Since my start of undergraduate college I have come to realize that air pollution in the state of Missouri is dangerously high. Our air in major cities such as Kansas City and St. Louis often reaches the levels of hazard. Our air has caused a rise in rates of asthma dramatically. Even with the factual studies produced it seems to get swept under the rug. The only time I have heard anyone with power talk about anything close to it was when Josh Hawley, our senator spoke about a chemical spill in St. Louis which has caused radiation poisoning. So me and 7 other students came up with a plan of action. We collected information and attended a convention for Jesuit students on pollution. We then organized a meeting with Josh Hawley and his secretaries. We presented our speech and got a chance to talk with them about our concerns for the health of our communities. I even brought to his attention how allowing better access to solar panels for personal and commercial use would dramatically decrease our dependency on coal powered energy. Coal powered energy is 7/10 of Missouri's reliance on energy sources and is our main cause of air pollution. Since my trip to DC I have written three letters to Hawley following up on our visit. I have also attended multiple meetings on campus about how we can lower our use of coal fired energy and help plant new trees on campus. For my career I plan to become a corporate lawyer and eventually become a judge for a smaller court. I plan to advocate for younger generations to understand the systems better. I always had a love for forensics and criminology though it seemed to not be a popular topic of conversation. I couldn't get the information i wanted or learn about it besides in my classes. I took multiple forensics and psychology classes and received grades as high as 99%! However I didn't understand the justice system. This was until I took my first criminal justice system in college. I began to attend court cases that interested me and talk to judges about how the cases ran. I now wright to my senators and political leaders. And I have every intention of helping others become just as engaged in their criminal justice system. Back in the early 2000's and 90's we had a system that revolved around connections. For example in most neighborhoods police would be seen as friends and you'd invite them over for block parties. It wasn't hostile and it was built on social connections between the law and the people. Now police are seen as authoritarian figures to be feared and avoid. The same goes for the entire system. It is meant to be for the people by the people. I truly believe this is at fault of the people in the system and the community. Those in the community should be more involved with the system and social justice. As a future lawyer and possible judge I want to teach and welcome citizens to attend court cases, speak to anyone in the system, and to voice their opinions. I also highly encourage anyone in the system to get connected with their community and bridge the gap that has been created. It is up to us to grow the system to be what we as the people want. If the community is not involved the system will not work for them.

My name is Grace George I'm currently a freshmen at a undergraduate university called Rockhurst I'm studying business on the pre-law track. Now with the boring introduction out of the way let me actually introduce myself. I'm Grace a loud ambitious woman who values not only learning for my future but learning for my soul. I will read almost anything and find some part of it I enjoy. From nature documentaries to old books on rebel revolutionaries I love knowledge. This is not to say I don't love fiction as well I am a woman of the arts no less. Painting sculpting, writing, singing, I enjoy everything. You see art is everything and everything is art. Most people laugh or think I'm joking when I say this is why I love business. But it is. Business is the art of commerce. Real estate is the art of fixing the old and finding life in the new. And Law, my favorite of them all, is the art of arguing on the basis of a set of factual rules. Every argument and counterargument mimics the flow of a paintbrush until the painting is complete and the case settled. I plan to graduate undergrad, build a Pre-law resume, attend law school, own my own practice, and invest into real estate. Now for the not so fun part of my introduction, the adversity. I suppose my hard times are what made me love books so much, its easy to lose yourself in someone else's narrative when your own is so frightening. I don't like to talk about it much, or wright about it either. I always feel like I'm begging for pity. But I am not. I am speaking for all who struggle with my issues who cannot speak on it. Since I was a little I have had type one diabetes a autoimmune disease. It often leaves me feeling sick and exhausted most days. Although I have gotten a lot better at managing it. My whole life it has not been a huge weight on me however since attending college it has become harder to manage and is taking a lot more out of me then I expected. I am working a full time job on top of full time schooling to manage my student debt. And with a disease taking most my energy I often feel like I'm running on a treadmill and cant stop or I'll be run over. Though this has been difficult I wouldn't say its this adversity that has changed me. That would be my parents. My mother is a recovering diagnosed narcissistic alcoholic. She has dragged me and my siblings through countless years of extreme circumstances. I can now proudly say she has been clean and doing better for a year now. Though the scars still linger. On the other side of this my father refused to separate us from her and now plays into whatever she wants or says to try and keep the peace. And now that I am older and in college they refuse to put money towards out schooling even though they said they would before. They are generous enough to give me a loan but I still must pay it back. All of my adversity have grown me to being able to provide for myself. I have learned to be independent and strong. I have even began to take over all of my medical by myself. I am currently working towards moving into my own housing. I am very proud of who I have become despite the challenges thrown at me.

