"Are you only becoming a doctor because your parents want you to be one?" This question is one of the only questions that can make my blood boil. This question makes me so uncomfortable. It is the questions that make me recognize that people see my skin color and automatically assume that familial expectations are my "Why medicine?" I take a deep breath to regain some composure. I look at the woman across from me, knowing she truly does not mean any harm. I smile at her and say, "No, I am going into medicine because it's such a vulnerable profession that I want to inspire change in." She looks at me with uncertainty, so I add, "My mother has only ever supported my dreams, she never created them." My passion for medicine started when I was just a kid. I loved going to the doctor's office and interacting with the staff. As I grew older and school became more serious, I decided to pursue pre-med in college. However, that alone was not a good enough, "Why medicine?" for me. I was graced with the opportunity to shadow a few physicians and other staff at a family practice in my hometown during winter break. I would work full-time for about half the week and then shadow the other half. In that experience, I was able to note patient interactions with infants, elders, and patients who speak Spanish; how the office works with one another, and most importantly, how impactful the team is on the success of the patient. The doctor I shadowed connected with patients about everything, from the dinner they ate the night before to how old their grandchild will be, to how they're dealing with their spouse's passing. They then would begin the check-up. Establishing relationships like that is what made me want to keep moving forward with medicine. When I moved to the town I grew up in, there was a small private family practice a doctor created decades before. The doctor knew the people in the town were underrepresented, but also knew they needed safe and reliable access to healthcare. This doctor inspired me to start a practice that puts the patient before the bill. But I don't want to live in a small town! I want to live in a city. I want to open a practice that puts the patient before the bill to make sure the people within our communities are taken care of. I want to make sure all the children are taken care of and their parents don't have to stress about the price. So many people ignore their health problems to save money, but I don't want people to do that if I can help it. Long term, I hope this inspires another student to do the same thing so that we can rewrite the face of healthcare to make it more accessible for everyone. A healthy country is a healing country.

I am Henna Kalumbu, an aspiring physician. I study psychology and the natural sciences at the University of San Francisco. My greatest commitments right now are working at Starbucks part-time to save money for tuition, leading my residence hall to residence hall of the year as an advocacy specialist, and representing the freshman class during black student union meetings. During this academic year, I've been working to build my leadership and advocacy skills, to put them to use as a Resident Advisor next semester, as well as a volunteer in various settings. My passion for STEAM was not something that grew overnight. It took a lot of time, patience, and resilience to get me to where I am today as a pre-medical student. The one place that has safely fostered this passion has always been the classroom. In fourth grade, my teacher stood up for me when a classmate of mine undermined my engineering skills. I remember we were building a circuit, and this student refused to let me help because I am a girl. This hurt my feelings to the core, but my teacher, a woman, had asked for the student to step aside and let me try a hand at the science project. I was successful, and it was in that space that I knew science was something I am truly gifted at. That situation inspired me to pursue a STEAM internship this summer, in which I will be able to inspire 7-10-year-old girls through teaching lessons and helping create projects within STEAM. My goal is to expose the girls to a wide variety of subjects within science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Most importantly, I want to keep their passions for these subjects and school alive. As instructors, especially for our youth, it is so important to keep our students engaged, accountable, and passionate. This summer, I hope that these girls will grow to understand themselves as students and women in careers and studies within STEAM. My K-12 education showed me how I can inspire others, through academia and passion. My first collegiate year has shown me that dreams do come true. Throughout my journey, what pulls me towards receiving a STEAM degree is how versatile and diverse STEAM is. You can do so much; from becoming a chemist who creates new medicines for doctors to prescribe, to being an artist who brings tears to others' eyes and almost heals them of their burdens through the art they create. STEAM is the innovation of healing. With this scholarship, I will be able to lessen the burden of tuition costs, and better use that time to work with young women to foster their passions for things like STEAM, so we can create a better future for our girls.

