I have stayed optimistic through tough times by practicing gratitude every day. So often, I am stressed about grades or even social situations, but then I remember somewhere in this world, someone would love to live the life I currently am living. I remember listening to a youtube video in which a cancer survivor talked about how after they managed to get through cancer, they became grateful for the little things and found that a tough time like cancer helped them grow as a person. In tough times practicing gratitude has taught me that tough times are all about perspective. For example, I suffered a nasty concussion my sophomore year in high school swimming. While recovering from the injury, I would get up every day, take a minute and be grateful to God for letting me wake up. Before my concussion, I was rarely appreciative. However, my injury changed my perspective and allowed me to view my injury not as a burden but as an opportunity to heal physically and mentally. Overall, being optimistic through hard times isn't easy but taking a moment every day to appreciate the little things in life is.

The personal finance lesson I find important is investing in your financial education. Financial education is learning where to invest, like in stocks or real estate, and how to have your money work for you. Of course, saving money is essential, but due to inflation and the low-interest rates, it is wiser to find places that will give you a return on your investment. I learned this lesson from family members who are financially free due to their wide variety of assets. For instance, they own a string of laundromats with a low overhead cost and are self-sufficient. They also own a couple of rental homes and use the rent to pay the mortgage and have paid off several rental homes doing this. Finally, when they retire, they plan to retire in one of the rental houses and use the others to supplement their income. One of the main reasons they achieved financial freedom was because they invested in their financial education and spent the time and money learning how to run and own a business. From their success, I learned the essential personal finance lesson: investing in your financial education can lead to prosperity and freedom.

If given $1,000, my first impulse would be to pay some of my college costs, but my college cost is much more than $1,000, and I have already taken out loans to attend. Since I have taken out loans already, I would use the $1,000 to go towards items I need but don’t want to buy using a loan. For instance, I would use the $1,000 to buy a good laptop. Some may argue that I should use the 1,000 dollars to pay some of my college tuition. However, a better investment would be in a laptop because if I buy a more expensive laptop like a Macbook Air M1 13-inch, it will last me all four years of college. The cost for a brand new Macbook Air M1 is 999 dollars which after taxes would be above $1,000, and I would use some of my graduation money to cover the difference. In addition to the price, the brand new base model Macbook Air holds its value, and when I need to sell it for a newer laptop, I would be able to use the money I make on the resell to put towards a new laptop. Moreover, since many professors now assign more work online, having a better laptop would help me be more productive and succeed in college. In conclusion, if I were given $1,000, I would spend it on a Macbook Air M1 13-inch laptop.

The biggest problem facing the world is a lack of financial education. Specifically, many Americans have no idea how the U.S. economy works or even how to invest. For example, many Americans invest in 401k's and blue-chip stocks but never think to look at a company's balance sheet or if they would instead invest in commodities, derivatives, or even businesses outside the stock market. Moreover, with an impending economic crash, Americans trust the Federal Reserve to stop the economy's decline and yet don't even understand the "tools" the Federal Reserve uses to save the economy. Thus this can lead to the American public not being informed enough to hold the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government accountable for their monetary policies because they can't understand them. Additionally, many monetary policies are employed by both political parties to allow the government to continue to borrow and spend prodigious amounts. A way to work on this problem is by utilizing social media and especially tik tok to make short videos explaining the basic terms used in the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. For example, explaining to people that quantitative easing is when a central bank(Federal Reserve) increases the supply of money banks can lend by buying government bonds and securities. Or that when the Federal Reserve is lowering or raising reserve requirements, they determine the amount of cash the banks that the banks can't lend. Through these short videos, I would recommend books like Fed Up by Danielle Dimartino Booth or Central Banking by Joseph Wang. To accompany the books, I would also include snippets of the interviews on youtube and Tik Tok with experts in which they explain a particular aspect of the monetary policy in bite-sized videos. The Tik Tok's would help Americans better understand the economy.

