This scholarship will help me pursue my educational goals in many ways. I cannot work full time since I am in school full time and need to go to campus two days a week, so I do not make as much money as I can to save for school. I know everyone says school comes first and work comes second, but I need to work to continue going to school. I am very blessed to have the job that I have where they can be flexible with me and work with my school schedule, but I do get discouraged sometimes. This scholarship will help me with my spring, summer and fall tuition for next year. It would be a huge weight off my shoulders to know that I can 100% put school as my top priority. This semester was my first semester at USF and can I just say I loved it. This school offers so many opportunities to expand my knowledge of what I wanna do. I even applied for a hospitality minor that I did not even know existed there until one of my professors encouraged me to take that extra step and fill my brain with even more knowledge. This scholarship will allow me to add more courses to my schedule so I can graduate with my Bachelor's in Integrated Public Relations and Advertising and a Minor in Hospitality Management. I am a junior and expected to graduate in 2025. I need an internship to graduate and I want it to be something I am passionate about. Most internships require you to go to them a few days a week. I want to be able to find the right internship for me; one that really reflects what I want to do after college, be a wedding/event planner. I do not just want to find one so I can meet the graduation requirement or one that does not interfere with my work schedule. This scholarship will give me time to find an internship that will hopefully be able to give me some on hands experience in the professional event/wedding planning world. I already earned my Associate's in Arts degree last December, but I want to further my education. I always knew I wanted to take the next step and learn even more. This scholarship will help me further my education so I can reach my highest potential and stand out in the professional world.

I have been a part of my Pentecostal church, Victorious Church of God in Christ, since I was three years old. When I was younger, when I would go to church the only things that stuck with me and that I understood were taught in Sunday school. As I got older, I was faced with more responsibility to be more involved with the church. Being involved was not just about going to church on Sundays, it was about expanding my knowledge and being a part of every event I could. Youth conventions, prayer conferences, bible bowls, vacation bible school, and many other events are brought to our attention in the church. Everyone in the church is encouraged to attend these events and advise others in our community to as well. A lot of people in the community near the church have big families and are not able to make it to church. Being a long-time member of the church, I am always eager to share information about what's going on and how anyone can be a part of our family. I have promoted our VBS program each summer to the community. It gives those parents with big families a chance to get their kids involved in the church and also take a load off their backs during the day. During the holiday season, there are lots of people in the community who are not as fortunate as others to provide their family or themselves with a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Once a month at the church we have a mobile food pantry come to our church and distribute free food and groceries to the community. Other members of the church and I were advised of the dates and then spread this information around the community. This continues to warm my heart because of the relief and happiness of the people coming to collect food. They are so grateful and the fact that we have the means to do this each month is amazing because they will always have someone to go to. During Christmas, people are working overtime to be able to put gifts under the tree for their children. In December, Me and my family, as well as other members of the church, buy toys and donate them to children of the community around us. This is something I'm extremely passionate about because seeing that huge smile on a child's face is so heartwarming. Encouraging everyone in the church to participate, even if it's just one toy each, makes all the difference. Each year the amount of toys grows, exceeding our expectations. Being involved in my church has helped my community out tremendously and I am continuing to come up with more ideas to help the people around us. My church is open to anyone coming in and being a part of our family. We are open to helping anyone, regardless of if they are involved in the church. Everyone has a story we don't know about. God loves everyone and encourages us to do the same. Helping out the people around me, regardless of whether I know them or not, has become a part of my values because of my church and I am forever grateful for that.

I have been a part of my Pentecostal church, Victorious Church of God in Christ, since I was three years old. When I was younger, when I would go to church the only things that stuck with me and that I understood were taught in Sunday school. As I got older, I was faced with more responsibility to be more involved with the church. Being involved was not just about going to church on Sundays, it was about expanding my knowledge and being a part of every event I could. Youth conventions, prayer conferences, bible bowls, vacation bible school, and many other events are brought to our attention in the church. Everyone in the church is encouraged to attend these events and advise others in our community to as well. A lot of people in the community near the church have big families and are not able to make it to church. Being a long-time member of the church, I am always eager to share information about what's going on and how anyone can be a part of our family. I have promoted our VBS program each summer to the community. It gives those parents with big families a chance to get their kids involved in the church and also take a load off their backs during the day. During the holiday season, there are lots of people in the community who are not as fortunate as others to provide their family or themselves with a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Once a month at the church we have a mobile food pantry come to our church and distribute free food and groceries to the community. Other members of the church and I were advised of the dates and then spread this information around the community. This continues to warm my heart because of the relief and happiness of the people coming to collect food. They are so grateful and the fact that we have the means to do this each month is amazing because they will always have someone to go to. During Christmas, people are working overtime to be able to put gifts under the tree for their children. In December, Me and my family, as well as other members of the church, buy toys and donate them to children of the community around us. This is something I'm extremely passionate about because seeing that huge smile on a child's face is so heartwarming. Encouraging everyone in the church to participate, even if it's just one toy each, makes all the difference. Each year the amount of toys grows, exceeding our expectations. Being involved in my church has helped my community out tremendously and I am continuing to come up with more ideas to help the people around us. My church is open to anyone coming in and being a part of our family. We are open to helping anyone, regardless of if they are involved in the church. Everyone has a story we don't know about. God loves everyone and encourages us to do the same. Helping out the people around me, regardless of whether I know them or not, has become a part of my values because of my church and I am forever grateful for that.

