My early school years were stable and routine in a private school, though I always struggled with math and spent years in tutoring. Before entering middle school, I moved from my hometown to Las Vegas, which was a major adjustment and an emotional transition as I left my friends and family behind. In middle school, tutoring helped me improve in math, but I began to struggle more with reading comprehension. I pushed through independently and excelled in subjects like math and science. Despite challenges brought on by COVID-19, my academic performance remained strong, leading me to honors English and recognition as a top student with valedictorian potential. High school brought new stress as I balanced honors courses and CTE programs, causing my grades and mental well-being to decline. I chose to step out of honors classes to reduce pressure, which helped me regain balance and happiness. A major turning point was joining JROTC at Sierra Vista High School, where instructors like CSM Brown helped me grow in confidence and leadership. JROTC became a supportive community and a place where I succeeded academically and personally, including passing the ASVAB with an AFQT of 50, performing well on CTE and workplace readiness exams, and contributing to the battalion earning Honor Unit with Distinction and the Purple Star Award. My plan in the future is to attend the University of Nevada, Reno to study Kinesiology and searching for a career in the future with that degree. Not only did my JROTC program provided first aid classes included in the Cadet Reference Guide, JCLC (which I personally experienced), and ACS Stop The Bleed. But the program helped set me up for my future with continuous support and love from the instructors, battalion staff, and cadets from other companies as well. Currently, me and my mom are struggling heavily with the growing inflation and overall cost of living. I haven't been so lucky to find a job that's interested in hiring me for part-time and my mom works almost 10 hours all week for a paycheck that's barely getting us by. She also has a business that helps with little costs and small luxuries if we're lucky. Due to the drops of my grades over my high school year I also wasn't given much money for things like Pell Grant and UNR's new freshman scholarships. It's so bad that me and my mom have already planned pulling out loans just to cover the rest for my freshman year. Any money helps to go to both my mother's bills so for once in her life she can smile and relax without the burden of living in Nevada with such high loans with not enough money, but also towards my future life as a person. Scholarship support not only helps my mother, but also is a burden that dreads over millions of students. Because my mom is also a single mother, it's been even more difficult to even pull enough money through after taxes to have the opportunity to pay the rest of my cost of attendance. This support helps no matter how small the price is. Because any support is better than no support and we are burdened with an 8k+ loan debt.