I did not grow up in the most stable environment. I do not have any resentment towards this because I chose to look at it differently. I remember when the first traumatizing issue happened when I was in fourth grade. Everything up until then had its issues, but nothing my child-like mind could put together. I vowed to never trust another man again. I also vowed to never allow myself to become a statistic. So when I was sixteen and was abused for the first time by my first significant other, my world fell apart. I broke that promise to child me. I mourned for about a year before college applications came out and I knew I had to break out of whatever I was going through. During a therapy session, a therapist told me that I could choose to look at the situations I grew up with in a positive light. I have a unique brain chemistry that allows me to empathize with others in ways no one else can. I can survive anything. Most importantly, what happened to me then does not have to dictate my future now. When college application season came around, I wrote my essay about what I went through. I wrote about how I survived. To get through it, I started attending therapy. I remember my choice was because I was crying every day in school and I could not figure out why I was so sad all the time. I could not understand why my body felt the way it did. I could not understand why my whole personality had changed. My therapist helped me figure out why. I expressed myself with my makeup and jewelry. I slept as long as I needed. I read as often as I could. My entire life, up until that point, was living in high gear, always gunning for the finish line. My sexual assault made me slow down for the first time. It is sad, to think about how something so horrible inspired so much peace in my life. I decided to apply to a college across the country, in a big city. I wanted something different than freezing weather and rural area. I chose a psychology major because I wanted to help people who had similar experiences get to the other side. I never stopped chasing my dream of helping others and I think my negative childhood experiences helped make that possible. I can understand others differently because of those experiences. Because of those hardships, I was able to build stronger connections in my life. I realized I did not want surface-level friendships and my standards for relationships would have to increase. I had to learn how to forgive my family for certain issues to find peace and build relationships with them again. My hardships made me stronger in all the ways imaginable. So I guess that is a statistic I can be, a survivor.

My first impactful experience with science was in the fourth grade. Before fourth grade, science to me was coloring leaves onto paper to see the veins. Interesting and important work, but nothing that interested me the way the natural sciences interest me. Learning chemistry, physics, human biology, etc. gave me a comfort I did not quite understand. Something finally clicked for me that day, a passion was unlocked. Mrs. Boyer's battery circuit experiment introduced me to a whole new world. I was paired with a boy my age who started off the partnership by not letting me help with the project. He said that he is a boy, thus he knew what he was doing. That left me with the instruction manual, to watch him try over and over again, not progressing each time. My teacher ended up walking over and asking if we needed anything. She was probably observing and noticed me half in tears. She asked if I had been contributing and I became defensive and explained the situation. She asked the boy to share with me and he handed me the circuit. I could prove myself. I fiddled with the wires and the battery and lit the bulb in under five minutes. I felt on fire. I felt inspired. I felt truly talented. If it weren't for Mrs. Boyer's support, I don't know what my passion for science would have turned into. She showed me that I was smarter than anyone's premeditated thoughts. She showed me that I am smart enough. By sticking up for me at that moment, she didn't allow me to have a negative association with science. So as I moved up through education and I had more peers and even teachers try to squash my passion for science, but I never stopped trying. By the time I graduated high school, I made nearly all A's in every science course. When it came time to apply for college, I already knew I wanted to be a doctor. One question remained: How would I get there? I wanted to major in science, but nothing like chemistry, physics, or biology. I settled on psychology because this is a science that has a humanistic approach. Psychology is a science that allows for the one-on-one connection and understanding of one individual to another. The study of psychology and natural sciences is perfect for me. I can study everything I am passionate about. These studies can get me on the road to who I want to be as a doctor. When I am a doctor, I want to open a private practice that puts the patient before the bill. As the cost of healthcare rises, it is harder for people to accept the need for healthcare. This issue is spanned across all communities and is an issue that is often overlooked in many spaces. I recently shadowed with a private practice that started off with the same mission. The former physician who started the practice based himself in a small rural town to help a community that didn't necessarily have access to reliable healthcare. In this town, most did not make enough to pay their medical bills. Thus, this physician made it his mission to not have that be an issue for his community. That story inspired my mission. I want to open a psychiatry practice that helps children no matter what. No one should have to face their health issues with little or no health support.

I slept in a room that was 8ft x 6ft for most of my high school career. Before that, I shared a living room space with my sister. I was the real-life Harry Potter. We rented homes throughout my entire childhood and adolescent years. This experience was something that gave me the understanding that I was not as privileged as my peers and I would need to work harder in my educational journey to make an impact on my future life. My mom was a single mom even before the divorce. She raised my sister and I on her own from the time she was nineteen years old to the present day. I am nineteen now and I am so shocked and so grateful for all my mom tried to provide us because that is an undoubtedly amount of strength I can't even imagine. I did not have much growing up, but I did have my mom. She taught me how to be independent, how to love myself, and how to read; but most importantly, she taught me how to lead a life with gratitude, positivity, and kindness. So when I was struggling with the curriculum in high school, those skills she shared with me got me through and got me to where I am today. Today, I am a pre-medical student at a private university in my favorite city in the world. There were so many things that shaped my perception of community and society during these troubling years. We kept having to move because our landlords would find different, more favorable tenets; or when my teachers did not believe I should go to college because of my economical status. Despite all of that, my mother worked hard to keep us through to the finish line. She worked hard to make sure my sister and I felt loved and taken care of. My mother inspired me to work hard in school and to impact my community with kindness. Thus, I want to teach young girls STEAM this summer at a college to make sure they can hold onto their passion for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Teaching is a newfound passion of mine, outside of medicine. I am focusing on how my education fostered passions that made me passionate enough to try medicine. By teaching the next generation with confidence, gratitude, positivity, and kindness I believe we can create a whole new level of expertise in our youth.

