My childhood experiences in private school showed me why math is important. I grew up in an Evangelical Lutheran parochial school that was free to all church members. My grade school curriculum was centered around faith-based learning; bible history, biblical literature, and biblical science. Since there was such a strong focus on teaching a Christ-centered curriculum, little effort was put into teaching core subjects such as math, English, and science. The math classes that the school provided were outdated and not developmentally appropriate for the age groups they were taught to, all of the students were behind compared to our public school counterparts. This was where my love for math began, no one was teaching me so I decided to teach myself. I am very fortunate to have grown up during the age of the internet where I could find videos of basic algebra skills and the foundations of geometry. I spent all of my free time in school practicing my own math skills and studying videos. When I would get home I would sit down and work on my math skills and play with my legos with the math videos playing in the background. It all made sense to me and I knew I needed to do something. I asked my teacher and our principal if I could take over the math lessons when I was in sixth grade. That may seem unrealistic from a public school perspective, but in a private school with three other kids in my grade, it was completely fair game. Just like that, my passion for math sparked a joy for teaching. I started my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse as an education major with the intent of math education, but I found a different calling. Even though math had such a formative role in my educational history I decided to follow a different path that still fuels my spark of love for teaching. I changed my major to psychology with the intention of working in a school setting with at-risk children and youths. As a young learner I had wished there was someone there to step in and advocate for my education, I wished that the responsibilities did not have to fall onto me. I am confident that someday I will inspire young math lovers to follow their passions and commit to their studies, and I hope that someday I can be that person in a classroom looking out for the children and teens and advocating for their futures.

My childhood experiences in private school pushed me into my love for math. I grew up in an Evangelical Lutheran parochial school that was free to all church members. My grade school curriculum was centered around faith-based learning; bible history, biblical literature, and biblical science. Since there was such a strong focus on teaching a Christ-centered curriculum, little effort was put into teaching core subjects such as math, English, and science. The math classes that the school provided were outdated and not developmentally appropriate for the age groups they were taught to, all of the students were behind compared to our public school counterparts. This was where my love for math began, no one was teaching me so I decided to teach myself. I am lucky to have grown up during the age of the internet where I could find videos of basic algebra skills and the foundations of geometry. I spent all of my free time in school practicing my own math skills and studying videos. When I would get home I would sit down and work on my math skills and play with my legos with the math videos playing in the background. It all made sense to me and I knew I needed to do something. I asked my teacher and our principal if I could take over the math lessons when I was in sixth grade. That may seem unrealistic from a public school perspective, but in a private school with three other kids in my grade, it was completely fair game. Just like that, my passion for math sparked a joy for teaching. I started my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse as an education major with the intent of math education, but I found a different calling. Even though math had such a formative role in my educational history I decided to follow a different path that still fuels my spark of love for teaching. I changed my major to psychology with the intention of working in a school setting with at-risk children and youths. As a young learner I had wished there was someone there to step in and advocate for my education, I wished that the responsibilities did not have to fall onto me. I hope that someday I can be that person in a classroom looking out for the children and teens and advocating for their futures.

When I was in high school I worked as a server at a restaurant, the work was not my favorite thing but it offered the most flexibility while I was playing soccer and taking challenging honors and AP classes. I started working at the restaurant when I was only fourteen making minimum wage. I had wanted to quit several times because of the jealousy I felt toward my peers. My friends never worked nor did they have to, they had parents who would hand out cash for any occasion. I was jealous because mine were unable to do so for me, this jealous feeling followed me when I began to think about college. I realized my parents would not be able to help me pay for tuition or housing costs, so I buckled down and kept working at that restaurant. Two years later I became a trainer at that restaurant making a steady paycheck for a sixteen year old. Slowly hour by hour I made it through by thinking about how all of this hard work will send me to college someday. The skills I learned as a serving trainer helped me in my soccer team where my coaches picked up on my leadership qualities and made me a team captain. Being a team captain for my soccer team added responsibilities to my plate, but also filled me with great pride as I wore the captain's armband at every game. Unfortunately, I had to give up soccer once I graduated high school because I realized I needed to start working much more to afford tuition and housing. I will never forget the skills I learned both in server training and soccer team leading. Before my freshman year of college, I applied for a job at the local hospital daycare. After CPR and SIDS training, and countless state-required certifications I got hired as a preschool teacher in the daycare. Once I had secured this position I immediately began my professional development through the Wisconsin Registry where I spent over two hundred hours learning about early childhood development and developmentally appropriate practices for childcare settings. These efforts were incredibly challenging as the fall semester began. I used the time management skills I learned in high school as well as my experience as a team captain to create a balance and set boundaries for myself during this challenging time. The leadership skills that I have learned over time will help me as I pursue my college career. I am currently a psychology major with a minor in at-risk child and youth care. My plan after getting my bachelor's degree is to attend graduate school in pursuit of a master's degree in social work. I want to become a social worker for at-risk youths which could include children in the foster care system, children from minority backgrounds, or children living with disabilities. My ambitions are high and I am working full-time in a daycare when I can and part-time during the school year in an attempt to be able to afford tuition and housing costs at my university. I am a first-generation college student and my parents are unable to help me with the financial costs of pursuing further education. They always dreamed of their daughter going to college and I am doing everything in my power to carry out our shared dream. Receiving this scholarship would mean that I am able to spend more of my energy focusing on my academic studies which would in turn be getting me one step closer to my calling in life of helping at-risk children and youths.

