“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet” To be brave under any circumstance is not only a challenge but is necessary to show courage. It means helping others when facing fear head-on. It means taking a leap without knowing the outcome. My courage did not always draw attention, but it was a fire that drove me. I was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome (ABS) in my left hand. Many people who have this syndrome end up losing their limb, yet I was blessed, considering I only have a few scars, a smaller hand, and some mild nerve damage. I underwent two surgeries before I turned four, resulting in improvement, yet, despite these efforts, my fingers still bend at the top knuckle. I find ways to overcome challenges on a daily basis, including making a conscious effort to use my hand as much as possible and even playing volleyball left-handed. My unfortunate fate, meant to harm me, became God’s plan for good. My life experiences and influences have helped shape my academic and career goals. First, I am setting out to earn my first bachelor's degree in political science on a pre-law track. By earning this degree, I plan to drive forward. This involves earning a 4.0 GPA, realizing this will represent the highest level of success and learning; staying involved with the community through service; keeping up with clubs, skiing, hiking, volleyball; and attending sporting events. By achieving my academic goal, I plan to begin chasing my career goals. This will encompass studying for, taking the LSAT, applying to and attending law school, passing the bar, and finding the right legal career fit for me. My eyes are set on practicing law, yet I am going to remain open to the many different fields that I could enter into. No matter where this takes me, I know I will be making a difference in the community, and that is what inspired me to pursue this field of study. Additionally, I have seen some very popular law movies, which further inspired me to become a lawyer. Although this is very cheesy, one of the movies that inspired me was Legally Blonde. It showed me that if you put in the hard work, you can achieve your dreams. This movie first planted the seed of my dream to become a lawyer. Financially, my family has found a comfortable yet humble life in Mead, Colorado; the amount they are able to save has been limited by their means. With this in mind, I am applying for scholarships. I am going to apply for the WUE tuition reduction program as well as other scholarships offered on the portal. These would allow me to attend Montana State without a significant financial burden on my parents or me. I will also be willing to look into further financial assistance through work-study as well as any other grants I am able to apply for. I believe I am the ideal candidate for financial assistance. Not only does my family need the help, but I am a hard-working, intelligent student with a 3.9 cumulative GPA. What this scholarship offers me is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to obtain a higher education while becoming a part of a community greater than myself. I also hope it will help me grow my leadership skills and seize any and every opportunity to grow and succeed.

If my life were a movie, it would be one of many feelings and emotions experienced so vividly and passionately. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I have been asked the question: if you could go back in the past, what would you change? If you had asked me that question a year or two ago, I would have gone back and changed every single mistake I had ever made. Now? I would say nothing because I needed those mistakes and hard times in order to grow. Without them, I wouldn’t know what failure was, nor what it felt like to be lonely. But all those moments only made the happy ones so much better. It made my successes and friendships all that sweeter. My story is one of sorrow but also one of joy, hope, and perseverance. I am back to 2022 and am a girl who is trying to find her way through the world with many health problems and family trauma. A modge podge of emotions coursed through my veins, not all bad, but not all good either. I am not only starting to get past just surviving, but am growing even, despite the odds. Like a rose in concrete. I have struggled with my health my entire life, from Amniotic Band Syndrome, Vertiginous Migraines, three heart problems, to a Celiac Disease diagnosis. I have not only persevered but overcome every obstacle in my way. I have been able to find joy in all circumstances, even when I can’t see what’s next. I have been able to play sports despite my health. I have maintained a 3.9 cumulative GPA despite being mentally challenged. I have found friends who appreciate me despite being bullied when I was young. Thinking back on the road to get here, it wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. My life is full of juxtapositions or opposites. I start off with bad things happening that no one even knows about, but I still get through. I find light even in the darkness. I have found a future full of adventures. I realized that my past does not define me. But what I do now does. I want to live a life full of adventure and learning and helping others. I want to go to different countries and learn how to surf. I want to volunteer and get a degree in Political science and become a lawyer. I want to be able to defend other people in their darkest times and show them that there is a way through. Sometimes, all you have to do is just watch the waves roll by and just be. I have realized that you can’t take the small things for granted, for they are the building blocks of everything. Every little detail is there for a reason, and nothing is a coincidence. It's kind of like the perfect wave. A wave that curls just right, and you just have a feeling that it’s the perfect wave to surf. It is made up of teal, aquamarine, and deep blue. It has a little white foam on top that starts to form as the wave crashes. Each wave crashes but is followed by another, and they keep going. They never stop, and that's the beauty. It sounds like crashing is bad, but they make the most beautiful noises when they do. There is beauty in crashing; it is something that you must do in order to get back up again.

