I grew up in a predominantly Christian area and, from an early age, was taught by churches that Islam was a religion centered around hate. I remember being taught that Muslim people wanted to kill Christians and that 9/11 reflected that. For a while, I never questioned these prejudices or bothered to learn more about Islam. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school when I became close with Ahmad, the only Muslim person in my grade, that I realized I couldn’t have been more wrong. Through his character, Ahmad showed me that the predispositions I had about his faith were unwarranted. To this day, he’s the most caring person I’ve met, and it’s because of his religion rather than despite it that he is so. After meeting him, I’ve grown passionate about educating myself on his religion: reading the entire Quran and even taking a course about Islam. Meeting Ahmad is something that has changed the course of my life because it’s taught me the importance of seeking to understand cultures that are different from my own. Looking back, I’m embarrassed by how wrong I was about his religion and by my failure to draw my own conclusions. Meeting Ahmad has also taught me something else very important: the importance of using my voice to stick up for others. After meeting him, my dream job is now to become a diplomat, so that I can spend my life working on a larger scale to challenge some of the deep-rooted ways that others around the world are put at a disadvantage: whether it’s because of their religion, or something else. I believe that diplomacy is a necessary job everywhere, but is especially necessary in the United States, due to the lack of understanding of global issues that is common among citizens. This past year, I've been making an intentional effort to increase my knowledge of international conflicts. In doing so, I've been amazed at the number of issues and tragedies that go on across the world that my peers, family, and even my supervisors don't seem to know or care about. I believe that ignorance is one of the most harmful things, and I hope that as a diplomat, I'll be able to spread awareness about global issues to those in the states. To be quite honest with you, I don’t know exactly how I'm going to reach my goal of being a diplomat. What area of the world I plan to live in, the specific issues I’ll focus on, or even whether I’ll go to law school are all things that I change my mind on constantly. However, the one thing I’m sure will be a necessary step on my journey to changing the world, is studying abroad. When I look back on my life, I think of meeting Ahmad as such an integral experience that made me who I am today. If I never met him, there's a chance I could still be that closed-minded girl, who believed that someone could be labeled as hateful just because of their religion. If meeting him was able to change my perspective on life so deeply, I can only imagine how much more my perspective would be widened and strengthened by studying abroad, where I can be completely immersed in a culture that is different from my own. If awarded this scholarship, I will use the money to fund an exchange program abroad at a university that specializes in diplomacy. I'll go by myself and live with a family, to ensure I'm fully immersed in the culture.