I used to align with the cliche that is "I volunteer because I want to help people". That was the mentality I had before I ever truly volunteered for anything. I thought that any volunteer work I did would magically make me a better person for simply helping people, and this mindset proved to be harmful in reality. The truth is the act of volunteering does not make you inherently better than anyone else. The first volunteer work I did was respite care for an individual with cerebral palsy. The first day truthfully shocked me and brought me down to earth. This is not just some flourishment that I can add to my resume this is a real person with real feelings with real needs and real people who cared for them. This volunteering experience showed me a flash of reality as I realized that I do not want to volunteer to help people or add to my resume, I want to volunteer because I want to advocate for people and causes that need a strong voice behind them. My first volunteering experience working with individuals with disabilities highlighted the lack of funding and lack of capable staff that this community was being given. Volunteering showed me that I needed to do more, everyone needs to do more if they are able. People need to volunteer for things that they are passionate about and they need to do so with zero expectations and an open mind. I had no idea that my volunteering experiences would be so eye-opening for me, but without them, I may not have chosen the course of study that I am going into at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse. I am currently a psychology major with a minor in at-risk child and youth care. My plan after getting my bachelor's degree is to attend graduate school in pursuit of a master's degree in social work. I want to become a social worker for at-risk youths which could include children in the foster care system, children from minority backgrounds, or children living with disabilities. My ambitions are high and I am working full-time in a daycare when I can and part-time during the school year in an attempt to be able to afford tuition and housing costs at my university. I am a first-generation college student and my parents are unable to help me with the financial costs of pursuing further education. They always dreamed of their daughter going to college and I am doing everything in my power to carry out our shared dream. Receiving this scholarship would mean that I am able to spend more of my energy focusing on my academic studies which would in turn be getting me one step closer to my calling in life of helping at-risk children and youths.

My faith journey began the day I was born, my mother went into labor with me quickly and unexpectedly. She had no idea she was experiencing contractions or that her water had broken, which resulted in a traumatizing rush to the hospital. My mother told me that during the entire car ride to the hospital, she prayed that God did not bring me into this world in their minivan. As my father sped through lights and my mother screamed to God, it was made clear that God and I had other plans. I was delivered by my mother as my father drove into the hospital parking lot at 2:02 am on a cold night in March. My mother held me while begging god to fill my lungs with oxygen, I had not cried or moved and my skin was a concerning purple color. My dad sprinted into the hospital and started shouting like a madman for somebody's attention. Both of my collarbones had been broken in labor and I had deep bruising that took months to fade, luckily nineteen years later I am a healthy happy young woman who never forgets the miracle of God being there with my mother during her traumatic birth experience. As a young adult, my personal faith has helped me whenever I find myself being ungrateful, or unappreciative for all of my blessings. Whenever I notice my ungrateful attitude I take a moment to reflect and remind myself that through God's grace, I am on this beautiful Earth and that as long as there is breath in my lungs I am the luckiest woman in the world. I am deeply blessed and thankful for all of the gifts that God has given me. One of these gifts has been my incredible work ethic. I started my first job at age 14 and I have been employed in different jobs ever since depending on my interests. My most recent job is as a childcare provider at the very hospital where I was born. In this job, I practice love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. I am planning on staying at the hospital daycare throughout college until I obtain my degree. My dream job is to be a school psychologist or a school social worker. Both of these career paths recommend acquiring a master's degree which is my ambition. While I consider this ambition I worry about finances, my parents are unable to assist with any of my college tuition costs or housing costs which places all of the financial burdens on me. Even though I have worked so hard in my teen years I still do not have the means to support my academic ambitions. I spend a lot of time with my Bible studying what Jesus and God have to say about money, and I try to not let it take over my life. I do this while also acknowledging that it is still a very real struggle and worry in my life and that I can still cast my worries on God. In my future career as a school social worker or psychologist, I hope that I can be a light for young learners to come to for their worries and their concerns. I hope that I can act in God's image and give my students the courage and motivation to succeed and be grateful for their growing minds.

