Growing up as the child of a United States Army Drill Sergeant, I learned to push myself to succeed. I have always strived to be the best I can be, through my grades, through my service to my community, and through how I treat those around me. My father has always told me that leadership is in my blood, and I have worked hard to prove him right and make him proud. I have always worked to better my community through my father's strong motivation and I am proud to put in volunteer and community service hours in my small town. Hard work, integrity, and honor have been instilled in me since before I could walk, and I am thankful for the many lessons my father has taught me throughout the years of my life. As the child of a United States Army drill sergeant (Cold War), grandchild of a United States Navy seaman (Korean War), and great-grandchild of a World War I United States Army mechanic, I was raised with the utmost respect for veterans, fallen soldiers, and active members of the United States Military. My father used military programs to earn his degree, but he always told me that he was lucky to have that opportunity. My grandfather and great-grandfather were not so fortunate. I am grateful for the fact that I have been given the opportunity I have to further my education and build myself a brighter future. I wouldn't have these chances without the sacrifices made by my forefathers and other veterans of the United States military. It is their work that has guaranteed my freedom and safety as I work toward my goals and ambitions. As such, I work not only for myself but for my ancestors who did not have the opportunity or ability to pursue higher education. I am currently driven to pursue a Ph.D. in English Literature and moving on to teach at a post-secondary level as an English Professor. I want to work to make education more accessible for every type of student - not just the conventional students. Through my experiences volunteering with the American Legion, I have heard many stories about veterans who had to drop out of school or felt that pursuing a college degree wasn't for them because they did not feel welcomed in academic institutions. I want to help build an educational atmosphere that is welcoming for all backgrounds and lifestyles, especially for veterans and active-duty enlistees in pursuit of their degrees. This scholarship will allow me to continue this pursuit with less stress about finances and will propel me toward my future goals of bettering the world of academia for veterans and current members of the United State military. Thank you for your consideration.

My mother likes to say that English was my favorite subject in school before it was ever really a subject. I am a lifelong bookworm and was reading at a 12+ grade level in third grade. I may not have known it at nine years old, but this love for literature would stay with me my whole life. In my senior year of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew that I loved to read, that I loved to pick apart sentences, and that I loved literature as a form of art. Additionally, after discovering my love for grading essays while working as a TA under my AP English teacher, I knew that I should apply these things I was passionate about to a career, I just wasn’t sure what. After not qualifying for enough aid through the FAFSA and being terrified of taking out student loans at eighteen, I decided to go to Muskegon Community College under the Newaygo County Promise Zone Scholarship, which allowed me to earn my Associate of Arts and Sciences at no cost. This allowed me to continue exploring things I knew that I enjoyed and to narrow down my plans for the future. What I didn’t expect was what an impact MCC would have on me. I knew after watching the English Professors give lecture after lecture in class without any wavering in the amount of passion they spoke with that I wanted to stand in their shoes one day. I knew that the road to a Doctoral Degree in English would be a long and challenging one, but I set my sights on it regardless. Teaching in a post-secondary setting will allow me to connect with driven students who share my love for the language, allow me to pass my passion for the subject to like-minded individuals, and of course - allow me to grade essays. Not only will I be able to apply my love for reading and literature, but I would be able to apply my passion for learning and researching through my position as a professor. This scholarship will allow me to continue my pursuit of passion at Central Michigan University by relieving some of the financial stress that comes along with higher education. It will provide me the opportunity to learn and grow without worrying about whether I will be able to afford to take additional credit hours. This funding will help me take yet another step down the long and challenging road I have decided on and help push me toward the passion-filled future I hope to live in one day.

When I was fifteen, I caught on fire and everything changed. I missed half a year of school, didn't see my friends, and was alone for most of the day while my parents were at work. Depression and anxiety set in quickly during those lonely days, and would have consumed me if it weren't for my family dog. Eva, named for the day we got her: Christmas Eve, would lay with me every day while I was recovering. She wouldn't bark, wouldn't whine, wouldn't roughhouse the way that she loves to. She would just lay by my side, and give me company while I felt so alone. I never truly understood the meaning of companionship until she spent time with me for nothing in return. I couldn't walk well enough to get her a treat, couldn't stay awake long enough to scratch behind her ears, I could just lay there and she was content to just lay there with me. She didn't leave my side except for the times that I left to go to the burn clinic and stayed with me until I was healed. Eva gave me hope the things would turn out fine and I would get better. She gave me hope that I would one day walk well enough again to play tug-of-war and go on long walks around her favorite park. She gave me the hope that I would survive and heal and come out stronger because of it. My dog changed my life by showing me that even the darkest times have an end. She showed me that even when everything is miserable and lonely, you can find happiness in the small things. Your favorite song on the radio, the smell of rain on the pavement, your best friend laying by your side and their pawprints on your heart.

1. I don't. Please send money. 2. My career goal is to become a bog witch spinster who lives in the woods talking to animals and terrorizing the local conservatives with my ability to spit very far. I am a good candidate for this job because I already terrorize conservatives daily and am a hermit. 3. Let me set the scene: It's 2010, I'm in first grade. Selena Gomez's smash hit "Round and Round" is blasting from the gym's speakers. We aren't old enough to run a mile, and our motor skills still suck, so our P.E. teacher has set up huge foam blocks and hula hoops to make an obstacle course that little legs can run. I was not athletic at all. I had tripped twice going through the hula hoops already, and now I had to face the highest foam stack. It was daunting, I was terrified, and I was in dead last. I hated losing, still do. So I launched myself up and over the precipice of the grey foam tower and onto the hard gymnasium floor on the other side. I scraped my knee, bruised my elbow, but I didn't care. I had overcome the obstacle and was well on my way to the finish line.

