What makes me a non-traditional student is the strive I have to not let the bad affect me. I am graduating from high school a semester early, sacrificing my senior prom and other high school experiences such as a Disneyland trip, so that I can go to college early and begin my career. I feel that though I will miss out on experiences with my friends, going to college and starting my career to make a difference is the most important thing. I feel that the high school experiences such as that are not what's going to be what I look back on later. Instead of looking back at what I missed, I will look back on the head start to the life I got, and how I started early and got ahead studying for a career that will allow me to spend my life helping others. As a young child, both of my parents were taken away from me due to their drug addiction, and my whole life I Have grown up without both of them and unfortunately lost one in 2020. For so long I struggled with this, but then I decided that I need to change the future and not dwell on the past and things I cannot change. From there, I decided that it would be my life mission to strive to give everyone everything that I can and ensure that people can have the things I never did. With my career in Microbiology, I can assist physicians and save the lives of other people's parents and give them more time with their children and vice versa. I would also want to use my career to do research on illnesses such as addiction and help people end their addiction so their children do not end up the same way that I did. I want to do what I can to ensure I can help families stay together and share the love and make the memories I never had the chance to make with my own family. I let my own horrible situation be the drive I have in doing more and do good for those around me. If I can spend my life ensuring that families can stay together and have the love they need and deserve, I would be absolutely fulfilled. Because of my background, I have spent years living between different family members, but throughout all high school, I have been able to keep good grades in hopes of pursuing my dream of getting to college and studying microbiology. What makes me non-traditional is that I do not want this degree for me, I want this degree and career for other people and the ways I can use the career for them. I want to give my life to God and do the good that he wants me to do. He gave me a difficult situation as a test, and I want to do all that I can to show him I will make good of this situation in Jesus’ name. If I can be someone who can show others that even when hard times come in your life things will be okay, I will gladly take on that role and help that person see the good that God has given me even after my hard situation. Making a difference is the biggest drive that I have, and I hope I can spend my entire life making this difference and raising my own family to do the exact same.

The dream version of my future self is a kind, loving caring, Godly woman and mother who uses her career to benefit the world in every way humanly possible and does all she can to care for others and give back to the world and its people.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it”. This is a quote from the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, that represents the best way in which we can change the course of the future. For my future, I plan to help people in every possible way that I can, and having the money I need to go to college is essential in making this dream come true. I have been through many hardships in my life, and these hardships have driven me to want to do all that I can for other people and to help them, and do good for the world. Neither of my parents are present in my life and haven’t been for many years. I was taken from them as a very young child due to their inability to care for me due to their drug addictions. This event turned my life upside down and created many challenges for me throughout my life, but I decided I was not going to let them dictate who I was or how I saw the world. I decided that although a lot was taken from me, that should allow me to give back that much and more. I have made it my personal life choice to use my career to do good for others. I plan to attend California State University after I graduate in December of 2023, a semester early than the rest of my class. I chose to graduate early because I want to start on the journey of my higher education and use it to do good for the world. Because I have no family to help me or family who can afford to help, I am going to fully be funding college by myself, going in solely based on grants and scholarships. This scholarship would help me tremendously by helping fund the education I need to make the difference I want to make in the world. I want to give back to the world even though I was given little, and I feel that God is guiding me through these goals I have. The help from this scholarship would help to cover the funds of my college expenses and help ease some of the stress I will be taking on. As a first-generation college student, I want to be the starting line for generations to come in my family who can use their education and life to make a difference and do good. This scholarship would be an absolute blessing in helping me get to my intended goal in life. I know a lot of people say they want to make a difference in the world, but because I grew up with so little and missed out on so much, it makes me all that more determined to help ensure others will never have to go through the same things that I did. Scholarships such as these would make an incredible difference, as all the help I can get to make this dream come true would mean the world to me. With a degree in microbiology, I can assist physicians in helping save the lives of people and doing incredible research that can give people more time on this earth to share with those they love and care about so dearly. If I can give a parent more time with their child, that is all that matters to me. If others can have the things I never did, I will forever be grateful.

Difficulties one may face in their life can lead them down two paths. They can let those difficulties hinder their chances of success, or they can lead them to greatness. Throughout my life, I have faced many difficult challenges. As a child, I was taken from both of my parents due to their drug addiction and its impact on their ability to care for me, followed later by the passing of my father and other hardships. I spent many years not knowing what to do, and understanding how to make sense and balance of my life with all I had gone through. I decided that I needed to make a change for myself, and for everyone who I could help. I realized that though I had many things taken away from me, I would not let that stop me from doing good for others all through my life. Through my faith in God and the love I have for helping people, I have decided to take on a STEM career and earn my degree in microbiology so that I can help doctors save the lives of others. With my degree, I also want to do research to do all that I can to study serious illnesses such as cancer and help give people more time to live and love on this earth as they deserve to do. Growing up without my parents was a struggle for me, and I’ve made it my life mission to do all I can to help benefit the world by saving lives as much as I can. All the research I can do to help give someone another day on this earth is worth it. Because so much was taken from me, I decided that I wanted to give all that I could and more to the world because I learned to appreciate what I was given, no matter how big or small. I want to be someone who can help people see that through hard times, such as that of an illness, there are people there caring for them and loving them, and doing what they can to give that person more time. If I can be the reason someone stays alive to be the figure in their family they need to be I will do that. If I can help save the life of a father or a mother, or anyone to be there for their child, I know I will be fulfilled in my job knowing that someone out there has the people that they need in their lives, and is growing up happy and filled with love. All I can do to make a difference and change the world for good in my career is what I plan to do. I want to do all that I can to help people spend time with their families, learn to love better, and encourage them to assist and help care for others. If I have even just a little part in what makes the world a better place, then I know that I will be doing good for the people of this world who are in need of and deserve the love and care I can share. I want to attend college, earn this degree, and spend my life doing a job that will positively change the lives of others forever. My mission is to help ensure others never have to go through the same struggles I did.

