Storytelling at the Center of Animation Animator Hayao Miyazaki once said, "...stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze and inspire their listeners". He understood the importance taking full advantage of the possibilities of storytelling animation has to offer. That is why animation has been a creative passion of mine all my life, and it helps make the world a better place by giving shape to people's stories and experiences that have been left unseen. Growing up, I had fallen in love with many kinds of animated films. When my family and I were moving from state to state in the first 10 years of my life, animation had been my escapism, and still is to this day. They demonstrate the ability to experiment with different styles and techniques to breathe life into the imagination of storytellers like me. One film I credit for sparking my creative passion for animation is Brother Bear (2003) by Disney. I was captivated by its story of Kenai transforming from man to beast, and the way the 2D animated style enhances that story is beautiful. It also sparked my interest in drawing and animating anthropomorphic animal characters because it is more engaging, and more people of different ages would relate to their personality than that of a human character. In an animation class I am taking, I created a 10-second cel animation of an anthropomorphized wolf viciously swinging a piece of meat with its jaw back and forth on top of a plate. It was more of an experiment for me than trying to tell a deep story, but that project helped show me more ways I can try techniques such as painting cells in a different context. If I had an extra 24 hours in the day, I would spend it by helping host an event showcasing short, animated films from me and students in and outside Bellarmine University. As a member of Bellarmine's Film Club, I want to help provide an event for me and other students to discuss the current state of animation as a medium and share each of our talents for it. One reason for it is that animation has been under appreciated by many businesses such as award shows and major film studios that only care about its marketing value. Another is people creating animation for major companies are at risk of losing their job to generative AI that has become more accessible over the past couple of years. Therefore, I want these extra 24 hours to help change that in favor of greater awareness for animation in whole and people depending on it for income. I feel the most creative in making animation when watching a new animated film, preferably an independent one, that has a unique style and is richly detailed. The greater number of indie animation films online, especially on YouTube, has let me be exposed to new styles and techniques I like to practice emulating in my own work. Lackadaisy, an animated short film on YouTube, replicates the animation style used with a Xerographic camera for films like 101 Dalmatians (1964) and The Aristocats (1973). I love trying out that style because it gives the animation a grainy look while taking inspiration from older films. When I get to watch new films like this, it always sparks a new idea for an animation I want to create to strengthen my creative passion for it. It also lets me lend a voice to people's stories that cannot easily be shown in a live-action film.

Motivating oneself to decimate their self-sufficiency, and the cultural divide discriminating our society, will help unveil how closely intertwined our cultures are. Personally, I learned this moral while reading the Japanese manga series, Beastars. Chronicling a world where anthropomorphic carnivores and herbivores coexist while divided by their natural instincts, gray wolf Legoshi attempts to uphold this coexistence while struggling with his own carnivorous instincts. As a particular fan of Japanese culture, I plan on unveiling our cultures’ affinities by learning how manga books are commonly written that makes them popular among U.S. readers. Additionally, continuing my learning to speak and write in Japanese will stimulate readers’ interest of learning another language. Familiarizing myself with other lifestyles my peers and I are not entirely educated on, like adjusting to living in a small space, will also encourage us to adjust those lifestyles with ours. Once utilizing my creative writing ability with an English major to record these experiences in Japan, I will invoke readers to broaden their esteem for both cultures through our global citizenship. One of Japan’s cultural aspects I esteem is their manga book industry, being a popular form of literature with U.S. readers. As a graphic novel form, many manga novels mesh illustration and written dialogue, making each chapter like watching an episode. To absorb a finer understanding of this, I plan on visiting a manga workshop to view the process of how they are published. If too possible, I will utilize my creative writing skills to write an original manga book from this experience. This will help my readers and others better embrace diverse forms of Japanese literature besides manga books. Additionally, my readers can better understand how illustration and dialogue connect to deliver an appealing form of visual storytelling. If I can stimulate my readers’ interest to reading Japanese literature, I need to stimulate them in learning a dose of the language. Another significant key to broaden my global citizenship with Japan is being fluent in speaking and writing Japanese. Although currently using a Rosetta Stone subscription aids me with this, I plan on experiencing how Japanese citizens commonly interact, if not always formal. However, I will still utilize my speaking and writing skills to create healthy interactions with citizens while visiting. When showcasing these interactions to U.S. readers, they will learn how similar we both interact through their language. While I too write my literature in Japanese/English texts, curating readers a nibble of the language and its formality will help them form precise conversations with Japanese citizens. Although fluently speaking Japanese will help strengthen readers’ and I’s global citizenship, assimilating untouched lifestyles will help us better acculturate their culture with ours. Broadening our cultural ties with Japan means be willing to adapting unique lifestyles to our own. Because most Japanese citizens living in urban communities utilize a small living space, specifically a one-bedroom apartment, it is unnecessary to own a multi-room apartment. Detailing this living experience to readers will not just encourage them to minimize their living space equally to those in Japan; their esteem for a small living space Japanese citizens adapted will be enlarged. As many Japanese citizens too rely on public transportation, utilizing it during my visit can enlarge my readers’ reliance on riding public trains and buses to reach their destinations similarly done in Japan. In enlarging my readers’ and I’s cultural esteem with Japan’s lifestyles, I will enlarge our willingness to assimilate them into our own.