When I think back to my senior year of high school, the feeling I remember the most is fear. I was so scared during my senior year of high school. Given the circumstances of wrapping up my entire childhood in nine months, while also navigating teen drama, and filling out applications that will determine my entire future; it was okay that I was scared. In the past year, the growth I've made is finding and living with courage. Sometime in February of last year, I decided I was serious about attending my current university. In excitement, I shared the news with my advisor. His response was "you're just not a private school kid, Henna." His reason? I was not smart enough. At this point, there was only so much I could do to raise my high school GPA. My GPA was the least of my worries. Instead, I started to worry about if I was good enough to move across the country for school. If I deserved it. How I would do it. Was I even good enough for pre-med? All these thoughts were inspired by fear. I decided that if I was going to be "good enough" to do all those things, I was going to need to get out of my head and take the world by chance. It did not matter if someone or myself thought I was "good enough." I needed to live by the faith that everything will work out in the end like it was supposed to. What is meant for me will happen for me. I needed to shift my mindset from fear to courage. At that moment, I'm sure my advisor's goals were to warn me. However, I responded with, "I don't care about safety nets. I need to move to a space where I am living without them. California will give me that. Screw a comfort zone." He nodded knowing nothing would change my mind. So I did just that. I completed my first semester as a pre-med at a university in California, my childhood dream, because of a leap of faith and a whole lot of courage. A year ago to date, I decided to change the trajectory of my life. A year ago, I would've held back on my chance. I would have let myself let that opportunity pass by. Why? Because I was so scared to fail. Today, I am still scared to fail, but I am no longer rooted in fear. I know my courage will get me through. I am still afraid of failure, but that is okay because life will give me what is meant for me. For every chance I take, a good thing will come. Now, I think to myself, "how will this moment make me impress myself?" I embrace change and I embrace courage because I want to push the limits and see what good that brings me. The biggest lesson I've learned is that I am just as impressive as I had dreamed to be when I was ten years old. I have always had big dreams. When I was three I wanted to be the popular high school girl who played sports and had the closest friend group. I achieved that. When I was fourteen, I dreamed of going to university by the beaches in California. I achieved that. At seventeen, I wanted to build a resume I could be proud of. I wanted to achieve amazing things in college as a pre-med. I just wanted to achieve my goals and impress myself. A year later, I did just that.

The Kalumbu name is something to be proud of. The name you are given at birth matters because the quality of your name can determine the quality of your life. My name is Henna Kalumbu and I am a psychology student at the University of San Francisco. I adopted a minor in the natural sciences, to help me reach the goal of attending medical school by the time I graduate from university. In my junior year of high school, I switched my intended major to psychology. The other sciences like chemistry and biology were not good fits for me because I wanted to explore a more personalized approach to science. Personal for me means understanding the complexities of the human mind and how that translates into each human experience. My own experiences showed me that there is so much depth to each person. No one knew my backstory, my history; no one could understand my issues in the way I could. That made me feel alone on my journey. In high school, I was not given the same fair chances as the other students in my honors or AP courses. I felt overlooked and underestimated because I was not seen to be as smart as my peers, even if I exhibited the same abilities. I was just as capable and excited about academics as they were. As I matriculate through my college education, I have opened many doors for myself; an amount many from my past would not have believed. However, one thing I learned from that experience was that if there was anything I could do to diminish that experience for other children like me, I would take that chance, no questions asked. I want to provide underrepresented children, students, and adults with fighting and empowering chances through medical care. Applying mental health to my career is a goal I am excited to meet. Once finished with medical school, I will match into a psychiatry program that will allow me to connect with patients on a mental health level. Once I am ready to set up my practice, I will base the value on placing patient mental health at the forefront, but also not turning patients away because of financials. Mental health is already so overlooked in the United States. I want to knock down stigmas, break barriers, and overcome obstacles with my patients. My mental health journey showed me the beauty of what mental health care can look like, as well as the negative. I want to take what I learned and apply that to my future physician care. In mental health today, people are not always the center of the mission. Many focus on negative stigmas that turn people away from receiving mental health care. In my experience with mental health professionals, I always felt like they were looking past my real needs and looking directly at what "figuring me out" was going to do for them. My approach would be to look at who they are, what they are struggling with, and their surrounding situations, to provide the exact support the patient needs. I want the patients to understand themselves and feel validated in my space. Once we understand the patient, I would like to look at enhancing the strengths they already exhibit to create effective coping mechanisms and treatment plans. Coaching patients through the finish line and seeing them succeed is the most important part of the mission. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me to continue my study, understanding, and practice of psychology at my university. Receiving money will allow me to spend more time working with the organizations I am a part of the Black Student Union and Residence Hall Council. Creating comfortable spaces on campus for people in my community and my residence hall has allowed me to practice some of the PBS goals. Most importantly, this scholarship will help me help those with developmental disabilities because I want to validate and work with those with developmental disabilities. I want to create a space for people to feel safe and supported. While watching family members navigate life with their developmental disabilities, one thing we could agree on is the lack of support in classrooms, doctor's offices, and other spaces. This scholarship will help me diminish stigmas and provide support.

