Without Jesus, my life would be nothing like what it is today. I was born into a healthy and vibrant Christian home. Both of my parents were very involved in the ministry; church has always been a very important part of my life. I surrendered my life to Jesus at a very early age at about 4 years old but it was not until I reached middle school that I began to invest in my relationship with Christ. I just began reading the Proverb of the day (for those who do not know, the book of Proverbs has 31 chapters so every day of the month has a corresponding chapter) making it a daily habit. At the same time my family was going through a hard time. My oldest brother was in a tough season of life going to a new school in a new place with no friends and there was lots of arguing continually at home. I began to find that when I read the “Proverb of the Day” I felt more confident and ready to face the challenges of the day and was much more at peace. On the flip side when I did not read the “Proverb of the Day” I found that I was much more negative, argumentative, and had a harder time focusing. It was God’s wisdom in the book of Proverbs that helped me navigate that difficult season of life that I was born in and I learned the value of wisdom and meditating on it. The more I read through the book, the more equipped I felt to face the challenges and tasks that everyday presents. God used His word to help form me into who I am today and to help me overcome struggles that I was facing at that time. His word became like a compass in my heart guiding and directing my decisions and my thoughts. Through middle school and high school, God enabled me to really study His word and He gave me many different avenues to practice the wisdom that I was learning and reading about. As I began to invest in reading His word, God gave me a calling to work in the worship ministry as a worship leader. As any leader in the Church, our faith is necessary for our career. Our faith defines who we are, who we are meant to be, it defines what is good and what is evil, our faith is the reason that we even engage in the ministry. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, it is impossible to be born again, and it is impossible to do ministry. My faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior equips me for the ministry He has called me to serve in. With my faith in Him, it would be impossible to do my career because all the work done in the ministry is done in faith that others will be led to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior through our work as ministers. My faith is my career, and developing my faith is the primary task of my life.

Volunteering has shown me how desperate people are for community, love, and acceptance. It has also shown me that time is our most precious resource. When I surrender my time to serve others in my community without expecting anything in return, I am filled with indescribable joy. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive and every time I give of my time to serve other people I find this to be true. The more I volunteer, I become less selfish, I become more compassionate, and I become more confident in who I am. Serving people also reminds me of the importance of humility. Volunteering gives me opportunities to learn new things and exposes me to different perspectives and workflows to better understand different needs. As someone who desires to be a leader, understanding the various needs and workflows needed by the teams that you lead will have many positive results. Volunteering experience enables leaders to communicate realistic goals and time frames because we understand what the team needs to do to get the job done. When I do work to satisfy myself I find that my work is not fulfilling. In fact, work done with selfish intent leaves me drained and frustrated. When I do volunteer work I find that my work is extremely fulfilling and fills me with joy because I know I am helping someone do something they could not do alone. Volunteering reminds me of the importance of having a healthy community and reminds me how powerful one act of kindness and love can have on somebody. As a worship volunteer at my youth group during high school I was presented with many opportunities to speak into my peers' lives in ways I would have never been able to before. Having dedicated time in my schedule to help my friend's made a huge impact on my life and truly has changed me to be more compassionate and caring. I am in need of this scholarship to pay for the cost of tuition for this upcoming school year. At the end of this last semester, I was informed that the total cost for the next school is rising by $6,000. Before I received this news, I already did not have enough money to pay for the next school year. Winning this scholarship would almost entirely pay for the rise in cost for the next school year and make completing this next year much more achievable. I hope that you will consider me as a candidate for this scholarship.

Some of my oldest memories are tied to music. I have always enjoyed listening to music, especially Christian music whether it be Rock, Gospel, Contemporary, or even more traditional music such as Hymns. Growing up I always thought that I would be some sort of engineer and did not even consider any other career until the 8th grade. My family and I had just moved from central California to Washington State. Our moving truck had an unexpected delay that prevented most of our stuff from arriving for two weeks. The only sources of entertainment available were some playing cards, a handful of Legos, and one of my dad's guitars. Little did I know that this is where my life would change forever. I had learned the very basics of guitar over the past couple of years and had been desiring to learn a song called "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran for a couple of months but to play the song required a lot of technique that I did not possess at the time. So I set a goal to learn the song by the time the moving truck arrived with the rest of our stuff and sure enough, I did! Learning this song awoke a strong desire within me to learn how to play the guitar, and for the next year, I would spend between 4-8 hours a day playing the guitar, sometimes learning 4-6 songs a day. I began to learn how to play the Christian music that I had listened to my whole life and before I knew it I started playing at my youth group and Sunday worship services regularly and through the worship music God touched people through me and my gifting. Leading people in worship music has now become my calling. Worship music is a powerful tool that can have huge positive impacts on people's lives. The music is written and played in a way to draw people into God's presence, to make them aware of His presence, and to above all glorify and uplift Jesus. Worship music encourages and reminds us of the Love, Hope, and Grace that we have access to in and through Jesus Christ. In a world full of ever-increasing evil, I plan on utilizing the gift of worship music for the health of people and for the furthering of God's Kingdom.