The abstract owl perched on the back of my aunt's neck, guarding her scoliosis surgery scar, its wise eyes watching her spine. Following her unexpected death at the hands of domestic violence, that same owl moved to watch over my mother, my sister, my grandfather, and my aunt's child- sitting on their shoulders, keeping an eye on them the same way she once had. This tattoo, this piece of art, means everything to me. My aunt was the most creative and bold person I have ever known- wearing clashing patterns, welding in the middle of the night, and creating works of art that no one else could understand. To lose her was to lose my creativity, my inspiration, my muse. I didn't paint, sing, doodle, dance, or create for months after her death. I only picked up my tools again when my family had this piece of her permanently embedded in their skin. This tattoo, this owl, gets me through every day. The sight of it brings the memory and the creative genius of my aunt flowing through my veins- pushing me to create despite failure and to pursue whatever I'd like, no matter the practicality, no matter the rationality. In the eyes of my aunt, even failure was a success- and this owl and its watching eyes- my aunt's eyes, inspire me to try. To wake up each morning and see what the day has in store. To live and learn and love for all of the people who cannot anymore. Though simple, this tattoo is my all-time favorite piece of art. To me, this owl and my aunt are one of the same. My aunt's eyes watching over me and guiding me through creativity and dauntlessness- inspiring me every step of the way.

“It is easy to ignore the rain if you have a raincoat”- Truman Capote, In Cold Blood. Reading for class always felt like an obligation. I would’ve much rather delved into worlds of fantasy than of realism, memoires, and Shakespeare. This is the book that changed it all. I’d never really enjoyed reading for class, finding information and analyzing themes was easy enough, but getting through the mundane text that was uninteresting to me made it incredibly irritating to do. But reading In Cold Blood, I was fully entrapped. Capote’s writing style piqued my interest and held it until I finished the novel. It was the first “non-fiction” story that I’d ever really enjoyed. I fell in love with this book and was the only one in my class who did. I’d never understood how someone could annotate text for fun before, but reading this book made me want to analyze it- to remember it. My brother gifted a copy to me for Christmas last year, and now every page is stained with underlines and highlights and scrawled notes, and intricate analysis. I ripped each word apart and pieced it back together again, just to separate them all over. I could speak for hours about this book; about the underlying implications of a queer main character, the deep themes of judgement, and the commentary on how society alienates those unlike what it deems normal. In Cold Blood has ignited a love for literature in me. With its deep themes and implications on society, the beautiful writing style filled with metaphors and personification, and a sly way of making the reader feel sympathy for a murderer - the novel showed me the wonder of literature that I had never seen before and opened up literary experiences I never could have imagined.

Time is of the essence, and I intend to use the amount I have for good. Volunteering and donating my time have always been majorly important to me. Lending a helping hand where needed can ignite kindness in even the coldest of hearts. The most important volunteering experience I’ve ever had was as a Teacher’s Assistant my senior year of high school. With the pandemic shutting the school down and quarantining students, causing classes to be online, my help and knowledge of the internet was greatly helpful to my AP English teacher. Helping her move materials online for quarantined students, grading homework, and organizing the class library opened up time for her to assist students struggling to transition into the new form of pandemic-era schooling and catch students up on a semester’s worth of lost class-time. As the year went on, I also volunteered to help catch students up and assist them through tutoring. Watching them learn, experiencing them understand information with my help, and knowing that I was helping them not only grow as students but build skills for their futures is easily one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. Using my time for good is of the upmost importance to me, but helping build the future of knowledgeable and kind-hearted humans, means so much more.

The abstract owl perched on the back of my aunt's neck, guarding her scoliosis surgery scar, its wise eyes watching her spine. Following her unexpected death at the hands of domestic violence, that same owl moved to watch over my mother, my sister, my grandfather, and my aunt's child- sitting on their shoulders, keeping an eye on them the same way she once had. This tattoo, this piece of art, means everything to me. My aunt was the most creative and bold person I have ever known- wearing clashing patterns, welding in the middle of the night, and creating works of art that no one else could understand. To lose her was to lose my creativity, my inspiration, my muse. I didn't paint, sing, doodle, dance, or create for months after her death. I only picked up my tools again when my family had this piece of her permanently embedded in their skin. This tattoo, this owl, inspires me every day. The sight of it brings the memory and the creative genius of my aunt flowing through my veins- pushing me to create despite failure and to pursue whatever I'd like, no matter the practicality, no matter the rationality. In the eyes of my aunt, even failure was a success- and this owl and its watching eyes- my aunt's eyes, inspire me to try. To wake up each morning and see what the day has in store. To live and learn and love for all of the people who cannot anymore. Though simple, this tattoo is the most inspirational work of art I have ever seen. To me, this owl and my aunt are one of the same. My aunt's eyes watching over me and guiding me through creativity and dauntlessness- inspiring me every step of the way.