Kristi Brunes was one of my best friends and best mentors. When I was in high school I was on a robotics team made of majorly men. The women on said team were expect to be communications kids, we did all the essays, rule readings, and book keeping. We were bullied or ridiculed by the boys if we tried engineering, building, or even being a speaker to judges. I was the only girl out of 6 that knew any machines while we had 36 men who did all our engineering. This was until Kristi became our mentor. I told her about the predicament and how I hated the girls being ostracized to a dark back classroom to write essays for the boys robots. Were on a robotics team for crying out loud we were to be a part of it. She helped guide me towards learning basic tools and getting jobs helping build fields and parts of the robot, however there was not time for me to learn enough to build on my senior year. So I knew I changed pace and found a new way to influence the team. Kristi suggested insisted that I had the personality and people skills to be a speaker. And with her help us women wrote the best essay we could for judges, constructed multiple drafts for speaking so we could tryout, learned CAD, and how to created a model for our presentation. Then came tryout day we knew only one of us women would get a role while two men would, it has been the standard every year. so Kristi lined us all up and told us all how very proud she was. In the end I and one of the other women got a speaking role and proceeded to be presenters for judges. We designed a two by one and a half foot model of a 3-D city to aid our presentation. We ended up getting many praises from judges and even being put in the pit for our robot to talk to judges there. After the competitions Kristi took me under her wing and introduced me to Rockhurst university. She told me about her time there and even helped me apply for the school. I didn't think I would be able to get in or even get good scholarships considering it was a private college. However with Kristi's help I got four scholarships from the school and was accepted into an early program. Since then she has visited me on campus many times to introduce me to professors, go over my goals, and help me with scholarships. While deciding upon my goals she brought up my love of public speaking, which stemmed from her convincing me to try it senior year. This conversation led us to finding my dreams. This last month she introduced me to a law professor who is letting me attend his classroom and a mock trial. Kristi has taught me that no matter who or what stands in my way handwork and a strong group of women will always propel me towards my dreams. If it weren't for her I would have never learned of my talents for speaking and arguing, I wouldn't have been on the path I am on today at the school i dreamed of, in the career I now chase, or anywhere near the woman I am today. I often call her to inform her of my newest accomplishments or to ask her of hers. I will never not be thankful for the love and wisdom she has shown to me.

1. I will lead the way to a successful career for me and my sisters. As the oldest child it is my goal to not only pave a path for myself but to know how to help them pave theirs. My parents knew next to nothing about schooling, college, or how to get into one. I began teaching myself how to do the best I can before and in college. I learned about duel enrollment where I graduated high school with 27 credit hours, I learned of scholarships which I have earned a few and still work towards, I have also learned the long process of applying to college. I have already got my younger sister into dual enrollment and she will graduate with around 33 credits! I hope to guide her through getting the best education she can. 2. I am a avid lover of arguing to the extent that a debate on economic polices sounds like my dream class! I also adore business having grown up in a mortgage, stock market, and real estate family so it comes naturaly. I decided to combine both and begin my studies towards corporate law. I will complete my undergrad in three years at Rockhurst University and apply to my dream law schools. I currently have outlined a plan of all extra curricular, internships, jobs, and opportunities I will complete to build the resume I need to go with my high GPA and get me into the ivy leagues I dream of. 3. Long term my goal is to own my own law practice which generates passive income that I can reinvest into flipping real estate in Kansas City Missouri (my home city). With this second level of income I hope to create a stable foundation of wealth to then be able to support not only my family but my parents as well. With this I also plan to help my youngest sister achieve her college dreams by supporting her financial something I know my parents cannot do. In my 5 year plan I will graduate undergrad and build a strong pre-law resume which I will use to apply to my dream schools (NYU & Harvard Law). I will also buy my first real estate property near my undergrad school. I will then start my first two years of law school and maintain at least a 3.6 GPA. In my 10 year plan I will graduate law school, secure my first law job, and within 8 years make partner at my law firm. I will also begin supporting my sister through her college and begin reinvesting into more real estate. In my 15 year plan I will begin my own firm, hire good strong lawyers, begin to create my family, and further dive into my real estate portfolio.

Grace George Freshmen at Rockhurst University Contact: GGeorgeAcademics@gmail.com Will Johnson Scholarship Disabled means unable. Unable to do what? Well for me I'm unable to produce insulin. Just one little hormone. Well, when it's put like that it seems very insignificant. How much damage could one hormone do? Well, let me tell you as someone who has had type one diabetes for 13 years it can do A LOT. This hormone is used to regulate the breakdown of food, without it your body will not be able to. This results in high blood glucose, which in turn makes you feel like you have the worst flu-like symptoms and can even cause your body to shut down completely. On the other end if you have too much insulin you can have low blood glucose and feel shaky, sweaty, extremely hungry, and eventually pass out. Now diabetics have ways to monitor this, I for example have an insulin pump and a CGM which help me monitor this and distribute my insulin. It's a constant battle to keep the BG ( blood glucose) in range. Often these extreme symptoms cause me to have excessive sick days, loss of focus, inability to get out of bed, and many other stressful situations related to schooling. Regardless of the challenges it causes, I've always been an advocate that the disabled are always able to do anything we set our minds to. When I was 9 my class voted on a class mayor, me being the child obsessed with business women wanted to run. However, I had a group of little boys say a robot (about the medical devices attached to me) would never get the position. Their words didn't hurt me they just made me laugh. How could these boys think they have the power to stop me from what I want by making fun of something I can't change? I hurried home and wrote the LONGEST paper my young self had ever written. My speech the next day about how disabled kids can do anythign they set their minds to gained me the chair of the class mayor. And from that day on I never saw my disability as a roadblock but instead as a gift. I knew this had been given to me because god knew I would persevere regardless. Now I am enrolled in my first semester of college courses. I am entering my freshmen year with 27 credits and over 500 service hours. I'm very proud of the woman I have become. It is my goal to study business pre-law and work my way through becoming a strong professional. I plan on joining multiple volunteer groups on campus as well as pre-law groups. It is my dream to one day have a corporation of my own. My dream reaches so high because I wish to build the foundation for future generations. I want to give them the platform to be able to build off of. While I know my disability will continue to throw challenges my way I have no doubt I will learn to overcome them just as I have before.