The person from history I admire most is Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was not only a military leader but also a founding father of the United States. Hamilton managed to rise from his hardscrabble background and make it in America with his intellect and skill. At the age of 20, Hamilton was a Lt. Colonel and was General Washington's aide, which was an incredible feat for someone so young. Moreover, I admire his forward thinking in helping create a framework for the first U.S. National Bank. While many argue over if the U.S. having a national bank was good or bad, it did help centralize and regulate the U.S. currency and laid the groundwork for a more robust banking system in the United States. In addition, Hamilton was one of the first Americans to argue for a strong central government and helped construct the democratic system we see today described in the U.S. constitution. Equally important, Alexander Hamilton was a prolific writer. Alexander Hamilton wrote 51 of the 85 essays in the Federalist Papers. His writings allowed us to look into his mind and see his arguments for our current government. Of the many Federalist papers, I like Federalist Number 78 because Hamilton does a great job arguing for the Supreme Court and the effectiveness of a branch that isn't politically elected or could lose their job. But, in my opinion, Hamilton's most significant work was his argument in Federalist Number 70 for a strong independent executive to lead America. Hamilton's arguments helped sway those making the constitution and allowed America to be one of the first democracies to be led by one person and not ruled. Overall, Hamilton's legacy in U.S. history is immeasurable, and we can recognize the impacts his life made on U.S. history to this day.

My favorite book is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I loved this book because I could empathize with Harry when I first read it in middle school. In middle school, from 6th to 7th grade, I didn't have many friends, and so when in the book Harry is shunned by Hogwarts students because they think he entered himself into the tri-wizard tournament, I knew what it was like not to fit in and be lonely as Harry was. My escape from my loneliness was reading. And through reading about Harry eventually becoming celebrated by his school, I hoped I would one day have friends that I could hang out with at school. Harry getting his friends back and becoming popular at the end of the book encouraged me to search and eventually find a group of friends in middle school. Another reason the Goblet of Fire is my favorite book is because it's J.K. Rowling's best story in the Harry Potter series due to all the betrayal and unexpected events. The first time I read the Goblet of Fire, I couldn't put the book down and spent every night for weeks staying up until midnight trying to finish the book. Those late nights with a camping flashlight under my blanket reading so I could find out who would win the tri-wizard tournament or if Harry would get his friends back are some of my favorite reading memories. Those late nights coincidentally also helped me improve my reading speed as my parents would check to ensure I was asleep periodically, and I had to read in short snippets to avoid getting caught. In summary, Goblet of Fire was the book that made me fall in love with reading and helped me through middle school.

When mentoring others, I hope to give them the wisdom and encouragement that my mentors have given me. As an athlete, my best mentors were my coaches. For example, my swim coach, when I was a club swimmer, always believed in the mindset of "Get better, not bitter." One season when I got injured, I remember he pulled me aside and said, "You can become an even better swimmer despite this injury or let this injury destroy your career." I chose the former and went on to get personal best times in my swim events because my coach's words caused me to think about what results I could get if I put in the work. And when my coach in my last season on the team became injured with a hernia, he still would limp into practice to coach us. To this day, I can vividly remember him shuffling out of his car despite his doctor's protest to come and coach us. He showed us that he holds himself to the same high standard that he expects of us. As a mentor, I hope to be like my swim coach and guide those I am mentoring to choose a path that will make them successful in whatever they choose and instill the mantra my coach did into me: "Get better and not bitter." Through this mantra and my mentoring, I want to impact those I mentor to better their lives and use what they learned to guide others to obtain their dreams as they did.