I have been a part of my Pentecostal church, Victorious Church of God in Christ, since I was three years old. When I was younger, when I would go to church the only things that stuck with me and that I understood were taught in Sunday school. As I got older, I was faced with more responsibility to be more involved with the church. Being involved was not just about going to church on Sundays, it was about expanding my knowledge and being a part of every event I could. Youth conventions, prayer conferences, bible bowls, vacation bible school, and many other events are brought to our attention in the church. Everyone in the church is encouraged to attend these events and advise others in our community to as well. A lot of people in the community near the church have big families and are not able to make it to church. Being a long-time member of the church, I am always eager to share information about what's going on and how anyone can be a part of our family. I have promoted our VBS program each summer to the community. It gives those parents with big families a chance to get their kids involved in the church and also take a load off their backs during the day. During the holiday season, there are lots of people in the community who are not as fortunate as others to provide their family or themselves with a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Once a month at the church we have a mobile food pantry come to our church and distribute free food and groceries to the community. Other members of the church and I were advised of the dates and then spread this information around the community. This continues to warm my heart because of the relief and happiness of the people coming to collect food. They are so grateful and the fact that we have the means to do this each month is amazing because they will always have someone to go to. During Christmas, people are working overtime to be able to put gifts under the tree for their children. In December, Me and my family, as well as other members of the church, buy toys and donate them to children of the community around us. This is something I'm extremely passionate about because seeing that huge smile on a child's face is so heartwarming. Encouraging everyone in the church to participate, even if it's just one toy each, makes all the difference. Each year the amount of toys grows, exceeding our expectations. Being involved in my church has helped my community out tremendously and I am continuing to come up with more ideas to help the people around us. My church is open to anyone coming in and being a part of our family. We are open to helping anyone, regardless of if they are involved in the church. Everyone has a story we don't know about. God loves everyone and encourages us to do the same. Helping out the people around me, regardless of whether I know them or not, has become a part of my values because of my church and I am forever grateful for that.

High school was a scary and exciting time for me. I loved my classes, friends, and teachers. What I was constantly worrying about though, was my future. My parents had always told me that after high school, I needed to do one of two things: go to college or get a full-time job. My parents really wanted me to go to college and so did I, so when I finally figured out what I wanted to do in life, my worries disappeared. Senior year of high school, I realized that my dream job was to be a wedding planner. From the first time I watched Four Weddings when I was in middle school, my eyes were opened to the world of weddings. Seeing how each bride had her own style and vision for her wedding made me want to be a part of that process. I began to do my research on the career and the steps needed to acquire the job. While doing my research, I saw that almost every source online said that a degree is not required. I still knew that I wanted to get a bachelor’s degree no matter what, so I researched which degrees are best to pursue for event planning. Getting a bachelor’s degree in business, public relations, marketing, or hospitality management is beneficial and provides a helpful foundation for a career as a wedding planner. Based on this information, I decided to choose a major that I felt would help me in weddings and events but also in any other career if I decided to switch it up. I landed on integrated public relations and advertising, where I am now studying at the University of South Florida. I am currently a junior and am set to graduate in the spring of 2025, so I am on track to achieve my academic goals. For any job coming out of college they like you to have experience. I always like to be prepared and one of the major factors that made me even more sure of what I wanted to do was one of my old coaches, Alexis. She graduated from Saint Leo in 2022 with a degree in marketing and launched her own event planning business. What started out with a text from me saying how much I admired what she was doing turned into her offering me a job for her company. I currently work for her as a day-of wedding assistant, and I love every minute of it. To be able to help create a perfect and timeless wedding for every bride is something I’ll forever be joyed by. While working with Alexis, I have gained so much experience. With each event, she allows me to take the reins on different aspects of the wedding. I am so grateful that I can pursue my educational goals of getting my degree, all while working on pursuing my professional goals of becoming a wedding planner.