I am a harder worker, that is always one of the first things people list about me when they describe me. I commit all of my attention to whatever my task at hand is, whether it is my job as a childcare provider or my role as a partner in my relationship. Neither of my parents were able to attend college, my mother had to raise her younger siblings and my father went to work full time the minute he graduated from high school. This resulted in the both of them working physically demanding jobs making next to no money. We always had food on our table and a roof over our head, but my siblings and I were never given the same opportunities as our peers because our parents could not financially provide for us further than the essentials for life. This was a difficult thing to deal with as a child who did not understand money, but now as a 19 year old woman who is solely responsible for her rent and tuition I fully understand what it means to have no money. I work two jobs to make rent every month and I babysit whenever I can to make spare money. I budget every month in an effort to be able to save enough to pay for my university tuition charges and groceries. If I receive enough money from scholarships I will be able to afford tuition which will allow me to work towards receiving my bachelor’s in psychology. I want to set myself up for a successful life that my parents unfortunately were not able to have. My parents are now retirement age with many health concerns and are unable to retire due to their low income. I would like to be able to afford college so I can land a financially supportive career and hopefully help my parents retire, and start planning a family for myself. I have always wanted to become a wife and a mother some day it has been a dream of mine my entire life. However, my dream is not to end up like my parents who are scraping by while working the same physically demanding jobs for practically no money that they always have been. First generation college students have to figure out everything for themselves as their parents have never been through anything like this which already puts me at a disadvantage. Winning scholarships would make or break my future dreams and would open up a world of opportunities for me.

Little Miss sunshine, that’s what I’ve been called my whole life. But I have always felt a dark cloud following me wherever I go. When I was young I did a very good job of not letting anybody know how I felt. When I was in school, I was set up for failure by my teachers and other staff in a free parochial school setting. Religious education was placed at the forefront while state standard academics were placed on the back burner. I remember as young as first grade my teacher said to me “you are just the easiest kid, my little miss sunshine”. But the truth was I cried every morning before school, I cried because I was afraid to go to school, afraid to make mistakes. When you grow up in a parochial school setting you quickly realize that you cannot make mistakes, mistakes can be dangerous. This constant fear hung over me like a cloud, blocking out my sunshine. As I got older I tried to keep myself happy in front of my teachers and classmates, but that was a constant battle because I was being bullied by both the staff and by my peers. Eventually I convinced my parents to let me transfer to public school for high school. They agreed and every day from then on felt like information overload. There was so much I didn’t know, about academics and about myself. I always thought that this looming cloud feeling I had was normal, something everyone felt. But the truth was, I was struggling, really struggling and I needed help fast. I quickly bonded with my schools guidance counselor and by the end of my high school career I had blossomed from a fearful quiet girl to a confident and determined woman. I will no longer be fearful of failure. I will no longer be afraid of religion, and I will no longer be anyone’s perfect easy little miss sunshine. I want to become a school counselor, social worker, or psychologist to be an advocate for struggling students just like I had been a few short years ago. I have transformed in my adult life and I have had such great successes in my current job in childcare. I am pursuing a higher education because my parents never did, which puts them in an unfortunate position where they are unable to financially provide for me to attend college. I am putting myself through college by working in a daycare during the week and working as a respite care provider on the weekends. My looming cloud of fear had gone away, but has returned because of the fear of not being able to afford college tuition along with my own rent. After college I will be able to help young children in the same position I was in and even advocate to stop the system from even repeating again.

I finally got the money to build my very own barbie dream house! It has always been a dream of mine to design a place so uniquely fitting for me. I was very particular about where I wanted to spend my days and I thought it was only fitting to build a coastal dream house. I picked a quiet area on the coast of Rhode Island where I can watch the waves roll over the rocks from my dream house garden deck. My barbie dream house is cream white on the outside with accents of sage green. It is nestled right in the side of the cliff. My neighbor, Taylor Swift, and I stare out at the sea at midnight together. From the inside of the house you can see a full view of the gorgeous Atlantic Ocean and a lighthouse in the distance. The theme for the inside of my dream house is perfectly fitting for my east coast home, with nautical decor and ocean treasures. My favorite room is the solarium, when the daylight pours in I do my sun salutation yoga and I water my plants, Taylor thinks I have too many. In my barbie dream house there are 3 guest rooms with floor to ceiling windows, a view like mine should not go to waste. Each room has its own theme, shells, sailing, and mermaid. The shell room guests would bathe in a shell tub and sleep in a clam shell bed with silk sheets and pearl pillows. The sailing guests have the luxury sailboat water bed equipped with a telescope to admire the coastal view with. The mermaid room boasts the most spectacular colors with scales of all shapes and sizes painted along the walls, and an iridescent moon pool for swimming. My barbie dream house has a charming staycation feel and without a doubt is the most gorgtastic views.