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” This is a quote by country singer Dolly Parton, and I feel it is an accurate representation of my life motto. As a child, I was taken from both of my parents as they were drug addicts and was sent to live with my great-aunt for over 8 years until I moved with another great-aunt for the last four years up to now. For years, I dealt with the trauma and adversity of losing growing up with both of my parents to drug addiction and being taken from my family. Before I ever got the chance to know him, my father then passed away in 2020 after a vehicle accident. Though to many, these challenges may seem incredibly restraining, I have made it my mission to spend my life blossoming out of this misfortune and learning from my experiences. This scholarship would help me immensely. I am going to be a first-generation college student, studying microbiology. I have no help from my family paying for my college tuition, but I don’t want to let that stop me from doing good things for the world. I learned at an early age that not everything in this world is good, but I want to spend my life being the reason that I can help people see that good, and encourage them to do good for others as well. The littlest things can change so much, and I want to spend my life being that thing that might be able to help change someone’s life. I want to spend my life giving back to the world and giving all the things I never had, and I want to use my career in microbiology to do that. With my career, I will be able to assist not only physicians and their role in determining illnesses, but I will be able to help do research on diseases and illnesses that can help people and the world in the future as well. I hope that when I graduate, I will be able to help do life-changing research in the world to help heal people of illnesses and possibly even do research to help drug addicts and other people suffering from addiction, in hopes of helping children never have to go through the same things that I went through. I want to be able to use my science degree to make a change in the world and do all that I can with my degree to help people, in whatever ways that I would be allowed to do with my studies. Receiving this scholarship would make all the difference in my educational career, thanks to the kindness of scholarship donors who are willing to help students like me achieve their dreams and help them change the world. All the little help makes a difference, especially to students such as myself who have no aid from their families in attending college. I want to spend my life making a difference, and always be someone doing things for other people as often as I possibly can. If I can give back to the world what I didn't have, and be the reason someone else doesn't have to go through what I did, I'll be fulfilled knowing someone else doesn't have to go through it. Regardless of all of the rain in the world, I want to help people remember that they still can see the rainbow, and I want to be a guiding factor in helping people see that rainbow.

“You have to come with me,” a police officer said as he picked me up from my father's house as a small child. I was taken away from all of my family, the only place I had known since I was born, with no explanation as to why, other than that I knew both of my parents were no longer fit to care for me. From that day I was picked up, I was sent to live with my great-aunt a few blocks from the only house I knew to be my home. From this point on, she would be the only parent I knew, the only source of parental guidance I had to help me through the trauma that had been bestowed upon me without warning. For the eight years that followed as I stayed with my great-aunt, she became the foundation that helped create who I am as a person today. She introduced love, care, persistence, kindness, resilience, and strength into my life. Growing up with both of my parents not in my life, and no sufficient memories with them, I knew that I had to turn this unfortunate experience into something more that could benefit me throughout my entire life. I did not want to fail and let this experience bring me down, but rather I wanted to succeed. I wanted to give back to the world what I never had and help others in every possible way I could. I wanted to become the person my parents would have never allowed me to become. When I reached middle school, we both realized once I went to high school that my opportunities would be insufficient, due to our low-income area in the outer suburbs of Chicago and low-quality schools. For this reason, my great aunt and I decided to send me to California with another great-aunt, so that I would have the opportunities I needed to achieve high-quality upper education. My great-aunt paid the hefty airline fee for me to move, along with shipping all of my belongings, even though money was already incredibly tight. She knew that this opportunity was once in a lifetime, and I would be better off going to California and attending these better quality schools that offered more opportunities. Our separation was difficult, as she had become the only parent I had known for the majority of my life, but I knew her love and support was what was the driving force behind this change. Because of the sacrifice of being away from me and the large expenses that it cost my great-aunt, I knew that her support in achieving my educational goals was no diminutive matter. Her care and love for me to achieve helped drive me to want to make a difference, and led me to where I am today, reaching my goals. Because of her love and dedication to my life and successful educational future, my great-aunt has helped me reach my goals. I am currently a high school senior who with the full support of my great-aunt, is graduating in December of 2023, a semester earlier than the rest of my classmates. I will then be attending a four-year University in California, studying for my bachelor's degree, and I plan to use my degree and career to help people in every way, shape, and form I possibly can. I want to return to the world what I have been gifted, and more. Doing all you can makes a difference, and I want to make a difference in other people’s lives just as my great-aunt has done for me.