Growing up as a kid, I had a wonderful childhood. My parents have been together my whole life and my parents raised me to always follow and trust God, not because they told me to but because he is also my one and only God. However, the one challenge we did face was during the recession near the year 2008. Unfortunately, my parents lost the house we once had but they never let go of God's hand. My dad ended up working as a truck driver and although at that time it was a great thing, it has become a bit of a burden to me personally because I rarely ever get to see him. I am the only son in a household of three sisters and my mother. When I was eleven years old, I began to feel more and more lonely, I felt like there was no one else in my house who could understand me because I had no other man in my home to whom I could speak or relate to. My sadness would slowly turn to anger, and eventually, I became bitter and angry towards my father. From the age of thirteen to sixteen, many things happened in my household that were unexpectedly bad and I always blamed my dad because I thought that all these bad things happened because we never had a father present. These bad events however helped to form who I am today, God showed me to be more observant, to be careful with who I trust, and to never go behind my parent's backs because it will break our trust. Throughout this process that God showed me these things, I began to see God as my only true father, and he taught me well. He showed me how to be a man, he showed me how to love, how to care for others, how to empathize, how to support and advise others but also how to discipline my younger sisters properly. All these things were great because they formed me, but one day as I prayed God revealed to me a heartbreaking truth. He revealed to me that even though he was my father, I also had a father here on Earth whom I was not loving properly, that I was not caring for, or praying for, and that I had not forgiven yet. He revealed to me that I was holding anger and bitterness towards my father and it broke my heart because I did not want to forgive him after all the time he had been gone. I prayed to God to help me speak to my dad and reconcile with him but before I could, he asked me to forgive him before I spoke to him. I reluctantly agreed and forgave my father, I cried so many tears of anger and sadness but I was overwhelmed with peace right after. All that anger and bitterness turned into love and sadness toward my father. I then spoke to my father with honesty and we reconciled, I realized that my father is away because he loves us and he misses us every day. God truly helped me during this time in my life by speaking to me, telling me what I did wrong and allowing me a perfect moment with my father to reconcile. I know God won't stop helping me, because I trust him. I trust he will provide all the necessary funds for my university, he will open up new career opportunities and he will give me the strength to study and serve him every day.

I thank God that I have been able to learn many things from the bible. I learned the most things that I know from the book of Corinthians because it has a lot of wisdom. and overall amazing advice for my day-to-day life. However, the one part that has stuck with me the most in my life has to go back to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As we know, Jesus had twelve disciples and then he gave up his life to pay the price for our sins. He conquered death that day, and he proved that love was a sacrifice, but the one phrase that I learned in his crucifixion that has stuck with me since day one is that I must sacrifice for the things I love because if I do not, then the things I love become the sacrifice. This phrase has stuck with me the entire time because if Jesus had not sacrificed his life, then we would have become the sacrifice and lost it all with no hope for redemption. In the same way, I have learned that I need to sacrifice time, energy and attention to God but also the people around me. I have prayed for wisdom and asked God to use me over and over again as I continue to grow. I am happy to be able to say that God has allowed me to be there for so many people in so many different ways. All these people were diverse, they had different backgrounds, religions, thoughts and ideals, yet God allowed me into their lives and although not all of them wanted to hear about God, I was at least able to plant a small seed. I currently am planning to go to California Baptist University for music education and a minor in worship arts and ministry. There I plan to study everything that I have ever wanted, but I also want to be able to enjoy time with my friends there. I want to meet new people and become someone who everyone can depend on if they ever need someone. I want to be able to be the person who supports, motivates and encourages others when they have lost all their motivation or support. The way I plan to do this is by making myself available to them and by being a reflection of who Jesus is, what his life stands for, and what his love is truly like. I will show this reflection in small group events, music groups or even clubs.

