My name is Jewel Molina. I am of Hispanic-American heritage, live in Tennessee, and graduated high school Summa Cum Laude. I enjoy learning for the sake of learning, hold myself to a high academic standard, am a member of the Honor Society, and earned the AP Scholar’s Award. However, I am most defined by my desire to love others well. I approach everything with a fierce dedication to excellence and determination to serve others with love and compassion. I am passionate about helping people and want them to feel cared about through my actions, big and small. I want the people I interact with to feel seen and heard. In 2023, I earned my Girl Scout Gold Award by creating a soccer PE curriculum, building a kick-back wall, and donating balls, cones, and jerseys for a local K-6 school that serves a student body of diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, reserving 40-50% of enrollment for families at or below the poverty line. My project focused on two things I love: kids and soccer. Soccer has been a huge part of my life. I played for thirteen years, playing on the Varsity team all four years in high school and being named All-District and Team Captain my senior year. I have babysat for several families for five years and volunteered every Sunday for seven years, moving up with a class of children in the Learning Center at Church. To fund my Gold Award Project, I saved the proceeds from cookie sales every season for five years, dedicating $900 to providing soccer supplies and constructing the wall, which involved twenty hours of volunteer labor by friends, family, and a local contractor. My favorite part was the Grand Opening. I spent an entire day at the school, leading every grade level through the introduction lesson I created for the PE Unit. Each grade level had a unique personality and attention span, some were hard to keep on track, some were like sponges soaking up the lesson and others just wanted to be loved. I felt blessed beyond belief by my time with these kids. For most of my life, I thought I would be a school teacher but in my junior year of high school, a friend shared her escalating anxiety due to troubles at home, trusting me with the details of her life. I was always available to listen, and I never judged her. Sometimes, I wouldn’t know how to help; other times, we would work together on solutions. As I listened and talked with her, I was able to help her understand things from a new perspective and give advice. It took a long time and assistance from many others, but she eventually started feeling better. Through this experience, I began to see a different future for myself as a therapist, working with kids on their emotions, not their academics. In college, I will study Psychology to learn how the brain leads us to be who we are and how our experiences shape us. After finishing graduate school, I will work as a Child Therapist to use my passion for serving and loving children, as I walk with them through trauma and challenges. I am seeking scholarships to help bridge the funding gap between my academic awards and the cost of school. My desire to learn, commitment to excellence, and drive to love and serve others means that an investment in my future will be an investment in the lives of others down the road. Thank you for coming alongside me on my journey.

Growing up, whenever someone asked about my future, the answer was simple: I wanted to be a teacher because being around kids has always made me happy. I grew up babysitting and serving in my church’s learning center each Sunday. I love interacting with kids as they ask curious questions and let their imaginations run wild. My future was set: I would be a teacher. However, two experiences during my junior year changed my mind and future path. Junior year in high school was full of stress and lots of schoolwork. All my friends and I could feel the weight and pressure as we worked through challenging assignments. Halfway through the year, one of my friends started acting differently as her anxiety was escalating. I could tell this anxiety wasn’t just from schoolwork or even from the stress of looking toward college and our futures. When I asked her what was happening, she opened up about troubles at home and even confessed that she considered hurting herself to escape her situation. It came to a head one night when she slept over at my house on Saturday night. Things at home had reached a boiling point; my friend was drowning in the guilt, shame, and hopelessness in her heart. That was one of the longest nights of my life, as I stayed awake all night to ensure she was safe. My friend shared with me things I never knew; these were heavy things, like parental substance abuse with emotional abuse and neglect of her and her sibling as a result. I began to understand why the issues at home affected her so profoundly. My friend trusted me with the ugly details of her life. I was there to listen and never judged her, but these were serious issues, and I didn’t know how to help. I am blessed to have a mom I can talk to about hard things. That Sunday morning, I called my mom in to help. My mom listened and asked curious questions about my friend’s situation. My mom treated my friend with loving kindness and compassion that she did not experience in her home. Ultimately, my mom recommended that my friend see a professional therapist to help her understand her feelings and their roots. I continued to walk with my friend as she gained a new understanding of her situation. It took a long time and a lot of work, but she eventually started feeling better; her home life has not changed, but she is better equipped to navigate it. While caring for my friend, my mom shared some of my younger brother’s journey that I had not been aware of because I was so young when he went through it. I knew that he had seen a therapist for years, but I didn’t know why. When my brother entered second grade, he struggled to get through his school days. Several times, he came home from school and told my mom that he would rather be dead than go back to school. Although he did not express any concrete intent to harm himself, my parents did not take my brother’s words lightly; they got him help. My brother was diagnosed with ADHD and began medication to help him focus during the school day. This approach worked well until he reached middle school and began to struggle with obsessive anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. He started an additional medication, as well as a relationship with a therapist, who he has seen for three years. My brother lives in the same loving, supportive home that I do, but he is wired differently and struggles deeply with emotional and mental health. I learned something about myself as I walked through junior year with my friend and learned about my brother’s challenges. I can hold space for those who are hurting. I can listen well and see the heart of another person’s pain. I want to help others understand, accept, and find solutions to their struggles. Just before my senior year of high school, I contemplated my life taking a different path than teaching. I was uncertain about giving up the future I’d imagined for myself since kindergarten, so I researched the options. I spent a day shadowing my fourth-grade teacher in her classroom to understand what a teaching career would look like. Then, I met with my brother’s therapist to hear the good, bad, and ugly of a career as a child therapist. Both paths have pros and cons; I would thrive on both paths. Each of us faces struggles in life; we all encounter difficulties in our relationships, which can change who we are. I want to help people by listening to their stories and finding ways to work through hard things alongside them. I want to impact the lives of others around me by being there for them when they need help. I have decided not to be a teacher but to study psychology and become a therapist. I will work with kids in a different setting than a classroom. I am excited to learn more as I enter college and find new ways to understand mental health challenges and help others walk through them. I am seeking scholarships to help with the cost of an educational path that will include graduate school, an added cost not planned for with a teaching degree. I greatly appreciate your consideration to invest in my future as I look forward to a career helping others.

Growing up, whenever someone asked about my future, the answer was simple: I always wanted to be a teacher because being around kids has always made me happy. I grew up babysitting and serving in my church’s learning center each Sunday. I love interacting with kids as they ask curious questions and let their imaginations run wild. My future path was set: I would be a teacher. However, an experience during my junior year changed my mind. Junior year in high school was full of stress and lots of schoolwork. All my friends and I could feel the weight and pressure as we worked through challenging assignments. Halfway through the year, one of my friends started acting differently as her anxiety was escalating. I could tell this anxiety wasn’t just from schoolwork or even from the stress of looking toward college and our futures. When I asked her what was happening, she slowly opened up about troubles at home. She let me in on things I never knew about; these were heavy things, and I could see why they affected her so profoundly. Eventually, she trusted me with the ugly details of her life. I was always there to listen, and I never judged her. Sometimes, I wouldn’t know how to help; other times, we would work together on solutions. As I listened and talked with her, I was able to help her understand things from a new perspective and give advice. It took a long time and help from many others, but she eventually started feeling better. After this experience, I knew my life would take a different path than teaching. Each of us faces struggles in life; we all encounter difficulties in our relationships, which can change who we are. I want to help people by listening to their stories and finding ways to work through hard things alongside them. I want to impact the lives of others around me by being there for them when they need help. We all need help at times. Seeking mental health should be encouraged, not stigmatized. I have decided not to be a teacher but to study psychology and become a therapist. I still plan to work with kids but in a different setting than a classroom. I am excited to learn more as I enter college and find new ways to understand mental health challenges and help others walk through them.