I live for full-circle moments. Full-circle moments are my favorite part of my human experience. The first full-circle moment I had was when I moved to California for college. When I was in my junior year of high school, I felt so behind compared to my peers because they had dream schools and I did not even know what my major would be. A teacher gave me insight and advised me to put my stats on a website that would match me to universities that suited my academic and social needs. All I knew was that I wanted to be a doctor and I wanted to study in California. I was met with the University of San Francisco, my current university. I would later realize that my passion for study lay in psychology, so I adopted that major, with a minor in natural science, to explore my mental and physical curiosities. I was first introduced to doctors at the same time anyone is, a doctor's appointment. I was intrigued by the way the medical professional team curated their schedule to meet patient needs. I loved the smell and the feel of the offices. I loved exploring the tools. After taking AP Biology in my junior year, I was more than just discouraged from STEM. I questioned my intellect and talent. I worried about my career dreams. However, one thing that made me motivated to continue was how resilient, versatile, and challenging STEM is. I grew to understand and appreciate the rigor. I loved working through labs and experiments, working in teams to narrow down equations, building cars, and shadowing medicine. STEM, something I was afraid of, was something I grew to appreciate. In America, the cost of health care is rising quickly. These expenses are not able to be paid by many people. Even with the help of insurance, it is stilll incredibly difficult for people to access health care. Not everyone qualifies for insurance and not everyone can pay for their care with it. Seeking medical help is difficult as it is. With my MD, I want to open a practice that aims to put the patient before the bill. This problem is very worrying. Who are we to say we will provide the utmost effective patient care if we do not do that? Who are we to oath quality care if we cannot provide that? I want to make health care a top priority by granting more access to more patients.

In the world of medicine, everyone knows that having connections can make or break you. Having an appropriate line of associations can mean whether you get into medical school, whether you receive the grant for the research you would like to explore, or even what team you will work with. Make the most of your encounters. “A little chance encounter could be the one you waited for.” “Someone in the Crowd,” from the movie "La La Land," has the most important message any song has ever given me. When the weather was too gloomy and I was not in the headspace to study, this song lifted me off the ground. The lyrics kept me motivated to study and achieve my dreams, much like the message did for the character Mia in the film. When I was too tired to go to a networking event, I played the song to give me the motivation to leave my dorm and meet new people. The song kept me inspired throughout the first semester of my undergraduate education. “You make the right impression then ev'rybody knows your name.” The lyrics from this song perfectly summarize the idea of chasing dreams. You oversee your destiny. The instrumental fills your head with the possibilities of your future, racing your heart, and preparing you to achieve your goals. “Someone in the crowd could be the one you need to know; The one to finally lift you off the ground; Someone in the crowd could take you where you wanna go; If you're the someone ready to be found.” Thank you for your time. If you are interested in more about my journey and have any questions about my agenda, please do not hesitate to look at my LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/henna-kalumbu-44495324a or email me at hennakalumbu@gmail.com.