When I die I want hell to rejoice not because I'm there but because I no longer stand in the way here on Earth fighting for God's glory.

The gospel is my ultimate motivation for getting involved in my community. As a Christian, I pursue to get involved with my community in many different ways; whether it is volunteering at my church, helping friends and neighbors to complete jobs/tasks, or working as an employee are all effective ways that I have gotten involved in my community. As an employee, I have an opportunity to love people the way that Jesus does and to bring joy, versatility, commitment, and a hard work ethic working to imitate Jesus. About a year ago I was working at a grocery store. Many of the employees were extremely gossipy and had consistent negative attitudes. When I saw this I worked hard to stay positive, and to not slander anyone’s name there at my workplace. I simply did the task at hand and did my best to do it with as much joy as possible to show my fellow employees how much joy is available to a believer. While working at a grocery store, I was also working at my church. This workplace was much healthier because all who worked there were (and still are) born again believers. However, I still wanted to influence the community there in two ways: I wanted to inspire those around me to be passionate driven believers who serve the Lord wholeheartedly in Spirit and in Truth and I wanted to influence them to have child like faith believing that God has already worked out all of the details and has already setup provision for our needs and for the needs that we are not even aware of! As a neighbor and a friend I had many opportunities to influence my community. Working at a grocery store, I had many opportunities to daily engage with my community most of which I did not even know! I had opportunities to crack a joke and bring a smile to their faces, I had opportunities to help people who where physically unable to complete tasks, and most importantly I had an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with customers as well as employees. In order to effectively influence a community, you have to be living a healthy, God-honoring lifestyle. Influence is not about doing generous and kind deeds, it is about inspiring the people God has placed around you to be better through action and representation. By seeking to honor God in the day to day tasks of life and by pursuit to live like Jesus, we will influence our community to love, and most importantly to believe in Him.

The song that has the most important message to me is the song “Living Hope” by Phil Wickham. This song is super rich lyrically and paints a beautiful picture of what my life was like before I came to know Jesus. It compares and contrasts what all believers life’s were like before and after accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior; and most importantly this song communicates that all who believe in Him have a hope that is secure and living that when we die that we will live in eternity forever with Jesus free from sin and evil. This song powerfully communicates the truth and heart of the gospel message through the lyrics and music. Every time I listen too or play this song the music makes me feel free and reminds me of the Living Hope that I have and inspires me to share this hope with my community. This song stirs up passion within me, it inspires me to continue following the Lord, and reminds that this is not my home because of the work that Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection.

2020 was an extraordinarily difficult and crazy year. It was a crazy year to graduate high school, to try and go to college, and to vote for the first time. While many look back at this past year and only see hardship, I look at it as a year that made me stronger and I am thankful for the difficulty because it made me a better person than I was before and thought me things I would not have otherwise have learned. What I learned from 2020 is that the future is super unpredictable. Just when things seemed to be the worst they could be, something else would happen that would prove otherwise and an important lesson that I learned was a lesson that Jesus gave: do not worry about tomorrow, for everyday has its own sufficient amount of trouble. Truer words have not been spoken. 2020 gave me the opportunity to apply this in my own life and I can tell you I have never been in more peace. I have been happier, more energetic, optimistic, and more focused on the important things in life and not worrying about situations that are completely out of my control. The experience that I believe I will look back on the most form this past year is... well... precisely just that; 2020. I believe that every generation has a “defining experience” whether it is war, a depression, or even a pandemic and that there are a multitude of lessons that we can learn from whatever experience we go through that we can apply to our own lives and teach them to the next generation so they can do better. While 2020 was a year to learn from, it also was hard. I was blessed to be in a stable home surrounded by a close family but many people were much less fortunate. Many lost their jobs and/or businesses; many people went through unimaginable heartbreak with the loss of their loved ones and had to stay separated from them while they were in pain and in their last moments on this earth. To tell the truth 2020 did change my plans for the future and how I was going to pursue my calling to become a worship pastor. The college that I planned to go to is selling their campus and that was a huge monkey wrench into my plans and forced me to find another school but I am thankful because the college that I now want to go to seems even better but it is also much more expensive. Now I am unsure when I will have the money to go because I have a personal goal to not go into debt for college but it requires hard work; and a lot of it. I hope you will consider me for this scholarship and thank you for the opportunity to apply and may the most worthy applicant win!

