My passion for basketball has had a huge impact on my life. Basketball has helped me bond with others and allowed people to come together as one and just play together. In my town, our go-to place to hang out was the basketball courts where we all went after school to play. To me, basketball is more than just a game it is a way to forge friendships. I would also describe it as an island where you can go and forget about everything else. During school, my friends and I would always go play basketball after class and it would make us excited during the whole day as we couldn't wait to go play. It gave us something to look forward to and allowed us to meet new people as well as escape from reality. We would go there for hours every day and just play, and this was one of the best times of my life. Sadly, as we got older and people went their separate ways whether it was working or college, we started going less and less. It was very sad to see this happen, but it also taught me a lesson. Life moves fast and the good moments come and go but you must always appreciate them while they are here. Basketball also taught me how to work together with others and how to learn how to adapt to situations. Being able to trust others and learn how to work together makes you more efficient. Learning each other's strengths and weaknesses and using them to your advantage is a skill you can also use in any other aspect of life. Basketball has taught me valuable skills that I am passionate about and will be able to translate into other areas of my life. Watching basketball has also brought me closer to my family and I appreciate it a lot for that. Sharing a favorite team and being able to watch them together with family is truly an amazing moment. Bonding together and supporting the team at home is something I don't take for granted. I know a lot of families that don't share too many moments together and I am grateful I can with mine. Basketball has helped me a lot in many areas of my life. It has allowed me to make many new friendships and strengthen the ones I already had. I have learned a lot of important life lessons from it and have learned to slow down and appreciate what I have. It has also shown me how to work together as a team and how to use each other's strengths and weaknesses. And it has allowed me to form a tighter bond with my family. I am very grateful for all of the lessons basketball has taught me and all of the friends I have gained from it.

The quality or characteristic I value most about myself would have to be my work ethic. I make sure to complete all my work no matter how hard it is, and I strive to succeed in everything I do. If I am given a lot of work, I will put the time and effort in to get it done. The effort you put into your work often shows who you are as a character, and I make sure my work reflects my top qualities. If I have a deadline to complete my work, I try and get it done before so I have time to review and go over my work and make the necessary corrections if needed. Having this characteristic about myself to always be on top of my work and make sure to complete whatever is on my agenda sets me up for a successful career. As the saying goes, hard work pays off, and it is said for a reason. Whenever you put your time and effort into something you want to achieve, you will end up succeeding. You don't have to be skilled or talented to complete a task, you just must be dedicated and put in the work, and I greatly value this quality of myself. I believe having this as one of my characteristics will help me greatly in my career and life journey. I am currently going into my sophomore year of college after achieving a 4.0 GPA last semester. This was a hard task as some of my classes were very difficult, but I knew I wanted to achieve the top possible GPA. I put in the work and the time needed to study and make sure all my assignments were complete. Going into next year, classes are getting harder, but I am ready to put in even more time and effort to keep up and succeed. Where I think my work will really pay off is when I'm in my junior or senior year and I apply for internships. Internships are wanted by every college student, and only a select few are chosen. These are very important for gaining much-needed experience before entering the workforce, and oftentimes end up with a job offer. In my field of study, which is Finance, there are a couple of certifications needed for the job and you usually start them after college. I have started to work on these certifications early so I can have the upper hand and stick out when applying for these internships and jobs. My characteristic of always going the extra mile and putting in the hard work is what I believe is my top characteristic and quality. I am always willing to go above and beyond to make sure that I stick out and make sure my work is a good reflection of myself. I believe that if you are given an opportunity, you should take it and put in your best effort. I will continue to strive for greatness in everything I do and make sure I am always ahead of my tasks. I believe that all of my hard-working characteristics will lead me to a successful career and put me ahead in life.

Like many people, a dog has changed my life for the better. Around the time I was born, my family also adopted a dog named Bailey. We grew up together and experienced the beginning of our life together. There is nothing more loving in life than a dog whose first instinct is to love. Dogs are more than just pets, they are family and they teach you what love really means. A dog doesn't care to judge you on your life, they love you for who you are and I think the most important thing about owning a dog is the lessons you learn. I learned the true meaning of friendship and forged a bond that couldn't be broken. Sadly, like all good things in life they must come to an end. Bailey passed away while I was in middle school and it taught me another really important life lesson, to not take anything for granted. You may have the best life ever, but if you don't appreciate it, it won't matter in the end. So to answer the questions, Bailey has changed my life by teaching me many important life lessons and showing me to love people for who they are.

My favorite scientific discovery is the theory of evolution. Being able to theoretically see where we came from and what our ancestors were like is very interesting. Wrapping your head around the concept of evolution can be very difficult, and this is one of my favorite parts of it. The unknown and controversy around it are what make it my favorite discovery. Many argue that this is not real and we didn't evolve from monkeys, while many argue we did. I personally believe that evolution is real and it took thousands of years for us to develop into Homosapiens. Also, seeing how we share over 90% of DNA with chimps does make for a compelling argument for the theory of evolution. I hope in the future there will be enough evidence so that we can turn the theory of evolution into just evolution. There are so many comparisons to where we have come from, and this is why it will always be fascinating to me!

My leadership experience in my extracurricular activities shines through during my time at Roadrunner Financial Group. We are a student-managed fund where we invest real money into the market. We make difficult decisions and hold multiple meetings a week to discuss our positions and vote on potential new buys or discuss if we wish to sell a position. In order to open new positions, we must hold pitches where we conduct extensive research into a company and look deep into the financials and other areas to see if it matches our criteria on what we look for in a company. When conducting this research, we need someone who knows what they are doing and how to look through a company using different research tools. The most important aspect of our group is not to make the most money, but to teach new students about the market and how to invest. Coming into college many students do not have experience in the market or simply do not know what they want to major in. It is our job to teach these new students important skills about how to manage their money and how the market works. We take it as our responsibility to show these new students what we do and to maybe pique their interest in finance and allow them to find what they are passionate about. We hold various pitches throughout the school year where students have the chance to pitch their ideas to the group and conduct presentations on different companies, they are interested in. This is a difficult process and oftentimes new students have trouble putting together a complete presentation with trustworthy information. Being able to hop on a pitch with a new student and guide them through the process is where my leadership shines through and allows me to show the new students the fundamentals of a good pitch. I manage my time between my classes and my club by scheduling my classes on different days than my club meetings. This allows me to only focus on one of them for a certain day. My work doesn't get mixed up and I am able to be more organized. I always make sure to have my assignments completed before the due date, and I set reminders for when my work is due so I don’t miss any. Being able to operate on a schedule and have a system to complete your assignments allows you to be much more productive. Having good time management is one of the most important skills you can have in college. Being in an extracurricular activity and keeping up your grades for your class is a difficult task, but if you are passionate about what you are learning and are interested in your clubs it shouldn't be a problem. I am a finance major, and I am learning a lot of the same topics in my club as I am in my classes which makes doing both easier. For example, I learned how to read financial statements in my club which greatly helped me when I started my accounting class. This correlation between my extracurriculars and my classes, and my passion for both allow me to excel and maintain my GPA. I received a 4.0 GPA last semester while also getting elected to the Investment Committee at Roadrunner Financial Group. I am able to provide leadership experience in my club and also maintain my GPA by following a schedule and being on top of things.