In the four years of high school one specific passion that has shaped who I am today is volunteering. I have become who I am today by constantly giving and serving others. Through volunteering I have been able to learn how to organize effectively, be better at time management, and finally learn how to make quick decisions that will help the community as a whole. My first major involvement that I am most proud of is my Toy’s campaign. This project's purpose was to organize and collect toys for children with cancer. I did this because when I was six years old I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a tumor that grew on the side of my neck. Yet, God willing and his great mercy I was able to survive. I remember distinctly how I would be given a toy and for a moment I was not a patient but still a child. I wanted to give that same feeling to others. It was really a struggle to organize all of this. The worst and most anxiety inducing part was having to speak in front of my whole school about a sensitive topic. The night before I practiced what I was going to say over and over. I learned not to be afraid of public speaking even if it was an embarrassing topic. Then came the posters and the social media campaign. In all of this I was able to collect seventy eight toys for children with cancer. We drove to St. Joseph’s Children Hospital and gave the toys personally to them, seeing those smiles influenced my sense of purpose to knowing that giving will always be an attribute and act that I enjoy. It also made me realize that taking initiative isn’t as hard as it seems and that the hardest step is just taking the first step. The second example of volunteering that has changed my life has been tutoring. For over two years and a half I tutored students and classmates in algebra. It started out with me coming to school early because of the bus. One day teachers asked if a couple of students could help their kids learn and practice Algebra better. The first day I came there and there was no one there. I came the second day and there was just one person, Andrew I worked with Andrew for the better part of three months and soon others started to come. Through tutoring I was able to learn what teachers miss and how I could improve on that. I used to spend hours at night just thinking about how I could explain a certain concept better or through an analogy just so that they could understand. A year later it turned into me taking half an hour every three days a week to help ESOL kids, students who speak spanish mainly and have trouble speaking english. Tutoring was already difficult, however I learned to speak mathematics in Spanish just so I could see them enjoy math better in addition to getting a better grade. This taught me that through dedication and hard work I can have a real impact on another persons life. Ultimately, volunteering has been a passion that has changed my sense of purpose and character over time. I don’t do it for the community hours or the scholarships but rather I do it because it gives me joy. I enjoy giving back to the community may it be through a smile or tutoring.

The role that faith has played in my life can be described as frustrating, meritful, and all together a leap. When I was six years old I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. A tumor that was growing on the side of my neck. You can imagine how that looked to my father and my family. Immediately I was hospitalized and had to have surgery. I was knocking on death’s door but through much prayer and faith I survived. However the cancer's side effects lasted much more than just health wise. I had essentially missed all of Kindergarten. I fortunately was able to not be held back because I did not want to be separated from my twin brother. A quarter in it was clear that I was behind. I could not say my ABC’s and addition was brand new. I already had three tutors around me. One assigned from the school, so no recess. One assigned from my father, so no playing outside. And lastly my older sister who helped me with the rest. Yet, I remember one day my father gave me a book. It was just five pages long. I read it easily. Then he gave me a ten page book. I took gleefully and read it quickly. Then fifteen, then twenty and so on. This constant repetition led me to start reading books on an eighth grade level in First Grade. I read and read. My curiosity for knowledge was unquenchable, I felt the compulsion to satisfy that thirst. This continued even to this day. Today I graduated from High School with top marks in my class. I was the only one ever at Lake Wales Senior High School to graduate with my High School Diploma, my Associates degree, and my International Baccalaureate Diploma. To do this I had to manage ten classes per semester, taking online classes from a community college while attending even more difficult classes such as physics and philosophy. I did all of this while also doing a sport. But what kept me at peace and calm was my faith in Christ and God. Reading my bible or praying on the bus allowed me to just stop and be myself. I would take a leap of faith each day hoping that I was doing the will of God rather than mine. Because God took faith in me and saved my life from cancer I was able to constantly challenge myself educationally and hope to continue to do so at the University of Central Florida. Moreover, I continue to put faith in God as he put faith in me first. Ultimately, the person that has pushed me to pursue a higher education has been my father. At every step of the way he has always made sure that I don’t get comfortable or in a safe place. In addition my father who is a pastor constantly reminds me to have a balance and have faith in God. My father is the one that pushed me to take ten classes and though it was painful and ended in many sleepless nights the results were rewarding and gratifying. Furthermore, everyday I decide to take a leap of faith. Though I may not entirely understand God or his ways I take a leap of faith anyway as I know that God put love and faith in me first. Faith is belief in what can not be seen. I put faith in God and the future. Amen.