1. I decided to become a dermatologist after I had a skin condition called lichen planus and struggled to find a doctor who could diagnose and treat me. As an African American patient with darker skin, the doctors struggled to identify what my condition was due to a lack of experience with darker skin. I finally got my condition diagnosed and appropriately treated by a minority doctor. So after my experience, I wanted to become a dermatologist to help change the system so that the next African American patient like myself will have doctors who have experience treating them. 2. I will commit myself to diversity in dermatology by mentoring and encouraging young African Americans to pursue a career in the field because of how they can impact their people. I also plan on in the future to become a professor at the University of Oklahoma's medical school in dermatology and influence the education to have doctors work on patients of all ethnicities. As a professor, I hope to encourage dermatology students to gain experience treating all kinds of patients with different skin tones and the importance of equity in medicine. In addition to mentoring, I want to research lichen planus and develop a better treatment for darker skin. Many of the treatments prescribed to me for lichen planus would cause discoloration on darker skin, causing my skin to turn almost yellow or white. My research will hopefully allow darker skin patients to take medicine to address their condition without harming their healthy skin. 3. This scholarship will help me cover my room and board for college at the University of Oklahoma as I work towards a bachelor's degree in biology. Moreover, this scholarship will not only go towards helping me get my bachelors but also help me afford to stay on the path to becoming a dermatologist. College is expensive, and with medical school in the future, this scholarship will allow me to limit the student loans I will have to take out. 4. In 10 years, I want to have graduated from medical school and be in a dermatology residency. As an undergraduate, I want to join the University of Oklahoma's volunteer corp and become a volunteer at the dermatology clinic. I also want to have started a youtube channel or Instagram showing people what my life is like on my path toward becoming a dermatologist and inspire other African Americans to pursue a career in medicine. In addition to my medical goals, I hope to run a marathon with my mom within the next ten years and help her get a Boston Marathon qualifying time. Lastly, I want to have visited and camped in at least ten national parks in the United States. I like camping because it allows me to get away from my phone and technology and enjoy nature and the national parks have some of the best camping spots.

1. I deserve this scholarship because I am an alien and need to explore this human thing called “college.” Since I brought no currency from my home world, I require human currency to enter “college,” I can’t ask my ancestors(parents in human language) for help because they live off-world. Also, scholarships help people learn, and I need to study how to take over this world. 2. My career goals are to become president of the United States. As an alien, I must keep my true identity hidden until I have taken over the world. My academic plan is to double major in political science and psychology. I will major in political science to learn how to manipulate humans to let me take over their government, and major in psychology to learn how to act human. 3. An obstacle I overcame was entering the earth’s atmosphere undetected. I had no idea how many satellites were around this small planet, and my spaceship was almost detected twice. Another obstacle I have faced is learning about human civilization, from currency to light boxes humans call phones and pieces of metal that spew gas and burn a black substance.

A story of how I had to overcome adversity was when I got a concussion in my sophomore year of high school. I am a swimmer, and in my sophomore year, I suffered a concussion while at a scrimmage high school swim meet. During that summer, I trained twice a day, every day except on Sundays, and lifted weights two times a week with my club swim team. That year my club coach and I planned that I would get to the USA Swimming Junior Nationals. However, the concussion derailed my season plans of going to nationals and put my high school season in jeopardy. At the beginning of recovering from my injury and getting back into shape, it was hard to find the motivation to train. Finally, I realized that all of the training over the summer had gone down the drain. The concussion knocked me out of the pool for a month, which in the sport of swimming, is a lifetime. As I began the recovery process of light exercise on land, I became unmotivated as I saw my swim teammates going to meets and setting personal records. I started swimming with my club swim team and my high school team for 1-hour practices as time went on. I was so out of shape that on my club team, I swam in a lane with 12-year-olds who were not only going faster than me but were lapping me. I remember waking up at 4:45 AM and dragging myself out of bed while wondering, “Is this even worth it?”. Yet, through the help of my club swim coach and goal setting, I began to learn how to enjoy training again. My swim coach told me, “You can either let this injury destroy your swim career or make it.” Encouraged, I started setting simple goals and progressively made the goals harder. I did this consistently for two months and barely saw any progress, and while I was getting stronger, I was still nowhere near the shape I was in at the beginning of the year. However, during those two months, I learned who I truly was. I realized that I could overcome setbacks. Moreover, I had to be honest with myself and give 100 percent every day to accomplish my goals. In addition, I began to journal my thoughts and feelings, which allowed me to grow both mentally and spiritually. The work I put in paid off as I not only managed to make my high school state swim team, but I also placed 8th at Oklahoma State in the 100-yard butterfly with a personal record. Not only did I do well at the state swim meet, but I qualified for my club’s sectional team and had the opportunity to represent my state at the USA Swimming Sectional Swim Meet. In the end, I learned how to be patient, and the benefits of showing up every day will produce results over time. I hope to impact the African American community in Oklahoma by volunteering as a swim instructor. As an African American swimmer, I saw very few swimmers that looked like me at swim meets. I hope to change that and encourage more African Americans to join the sport. Thus I plan to create a program that teaches African Americans and other minorities from impoverished areas of Oklahoma how to swim and encourages them to join swim clubs. I plan on recruiting the clubs in my area of Edmond, Oklahoma, to send swimmers in those clubs to volunteer as coaches.

