First of all, I have to admit that I never thought I would find a scholarship that is for my major, Early Childhood Education. At my school, Judson Univeristy, there are more students who are in Elementary Education than Early Childhood education. Which means I have to be extra passionate about my major to make up for our small group of students who are Early Childhood education majors. This is not the only reason I’m passionate about Early Childhood education, I have been working and volunteering with kids since I was 14 and my mom had babysat kids from before I was even born until I started Middle school. Kids are my life, I can not imagine working in a career that kids are not involved in somehow. Since kids have impacted my life so much, I want to give back to them. I want to student teach in Chicago and have the most toughest, most challenging class of my career to help me learn how to the best possible teacher that I know I can be. I desire to be a teacher that listens to students and take in consideration about what they say. When I said I want to listen to my students, I mean really listen. Like I want to look at them and treat them with respect because students deserve to be respected too. I love listening to every students’ stories (whether it is real or made-up) and I just can not wait to be a teacher. I am currently taking seven classes, six of which are education and sometimes I have to admit that I have days where I want to drop out. Even though I have those days where I sometimes feel like dropping out, my passion and my motivation for teaching children keeps me going. My major, Early Childhood education, keeps me going, to get that degree and become a teacher. I chose my major, Early Childhood education, back when I was a junior in high school. This was the time that I figured out I wanted to be a teacher at 16 years old and I was even a dual credit student at Elgin Community college (studying Early childhood education of course). I have had my major for three years now and although I have a backup plan for a different major, I do not plan on using it. Early childhood education is the major for me and I love it. I love that I get to impact kids as much as they have impacted my life

One time when I was helping my friend paint the walls in her house, I coined the term “food.” I know what your thinking: but food is already a word! You are correct it definitely is a word, but I created it to be something only I and those who I tell will know what it means. So one of the people living with my friend is this new house is this new lady that breast feeds her baby. Like she would literally pop out her breast and just start feeding her five month old. The first time I saw this happening, I was like what is going on, why is this random mom just feeding her baby in public where everyone can see. Then I realized that her baby is just eating his food. He is literally just eating his dinner. I battled in my mind how to react to this moment, this precious moment, where a baby is just eating his food. So of course being me, I made a joke out of it. So I said, “the baby is having his food!”Everybody immediately started laughing and my friend was like, “Heather that’s so true!” To be honest, I was very very very pleased with myself. I got to admit, I love making and see people laugh at my jokes. But this joke was literally true. Like the baby is literally just being breast fed to eat his dinner. I was pretty impressed by myself that I made such a wonderful joke that everyone was loving it and saying things like: “Heather your so right, or Heather, I couldn’t have said it any better.” It made the rest of the night of painting walls so much better, everyone just kept on making their own food jokes and I was happy to know that I started a good joke. I like to think of myself as a leader, like I literally am going to school to become a teacher, which is a type of leader, right? Anyways here I am (still painting the walls a brown gold color, that looks like literal poop in the right light) and I realize that by just making a simple joke about a baby eating his food, I made an impression on these people. Usually when I make an impression on someone it doesn’t turn out right and then that person thinks I’m some weirdo. Which makes me glad the people around me (especially the breastfeeding mother) liked my joke and me. I made a good impression on them. That’s not always easy but I did it all by just coining the term “food” and in the end, making a joke about it!

When I was in 7th grade, my art teacher gave us an art projects. She told us to do a drawing that represented the “cards we are dealt with.” Basically the project was to do different types of drawings to represents our struggles or challenges in life. Since I was really short back then (still am now) I decided to do my drawings based on being short. We had to include a letter based on actual cards so I choose the Ace card (A for Ace). I drew an that took up pretty much a fourth of the right side of the page. Then I drew a big heart that had a bunch of little hearts inside of each other to represent how short I am. Then I drew two eyes, one on the right side of the heart and one of the left. I drew one eye covered in black to represent how I can’t see something because I’m too short to see. Then I drew a kids shoe to show how that I’m so short I still wear kids shoes. I can remember what this project looks like because I still have it almost 7 years later. This project represents a struggle I’ll always have and that’s why it’s my favorite.

When I was 12, I became depressed. At 13 I planned to kill myself and I ended up in a mental hospital. I was diagnosed with Anxiety, self-harm, and depression. I was in the hospital for 5 days and I can only thank God for helping me get out. But then God had other plans for me, I was sent to the hospital again for telling people how my parents abuse me. Again, this trial was difficult but I got out but I didn’t have my parents trust anymore. We looked for therapists but never found a good one, so I thought I was hopeless. I turned to God for comfort, for something that was good in my life above the bad. He helped me get through depression and the rest of middle school. By the time I got into high school, I was still depressed but God was helping me stay positive. Freshman year passed by and I ended up with pretty good grades. But then sophomore year came and I was put into classes with a boy who liked to touch and bother me. He was always trying to grab some part of my body and never respected my boundaries. I almost became friends with this boy because I was blind to what he was doing to me. He was sexually harassing me and I couldn’t do anything about it. He got in my head, and in my dreams. I was learning how to drive and couldn’t even focus on that because I was focused on how much this boy affected me. God got me through the misery and I ended sophomore year by moving on. During my junior year of high school, COVID-19 hit and we were all forced to stay home. 2020 became the year I needed, through flashbacks God showed me I was sexually assaulted by that boy and I was diagnosed with PTSD after I got in the hospital by talking about hurting myself. God knew I was struggling so he used my therapist to help me get through senior year and my PTSD. I can definitely say God helped me because I am one of the graduated class of 2021. Then it was fall and I started classes at my dream college, Judson Univeristy and I discovered I was raped at 10 years old. Even through all that God got me through it. I am now pursing my degree in Early Childhood education. God has helped me by healing me from my emotional and physical trauma, making my dream come true of going to my dream college and just being there for me when nobody else was. Because of what I’ve been through, I know God will be there for me when I become my dream job as a Kindergarten teacher. My faith will help me being empathetic to my future students and trusting in what God’s plans are for me. I may not know what the future holds for me but I know God does and that’s all I need to know.

