If it weren't for my faith in Jesus there is not a single accomplishment neither personally nor vocationally that I can confidently say I would have achieved today. It is God's gift that I am passionate and skilled in the arts and that I think the way that I do about things. It also His guidance that led me to attend Gordon College, which subsequently provided a plethora of other opportunities. At this point I have acquired most of my creative equipment from other Christians who I have worked with and either purchased from at low prices or was graciously donated to for my interests. My work opportunities including being recruited as the travel photographer for my schools Entrepreneurship department trip to CA, working as a camera operator on the recent film "Performing Shalom," and now as the head photographer/videographer at La Vida Adventure Camp have all come directly through connections with other Christ Followers. None of these accomplishments are things I attribute to my own ability or hunting for opportunities. All through prayer and the provision of God come everything I have needed to succeed so far. This is a theme that extends beyond my vocational life as well. I may be presented with good opportunities and I may even have the skills available to do them well, but if I were not in a healthy place as a person in my mind, spirit, body, and emotions then I would not be able to make the most of any interest, skill, or opportunity I have. It is because of Christ extending his grace to me with the opportunity for personal relationship with Him that I am even able to consider working in the creative fields that I do. As a late teenager, all I had was a passion for film, skills in blue collar work, and a drive to do things myself. Unsurprisingly, these three things don't go together very well. My skills conflicted with my passion and my arrogance conflicted with God's ability to speak into my life. Then I decided to accept His invitation. Through a series of conversations at my youth group I became very interested in personal relationship with Jesus. At a time in my life where I didn't care much about anything past my own interests, I eventually decided to let down my pride and let in Jesus Christ. Because of this, and because I learned to rely on God's plan rather than my own, I was shown a path where my passions and my skills could work together. I am a person who sees things in both a very practical light but also a very hypothetical one. I understand how things work and I can learn how to do things the right way quickly, but I don't stop there. In every job I enter I am fast to find new, alternative, and often either faster or more effective ways to get things done. I also never stop at the bare minimum. If I'm hired to take photos and make a slideshow, I also design logos, set aside a file for potential marketing, and find other ways my work can be useful. God took this mindset and built for me a path that would combine my practical skills and understanding with my artistic worldview and THAT is why I am where I am today. Not because of my own work, not because of my own skills, but because God gave me gifts and then showed me how to use them well.

My dad and I have always been adventurous spirits. On our travels, canoeing, backpacking, skiing, and more we wanted to have fun ways to remember our adventures aside from iPhone pictures that, let's face it, no one looks at. When we aren't exploring, we love to watch movies and YouTube comedy skits together. So, the only logical solution to our dilemma was to combine our adventures with making our own videos. We downloaded a free video editing app on his phone and began to create characters we would play on our adventures, making parodical comedy "how to" videos about wilderness survival and such. Unfortunately, while on a fishing trip, he dropped his phone into the water. We rented scuba gear and were able to rescue the device but all of its data had been lost. This broke the both of us. Years of our video memories had been lost and there was nothing we could do about it. Since then, I made it my mission to learn everything I could about videography, especially how to save it from being lost. I started a YouTube channel where I would make comedy skits with my friends and family so that none of our memories could be lost again. Through high school as I contemplated potential career paths, I had a growing interest in film and videography. Although I don't still the videos of the adventures we had in my childhood, I still have the memories and the passion to continue creating. My dad and I still love making the most of the world together and documenting our adventures through video. On a recent skiing trip however, he fell and broke his leg which has put him out of work for the last 3 months and we aren't sure when he'll be able to go back. Although this has made paying my tuition extremely difficult, I work hard at and around school picking up whatever jobs I can to pay my part, always learning and looking for more inspiration for future projects!

I am currently majoring in communication arts, concentrating in digital media production with minors in professional writing and business management/entrepreneurship. Ever since I can remember, my predominant aspiration has been to create. Creating stories, music, movies, inventions, and more were hobbies that defined my childhood and continue throughout my adult life. To me, the thing that brings life some of its richest meaning is the ability to leave a piece of oneself to the world in the form of something created. My goal is to become a writer, director, and producer of films that revive a sense of creativity and love for the art that I believe to be lost in the quicksand of corporate conformity and the avaricious desire to make more money. I also wish to help disseminate the unheard voices of those who want to share their own ideas, but struggle to do so due to social, monetary, or other issues. In my field thus far, I have produced a short theater production for my college's fall-shorts competition, which won me the position of a writer for an on-campus comedy sketch club. I also won the people’s choice award for a video I created and submitted to my college's Golden Globes style film competition. In my media production classes, my professors frequently assign me as director for group projects, which has given me the chance to experience the role and become certain that it is something I truly wish to pursue. I also regularly create content for YouTube, expressing a continued joy for the art of combining creative minds to produce unique and fun entertainment. My biggest accomplishment so far is that I have been recently hired to work as a props assistant on the upcoming A24 film “Tony” this April and May.