Fun fact: chemotherapy isn't cheap; it hit me like a bat. It hit all of us like a bat. In 2013 to 2014, my family went through one of the worst financial times, with still feeling the effects to this day. My mother, with her disruptive Schizophrenia, and I were diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We had just moved from Miami a few months earlier with a new mortgage and all the stress that could be imagined. My father is a financial advisor, specifically working with credit repair, and my grandfather was an accountant. Yet it was ironic that we could not hold our own money-wise. However, it didn’t matter. We stood together, hoping in God and continuing to move forward.  Even though my parents do not say anything, I can tell when they are stressed about money. The late nights deciding which debt to pay. My father is praying to get more clients, and my mother is praying for more hours at Walgreens. Because of all this, my father decided to teach his four children about financial education early on, placing the future and spark in us. Every so often, we will be in the car driving somewhere, and we have a talk. “Papi, what is a credit card?” “What are stocks?” Moreover, I took it upon myself to read books on Financial Literacy or by Dave Ramsey. Now, as an eighteen-year-old, I feel appreciative to understand the basics of financials in addition to being confident to make a budget, how much to save, and invest. With this knowledge, I plan to better my future by having the goal of being financially stable and having the ability to help out my parents. They have invested a lot of money into me, so it is only fair that I should do the same for them.  I plan to major in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida. I plan to join multiple robotics clubs, specifically in spacecraft engineering, in hopes of one day working for NASA. The true goal is to start up my own engineering company that focuses on creating better, more efficient aviation engines. Engineering will serve as an occupation that receives large amounts of active income. With my financial education, I now have the responsibility to know how much I should spend or save. Furthermore, I will be able to have an active income as well as a passive income. This will be done through the investment of carefully chosen stocks, so that I am not economically dependent on one source of income.  Even today, as I transition from a high school student to a university student, I use my financial education to help save money. Instead of eating out every day, by cooking or meal prepping, I can save just a little bit. Nor do I have to spend money on the newest, best clothes. Those little tricks help to better my future through the application of what I have learned.  Ultimately, my personal experiences with finances lie in living in a low-income immigrant family that suffers through harsh poverty resulting from poor conditions. My personal experiences with financial education as a whole stem from my father, as a financial advisor, teaching me the importance of financial basics and how it is a double-edged sword; poor responsibility leads to a poor future, and good money choices result in a better future. I plan to use my personal experiences and financial knowledge to better my future by applying simple concepts such as budgeting and investing to have a confident, less stressful life.