I have been a part of my Pentecostal church, Victorious Church of God in Christ, since I was three years old. When I was younger, when I would go to church the only things that stuck with me and that I understood were taught in Sunday school. As I got older, I was faced with more responsibility to be more involved with the church. Being involved was not just about going to church on Sundays, it was about expanding my knowledge and being a part of every event I could. Youth conventions, prayer conferences, bible bowls, vacation bible school, and many other events are brought to our attention in the church. Everyone in the church is encouraged to attend these events and advise others in our community to as well. A lot of people in the community near the church have big families and are not able to make it to church. Being a long-time member of the church, I am always eager to share information about what's going on and how anyone can be a part of our family. I have promoted our VBS program each summer to the community. It gives those parents with big families a chance to get their kids involved in the church and also take a load off their backs during the day. During the holiday season, there are lots of people in the community who are not as fortunate as others to provide their family or themselves with a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Once a month at the church we have a mobile food pantry come to our church and distribute free food and groceries to the community. Other members of the church and I were advised of the dates and then spread this information around the community. This continues to warm my heart because of the relief and happiness of the people coming to collect food. They are so grateful and the fact that we have the means to do this each month is amazing because they will always have someone to go to. During Christmas, people are working overtime to be able to put gifts under the tree for their children. In December, Me and my family, as well as other members of the church, buy toys and donate them to children of the community around us. This is something I'm extremely passionate about because seeing that huge smile on a child's face is so heartwarming. Encouraging everyone in the church to participate, even if it's just one toy each, makes all the difference. Each year the amount of toys grows, exceeding our expectations. Being involved in my church has helped my community out tremendously and I am continuing to come up with more ideas to help the people around us. Helping out the people around me, regardless of whether I know them or not, has become a part of my values because of my church and I am forever grateful for that.

Success to me is never giving up. In Elementary School when the math got difficult for me in Fourth grade, I was failing. It was the worst feeling in the world, and I felt like there was nothing I or anyone else could do to fix it. My parents signed me up for tutoring and I was terrified. I was worried that the tutors would think I was dense and that they would look down on me. That was the opposite of what happened, and they showed me that I was not alone. The tutors were so welcoming and never made me feel unintelligent. I enjoyed going and I ended up meeting others my age who were struggling with the same things I was. After time in tutoring, I was successful enough to end up with an E, which is an A in elementary terms. I went from failing to succeeding and a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I then knew that this could happen to anyone. From that moment on I told myself if I can recognize the problem and take steps to fix it, I am succeeding, and I am not a failure. Success to me is also about having a career that makes me happy. Going back to being worried about the future, the career part is what worried me the most. Freshman year of high school a lot of the people I knew had a plan for their life. They knew what they wanted to do for a career, where they wanted to go to college to study, and that they were going to be financially successful from it. All the jobs that were deemed to be financially successful were of no interest to me and did not have me exited for the future. They had me scared, because I did not want to be stuck at a job that I did not enjoy up until I retire. Senior year I found someone who was doing something that I had always thought about, but never thought it would be okay to have a career in that field. She graduated with a degree in marketing, and she started her very own event planning business. She loves her job, and she grew her company from nothing. My world had changed, and I knew that it was possible to have a job that I love doing. I am working under her now as a wedding assistant and I love every second of it. I also have a part time job during the week since most weddings are on the weekend, so I can have a steady income while having a fun job on the weekend where I make money too. From a very young age I have always been worried about the future. As I got older that worry grew more and more, which turned into fear. I tried to focus and just reach towards my main goal: getting a bachelor’s degree. Now that I am at the "future" part of my life that I have always been so scared about, I am not so scared anymore. This scholarship opportunity will help me become even more successful in life. It will help me achieve my goals of obtaining a bachelor’s degree and having a career that makes me happy. I cannot work full time since I am in school full time and need to go to campus two days a week, so I do not make as much money as I can to save for school. I know everyone says school comes first and work comes second, but I need to work to continue going to school. I am very blessed to have the job that I have where they can be flexible with me and work with my school schedule, but I do get discouraged sometimes. This scholarship will help me with my summer and fall tuition for this year so I will be able to succeed without being as stressed. I have worked extra hard since graduating high school and have never given up, no matter how new and nerve-racking adulthood is.