As a child, I was a dreamer. I imagined what it would be like to be an astronaut, an engineer, and many other things. I wanted to be everything and anything I could think up. As a kid my dreams were not alway realistic either, but it was fun imagining what I could be when I grew up. It became a game to try some of them and see what it would really be like to be all these different things. I moved on from one thing to the next, never staying on anything long until my senior year of high school when they started asking questions like “what do you want to study,” “where do you want to go to college,” “where do you imagine yourself in ten years?” When I was younger, I first wanted to be a cowgirl. I thought it would be so much fun riding horses all day everyday. That was until I rode a horse for three hours straight. That dream immediately went out the window. I then thought it would be fun to be an astronaut. I wanted to see what the earth looked like from space. I wanted to see the stars and the moon in person. As I got older I realized how silly this was, as it requires a lot of education and specialized training. This was impossible for me with all my health issues, but it was still a nice dream to have. I then went onto engineering for a few years. I thought that was what I wanted to be from middle school until 10th grade. I wanted to be the person who built all sorts of fun creations and objects. These things seemed so simple at the time. Following 10th grade, math started to become more difficult and I quickly realized how becoming an engineer may not be my calling! When my junior year arrived, I was still searching. I quickly fell in love with the law. Many different signs fell in place and here I am today: future lawyer. It is sweet to think back over my many dreams to become someone great who contributed to my community and the world. While some of these dreams now feel unrealistic, I cling to the memory of how it felt to embrace those dreams and plan out a life with them. My passion was contagious and I had tons of fun. Money or required years of college was never my driving force, thankfully. What these dreams did is force me to think about who I am and where I truly belong. So while I will not be a cowgirl, astronaut, or an engineer, those dreams helped shape me none-the-less. I believe everything happens for a reason. I can’t wait to see where the dream of becoming a lawyer takes me, but for now, I can’t help but thank little-me for dreaming big and working hard.

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet” To be brave under any circumstance is not only a challenge, but is necessary to show courage. It means helping others when facing fear head on. It means taking a leap without knowing the outcome. My courage did not always draw attention, but it was a fire that drove me. I have been involved in a lot throughout my life, and have made some very big decisions as of late. One of which is the decision to pursue higher education at Montana State University with a Major in Political Science and a Minor in Psychology on a Pre-Law track through MSU’s honor college. I will be taking classes only available to honors students, as well as the general classes I need. This path involves earning a 4.0 GPA, realizing this will represent the highest level of success and learning; stay involved with the community through service; keeping up with clubs, skiing, hiking, volleyball; and attending sporting events. I am not going to take the easy path, I am going to continue to challenge myself academically, and learn as much as I can. By achieving these goals, I am hoping to plan to chase my career goal of being a Lawyer. In total, MSU costs about $45,000 dollars a year. In order to pay for this, I am planning on applying to multiple scholarship activities, awards, and grants. I have already to applied to some awards and scholarships, but plan to apply to as many throughout the rest of this semester as I can, to help pay for college. I am additionally going to have to apply to students loans. I will also get a job this summer and a job on campus to help save more money in preparation of paying off student loans. On the other hand, I am also interested in doing a study abroad in Spain, Greece, or Italy during my junior year of college. This would help me learn about other cultures and still stay on track to complete my Bachelor’s degree before heading off to Law School. Then I will have to make a decision of where I want to go to law school. I will have to decide where I want to live, as I might go back to Colorado, or go somewhere new. Wherever I decide, I must be prepared to live there, as most people go to a law school in the state where they end up practicing law. I will also have to take into consideration, that I will be paying for law school on my own, and whether I want to do a cheaper law school with the same classes, or a more expensive one, with a name that is well known. By going to the well known law school, you sometimes get more opportunities to go to firms and such, as they know that the school you went to was good, but you will have a bigger debt. Contrarily, if I go to a lesser known law school, it will be cheaper, but I might have to work my way up more in a firm, as it is lesser known. Wherever I end up though, my goal is to help other people and truly make a difference in the world, no matter how big or small.