Fun fact: chemotherapy isn’t enjoyable. It hit me like a bat. In 2013, months after moving from Miami to a small central Florida city, I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. This cancer grew in a lymph node of my neck, leaving me in and out of St. Joseph’s Children Hospital for over a year. Now, I can say proudly that I am twelve years cancer-free. Moreover, I can say without a doubt that going through the experience of cancer may have been the best thing that has happened to my family and me.  The first way that I grew from cancer was my education. After missing what was essentially all of kindergarten, I was behind my peers and classmates knowledge-wise. My father, observing this, gave me a book to read. It was only five pages long. The next book was ten pages. The next fifteen and so forth. By the end of the year, I was ahead of everyone in my class in reading, writing, and even mathematics. To this day, I take the same approach to education. Constantly being curious and having an unquenchable thirst for knowledge all arose from the setback that was cancer. In the present, I took high school as a challenge, just like first grade, and graduated with my Associate's degree and International Baccalaureate Diploma, ranking in the top 20% of my class. Though I was set back in my education, I was able to nurture my ambition and learn that nothing ever comes easy, that I must claim my education. This would never have happened if I were just a child who followed along; I had a conviction. Another way that cancer has affected my family and me is our financial situation. To this day, our financial struggle has been apparent. One can only imagine the stress of having to pay for their child's medicine while paying a new mortgage and supporting a family. However, it taught the family how to be humble and kind to others. I learned that we do not need extravagant materials or the best clothes each month. I learned early on that money is not of much importance. To put my faith in God, and in each situation, He always provides. This trait of hospitality and humility has transformed in me the compulsion to give. In my high school years, in honor of all that supported me, I organized a toy drive for children with cancer, all donated to the same hospital that took care of me. I called it toys for joy as I wanted to see joy in the faces of the children when they received a toy, the same way that I did so long ago. In the end, we were able to collect seventy-eight toys. It was a pleasure to give each one to a child who was in their place, and I comforted them, telling them that it would pass. Looking back, I would have never had the opportunity to share that joy without cancer. I was able to stay humble and constantly give back to others as they did to me so long ago.  Ultimately, both my family and I have been affected by cancer. We struggled financially, even to this day. The amount of stress that was also accumulated at the time can only be imagined. Having said that, cancer transformed me in so many ways. I learned to be ambitious, seizing my education, curiosity, and intellect. Additionally, learning to be charitable and humble, acknowledging that I only have one life.

When I was six years old my father sat us four children down. He told us to go to our bibles and read Acts 20:35. It states “It is better to give than receive”. The act of giving has been a staple trait and characteristic in my family. My father taught me early on that in that verse it is not only about giving money or physical resources but emotions. Maybe I don’t have money but I can still give company or joy to others. Ultimately, I have dedicated myself to a life of service in multiple different forms and ways in my community, state, and globally. One way that I have embodied a life of service is my consistency in volunteering. In 2023 my grandfather passed away. In his honor the Moya family started a non-profit organization in his name to give back to his country, the Dominican Republic. Through the assistance of family, friends, and the church we have been able to give more than 1,000 pieces of clothes, bags of rice, and other resources. To this day we still spend hours upon hours per month folding clothes, taping cans of beans, and putting in diapers for people in a third world country whose conditions of living are much more mediocre. Not only do we send resources but we personally go to the island itself and deliver it to villages. Villages where there are no street lights or technology. There are no hospitals miles away. Once my father bought a hershey bar for the children in the village. None of them even knew what it was, they had never eaten a piece of chocolate before. When asked what they eat they pointed towards the east, the rice fields and then to the west the sugar cane fields. I plan to continue my service for these villagers as it is better to give than receive. Helping them has given me humility in what I have and the mindset change that should be transformed. Additionally, I embody a life of service through direct service to others. In 2013 I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a cancer that hit me and my family as a whole. God willing I was able to survive and then thirteen years later I decided to make a decision. I started a program called Toys for Joy at my school wanting to go back to the same hospital that treated me and give them toys. After the support of two weeks I was able to raise seventy eight toys for the children and hand deliver them to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa. It was such a pleasure to see the joy and smiles in the children, all the work and effort was reaped significantly. Lastly, in my school I have tutored Spanish speaking students for more than three years, teaching them complex subjects such as trigonometry and algebra. I plan to major in medicine at the University of Central Florida in the fall. By getting a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences and attending medical school I plan to be an emergency medical doctor. My extensive education would result in the saving lives of others as people did for me so long ago. Serving others brings me joy and purpose as nothing is better than seeing the smiles on a person's face. I saw a smile when I gave a bag to an impoverished person in the third world. I saw a smile on a child’s face even in pain, and I hope to see a smile for people on perhaps their worst day.

