoned kittens. I have seen cats with eye infections so bad that they had to have their eye(s) removed, or animals that have been beaten so horribly that they have lost limbs or tails. All of the cats in the SAFE Haven shelter come from situations in or near our community. Many of them are rescues from kill shelters, where they were allowed to become sick or otherwise traumatized. Being a part of SAFE Haven's rescue mission makes me feel like I am showing these cats that many people are still capable of doing good things. I also get to spend time around other really great volunteers that remind me that humanity still has hope to become kinder. I particularly like volunteering on holiday shelter cleaning shifts because it helps me to get in touch with what holidays are really about and to provide help when it is needed most and given least. I hope that the work I do convinces more people to be a part of something bigger than themselves and something that helps other living beings, instead of promoting hate and cruelty.

I am pursuing a college degree not only because I believe it will help me grow as a contributing member of society, but because I love education and learning about the world. I have loved education ever since I was a small child. I learned to read earlier than most of my peers, and once I started reading, I never stopped. I spent most of my recesses in elementary school in the library, reading any book I could get my hands on. I especially loved learning about astronomy and marine biology -- really any science or concept that made me feel small in a grander scheme than I could ever imagine. As time went on, my interest in science never faded, but I became increasingly interested in the arts and foreign languages as well. Now, as a high school student looking out at the life ahead of me, I have big dreams. I want to attend Sibelius Academy in Finland someday for a doctorate degree, and even obtain a dual-citizenship in Finland someday. I want to perform with some of the world's best orchestras and share my art with the entire world. I am learning to speak both Finnish and Ukrainian, and when I am retired from music and art, if I ever am, I would like to be an ESL teacher in Finland or another part of Eastern Europe. All of my dreams start with being the best artist and musician I can be, and I strongly believe that the best opportunity for me to develop my skills is at Western Carolina University. The professor in charge of the flute performance degrees at WCU, Dr. Eldred Spell, is a world-renowned flautist. I have met him already and I know that studying with him will push me further than any other opportunity would. Dr. Spell is also a very talented instrument repair technician, and instrument repair is a special interest of mine. I would like to open my own instrument repair shop someday, or maybe even work as a harp repair technician for Salvi or Lyon & Healy. Working with Dr. Spell to become a better repair technician would also help me to develop my professional skillset. However, I think the single most valuable aspect of college for me will be networking with other people in the music and art industries. Surviving and thriving as an artist is not an easy job, and artists rely on connections with others to promote their craft and to professionally develop. I want to go to college so that I may meet other people in the instrument repair, performing arts, and fine arts industries. I need to learn the ins and outs of the industry from experienced professionals who have made a living off of it, and I need to learn how to navigate the negative stigma and attitudes that often pervades artistic communities with professionalism. Without college, going out into the professional world as an artist is very difficult. College degrees pave the way into certain professions, but the experience one gains from a college degree paves the way into others. I strongly believe that, through my intended double-major as a flautist and a studio artist, I will gain an insight into how to make a living off my art and contribute something great to this massive world that I am such a small part of. I am hoping that through the people I meet, skills I learn, and qualities I gain, I will be able to follow my life's dreams and get where I want to be.