I was harassed at least once a day, every day between fourth grade and the second I walked across the stage at graduation, for something I have no control over. Every day I had to walk into a building with peers and teachers who wanted no good for me. I spent about eight years in a school district that did not want me. However, I had bigger dreams than that town had to offer. Leadership and education, that was how I decided to get out. Thus, beginning in middle school, I applied to be a member of my district's student council. This organization offered me a way out, but also lifelong leadership skills that I could apply to any post-graduation activity I pursued. As the years continued, I decided leadership would be my passion. I was a good student, but I was an even better leader. I did not know it at the time, but I would grow to be one of my school's most memorable leaders. As the bullying got worse, my amount of leadership positions increased. In high school experience, I totaled seven leadership positions. These positions provided me with practice on how to make a change in a community, how to market, and how to do so many valuable things within our society. Despite my peers and teachers being biased against me for my skin color, I decided to turn that into motivation. I wanted to be a role model for students in my situation. I wanted to inspire myself. I wanted to accomplish things outside of their doubt. Most importantly, I did not want to have their biases define me. Thriving with an indomitable will was something I had to discover at an early age. Bringing those learned leadership skills -- that were originally an escapism technique – into my university life has changed the way I look at the world and has done wonders for my success. Without those adopted skills, I would not have been able to join the Black Student Union Executive Board or even the Residence Hall Council. Students need reliable, well-rounded, and experienced leaders. I want to dedicate my life to helping people feel they belong, something my K-12 education stripped from me. My indomitable will forced me to do better than anyone could have believed, which saved my education and forged a life mission for me. I often tell others that I do so much better when my schedule is packed. I always take the max amount of credit hours per semester, work part-time, volunteer a few days a week, and dedicate time to the organizations I am a part of. This all goes along with maintaining a healthy social life, time to myself, and eight hours of sleep a night. I am completely booked. However, I need to start working on how to prioritize and manage my time. Currently, I use an academic planner to keep track of all my coursework. I write this down at the beginning of the semester, so I never miss a deadline. I use google calendar to keep track of my work hours, club activities, social events, volunteer hours, and more. Keeping organized is only one part of time management. I struggle the most with prioritizing my time. Instead of booking my schedule to the seams, I need to leave room to breathe. To do this, I am going to have to take days off from my schedule. Right now, I take every Saturday off. However, I need to dedicate Saturdays to leisure activities like going out with friends, chores, and breathing; dedicate Sundays to relaxing and regrouping. Burning out is my biggest fear. However, I cannot fear something I bring onto myself. It is important that I refocus my priority – myself -- and become grounded in the structure once more. I need to relax and remember that scheduling myself to the brim is harmful if I do not find balance. That is why spending time with loved ones, taking more time to read, and spending time alone would benefit my search in managing my time and rediscovering my priorities. Thank you for your time. If you are interested in more about my journey and have any questions about my agenda, please do not hesitate to look at my LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/henna-kalumbu-44495324a or email me at hennakalumbu@gmail.com

The biggest goal I have for change is creating more diversity and affordability in healthcare. The BIPOC community is impacted because we lack medical professionals from our backgrounds that inspire our students to strive for the goal of being a doctor. I often ask myself if I am cut out for this line of work. If I had more doctors throughout my childhood that looked like me or came from a similar background, I would feel more confident. As the world is shifting, we can see how BIPOC are affected daily by systems established in this country. One that I believe is overlooked is BIPOC representation and the cost of healthcare. With my medical doctorate, I will open a private practice that focuses on spreading awareness of mental and physical health in all communities, especially BIPOC; one that regards the patient before the cost of the care. I grew up in an extremely small town in rural Pennsylvania. Mental health was overlooked by everyone in my community, and not taken as seriously as it should have been. I watched many of my family members and friends battle their mental health since elementary school. Left feeling helpless, I knew my mission was to create a space in the world where these issues were addressed and managed in healthier ways. The journey to becoming a doctor is lengthy. I just completed my first semester of my undergraduate education. However, I find it important to act now and gather the necessary skills to achieve my goals. Furthermore, it is incredibly important to work in different areas within the community. To make a difference in my world today, I volunteer whenever I can, shadow and learn from physicians, and work in food service. Building a background in community service is an influential way to give back to the community. You can begin doing whatever you can at any age you want. Thus, in middle school, I started doing various things at community events that made me realize that service was something I would love to continue to do. As I got older, I started helping at a food pantry. Here, we sorted nutritious food and helped families shop for nutritious options. We made care packages at various times throughout the year to help families purchase items outside of food. At the start of my undergraduate education, I decided to apply to volunteer at an HIV/AIDS hospice in San Francisco. This organization brings in volunteers to escort their patients to doctor's appointments, appoint volunteers to help run the facility, and spend quality time with the patients. Lastly, to learn how to provide adequate medical care in an environment I dream to create, shadowing physicians at UPMC with similar goals or achievements inspired me to form a more solid foundation on what it is I want to do with my community. The food service industry allows employees to connect with customers and change their days. After being in this industry since I was 15, it has been a pleasure to work with others to create a sense of community and comfortability in our establishments. Getting to know regulars, cheering someone up with an extra smile, or even a recommendation can inspire others to pursue kindness in their day. Being at the forefront of my BIPOC community, seeing the effects of mental health, watching professionals achieve their goals for medicine, and dedicating time to help serve people in my community, has inspired my need for change and how I would like to achieve that change. Thank you for your time. If you are interested in more about my journey and have any question about my agenda, please do not hesitate to look at my LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/henna-kalumbu-44495324a or email me at hennakalumbu@gmail.com.