A fun fact about me that I believe you should know is that I have an identical twin brother. Hello, my name is Jonathan Moya, and I attend Lake Wales Senior High, a small school in central Florida. My interests include reading, running (where I participate in track and field), and charitable volunteering. One club that I participate in is the National Honor Society, a club that prioritizes spending time volunteering. An example of this is tutoring. I tutor Spanish-speaking students every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Another organization that I am a part of is Peer Forward. As Vice Captain of our Peer Leaders, we assist students in progressing through their high school journey and help them maximize their time, including college applications, financial aid, and studying tips. Two major charity projects that have exemplified community involvement are the Dominican Relief Mission and Toys for Joy. The Dominican Relief Mission is one that I have been doing for three years. Similar to Mrs. Hill, I was influenced by my fellow grandparents, specifically my grandfather. My grandfather, Douglass, would always serve his community, a staple trait in the Moya family. He was an accountant for a water company and would give clean, drinkable water to villages that had dirty rivers. Hence, after he passed away my father wanted to obey the verse “Honor your father and your mother” Exodus 20:12. Therefore, the family and I gather resources from church and friends that have amounted to more than a thousand clothes, hundreds of rice and bean bags, to poverty stricken villages in the third world country, the birthplace of my grandfather, Dominican Republic. The second major volunteer project that I completed was Toys for Joy. This was a service project that was dedicated to gathering new toys for children with cancer at St. Joseph’s Children's Hospital. I started this project from the personal connection of when I had cancer, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I remember distinctly when I would get toys, and I felt like a child again rather than a patient. I wanted to recreate the same feeling for other children. Over the course of two weeks, we collected 78 toys. Then we went personally to St. Joseph’s Children Hospital and gave the toys to children, uplifting their frowns. In all of this volunteering and charity, I would want to start a charity with this mission: to take actionable, effective altruism to third-world, poverty-stricken countries. I would be continuing my grandfather's legacy of serving others through collecting resources such as used clothes, canned foods, and other necessities. Volunteers would have the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic and see the reality that is the third world, and its brutality. Volunteers would go to the people firsthand and hand out rationed bags. For me, it is also imperative to have a Christian basis on this volunteering, there of course would be a prayer said for these people. People of the third world have none of the privileges that we Americans have. Once my father was at one of these missions and gave a Hershey’s to a child, a candy that is common in almost every store. They do not even know what it was; they have never even eaten chocolate. I would like to give that same feeling to those villages.

Throughout my life diabetes has shaped my life more than I have even realized. Diabetes has been passed down through my Great Grandfather Francisco, then my Grandmother, and even my father. I was fortunate to not receive it. However that is not to say I have not been affected about it. Seeing my father every morning going to a glucometer to check his sugar has pained. Many adults have the benefit of having experience in life. But one of the benefits of being young is able to see the past and learn from it. I realized that I have a high chance of developing diabetes as it runs in my family frequently diagnosed late. I took a look at myself, I was fourteen, four feet eleven inches, and already 150lbs. My father and I had a conversation that I did not enjoy. He was worried for me. Diabetes had already taken the life of my Grandfather on my mothers side two months after I was born. I needed to start getting in physical shape. I started to run. Just one lap a day. Then two. Suddenly I got up to a mile. I fabricated this habit of exercising and it led me to participate in cross country and track when I got into high school. I have loved it. Without that impact from diabetes to get physically better I would have never learned to have self discipline and love for the body that I have been given. Diabetes has also impacted my future in how I go about life. Every single person only has try, one life. Seeing how Diabetes has impacted the previous generation in my family I decided that I will not waste my days. Who knows? I might die tomorrow or get diagnosed with diabetes much later in my life. But now in my I have the autonomy and freedom to chose wisely what decisions that I am going to make. Additionally, another impact that diabetes has had on my life is an emotional one. Sometimes my father would go through this emotional rollercoaster and it was not until I was much older that I understood why. I had also heard rumors of my Great Grandfather having anger problems and being prone to violence. Hence, I decided to take action. I was to treat my father with more kindness, be more understanding, and make sure that the rollercoaster ended here. Ultimately, diabetes has had a significant impact on my future whilst also shaping who I am today. I was impacted by viewing the path that my family with diabetes made earlier and being wise with that history. I learned self discipline in physical activity and centering myself emotionally.