“Make this a game, compete with each other, that’s the only way you’ll improve. Stop being complacent with yourself,” is what my band director would say when have gotten comfortable with where we are. “My greatest competition is myself,” was part of the creed he had us say after every practice, performance, and competition. "Support each other, that's what we're here for," he's say for any given situation. To pursue any passion, it takes a lot of commitment. The time, energy, and resources it takes to start and maintain something you love can be both rewarding and exhausting. Naturally, over time, once you get comfortable, it is easy to hit a block that gets in the way of progression. Progression can look like the motivation to keep going or the motivation to improve, and it is important to have both when it comes to something you care about. I am a believer in the power of community and self-accountability. How can you grow if you live in the echo chamber in your head? How can grow if you can’t accept criticism? How can you grow if you don’t give yourself the chance to mess up, be bad, or be afraid of trying to give yourself the opportunity to have something to build on? Iron sharpens iron could be the iron in yourself, or the iron of your peers. I find growth and being stagnant both equally uncomfortable in different ways, and it wasn’t until I found a community that pushed me to be better that I was able to embrace those feelings of discomfort and turn them into something meaningful. I was able to push myself because I wanted to be better for myself and because I wanted to match or surpass my peers. I gave up on the fear of embarrassment and discomfort that held me back and allowed myself to be embarrassed and criticized and learned from it instead of sitting in the feeling of shame. Once I entered culinary school, where everyone starts in the same place, but has different skill levels, I had to remember, we are all here with the same goal in mind, and apply the same mindset I had before. However, because this was a creative and educational space my approach on the matter was a bit different. While I am letting my innerself seek competition for personal growth, as creatives we are searching for inspiration and motivation. Because the industry is very saturated, and there are many different paths to take professionally, I found that it is important to surround yourself with like people you can build off of. One mind can come up with an idea, but many can help cultivate it and bring it to life. To me “iron sharpens iron” means to let go of your fears and push yourself to be the best you can be and embrace the discomfort in growth and find your community to help you reach, and return the favor to them. In an industry where you often give more than you receive, it is still rooted in the practice of hospitality, and to achieve the greatest results, there should be a team that is always pushing for personal greatness, and hold each other accountable for the collective reward. To please the people you intend to serve: let go of your ego, share ideas, and learn from each other. At the end of the day we all strive for the same goal, serve our best dish forward, give our clientele the best experience they could have, and feel good about the product we produce.

College has always been important to me for a plethora of reasons. It was a way for me to explore myself, get away from home, and discover something new. As a first-generation Lao-American student, the importance of education has always been emphasized. After graduating high school with a 4.0, being a part of the top 10% of my class, and participating in extracurriculars, I knew getting into a school would not be as challenging as convincing my parents to allow me to pursue my major of Baking & Pastry Arts at a school states away, and out of reach; fortunately, they had enough trust in me to attend. To gain a head start and save money on the overall cost of college, I decided to participate in my school’s dual enrollment program, taking 29 credits, 27 of which have been accepted to transfer to my dream school, Johnson & Wales University - Providence (JWU). Because of this, I had the ability to comfortably take a gap semester to work and save money to relieve my parents of the burden of needing to financially support me while I am out of state. January 2024 was my first semester of college after having taken a gap semester and has been the most transformative time of my life thus far. Unfortunately, this would have been my only semester of college. After the 2023-2024 school year ended, I returned home to discover my father had been diagnosed with cancer. In addition to this news, I was also informed that my tuition/ overall cost to return to JWU has increased by approximately $10,000 per semester. To both me and my parents, this was devastating. With the unexpected news of both my father’s illness -resulting in my father being unable to work- and my tuition increase, my family was now experiencing a great financial hit. I was able to afford to attend JWU previously with the help of financial aid, a loan, and scholarships bringing my cost of attendance from approximately $26,000 per semester to $4,500 a semester. After trying to negotiate a financial appeal with my financial advisor, because of the timing of the events, and the reasoning, I was not able to negotiate the cost of returning. I was also unable to take any summer courses or classes at a community college because I have completed all of my general education classes and only had major courses that were unlikely to transfer, and courses unique to JWU's graduation requirements. This would have also been unaffordable at the time. This has put me in a position to take an additional gap year. The future of my education still stands uncertain as I am waiting for a new financial aid offer from JWU for the 2025-2026 school year, and having to consider the possibility of transferring to a more affordable school. It is unlikely I will be able to return to JWU. While I anticipate my acceptance status from other schools I may consider transferring to, the future of attending any school feels uncertain. By receiving this scholarship, I will be one step closer to being able to afford to return to college. While returning to JWU would be ideal, I am now looking for the opportunity to finish my degree, no matter what school I may have to attend. At the moment, the greater realistic option for studying BPA would be Atlanta Technical College, while living at home and commuting. After finishing my BPA, I aspire to continue my education by studying Food Science given the opportunity.