“Wake up, predator! Better keep hunting!” Universally, it is my motto for hunting success as a predator hunts its prey. Whenever I feel drowsy, it drains my instincts to grasp them. But every alarm my family gives to wake up and keep hunting, however, continually upholds my instincts to keep hunting success till I seize it. Originating as a six-word memoir I wrote from an art class in high school, it particularly describes my grind in applying for scholarships to cover my college expenses. Being both a first-generation student and diagnosed with autism, I lacked the social skills to contact financial assistance to pay them. When too losing focus on applying for scholarships from feeling drowsy, it too severed my ability to pay the expenses, in achieving my academic/career goals. Every caution my parents gave in contacting financial assistance, however, reawakes my instincts to continually apply. No matter how exhausting it gets, I will not quit hunting them till my expenses are fully paid. This quote too makes me reflect how overcoming my minority background boosted my social skills to contact assistance for earning scholarships. First obstacle was my autism, which seldomly interacting with most people drowned my social skills in self-sufficiency. Consequently too, neither of my parents having a college degree led me to solely depend on scholarship search websites and loans. After my family and I constantly moved into rented homes fifteen years since birth, my ability to succeed independently and collaboratively grew more uncertain. Once discovering my creative writing passion, however, I utilized it to effectively communicate with readers by invoking them to enlarge their social skills while doing so for others. And while continually evolving it with an English major, it will evolve my instincts to earn more financial aid to pay my college expenses. Loosely based on a predator hunting its prey, this six-word memoir accompanied an original illustration I drew from an art class I partook in high school. Visually, it shows a drowsy grey wolf in a onesie lying next to an ocean cliffside with no motive to hunt its prey. Splashing out of the ocean, however, a great white shark yelps at the wolf with this quote, alarming it to keep hunting its prey before they flee. In contrast, the wolf depicted me being hesitant to apply for more scholarships while contacting financial assistance. This great white shark, on the other hand, depicted my father cautiously advising me to contact for assistance if I want my college expenses paid fully. His caution not only inspired this quote, but my continuous grind to apply for more scholarships if I want this achieved, even if I do not win all. As this quote continually stimulates my instincts, I want it too stimulate others’ instincts to hunting success when viewing it. No matter how drowsy it becomes to hunt success, disregarding our minority backgrounds barring us from it, stay awake and keep hunting success before it perishes permanently.