Grace George Freshmen at Rockhurst University, Class of 27’ Contact: GGeorgeAcademics@gmail.com Charles Pulling Sr. Memorial Scholarship What makes a traditional student? Well I never paid much attention to being traditional, I always did well in my classes, I made sure to work my hardest to be able to attend college with scholarships, and I’ve seen far less fortunate people than I. And yet the more I speak with other students the more I realize I have many challenges because I am far from traditional. As a start, I'm a first gen-student everything my family knows about college came from my research and the time I put into figuring it out. Neither of my parents even understood the difference between acceptance and enrollment. Second, I am a chronically disabled student. I have Type One Diabetes. The effects it has on my life are huge and overwhelming to anyone who hasn't lived with it for 10+ years as I have, from having flu-like symptoms and almost passing out to being unable to handle any senses because my blood glucose is too high. This affects my schoolwork and sometimes even keeps me from attending classes. Third, because of how hard I’ve worked to make sure I'm the first in my family to succeed in my dreams I have managed to start my freshmen year of college with my freshmen and sophomore classes nearly completely done. During my high school years, I attended three schools, one was my local high school where I did extracurriculars and electives. Second was Florida SouthWestern College which allowed me to do dual enrollment completely digitally (I usually took 2-3 full college courses online in fall, spring, and summer). Third was an online high school curriculum that let me take traditional high school classes in a self-taught environment. My nontraditional high school years led me to learn I work best when I can self-teach and be hands-on rather than being taught through text and speech. I think I am most driven by the desire to become the woman I always looked up to. Do you know that one Barbie that had a nice teal suit and carried her briefcase? Or Elle Woods from Legally Blonde who was mocked as a woman just to become a huge business name. How about Tiana from Princess and the Frog who despite being nagged and told as a young woman she couldn't reach her dreams did so without relying on a man or his money? And while these are all fictional women I look around and find many real women who embody this spirit and I know I want to be like them. I wanna be able to say I support myself and my family and I don't rely on anyone to do so. I wanna build a better foundation for my future children and their children. Even though I've spent many extra hours and much hard work to get where I want to go, my school-based scholarships could only cover so much. I plan to be very active in the community on my campus as much as with my schooling. To do this I have to be able to live on campus which is slightly out of my price range. I've spent my summer filling out countless scholarships in hopes of making my school dream come true and so I want to thank you for this opportunity to do just that! I hope you've enjoyed hearing my story thank you again for your time!

Grace George GGeorgeAcademics@gmail.com Freshmen in college ( Rockhurst University ) July 18th 2023 My name is Grace George, a first-generation disabled college student working hard to become a respected businesswoman. Since I was 6 years old I have had Type One Diabetes, its became part of my everyday life but greatly effects what I can do in relation to other students. I wish to become the woman I look up to, strong, independent, reputable, financially stable by herself, the kind of woman who enters a room and exudes confidence because she knows who she is and what she can do. My father and I have created many “business plans” for my goals in life and school. He has guided me in ways I don’t think he even realizes. This last year I spoke about my dream of becoming a female lawyer and making my name, he responded by telling me how proud he was to have an ambitious daughter. My father encouraged me to be financially stable on my own and to know who I was as to never have my life revolve around someone else. On the other hand I often get remarks about how men in my field will surpass me. For example one of my distant family members went to law school, he had no scholarships, he dropped out of college three times, he wasn’t going into the law I want to, and he has his family paying for all of it. Yet whenever he and his father came to my graduation party I was told I was simply “ following him.” That as a woman I followed the men in my generation and of course this is why I say I will be a lawyer. I’ve been told I would most likely drop out due to funding issues. Well I’m here to prove them wrong. So far I have funded 80% of my own education with me working to get the other 20% in scholorships. I strive every day to be the first in my family to carve this path through college, from working to get a 4.8 GPA in high school to puting in over 300 hrs teaching elementary kids S.T.E.M I built an outstanding resume. I have worked very hard to get to where I'm at, going to one of the best colleges in my home state, in one of the best business programs, working on my prelaw resume, and building the community I have always desired. While hard work has gotten me a long way being the first generation college student I had no gage for monetary spending related to college. In light of this, I spent my entire summer applying for scholarships and working. I'm proud to say I have managed to save a good amount of money however, to be able to stay on campus and participate in the community I will need a little more help. My only hope is that the work I have put in will aid me in gaining the extra funds I need to not only become that professional woman but the woman in your community who inspires others.