Throughout my college search, I came across California Baptist University. They were extremely helpful and supportive, and they opened my eyes to so many careers in my area of interest. I am currently about to go to California Baptist University to major in music education and a minor in worship art and ministry. The reason I chose these subjects, was because they all have to do with my passions and interests. I love music, but a few years ago, I was not fully sure about what career opportunities there were for music. I began to compose music for fun but when I did research, music composition was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to keep music composition as a hobby, or a safe place when I became tired. I then learned a bit about musical therapy, and although at first, it seemed pretty interesting, I lost interest fairly quickly because I just could not see myself in that position for some odd reason. After realizing that I was not fully interested in these careers, I began to look at what I currently love to do. I am currently the leader for my church's, youth worship team. I give them songs, harmonies, instrumental parts and private instruction every week. I am also there to instruct them and guide them in the ways that I can whenever they need me. I have done everything I can to fully support their talents, grow their abilities and grow their passion for music and God. After I realized that I loved this leadership role, I began to teach a lot more one on one with the team members. I taught piano to three different people and saw immense amounts of growth. I worked with six singer's voices one on one and I loved it. I loved to see the growth and the process during the time that I taught these individuals. That is when I began to look into education but I still wanted my passion for music to shine through. Not much later, California Baptist University helped me look at their music education program which I fell in love with. I love this career and am ready to pursue a bachelor's degree in music education because I want to teach students everything I can about music. I want to take every leadership skill I have developed and use it to teach music to students. I want to ignite a passion inside every student for different instruments. I want to inspire creativity and support creative flourishment in every student. Music education has won my heart, and I want to pursue it because it already brings me joy even though I am barely going to begin studying in this field.

My biggest achievement was becoming the leader of my church's youth worship team. At first, my goal was to strengthen everything that needed to be strengthened in that team but as time went on I began to notice that a lot of the members there lacked some basic music skills, and others simply did not know what more to learn. It was then that I learned that I love to teach, so I began to teach piano players everything that I know and everything that I continue to learn, I helped the singers to stop singing in ways that would hurt them and I taught the bass player how to truly explore and be free on the instrument. It was through this position that I learned that I love to teach but I also learned that I truly care for the people I am working with. This is because there were some times when some of the members had bad days, others struggled with anxiety, fear, no motivation, lack of confidence and others had problems at home. It was in those moments that I gave so much of my time to support and help these individuals until they were fully able to get back up. To this day, I continue to support these members with everything I can both musically and emotionally. One thing I also learned that I love to do is work one on one with people. The reason for this is because it seems to calm some people because they don't feel so pressured. It allowed me to fully get to know each individual and overall it allowed me to fully support each individual with everything they needed. Finally, one of the biggest things I learned from this experience is that I love to make the team feel like there is nothing to worry about. I love to show them confidence and show them that I fully trust them, their abilities, and their talents and that everything will play out perfectly. I learned that whatever emotion I portray while I am with the team, the team will feel it. This means that If I continue to show happiness, trust, confidence and strength, the team will feel so much better about themselves. I have noticed that when this happens, the team just becomes so much more lively, they loosen up entirely and they have fun with everything that they are doing. It was this entire experience that truly showed me that I want to become a music teacher and pursue further education in music and share it with everyone who truly wants to learn. It also taught me that I want to support anyone else that I can, emotionally and musically even if they are not my student or part of my team.

I love to compose instrumental, orchestral, piano and music with lyrics. I have so many goals that all involve music and the first goal is to become a music educator. Through music education, I want to inspire students to be creative and experiment with music. I want to create an environment that is free to each student and I want to encourage a passion for music. However, outside of music education, I want to compose my music and I have already taken steps towards that. I want to compose music for films, video games and just for me to enjoy along with others. When I compose instrumental or orchestral music, I do my best to tell a story or portray the emotions I am currently feeling. With these compositions I want to touch the hearts of many people, I want to remind them of the good memories they once had, I want to bring them peace through these instrumentals. I also want to paint a picture and a full story in their minds that either brings them joy or touches their hearts and reminds them of what things used to be like. Overall, I want to compose music that just fully relates to the listener in some way. If possible, I also want to compose music for films and video games. I want to add beauty and emotion into every scene that has beautiful landscapes or emotional moments. I want to make a video game so much more exciting, emotional, impactful and enjoyable for each player so that it can create an everlasting memory. Finally, I also sing, play piano, and play bass and I want to use all of these instruments, talents and knowledge to also create my music with lyrics. I want to compose worship music for God. I want to compose worship music that others can worship with when they want, I want it to be worship music that truly submerges someone into their worship. However, I do also occasionally want to compose music that truly speaks of problems some people may face, such as depression, anxiety or grief and I want to shed light upon these topics but have an uplifting message that other listeners can relate to and be inspired by. Finally, I also want to also write honest love songs without any vulganrness, dirty lyrics or alterior motives

My dream version of my future self is a music composer who focuses mostly on his music education career, teaching students with passion and igniting love and passion for music in each of the students, all while still being able to do the best he can as a father to support his family.