I may not be an art major but creativity is a huge part of my life. I’ve been singing in chorus and choirs and music classes ever since I was 5 years old. When I was younger, I used to make up songs and sing them to my family and friends. During COVID, I decided to write poems and some of them I turned into songs. I would sing some of them on my tik tok lives for people to listen to and I would also make tik toks with covers of different artists. While I don’t do that anymore, now I focus on singing in my worship choir. During spring break I went on a choir tour and I got to sing to many churches all over Illinois and a few in Wisconsin. It was amazing to share my love of music with all the different types of churches . I got to be creative with each song by using different facial expressions and tones to sing out the meanings of each songs. I apply creativity in my life through music and I will always demonstrate my creativity through music.

I have been singing ever since I was 5 years old. I wasn’t allowed to be in a sport so I chose to do music. Since kindergarten, I would sing my heart out in every music class I’ve been in until I got to choose to be in chorus in 5th grade. Then in middle school I got to choose again to be in chorus and I loved it. In high school, I was in choir and of course,I loved it. You would think since I’ve been singing for so long that I’d be really good at it but I’m not. Actually I didn’t ever get a solo or be part of something to audition for until I was 16 years old. Even though I wasn’t the best, I still loved to sing. I worked hard to audition for solos only to not get them. I know what your thinking, how is singing my talent if I’m not even that good at it? I think no matter the talent or talents you have, somebody is always going to be better than you. So, even though I’m an experienced singer, there’s still going to be somebody better than me. I can only just keep practicing and gain confidence as my voice changes. Because of practice, I can sing both soprano and alto notes and can learn music by ear. I can do all this just because I listen to music and sing along with the singer.

When I was younger, I thought the last thing I would become is a teacher. I just didn’t think it was the job for me and I didn’t think I would like it. When I was 14 years old, I started volunteering at my church with one year olds. I started to love playing with kids and ultimately just being around kids brought me joy.After that, I knew I wanted to work with kids. When I got into high school, I joined a club called Interact where I would volunteer for different events that usually always involved kids.I had to quit interact after I turned 16 because I got a job but I never stopped loving volunteering. My second job ever was being a Day Camp Counselor substitute and that meant working with all types of ages. I worked mostly with little kids but I loved 4th grade the best. A few years ago, there was a shooting at a high school in Florida.I don’t remember the school’s name but I remember hearing teachers protect their students by giving up their lives to save them. The reason I knew I wanted to be a teacher was because I asked myself if I would give up my life for my students. The answer was yes. At that moment I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I was only 16 years old when I discovered I wanted to be a teacher. So, I continued to volunteer with the one year olds until I was 16 and COVID hit. Then I wasn’t volunteering anymore. But I had the opportunity for senior year to take college classes for my decided major, Early Childhood Education. During COVID, I found out I got into the Dual Credit Program for Early Childhood Education. Senior year started and I got to study and prepare for my dream career. It was difficult and I had to work hard but I ended up applying to 3 or 4 schools and got into all of them, including my dream school Judson Univeristy. I didn’t think I would afford my dream school. When I went to visit Judson I got to talk to them about how I would afford it. They mentioned the Golden Apple Scholarship and how it would help me afford to go to Judson. I immediately started thinking about it and I almost didn’t apply but in the end, I did. I became a finalist for Golden Apple and had an amazing interview which turned into me getting the scholarship. Which meant I could afford my dream school! By being at Judson, I learned that I’m passionate about being a teacher because I get to use all my weaknesses and turn them into strengths. I get to talk a lot to my future students, I get to over-analyze how to think of different learning techniques to teach my future students and I get to use my love for helping children to help the students who struggle. And I’m passionate to teach my future students because I get to work with kids and have a huge impact on their lives.

1.I deserve this scholarship because I don’t deserve this scholarship. I don’t even know what this scholarship is or why I need it. 2.Idk what my academic or career goals even are. Like I don’t have any type of goals. 3. During an obstacle course in elementary school, I overcame many obstacles. It was a time of obstacles to overcome.

The summer of 2019, I became a substitute camp counselor. I was with fourth graders, kindergarteners, preschoolers and third graders. It was pretty stressful because I had to switch between all these different grades and these children going through all different parts of life. I got called “teacher” a lot and it made me think of what I consider a teacher really to be. Because I wasn’t really a teacher, I was a substitute camp counselor at a summer day camp. But this summer day camp was at a school and many of these children went to the school during the school year. So what if they really thought I was their teacher? During my freshman year of high school I remember a school in Florida had a school shooting on Valentine’s Day. I remember hearing so many stories about teachers giving up their lives for their students and that’s when I realized, to be a teacher you give up everything even your life for your students. So I asked my 16 year old self, would I give up my life for my campers? And the answer was yes. Ever since I was 16, I wanted to be a teacher, specifically an Elementary teacher. I want to teach and protect kids because it’s worth it to me. I want to work at my old elementary school and teach kindergarten in the same classroom I had kindergarten in. I want to give up my life to my students and be dedicated to them. And I know this is a valid dream career because I’ve been wanting to be a teacher since I was 16.