Influence is the act, positive or negative, of changing and inspiring the world around you. The world can be influenced by music, television, books, news, celebrities, politicians, and just about any other person or thing in any field imaginable. Our history influences the way we behave and govern ourselves today. Anticipation for the future influences the ideas we have and the innovations we make now. Perhaps the most common form of influence today is social media. Social media connects and unites the entire world through real-time communication and creative expression. Everyone can watch the same movie or play the same game and instantly start discussing it online. People can help each other solve problems from halfway across the world. And we can all take a stand against injustice and other issues together as a planet. Everyone has their own way of influencing those around them. I influence those around me by writing stories, playing music, making videos, and doing landscaping and renovation work among other forms of creative expression. Through these things, I lead by example and encourage my peers to be creative and respectful and break away from typical behavior patterns that plague today's youth. I have witnessed first hand many friends and friend groups fall apart due to people finding entertainment in gossip and tearing each other down. Bad decisions have caused problems for many people I know and led some down paths that I cannot follow. I have had to make difficult decisions and choose to be different even when it meant rejection from friends. With all of my creative skills, I have chosen to study writing, film, and business. However, I have noticed some issues in the industry recently that I plan to fight against. Many new movies are just endless additions to successful franchises, remakes of old classics, or conduits through which producers tactlessly convey repetitive and unoriginal messages. It’s an industry obsessed with money and politics instead of art and imagination. I believe that film is meant to bring people together. Unfortunately, many recent movies do not appeal to a mixed audience of ages, but instead either cater to a very young audience or are packed with adult content. The franchises that do still appeal to a wider age range, like Marvel and Star Wars, are deteriorating in quality of writing and special effects among other factors. My goal is to revive creativity, originality, and art in the world of cinema by creating new stories with unique messages and appealing to a wider age range for many people to enjoy together. With my own studio, I can invite creative minds who lack funding for their own projects to receive help bringing their original ideas to the screen. Movies like Rocky and The Terminator were big risks that took off into huge franchises, and I want to revive that style of business and cinema. Receiving this Scholarship means that I can pay for college and save for future investments and the creation of a studio.

Growing up I have had the opportunity to meet and befriend many people from different financial backgrounds. I was always curious about how people came to enter or remain within their financial situation as well. Around the age of fourteen, I began to be interested in making money for myself so I started offering lawn care services to people in my area. Soon afterward my dad started teaching me about the stock market and he helped me set up an account where I could learn how to trade stocks. I also set up an interest account at a local bank that had a service specifically designed to help youth learn how to save money. These experiences have helped to show me the value of saving money, which I continue to do. One issue that concerns me that concerns me about my peers, however, is that they all seem so focussed on getting money so they can go spend it all without discovering the best ways to make it, save it, and spend it. In this way, they tend to waste their few free summers as teens toiling away at low-paying jobs every day of the week, just to spend it all on the weekend. If this is how someone chooses to spend their time, then that is great for them, but in the long run, there’s not much to show for it other than a generic work experience for their resume. As a teenager who wants to combine enjoying my free summers with making enough money to have fun and save for future investments, I choose my jobs very carefully. I find job opportunities that pay well, offer me valuable skills and knowledge for my future, and don’t require me to be there when I have the opportunity to do something awesome with my limited time. After high school and college, I will be entering the workforce full-time. I have observed that it can be quite easy to get stuck in one job position for years on end. For this reason, I have been thoughtful about my career choice, especially as someone who desires creativity and room to expand upon or improve my environment. Within the film industry, I see great room for continuous development and improvement as I can begin in an internship position, continue to advance to a producer, and eventually start my own studio. Throughout my journey in the workforce, and especially in higher positions I will have great opportunities to improve my financial understanding and share that with others around me. I plan to continue to educate myself to become financially literate by reading news or books or seeking out information wherever it is available to benefit myself but also to offer the advice that I learn to younger generations so that they don’t continue to make the mistakes I see in many of my peers. People in my age group and those below us are the future of America’s economy. I see it as crucial that we all understand how to earn, save, and use money for the best of ourselves and those around us.

The quality of myself that I value most is my imagination because someone could have any marketable skill, but without imagination, they will likely never do anything noteworthy with it. It’s the people who possess the imagination and vision to contribute something new with that skill who make history. The United States has had 45 different presidents, but only 4 of them have their faces carved into a mountain due to their revolutionary contributions to our country. We all have imagination as kids, but as we age and reality becomes a factor in our everyday lives, many people seem to let it go. I was a very creative child and as I grew older I decided that I would nourish that trait and find a profession in which it could thrive. For this reason, the thought of having a job that I go to every day of my life, performing the same routine tasks, with little variation or room for creative improvement frightens me. I grew up making things; I helped my dad with construction, I built LEGOs, I wrote stories, I played guitar, and I made videos. With all of these creative outlets and skills, I knew I had to find a career where I could continue to be imaginative and put them to good use. I believe that cinema is the ultimate culmination of every branch of art and creativity, not only drawing from one person's imagination but a collaboration of many people who create something new and amazing. Combining poetic storytelling, captivating acting, artful composition, and compelling music is what it takes to create a cinematic masterpiece. Unfortunately, the film industry has been lacking recently in the creativity department. Many new movies are just endless additions to a successful franchise, remakes of an old classic, or a conduit through which a producer aims to tactlessly convey some repetitive and unoriginal message. It’s become an industry obsessed with money and politics instead of art and imagination. My goal is to revive creativity, originality, and art in the world of cinema by creating new stories with unique messages and utilizing the stage that Earth presents us instead of defaulting to a green screen and CGI. My imagination and creativity will help me in my journey because it requires the ability to think outside the box to be a truly successful and renowned filmmaker. I believe that my original stories and ideas will appeal to people in higher positions who will continue to mentor me in the world of filmmaking after my college education. Because I see college as more than just an opportunity for higher education, I did not choose to attend a film school. I do not doubt that I could follow in the footprints of great filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and others who never went to film school. My goals for college are to discover my own ways of doing things and to make memorable real-world experiences that will influence the way that I create films. The biggest flaw in film school is that many of the people attending it don't get a sense of how things really work in the real world, and that becomes painfully apparent in their films. My ultimate goal for this career is to start my own studio where other creative people who want to bring their originality to life but lack the materials necessary can make that happen. Through doing this I hope to attract like-minded, ambitious, and creative people who share the same desire to restore cinema to its creative and art-based roots as I do.