When I was sixteen, I took the chance I needed to recover and signed up for therapy. This was a huge, life-changing experience for me; an experience that taught me a lot about myself, mental health, and most importantly, the faces represented within the health industry and what that meant for people like me. I never had a doctor who looked like me. Moving through my education has been difficult because I often wonder if I can make it. As a low-income and single-parent household student, I never received the representation that I needed to feel inspired that someone from my background could make it. Presently, I am studying psychology and the natural sciences in a city 3,000 miles away from my home. My home-life situation inspired me to work hard in school and develop skills to become the physician I want to be. The common denominator for most who work in health-related fields is to help people and give people a fighting chance at survival. For me, I want to make mental health care a top priority in my community and more accessible for everybody. In America, health care is not nearly as accessible without insurance, and insurance is not guaranteed for every person. Thus, millions of children are suffering because they cannot acquire the care they need. Their unique situations make them unable to afford care in a country that is not putting them as a top priority. With my degree, I am going to open a practice that puts the patients before the money. Presently, I am working with a physician to see how they went about navigating that mission. As for making mental health a top priority, my community has made the implication that dealing with mental health issues is weak and unnecessary. I experienced this narrative with a recent therapist I had because she drew the conclusion that I would only become a physician because my parents desired that goal. That’s untrue. We need to have our children feel safe in the hands of medical professionals. We need to have our children feel supported in the hands of medical professionals. I want to have that mission for my practice to ensure no one is harmed in any way in our care. This mission was inspired by my own negative experiences in healthcare. It may be a drastic dream to work towards, however, we need one person, one office, and one dream, to change reality for so many. Helping a few can help so many in the long run. My end goal is to be a lead pediatric psychiatrist because I want to prevent negative mental health rhetoric from impacting our children of today and tomorrow. Thank you for your time. If you are interested in more about my journey and have any questions about my agenda, please do not hesitate to look at my LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/henna-kalumbu-44495324a or email me at hennakalumbu@gmail.com.

I knew from the second I joined student council in sixth grade, that I would be the president of that club by my junior year. I made that happen. Amongst being student council president, I was also vice president of my graduating class for all four years of high school. I became the math honors society vice president my senior year. My sophomore year, I was also vice president of the Spanish club, and secretary of the art club. During this time, I participated in thirteen extracurriculars overall, held a job since I was fifteen, and volunteered. These leadership positions taught me so much about myself and others. I knew that if I wanted to foster a positive and united school community, I would need to roll up my sleeves and participate. While dedicating my time to my extracurriculars, I managed to maintain a 3.7 GPA. In order to balance my activities, grades, work, and social life, I spent the hours between 7:30 AM - 3:30 PM completing schoolwork and studying. My school granted us a study hall everyday, but I added one additional study hall so I could spend time working on my grades. I would attend work from 4:30-9:30, come home, and work on whatever was needed for my extracurriculars. Some days I would have practice at night, so I would not work on those days. On the weekends, I would study in the mornings before competition, sometimes work as well. When there were no competitions or events going on with the school, I would spend time with friends and family. I think a lot of my balance came from monitoring how I was feeling. I would work extremely hard when I could, and I would take a break if I felt like I would burnout. I tried not to be upset or punish myself for taking breaks. I had to remember that I am human and it is okay to rest. Now in college, I start my morning off with one class. Once that class concludes, I study and work on assignments until my afternoon classes start. After they conclude, I eat dinner, take a break, and study until I need to rest again. I complete everything before the weekend so I can relax, hang out with my peers, and clean. Throughout the continuation of my education, I will stop when I need to stop, relax when I need to relax, and push when I can.