Hello, my name is Jayden Thomas, and I will be majoring in Biology/Pre-med at the University of Oklahoma. I am the oldest child in a family of five. I have a younger brother and sister whom I love dearly. Also, I am a dog lover and own two golden doodles named Appa and Jaeger. Equally, I am an avid reader and love to read about history, economics, and foreign policy. I am currently reading “Forgotten Ally” by Rana Mitter. The book talks about China’s little-known contributions to the allied war effort in World War 2. Moreover, in my spare time, I listen to podcasts. I prefer podcasts to music because podcasts allow me to listen to experts on any subject I find interesting. One of my favorite podcasts is “The Rest is History” by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. I enjoy the podcast because there are episode series that focus on specific topics in history. For example, the podcast recently did a four-part series explaining the complex history between Russia and Ukraine. Along with being a high school student at Edmond Sante Fe, I am a competitive swimmer at American Energy Swim Club and specialize in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly. As a student-athlete, I have learned time management which I will use in college. In addition to swimming, I volunteer in my community as an assistant soccer coach in a program called Top Soccer. Every Sunday, the program teaches soccer to children with special needs in Edmond, Oklahoma. My dream is to become a dermatologist, to help others who suffer from skin diseases as I do. I suffer from a rare skin condition called lichen planus. Lichen planus is a type of autoimmune disease which causes hyperpigmentation on the skin. I visited multiple doctors and dermatologists, receiving different diagnoses. The misdiagnoses led to numerous medications and treatments, which failed to work. My confidence in my body disappeared as the condition spread, and I stopped wearing short sleeve shirts or shorts in public. Eventually, I found a dermatologist who recommended getting a biopsy, and the results diagnosed my condition as lichen planus. While lichen planus is an incurable disease, it can be controlled with the proper treatment. My experience searching for a diagnosis was the motivating factor in pursuing a career in medicine. And through research, I found that my experience trying to obtain a diagnosis is not uncommon for minorities. According to the article “What ‘Skin of Color Dermatology’ Is Doing to Make Health Care More Inclusive” by Shivani Majmudar, roughly 15% of all images in common medical student resources represented the skin color of minorities. This lack of representation of minority skin images medical students learn from will lead to future dermatologists and doctors who don’t have the training to deal with medical issues on minority skin. Moreover, the article explains how only 3% of dermatologists are African American, which can lead to misdiagnoses and a shortage of dermatologists who have experience with darker skin. I hope to impact the medical world by becoming a dermatologist who advances research in minority skin conditions and teaches future doctors. This scholarship will assist me in attending the University of Oklahoma as a student majoring in Biology/Pre-med and putting me on the path to becoming a doctor. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Hello, my name is Jayden Thomas, and I will be majoring in Biology/Pre-med at the University of Oklahoma. I am an avid reader and my favorite topic to read about is history. The current book I am reading is “Forgotten Ally” by Rana Mitter. I am enjoying reading this book because it explains the reasoning behind China’s grievances against Western Nations, which started in World War 2. I also love listening to history podcasts. My favorite podcast is “The Rest is History” by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. I enjoy the podcast because the historians have an episode series that focuses on specific topics in history. For example, they recently did a four-part series explaining the complex history between Russia and Ukraine. I am also a competitive swimmer at American Energy Swim Club and specialize in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly. In addition, I volunteer as an assistant soccer coach in a program called Top Soccer which teaches soccer to children with special needs every Sunday. I received a partial scholarship to the University of Oklahoma, which means my family and I will have to cover the remaining amount. I don’t want to take out student loans to pay the remaining cost. This reluctance to take out student loans stems from seeing my parents still paying back their student loans decades after graduating college. I plan to apply and hopefully win as many scholarships as possible. Along with applying for external scholarships, I plan to apply for the many internal scholarships offered to students at the University of Oklahoma when I am a student. In addition to applying for scholarships, I will pursue internships and tutoring while in college. I hope to intern in the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Department. As an African American, I feel interning in the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Department will allow me to make some money on the side and help others like myself succeed in college. Also, I hope to tutor fellow students at OU and use the extra money I make to pay off some of my college fees. Moreover, my parents are willing to help me cover some of the cost of college, which will lower the amount of debt I will take on to obtain my degree. Lastly, if I have to take out student loans, I will try to get subsidized loans to minimize the interest I will have to pay.