When I was 11 years old, I became interested in the piano and slowly throughout all my years I became very fond and interested in every aspect of music. I am currently 18 years old and am getting ready to enter California Baptist University in September of 2023. Throughout the 7 years that I learned music, I began to grow a passion for composing music. I love to compose instrumentals, with pianos, guitars, violins, cellos and so many other instruments. I've listened to so many genres of music, just to understand the composition of each musical genre to its fullest so I could mimic it, learn from it and then create my own music out of it. As time went on, I also became very fond of contemporary Christian and worship music. All these songs have similar composition patterns in them, yet they are all used so differently with so much variety that it forms something entirely new. This is where I decided that I want to grow in my abilities to play musical instruments as well as fully understand their capabilities and the composition of the music itself. I want to study everything I can about music, my talents and about what makes music so beautiful and so special. I want to use all this knowledge to grow as a musician and also to further my passion for music, however, I do not want to be selfish and contain all this information and study just for myself. I actually want to major in music education so I can ignite that same passion and love for music in so many other students. I want to be able to work hard to inspire generations of talented, passionate musicians. Even with all these goals and dreams, I still have to come to reality and realize that these dreams cost money and this scholarship is one of the many opportunities I am currently taking to achieve my dreams. If I were to win this scholarship, it would help reduce the amount that I have to pay for university by a lot and it would bring me more financial freedom, less stress and more opportunity to work hard and stress-free for my dreams and career. This scholarship will help provide for my overall college expenses and let me focus so much more on my studies. Without this scholarship, it will be much harder for me to focus solely on my studies and it will bring me more work and possibly some stress. If I were to obtain this scholarship, it would open the door to a stress-free, fully concentrated life of study and hard work.

I am an extremely ambitious person who constantly works hard to achieve my dreams and goals. I tend to be kind and gentle with everyone around me, while also motivating them, encouraging them and supporting them to achieve greater things every time. I have always had the type of character that wants to push others to work hard and achieve their goals and dreams. I have used these characteristics and traits since I became leader of my worship team. I constantly push all the singers to challenge their voice in a safe way that will not damage their voices. I worry a lot for their voices, so every time they do something wrong, I correct them and explain to them the possible negative impacts of what they were doing wrong. I have also done the same thing with all of my musicians. I have encouraged my pianists to achieve further knowledge of music, and I have helped them broaden their musical tools entirely. The reason I say all this is because I want to fully demonstrate what I am like and what I love to do. For the future, I plan to study and get a bachelor's degree in both music education and music. I plan to use every trait, characteristic, attribute and ability I have in my future career. The way I plan to use eveything I have in my career is by bringing motivatioan, encouragement and support for everyone around my work place, especially students in the music department. As time has gone on, I have noticed the same patterns over and over again in students who like music. Students typically tend to lack motivation, encouragement, support and even sometimes confidence in the way they play. I want to use all of my attributes to create an open environemnt that supports and encourages expirementation and creativity in music. I want to push every student to fully learn and master their instrument so that they could become the best musician they can be throughout their entire school year. I want to support them and encourage them to create a life long passion for music. I want to constantly support them in every way I can so they can overcome their fears and insecurities so they can fully let their creativity run wild. I know that if I do this, I may help improve the mental health of many students and maybe even possibly positively impact an entire generation in my community.

