My name is Ivy Bregande and I am currently a Studio and Art student at Alfred University where I am going to be a sophomore this upcoming fall. I am exploring all mediums before I hone into just one or two, which is why my portfolio shows my current standing on all the mediums I have touched on so far. I have always loved art, for as long as I could remember I would doodle and draw on all of my math tests and notebooks in school. I would draw on anything I could, whether it was my hand, my shoes, or my homework. I never knew I could pursue art in college as I thought I would never even get accepted to Alfred. Since I have been there, my imagination and creativity have flourished. My skills grew as I was taught by the most amazing professors. I got to collaborate with professors and colleagues on ideas I never thought I would have. I didn’t know how much joy being a full time student, let alone a full time artist would give me. I recently discovered how much I’m interested in expressing my deep thoughts and secrets through my art which can be seen in my most recent works. This upcoming year I hope to continue this trend of exploring many mediums and expressing myself through art; however, supplies are constantly increasing in price and my goals for a future show may only ever be a dream. In the near future, I hope to someday create works of art that express life through different lighting fixtures as shown in my sketches. I want the light to represent life and hope and happiness, but the structures around the light to represent reality, heaviness, and sorrow. This is going to be a lot of work, and cost a lot of materials which worries me. This is something that I dream will happen and hope it becomes something that is real, and with that I hope to continue to go to Alfred to help me achieve those goals as well. This scholarship will give me so much more hope for my future in the art world and the world beyond. I will be able to create without feeling boxed in due to supply costs and tuition fees. This scholarship will be the start to my journey and help me get started on my goals for my future. All I want in the world is to be able to show my art to the world, I want them to feel as deeply as I do. I want the audience to see my work and understand that there is always beauty and hope in a world where there’s depression and loss. I would like to see more of that hope in my future and I do hope others would too.

I love math because it is a challenge to my brain. Throughout school I wasn’t excelling at many subjects, except for math. While, I find reading and writing frustrating, I find math to be uplifting. I find joy in solving puzzles and figuring out which formulas to use. My love for math also helped me excel in it. I was always a year ahead as I finished off my high school years with AP Calculus 1. I have always felt a connection with math. It is how my brain works. I have always had an “engineering brain” as my dad says. I like to see how things work and how to put things back together after just taking it apart. I feel like that is how math is. There is a lot of breaking down problems into bite-sized sections and then solving a little bit of each to make it easier to solve as a whole. I just love how math makes my brain think. It’s not as it is difficult, but as a mental challenge to get to the solution. I am not sure why I actually like math as when I tell people how much I love it, they give me a look as if I am crazy. It is true though. It brings me joy, even if there are times where it does frustrate me, in the end I love the feeling of being able to say I know how to solve a problem.

All throughout life, you make connections with people, whether on purpose or just by fate. These connections, no matter what you think, impact you. Some connections are good, while others bad. Every connection impacts your future, small or big. Relationships are difficult in a way. Keeping a good relationship is even harder these days. They all play a role in your long-term personal and professional life through each lesson learned from each little connection and moment with a person. Just living life and interacting with people will teach you lessons that will impact your personal and professional future. Whether it is someone that you bond with instantly or someone you grow apart, you learn something from those experiences. You learn new things about yourself and discover new things about others. The purpose of connections and relationships is to ultimately help you grow as a person. It is hard to grow if you have little connections with people. Get out there, meet new people! Throughout my life I have learned how hard it is to find people you can create deep connections with. Due to social media, many believe they are gaining new relationships and connections with people. They are, just not deep ones. I personally believe we need to interact with each other face-to-face and not through a screen. This is what’s important. In-person connection is what makes true relationships with each other. In my experience I have learned what type of people I am not compatible with, how I interact with people, and how I portray myself out into the world. It takes time to truly learn these things as I am still learning myself. People change all the time, that’s what’s special about humans. We change. Some of us may not like it per say, but if we can learn to adapt, we can grow as a community. Like others, we ourselves change as well, whether we know it or not. With this, our ideals, beliefs, and goals may change too. No one’s path is perfectly straight. We have ups and downs, and the relationships we create and live with bring us up and down the roller coaster of a path, yet it is always moving forward. Some connections may sway your original goals, but that is something we should accept. We all have small, short-term goals and big, long-term goals. Sometimes the connections we make with others, whether directly or indirectly, can help us reach those goals. Sometimes they don’t. With the difficulty of creating deep connections with people, it is also difficult to find those who will encourage you and help you along your journey. I believe that nothing is considered good until there is bad. That’s why we learn from our failures and successes. Positive, but honest communities are most preferable as they encourage you, but will be honest if they believe something isn’t right. To me, this is ideal, in the workplace and in life. In summary, connections and relationships we make throughout our lives are important because they help us grow no matter what. They play many roles in our long-term personal and professional goals by helping us get there or changing our paths for the better. Every connection impacts us and our lives.