Through my perspective, defining an artist is one who utilizes their creative artistry to enlarge the social skills of an audience and counteract self-sufficiency through their work. If they accomplish this, it demonstrates the social inspiration of their work. That is how I define my creative artistry lyrics while writing lyrics; they helped enlarge the social skills I lacked before discovering my creative writing passion. More authentically, recording instrumental sounds with found objects to compose my lyrics distinguished them from conventional music most people listen. Partially too drawing artwork visualizing the unconventional themes my lyrics convey, they further bulk my viewers’ social skills needed to succeed in life. While evolving my creative writing ability as I study my English major, I plan on invoking viewers to stimulate their social skills through bonding with others facing similar struggles. Previously facing a lack of social skills to accomplish my academic and career goals, discovering my creative writing passion helped mature my necessary social skills to succeed. As being diagnosed with autism, a lengthy river of self-sufficiency awaited me before becoming more socially interactive through my literature work. Continually, this river became steeper as my family and I kept moving to rented homes about fifteen years after being born, while my parents switched job positions, before buying our own. As also continually needing to lose friends I made while moving, my ability to keep social skills afloat severed. Before almost falling down this waterfall of self-sufficiency, however, writing lyrics rescued my social skills to shore. Particularly, after being forced to work from home in my junior year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I found solace in expressing my confined feelings through lyrics to counteract them. This taught me how I can use my lyrical writing ability to aid others through their self-confinement while obtaining the social skills I lacked. As I too continually evolve my lyrics, giving them a distinguished relation to viewers meant providing it a distinguished sound. Upholding the unconventional themes in my lyrics was done by creating instrumental sounds with found objects around my house. Creating instrumental sounds enhances my lyrics’ inspiration for readers in distinguishing their creative artistry while boosting their social skills. After recording each sound onto a sampler, using GarageBand, I either sped up or slowed them down to obtain a particular sound conveying my lyrical themes. In one of my pieces, Parastyle, I recorded a water faucet turned on and off, then slowed the sound down to portray a parasite slowly crawling before entering one’s body. Depending on the theme my lyrics portray, refurbishing my instrumental sounds evolves my creative artistry while enlarging my social skills to succeed independently. Also motivating my listeners to mature their social interactions to achieve success, I further appealed my unconventional lyrics by expressing them visually than verbally. Occasionally, I drew visual artwork to portray my unconventional lyrics that to further stimulates viewers’ social skills. Partaking in an art class during my high school senior year, I developed an art form to visualize my lyrical themes through a fictional setting. One of them, for example, portrays a great white shark, yelping a drowsy grey wolf to wake up and get hunting. Based on my six-word-memoir, “Wake up, predator! Better get hunting!”, it was inspired from my father’s advice to contact others for assistance on covering my college expenses. It soon inspired myself to ask trusted individuals to distinguish my creative artistry. Whether through writing, composing, or visualizing my lyrics, I will continually evolve it to enlarge my viewers’ social interactions with others while distinguishing their own artistry.

Click the link below to view my video submission.

Having a passion in creative writing can be very rewarding to pursue my academic and career goals, especially through scholarship essays. Personally though, finding solace through writing helps enlarge the social skills I lacked to become an effective communicator in my literature work. As being both a first-generation student and diagnosed with autism, I did not want this minority background bar me from earning enough scholarships to cover my college costs, even if it helps me earn special scholarships based on these personal factors. After finding solace through writing lyrics, while working from home in high school, I found how my creative writing ability can inspire readers to stimulate their social interactions I struggled to boost their eligibility to earn more financial aid for college. As I study my English major at Bellarmine University, I want this scholarship to teach my readers that bulking their social skills, even when feeling confined, will bulk their creative artistry to aid others continuing to struggle. Although having a minority background can earn me minority-based scholarships, a lack of social skills alone would not earn me enough to cover my college expenses. Discovering my passion in creative writing however, helped self-improve my needed skills in becoming an effective communicator to bosting my scholarship eligibility. At first, being born with autism was my first key obstacle to obtain those skills. Since neither my parents earned a college degree, I too needed to independently understand the creative writing spectrum in developing effective communication skills If I want to be rewarded from it. After my family and I constantly moved to rented homes till buying our own in 2018, my ability to independently and collaboratively succeed in the future grew uncertain. Wrapping my social skills in this cocoon from constantly moving, resultingly becoming too self-sufficient while neglecting my creative writing ability, reached a climax when forced to work from home last year as a junior due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once in my self-confinement, I soon found solace through writing lyrics to stimulate my communication skills. Thematically, they expressed both confined emotions I previously felt and similar scenarios from fictional sources, helping fictionalize my lyrics in appealing to more readers while staying non-literate. Discovering my unconventional writing sense too helped me discover how I can use it to succor readers from their self-confinement, all while obtaining the necessary communication skills in boosting my social interactions and scholarship eligibility. As I continually evolve my writing ability through an English major at Bellarmine University, I plan on evolving my social ability to improve my readers’ communication skills, regardless of any minority background barring them from succeeding independently and collaboratively while being rewarded for it. Exact moral I want, through earning this scholarship, to teach my readers and everyone else: rewards for one’s creative artistry to obtain success will not come, only if they use it to reward others the necessary social skills in earning success.