I value my ability to adapt most of all. When I was 14, I started a new medication to help me with cramps. This medication was a miracle for me, and my family was overjoyed that it seemed like I had my cramps under control; I seemed to gain so much of my life back. However, things quickly went downhill. My left knee weakened rapidly, all my joints in my body started to hurt constantly, I had a hard time holding food down, and I kept getting sicker and sicker. Through my freshman year of high school I spent three months bedridden, missing tons of school. No one in my family made the connection between this new medication and my illness until my second visit to the ER, when my father suggested it as a possibility. When I went off the medication, things briefly got better, but then got much worse. This time, no one believed anything was wrong except for my mother and my biology teacher. My father refused to take me to the doctor, and my mom couldn't afford it, so I spent two years in misery until February 2022, when my mother got a new job and new health insurance. Shortly after this, I started physical therapy and a developmental specialist, and I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in Mid-March. My diagnosis and disability could have entirely shattered my life. My mother sat by for two years watching me fall apart, completely powerless to do anything to help her child. The few friends I had slowly succumbed to the pressure of having a friend with an invisible illness, and most of them either disappeared or started to bully me themselves. I have received multiple threats from other students at my school, saying that they were going to push me down the stairs and "give me something real to limp about." I've spent the past three years ostracized, but I refuse to let that define me. Instead, I have adapted. I now use mobility aids, such as a walking stick and a wheelchair to help me move about. When I am really sick, I can complete schoolwork from home and stay caught up. I leverage all resources that my school is willing to give me, and I am a dual-enrolled student with an unweighted 4.0 GPA. Socially I have adapted too. Staying home much of the time has made it harder to make friends at school, but I have held on to a few very good friends from over the years. These people have forced me to grow exponentially as a person - one of them is very mentally ill and stays at my house on weekends because her home life is so bad. Another one of my friends was at my high school as an exchange student from Ukraine, and since he has gone home, much of my life has revolved around helping him any way I can. Instead of trying to branch out, I have adapted to hold these people close. I have adapted in many, many ways to cope with my situation as a young, disabled person. I believe that being able to adapt to whatever life throws at me will be the best skill I ever have. I will be able to adapt to things out of my control -- a bad economy, emergencies, natural disasters -- and I will be able to control my responses. As a student, the ability to adapt will help me thrive in college classes. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I know this will help me make good business decisions.

In applying for scholarships, I have learned that you never know for sure what you're going to get or what is going to happen, and you don't have that much control over the situation. I am a very results-motivated person. I am an artist and a musician and I am used to seeing relatively quick payoff for my work. In my applications to scholarships, I have had to take a massive leap of faith investing my time into my applications. I have learned that patience truly is a virtue, and that good things will come to those who put in effort and wait. I have also learned, as a first-time scholarship applicant, that applying for scholarships do not provide financial security with nearly as much certainty as I thought they would. In filling out countless scholarship applications, I have learned that it is entirely possible that I will not win a single scholarship, and that I will still have to pay for college entirely on my own. I have been working since I was 15 and investing in my future through savings, lessons, tutoring, and early college materials, so college will not be as expensive for me as it would be for some, but it will still be very expensive. Applying for scholarships has made me realize that a little planning can go a long way, and if I win even one small scholarship, I will be better off than I would be otherwise, but it also made me realize that I need to have a fallback plan in case I do not earn any scholarships at all. Most of all, I have learned something as an artist from one particular scholarship application. I am part of the Raleigh Area Flute Association, and since I am planning to go to college for a double major in flute performance and art, I am applying for the RAFA Review and Contest Scholarship, which is distributed based upon performance ability. I have always been a competitive performer - I have auditioned for all-county and all-district bands since middle school and have played in almost every RAFA competition since 2019. Those auditions and performances taught me that art, like many things, can be appraised in many different ways. I could be a fantastic competitive musician, but if the judges are looking for lyricism, I will not be chosen for that audition or competition. I could be the most technically skilled musician in the room, but if I lack endurance, I will not make the cut. It is crucial for anyone and everyone applying to any scholarship anywhere to understand that if they do not get the scholarship, it isn't because there is anything wrong with them or that their accomplishments are lacking, it is simply because there is a better candidate for the award than them. It is also important for these applicants to understand the value of being well-rounded in their skillset; while having specialties is important, being able to have a good foundation in most subjects and skills will earn them a lot in life. So, taking my prior experiences with me, I understand that if I am not what the judges for my RAFA competition are looking for, I will not earn this scholarship, and it doesn't mean I am any less competent as a musician and any less deserving of attending a good school for my art. I also understand that if I don't earn any scholarships at all, I still deserve an education and still have a good plan to pay for it myself.