Why do we do the things we love? Growing up as a Lao-American to two immigrant parents, my career path was certainly unconventional; afterall, my parents came to the United States to give their kids an easier life, so why would I decide that culinary school would be a good idea? The job market is saturated, the hours are long and hard, there is no guaranteed success in working for someone else or having your own business, and the weight of a culinary arts degree (generally speaking) does not hold as much value as one may think. For me culinary school was more than getting a degree. For a large portion of my life, my family dynamic was filled with dismay. My parents relationship was deteriorating, my siblings and cousins did not seem to like me, and I’ve always felt alone. In the good and bad, food was all around me. The FoodNetwork, CookingChannel, etc., was always on the TV, going out to eat at a fast food restaurant on the weekends was my families way of having “American” food in our meal rotations, and my introduction to independence as a kid; not to mention that food is an Asian parents’ love language. I remember vividly during my 5th grade career presentation, I shared with my class that I wanted to open a cafe, and 10 years later, that is still true. As a child, while I was good at school, I have always been a creative. Painting, drawing, sculpting, building, reading and writing, music, and cooking have always been passions of mine. Naturally the idea of becoming a chef developed into a career interest, as it covers many of the bases that I enjoy. Going to culinary school would be the sensical choice, but my decision was met with disapproval. My parents were confident that I was going to fail. “Become a nail tech, do computer science, get an office job, it’s easier… do you know how many restaurants have closed down.” While this may sound discouraging, after living in a home of dysfunction, college was my way out and I was determined to go to culinary school; it was important to me that I do something for myself above all else. With overwhelming support from my friends and mentors, and my doubtful yet complying parents, I was accepted into Johnson and Wales University - Providence (JWU), where I was fortunate enough to experience one semester of school studying Baking and Pastry. Due to unforseen circumstances I was not able to return for the 2024-2025 school year, but I am hopeful to continue my education in Baking and Pastry Arts and Culinary Arts at JWU in the 2025-2026 school year. This experience has granted me the opportunity to become a person outside of my family's expectations and has gifted me with new life experiences both personally and professionally with the relationships I've made. It has also opened the eyes of my parents and showed them how important this is to me and has allowed them to be more open and supportive in my endevors. Cooking has never been something I enjoyed just because it was "fun," but because of the act of expression, control, and the community aspect. As I continue to navigate my relationship with food, it forces me to evaluate my purpose in life, my relationships with my loved ones, myself, and remember why I do the things I love.

My passion for culinary arts stemmed from my love for eating. My passion now for getting a degree in culinary arts has two parts: the simple love of cooking, and the act of nurturing and sharing my love with others. I have always known since elementary school that I wanted to open a cafe/bistro. Growing up, the closest connection I had to my heritage was through my family's cooking. As much as I love my culture's food, I was also very curious about other cultural foods. Growing up, I loved watching cooking shows on TV, and not only was I interested in what they were cooking but what they were actually doing. The community aspect of eating together and putting in so much effort to make a meal looked so much fun. Once I was old enough to start cooking for myself and not just being an "assistant" in the kitchen, I knew for sure this is what I wanted to do. My culinary goals are: to go to a technical college to obtain my culinary degree; work in a kitchen; and open my own food establishment, ideally serving Lao-French-American fusion. My plan to achieve these goals is already in action. To save me time and money, I am currently taking dual enrollment classes that will count as credits toward my culinary arts degree. I currently have three classes that are ready to be used and I am currently working on gaining nine more. I am in my senior year of high school and all of my classes are focused on this career pathway. I am currently taking Culinary Arts 1 where we are learning how a kitchen runs and will be taking Culinary Arts 2 and completing the Culinary Arts pathway next semester. Outside of school, I continue to cook and bake as a hobby and continue to learn about different recipes, techniques, and chefs for both knowledge and pleasure. After I graduate high school, I would like to practice cooking and selling what I make at my local park's summer farmers market and find a job in the food service industry to gain as much experience as I can during the summer before college officially starts. I would also like to find the time to develop recipes and experiment. After graduating with my culinary arts degree, I would like to continue participating in the summer farmers market and work in restaurants before opening my own to get an understanding of how a restaurant is supposed to run.