Parastyle began from the lyrics I sing, portraying a parasite entering one's body and soon controls that person's emotions, affecting their social interactions around most people and becoming more self-sufficient. Naming it Parastyle, it defines living a lifestyle after a parasite controls someone's emotions/actions. All of the instrumental sounds heard on this track, I created them from found objects around my house, then recording each sound onto a sampler with GarageBand. After I record each sound, I either sped them up or slowed them down to portray the dark, chilling theme of my lyrics. At the start, for example, I slowed down a sound of a water faucet I turned on and off to visualize a parasite crawling to one's body before entering it.

While attending Bellarmine University this fall, I will pursue a Bachelor of Arts & Sciences with an English major, and a possible Film Studies minor. Previously, I took both ENG 101 and 102 dual credit courses from Jefferson Community & Technical College while attending Martha Layne Collins High School. Having a particular passion for writing, I chose to take these courses to both evolve my creative writing ability and social interactions with others through crafting real-world solutions. From the latter, I learned that through my ENG 102 course, when writing three main essays all focused on the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal of reducing inequalities. Particularly focusing on the LGBTQIA+ community, one of my solutions was implementing social work programs to positively educate dissident families, workplaces, and religious individuals about viewing them as a fellow human being and possibly change communities’ standard morals. Critically crafting and implanting real world solutions like this one is what I hope to strengthen with this scholarship while studying my English major; I want my future literature work to enlarge the well-being of my future readers and inspiringly craft their own solutions to aid others. Although taking previous college-level courses were an obvious reason I chose to pursue an English major, this pursuit was more based on writing my own literature work at home to achieve personal growth. A more personal reason for my English major pursuit tangles to strengthening my lyrical writing ability. During my senior year in high school, I have been writing my own lyrics to help cope with working from home and this self-confinement I put myself in. Commonly, I fictionally write them with unconventional themes based on outside sources: a gut-wrenching scene from a tv show I watched on Netflix, a scene from a manga book I read, and the exception of a few news sources that inspire my themes. Like crafting real world solutions in my academic essays, I craft solutions in my lyrics like a fairytale where it does not sound literate but can be personally connected by my future readers. Although I have composed some of my pieces with recorded instrumental sounds from found objects on Garage band, I consider myself more of a lyricist then a songwriter, still being a good place to begin. When I write and publish literature work like my lyrics while studying at Bellarmine, I plan to improve my lyrical writing ability to become a personal growth for myself, those who read them, and strengthen my global awareness while pursuing a creative writing career. Enlarging my global awareness through my creative writing ability stems from learning to speak and write in Japanese. As a Japanese culture fanatic, I plan to strengthen my cultural awareness through mastering the language while taking Japanese language courses Bellarmine University offers to fulfill my Foreign Language Proficiency requirement. As desiring to experience Japanese culture firsthand while mastering the language, I also plan on studying abroad at one of Japan’s universities Bellarmine has partnered with to familiarize myself with other life aspects I am not aware about in the country. And being a particular fan of reading manga books, I hope to study how they are commonly written and illustrated. With manga books being a key inspiration for my unconventional lyrics, I plan to extend my fictional storytelling by possibly becoming a manga writer while studying in Japan. No matter which creative writing career I will pursue with my English major, I will use this scholarship to strengthen my creative and critical writing ability with these academic pursuits.

Because I have contemplated at death as equal to life itself, that has been my life’s “everything.” Although it may seem frightening to imagine the feel of dying, it is a stage we will all face one day. From my perspective, I imagine death by throwing random objects off a cliff and watch them shatter below, mostly as a way to release anger from a ferocious experience while reviving the joy I feel up top. That is why, in this drawing, I drew my original anthropomorphic wolf character on this cliff at dawn with a beautiful, mountainous landscape. He throws random objects off a cliff, like beer bottles and cutlery, to imagine himself jumping off the cliff. When viewing closely, viewers can see the bottles reading: “closed or open.” This phrase symbolizes my wolf character questioning if he jumped off the cliff, would his eyes stay closed (his life would prove worthless) or open (his life still has meaning). This tough contemplation of suicide by throwing objects off a cliff is how I prefer facing it; I can simply throw random objects and watch them shatter down below to release my thought of doing it myself, all while being merely a way to release anger from a rough experience. That is what I want my viewers to understand from this drawing: death will not be as frightening when it comes to us if we imagine it in a non-harmful approach, especially through simply throwing random objects off a cliff to relive the joy we cherish on top and it’s beauty.