This meme memes a lot me. Yes I just made a pun and it was very much intended. As a huge Star Wars fan, I directly relate with the awe associated with this meme. The moment when Darth Maul enters the scene and the dramatic, epic, gothic style choir music begins is one of my favorite Star Wars moments. Now just imagine for a second your a huge Star Wars fan and you are presented with this amazing opportunity to sing in a choir that will be performing a piece in the score. And now your there, in a studio watching the film to synchronize the music properly. Maul enters and pulls out his lightsaber hilt and the moment you have been waiting for finally comes. He ignites his crimson blade and then in the midst of this already glorious moment something truly amazing happens. Something beyond your wildest dreams... the second crimson blade erupts out of Maul’s hilt and you now are staring upon the first double bladed lightsaber. And in awe you belt out your part “Awwe AAAAWWWE...” and now every time you watch it hear this part his awe-dripping singing face will appear in your minds eye.

When I was 7, my family moved up from San Diego California to a little town called Tehachapi and it was there that I began to learn how to play the guitar. At the time this was not very significant to me; I was excited for sure but in all honesty it did not seem like it would be more than a hobby until about three years later when I would learn what God was calling me to do... But before I get to what that calling is, there is a little bit of necessary backstory. My mom and dad never went to college. After they graduated high school my dad joined the navy and my mom joined the workforce. So even at a young age, my parents were (and still to this day) are always emphasizing the importance of education and how we can do whatever we set our minds to do. So, for the first decade of my life I had three professions in mind that I thought about pursuing: becoming a Fireman, an Astronaut, or a LEGO designer. Each of these professions though have an aspect to them that was the core reason that I wanted to pursue that particular career. By becoming a Fireman, I would be able to help people if not even save them. By becoming an Astronaut, I would be able to explore an unfathomably massive expanse of stars in a place that is magnificent in both size and beauty. By becoming a LEGO designer, I would first be able to play with the greatest toys on the planet and second, be able to solve problems and design new innovative solutions. Then, when I was probably between the age of 5-6 I got my first guitar. I was not expecting it, nor had I asked for it but for some reason I loved it and I began to daydream about being able to play guitar... and play it well. A year or two passed and then my family and I made it to that little town called Tehachapi where my musical journey began, and for the next couple years I was making small strides in my guitar-playing ability learning the basics of chord shapes and reading music. But it was still not quite what I felt I was called to do and I still desired to pursue a career as a LEGO designer. But then a Sunday morning came that would change my entire life forever. It would change who I was, who I had planned to be, and it would reveal who God wanted me to be and what He wanted me to do. I still remember the moment vividly; while I cannot remember the song, I just remember being completely entranced in worshiping God and then feeling a rush of the Holy Spirit fill my body and hearing a still small voice say “Use the ability I have given you to play the guitar to give Me glory.” And then a feeling of peace, joy, and happiness followed and from that very moment on I knew God had called me to be a Worship Pastor. I knew it was from God for two reasons: one, the thought had never even crossed my mind that I should or wanted to do this, and two because Satan would sure as heck not tell me to worship God as a career, and know I want to do nothing else. Now you ask how did this moment change my perspective on life? This moment changed my perspective on life because before this, I was thinking about how “I” can do this and how “I” could do amazing things and build a life of my own when in reality I can accomplish absolutely nothing without God and His Son Jesus Christ. Because He gave up His own power for a time and bore the weight and punishment for my sin that I deserved and suffered more physiological, emotional, and spiritual pain and suffering than any human who has walked or will will walk on this earth all so I could live with Him in eternity because He loves me that much. From that moment on I knew and still know to this day that I want to live in service for Him and His kingdom not for “me” or accomplishments that “I” made but because of what “He” has done for me and what ”He” wants to accomplish through me not by “my” ability but by the ability “He” placed inside of me. I do not desire to live for myself, I desire to live for He who gave Himself, So that I might live with Him forever.