I play piano both classical and contemporary. I am currently working on playing more jazz as well but I also sing. Those two talents have always been my main focus but throughout time I also learned to play bass and I am currently working a bit on the guitar. All these talents define who I am and who I strive to be in the near future. Music is not just a hobby but it is my life. Music is my daily motivation and reminder to pursue more knowledge and practice. I have used all these talents at my church as a worship leader for my youth group but this chapter is close to coming to a full closure as I go to university. I am going to California Baptist university to study for a bachelors in music, bachelors in music education and if possible a master's degree for music composition. I want to study all of this because I want to make music a life long passion and I want to incorporate it with my day to day life. I want to encourage everyone around me with my music. I want to encourage them to pursue a life long passion for music as well as use my music to bring peace to the listeners. When I think of my future, I see mysef teaching a class of highschool students just like I used to be. I see myself creating a passion for those students, a passion so strong that they begin to become curious. They begn to let their creativity thrive all because they allowed me to be a fire starter for their passion. I see myself teaching these students everything I've ever known and encouraging them to let their creativy run wild. I see myself encouraging them to expirement with their talents. Aside from teaching, I see myself composing music pretty often. I see myself creating orchestral music, instrumentals, video game music, film music and music with lyrics. I see myself starting with a small audience that lisetens to my music because they love the way I play and compose. I see my music being lisetened to because it brings peace to the listener. I see my music being listened to because it relates to them entirely in some way that other music can't. I see myself using every talent that I've ever had, and every talent that I've refined to its full potential in my life long musical passions.

A constant problem that I have seen among friends and peers is their lack of motivation. Many people my age or younger seem to lack a lot of motivation and they do not want to do much to refine a talent they may have. A lot of this sometimes has to do with a lack of support from family and friends. Personally where I have seen this is in my worship team at my church. I have been on this team since 2019 and I have been the leader since August 2022. I have observed all these details to attempt to combat it. When I observed singers, I noticed a lack of motivation to work on their voices and there were several reasons for this. Some were timid, shy and afraid of really testing the limits of their voice. Others thought that their voice was already as best as it could be but in reality, we can always improve many things in our voices. What I did was create a small-sized class with these singers and speak to them about their voices, the complexity in their larynx when they sing and how small things may damage them. These small bits of information encouraged almost all of them to begin to work with their voices more to prevent any vocal damage. For the ones that were still not working as hard, I simply just constantly motivated them and pointed out their growth every time they did something right. For musicians, I realized that a lot of them did not fully understand the instrument or know much music basics so to combat this, I taught each individual, bass and piano. For the piano player that I am currently working with, she has come a long way and I have built her from the ground up and motivated her to keep pursuing this instrument not just as a fun hobby but also as a lifelong passion. My previous piano player lacked a lot of motivation and security, so I began to teach her small tricks, scales, licks, runs and passing chords all to boost the tools available to her. Then I pushed her to constantly use these tools and improve and improvise in every aspect of her playing. This boosted her confidence and overall, helped her to become a better musician. Currently, I am working with that same pianist and encouraging her to allow me to work with her voice because she has a pretty voice but is afraid and timid about using it or even developing it. These are the small things I have done to support people with insecurities, or lack of motivation.

Music is the only place where I can express myself fully and share a story of my own without any words. When I was 13 years old, I became fond of the piano. I began to listen to classical music, piano instrumentals and orchestral music. To expand my love and knowledge of these topics, I asked my parents to get me a piano teacher. I stayed with that piano teacher until I was 16 years old. When I was 16, he told me that he had taught me everything he could. Some people may see this as mastery, but I saw it as a new opportunity to search for more musical knowledge. In my search, I joined a music group. I would sing and play piano in this music group and I later became the leader. It was in this music group that I learned how to improvise and stop playing from the book all the time. Once I learned how to improvise on my own, I bought a jazz piano book and have been learning from it until this day. I have used all this musical knowledge to compose orchestral music in my free time. I have composed pieces and even published them on several platforms and through this process, I learned what my way of telling stories was. I learned that my way of telling stories was through emotional and romantic orchestral music. Even though I have achieved this, I am not satisfied with myself because I want to learn everything there is to know about music composition. I want to learn what makes a musical piece so beautiful and pleasant to the ear. In addition, I also want to study music education. This passion arose in me as I saw my high school jazz ensemble teacher teach everyone. I want to learn many instruments, and I know I will learn that in music education but I also enjoy teaching. In the year 2022, I taught a 12-year-old how to play piano for 4 months straight. The progress was amazing, and I enjoyed teaching him everything I knew. It was then that my passion for music education arose. Ever since those days, I have searched for an opportunity with a college to help me study everything I can in the musical field and to make it fully achievable for me. My passions and ambitions are all music related as well.