My educational goals are to get an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Oklahoma. Then I plan on attending medical school and becoming a dermatologist. I want to become a dermatologist that specializes in treating minority skin because I have suffered from a skin condition called lichen planus and had to search for a dermatologist who had experience with African American skin. The obstacle that contributed to my character development and was a difficult experience was a concussion I experienced my sophomore year. I am a swimmer and my sophomore year, I suffered a concussion while at a scrimmage high school swim meet. During that summer I had been training twice a day every day except on Sundays and had been lifting weights two times a week with my club swim team. That year my club coach and I planned that I would get to the USA Swimming Junior Nationals. However, the concussion derailed my season plans of going to nationals and put my high school season in jeopardy. At the beginning of recovering from my concussion and getting back into shape, it was hard to find the motivation to train. I realized that all of the training over the summer had gone down the drain. The concussion knocked me out of the pool for a total of a month but in the sport of swimming that is a lifetime. As I began the recovery process of light exercise on land I became unmotivated as I saw my swim teammates going to meets and setting personal records. As time went on I began swimming with my club swim team and my high school team for 1-hour practices. I was so out of shape that on my club team I swam in a lane with 12-year olds who were not only going faster than me but were lapping me. I remember waking up at 4:45 AM and dragging myself out of bed while wondering “Is this even worth it?”. Yet, through the help of my club swim coach and goal setting, I began to learn how to enjoy training again. My swim coach told me “You can either let this injury destroy your swim career or make it”. Encouraged, I started with setting simple goals and progressively made the goals harder. I did this consistently for 2 months and barely saw any progress and while I was getting stronger I was still nowhere near the shape I was in at the beginning of the year. Those two months I learned who I truly was. I learned that I could overcome setbacks. Moreover, I had to be honest with myself and give 100 percent every day in order to accomplish my goals. In addition, I began to journal my thoughts and feelings which allowed me to grow both mentally and spiritually. The work I put in paid off as I not only managed to make my high school state swim team, I also placed 8th at Oklahoma State in the 100-yard butterfly with a personal record. Not only did I do well at the state swim meet, but I qualified for my club’s sectional team and had the opportunity to represent my state at the USA Swimming Sectional Swim Meet. In the end, I learned how to be patient and the benefits of showing up every day will produce results over time.

The most inspiring book I ever read was called "Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War". The author Linda Hervieux details in her book the story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion an all-African American Unit. As a history buff of the Second World War, I was surprised at how little I knew about the true African American experience during the Second World War. For instance, Henry Parham and Wilson Monk two soldiers who had traveled to England to journey to D-Day described how in England they were able to go to bars and were treated kindly by the English. While in America they couldn't go into bars or go to the different G.I. clubs that their white counterparts did. What story hurt and inspired me the most was how the men described an African American officer who was beaten to a pulp by a white enlisted man and that man was never charged. Reading through those men's struggles of Jim Crow, I was moved at the patriotism they still felt for their country. It seemed one page talked about the men having to give up their seats on the Army buses to white men below their rank and then on the next page the men talked about their excitement to go off to D-Day to give Europe the freedom they hadn't yet experienced. In the end, I was inspired by the determination of those African American soldiers of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion to fight for equality both on the battlefield and off of it.