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet” To be brave under any circumstance is not only a challenge, but is necessary to show courage. It means helping others when facing fear head on. It means taking a leap without knowing the outcome. My courage did not always draw attention, but it was a fire that drove me. I was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome (ABS) in my left hand. Many people who have this syndrome end up losing their limb, yet I was blessed considering I only have a few scars, a smaller hand, and some mild nerve damage. I underwent two surgeries before I turned four, which included removing the band from my wrist and undergoing a tendon transfer to my fingers, as they cannot straighten. My fingers have improved since these surgeries, yet, despite these efforts, my fingers still bend at the top knuckle. In the face of this challenge, I find ways to overcome it on a daily basis, including making a conscious effort to use my hand as much as possible and even playing volleyball left-handed. My unfortunate fate became God’s plan for good. My life experiences and influences have helped shape my academic and career goals. First, I am setting out to earn my first bachelors degree in political science on a pre-law track. By earning this degree, I plan to drive forward. This involves earning a 4.0 GPA, realizing this will represent the highest level of success and learning; stay involved with the community through service; keeping up with clubs, skiing, hiking, volleyball; and attending sporting events. By achieving my academic goal, I plan to begin chasing my career goals. This will encompass studying for, taking the LSAT, applying to and attending law school, passing the bar, and finding the right legal career fit for me. My eyes are set on practicing law, yet I am going to remain open to the many different fields that I could enter into. One specific type of law that does catch my eye is working for the government as either district attorney or a lawyer for the Federal Government in the Department of Justice. I will use my degree and experiences to help my community in the future, by making a difference in people's lives. I will do this by helping protect people who face the legal system. I want to help people obtain justice and help people do what is right. It will help me give back to my communities who have helped me. My goal is to use my degree to serve others, and help them. By working hard and getting this degree, it will help me learn and grow. It will help me find my way to where I am needed to be in order to help people in ways I have not been able to before.

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet” To be brave under any circumstance is not only a challenge, but is necessary to show courage. It means helping others when facing fear head on. It means taking a leap without knowing the outcome. My courage did not always draw attention, but it was a fire that drove me. I was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome (ABS) in my left hand. Many people who have this syndrome end up losing their limb, yet I was blessed considering I only have a few scars, a smaller hand, and some mild nerve damage. I underwent two surgeries before I turned four, which included removing the band from my wrist and undergoing a tendon transfer to my fingers, as they cannot straighten. My fingers have improved since these surgeries, yet, despite these efforts, my fingers still bend at the top knuckle. In the face of this challenge, I find ways to overcome it on a daily basis, including making a conscious effort to use my hand as much as possible and even playing volleyball left-handed. My unfortunate fate became God’s plan for good. In preparation of my goals, I have completed advanced placement courses such as AP Literature, AP Language and Composition, AP Seminar, AP Research, AP Statistics, and AP Psychology. I have gained specific academic skills with these courses such as time management, reading management, critical thinking, and application. I also took an Introduction to Law course at my local Career Elevation and Technology Center this past fall semester. This experience was invaluable as it introduced me to what law school would be like including the expectations and curriculum. My life experiences and influences have helped shape my academic and career goals. First, I am setting out to earn my first bachelors degree in political science on a pre-law track. By earning this degree, I plan to drive forward. This involves earning a 4.0 GPA, realizing this will represent the highest level of success and learning; stay involved with the community through service; keeping up with clubs, skiing, hiking, volleyball; and attending sporting events. By achieving my academic goal, I plan to begin chasing my career goals. This will encompass studying for, taking the LSAT, applying to and attending law school, passing the bar, and finding the right legal career fit for me. My eyes are set on practicing law, yet I am going to remain open to the many different fields that I could enter into. One specific type of law that does catch my eye is working for the government as either district attorney or a lawyer for the Federal Government in the Department of Justice.