I am a leader in many activities, especially because I am a senior in high school. Being able to lead is great because you get to share your experience, talents, and ideas with other people who look up to you. The point of leadership is helping them become better and want to keep doing the activity that you have a leadership position in. Girl Scouts has given me an amazing opportunity to be a leader. I often volunteer at camps with younger Girl Scouts. I instruct the girls on crafts, games, science experiments, songs, and many other fun activities. Even outside of camp, like when I go to school-related functions or out in the community in general, they recognize me and say "hi" or come up to hug me. It feels really good to have such an impact as a leader for young girls. On the cross-country team, I lead activities like stretches, warm-ups, and making sure the team knows the course before we race. Since I am a senior, I know more about what is happening at meets, and I am one of the people whom the coaches trust the most. Younger athletes are sometimes more comfortable asking other students instead of coaches when they have a question, so they often ask the seniors. I was also chosen as the leadership representative last year for the cross-country team. I met with the other leaders in the school and we planned things that would benefit the teams, clubs, and other groups in the school. We were able to share dates for games, meets, or performances. This caused a greater mix of people to come to those events. I am also active in the theatre department, specifically musicals, in my high school. I am one of only three seniors who have been a part of the musical since freshman year, so I have a good understanding of what is going on and know the director well. As a leader, I remind people of the rules backstage and direct people through the order of scenes. Sometimes we have to start rehearsal if the director is not there yet, as well. I am the Vice President of the Math Club at my high school as well. The President and I have been planning the meetings this year. Last year the teacher/sponsor was the one planning and running meetings, but now it is more student-led. We have planned puzzles and games that are math-related to show students that math can be fun. We have also taken the initiative to encourage more students to join the club, and it is working. There are almost twice the amount of members as last year. In the future, I am going to continue in Girl Scouts and become an adult Girl Scout. I will be able to show more leadership because there are more opportunities in general for adults. Showing girls that they are capable of doing anything and making the world a better place are the goals of Girl Scouts. Being able to inspire confidence in girls through Girl Scouts is something that I hope to achieve through this leadership position.

Millennials and Gen Z have the will to do. They want things to be changed, and they want to be involved. They don't want to just follow the ways of past generations. They want to make a difference in their world. They are taking Gandhi's advice of "Be the change you wish to see in the world" seriously. Girl Scouts is a great organization that does this and encourages young girls to make a change too. Many troop leaders at this point are Millenials and the older Girl Scouts are Gen Z. They are leading the way for the next generations to "make the world a better place" as it says in the Girls Scout Promise. Girl Scouts has given me the opportunity to do so many service projects that make me feel like I am making a difference in the world. Millennials and Gen Z are the ones who are living in this world now and in the future, so they are doing their best to fix problems that were caused by past generations. We have so much more information and technology available to us now. This is a great tool that Gen Z and Millenials are using to make a difference and solve problems. After much hard work, we may become what they call "The Greatest Generation 2.0".

Many books are just fun to read, but other books have a deeper meaning and cultural significance. Some stories reveal the lives of types of people that we would never have known about if not for the book. I would have everyone in the world read "Moxie" by Jennifer Mathieu. It follows the life of a high school girl in Texas who wants to make a change in her school. Vivian's family always saw her as a "dutiful" girl, but she wanted to take action. Vivian gets fed up with the way that boys, specifically the football team, treat the girls in her school. They harass the girls and say rude and inappropriate things to them, but they don't get in trouble because the football team is so important to the town. The principal is the star football player's dad, and the adults pretend like nothing is happening. Vivian decides to make zines to leave in the girls' bathrooms to help the girls band together. She gets inspiration from the Riot Grrrls from her mom's teen years (1990's). Eventually, she has to decide if keeping her identity a secret or standing up for a girl who needs support is more important. Vivian discovers herself and gains self-confidence through her feminist movement. She gets the girls to connect and band together to fight for each other and what they believe in. This is a powerful feminist book that helps girls realize that they can make a difference and that other girls feel the same as them. "Moxie" is inspiring and important for everyone to read.

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I would choose to watch Footloose if I could only watch one movie ever again. I think that it has amazing music and dancing. It is really impressive to see all of the choreography and music involved in the movie. The resolution of the story is when Rev. Moore decides that the happiness of the people in his town is more important than his fear of things that happened in the past. I participated in Footloose: The Musical at my high school in the role of Rusty, Ariel's best friend. I was the female with the most singing in the whole show. Being able to play a character that was unlike me in many ways made me more confident. It was a great experience and I feel more connected to the movie now that I have those memories. I love to sing and perform, so seeing a town that doesn't allow music breaks my heart. When Ren came to Bomont he wanted to share his love of music as well, but it was illegal. He made it his mission to show the people of Bomont how music can change lives because he was passionate about music. He didn't care that it made people dislike him or that he didn't fit in right away. He wanted to be himself and express himself in the way that he loved. Footloose shows the teenagers in the town realizing that music can be a good thing and that the Reverend may not be right about everything. They just never had an outside influence before. They believed what they were told by Rev. Moore because they didn't have any other opinions expressed before. When the teenagers in the town discover the wonder of music and dancing at a school dance made possible by Ren, they can be themselves and have a really good time. Ren brought things to that town that had been missing for a long time because of a terrible accident. People were scared and decided to remove music for fear that it made people careless. Rev. Moore got closer to his daughter because they ended up having a lot in common. They both lost a family member in the accident, but they handled it in different ways. Rev. Moore was trying to keep the people in his town safe, but Ariel wanted to be rebellious. The realization from Rev. Moore that music brought joy and wasn't dangerous was the main lesson from the story of Footloose.

My future self will have a successful job, likely in engineering, and be happy and feel safe with the people I surround myself with.

I started reading the Harry Potter books when I was in fourth grade. I knew right away that I would be in Ravenclaw, even at nine years old. I loved school and looked forward to it every day because I loved learning. I was always upset when I got sick or there was a snow day because it meant that I was missing out on class and learning. The Ravenclaw house traits are wit and learning, wisdom and creativity. Being in the gifted program in elementary school helped me embrace these traits even more. We learned about topics that weren't brought up in class at that age, like lesser-known wars and objects in space, for example. I was also given activities and puzzles that would challenge me more than regular class and give me the chance to improve and grow. The Ravenclaw trait of learning was expressed on these occasions. Our teacher had us pick a fine arts challenge to do every year as well. We got to explore different fine arts and see what we liked to do. Some of the challenges that I picked were making a shadow puppet show, a collage, a product and commercial, and a lip-syncing performance. I got to express my creativity with each project. I also got to learn by researching how to do these challenges in elementary school. Now in high school, I get to choose my own classes. This is great for me because I get to be in classes where the rest of the class wants to learn and be there as well. In required classes, there were always students who were just there to get the credit and disrupted the learning process for everyone else. I also have the choice of taking classes that I am interested in, and I can take a variety of types of classes to expand my knowledge base. Some of the variety includes Calculus and Statistics, but also Art, Foods and Nutrition, Spanish, and Industrial Technology classes. I am able to nurture my learning trait related to Ravenclaw in this environment. Reading books is another way I can learn. I love to immerse myself in books and pretend like the outside world isn't there at all. Reading books that take place in other countries and have main characters from different cultures is the main way that I can learn through books and reading. My love of learning and creativity are the traits that make Ravenclaw the perfect Hogwarts house for me. Challenging myself is the main way that I embrace learning and creativity.