I have been a part of my Pentecostal church, Victorious Church of God in Christ, since I was three years old. When I was younger, when I would go to church the only things that stuck with me and that I understood were taught in Sunday school. As I got older, I was faced with more responsibility to be more involved with the church. Being involved was not just about going to church on Sundays, it was about expanding my knowledge and being a part of every event I could. Youth conventions, prayer conferences, bible bowls, vacation bible school, and many other events are brought to our attention in the church. Everyone in the church is encouraged to attend these events and advise others in our community to as well. A lot of people in the community near the church have big families and are not able to make it to church. Being a long-time member of the church, I am always eager to share information about what's going on and how anyone can be a part of our family. I have promoted our VBS program each summer to the community. It gives those parents with big families a chance to get their kids involved in the church and also take a load off their backs during the day. During the holiday season, there are lots of people in the community who are not as fortunate as others to provide their family or themselves with a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Once a month at the church we have a mobile food pantry come to our church and distribute free food and groceries to the community. Other members of the church and I were advised of the dates and then spread this information around the community. This continues to warm my heart because of the relief and happiness of the people coming to collect food. They are so grateful and the fact that we have the means to do this each month is amazing because they will always have someone to go to. During Christmas, people are working overtime to be able to put gifts under the tree for their children. In December, Me and my family, as well as other members of the church, buy toys and donate them to children of the community around us. This is something I'm extremely passionate about because seeing that huge smile on a child's face is so heartwarming. Encouraging everyone in the church to participate, even if it's just one toy each, makes all the difference. Each year the amount of toys grows, exceeding our expectations. Being involved in my church has helped my community out tremendously and I am continuing to come up with more ideas to help the people around us. My church is open to anyone coming in and being a part of our family. We are open to helping anyone, regardless of if they are involved in the church. Everyone has a story we don't know about. God loves everyone and encourages us to do the same. Helping out the people around me, regardless of whether I know them or not, has become a part of my values because of my church and I am forever grateful for that.

This scholarship will help me pursue my educational goals in many ways. I cannot work full time since I am in school full time and need to go to campus two days a week, so I do not make as much money as I can to save for school. I know everyone says school comes first and work comes second, but I need to work to continue going to school. I am very blessed to have the job that I have where they can be flexible with me and work with my school schedule, but I do get discouraged sometimes. This scholarship will help me with my spring, summer and fall tuition for next year. It would be a huge weight off my shoulders to know that I can 100% put school as my top priority. This semester was my first semester at USF and can I just say I loved it. This school offers so many opportunities to expand my knowledge of what I wanna do. I even applied for a hospitality minor that I did not even know existed there until one of my professors encouraged me to take that extra step and fill my brain with even more knowledge. This scholarship will allow me to add more courses to my schedule so I can graduate with my Bachelor's in Integrated Public Relations and Advertising and a Minor in Hospitality Management. I am a junior and expected to graduate in 2025. I need an internship to graduate and I want it to be something I am passionate about. Most internships require you to go to them a few days a week. I want to be able to find the right internship for me; one that really reflects what I want to do after college, be a wedding/event planner. I do not just want to find one so I can meet the graduation requirement or one that does not interfere with my work schedule. This scholarship will give me time to find an internship that will hopefully be able to give me some on hands experience in the professional event/wedding planning world. I already earned my Associate's in Arts degree last December, but I want to further my education. I always knew I wanted to take the next step and learn even more. This scholarship will help me further my education so I can reach my highest potential and stand out in the professional world.

I have been a part of my Pentecostal church, Victorious Church of God in Christ, since I was three years old. When I was younger, when I would go to church the only things that stuck with me and that I understood were taught in Sunday school. As I got older, I was faced with more responsibility to be more involved with the church. Being involved was not just about going to church on Sundays, it was about expanding my knowledge and being a part of every event I could. Youth conventions, prayer conferences, bible bowls, vacation bible school, and many other events are brought to our attention in the church. Everyone in the church is encouraged to attend these events and advise others in our community to as well. A lot of people in the community near the church have big families and are not able to make it to church. Being a long-time member of the church, I am always eager to share information about what's going on and how anyone can be a part of our family. I have promoted our VBS program each summer to the community. It gives those parents with big families a chance to get their kids involved in the church and also take a load off their backs during the day. During the holiday season, there are lots of people in the community who are not as fortunate as others to provide their family or themselves with a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Once a month at the church we have a mobile food pantry come to our church and distribute free food and groceries to the community. Other members of the church and I were advised of the dates and then spread this information around the community. This continues to warm my heart because of the relief and happiness of the people coming to collect food. They are so grateful and the fact that we have the means to do this each month is amazing because they will always have someone to go to. During Christmas, people are working overtime to be able to put gifts under the tree for their children. In December, Me and my family, as well as other members of the church, buy toys and donate them to children of the community around us. This is something I'm extremely passionate about because seeing that huge smile on a child's face is so heartwarming. Encouraging everyone in the church to participate, even if it's just one toy each, makes all the difference. Each year the amount of toys grows, exceeding our expectations. Being involved in my church has helped my community out tremendously and I am continuing to come up with more ideas to help the people around us. My church is open to anyone coming in and being a part of our family. We are open to helping anyone, regardless of if they are involved in the church. Everyone has a story we don't know about. God loves everyone and encourages us to do the same. Helping out the people around me, regardless of whether I know them or not, has become a part of my values because of my church and I am forever grateful for that.