My name is Kennedy Surratt and I am pursuing a degree in Animal Science at Texas Tech University. I plan on becoming a Large Animal Veterinarian. I have been in the FFA since my freshman year of high school and have been heavily involved in my chapter. I compete on numerous teams and am also currently serving as my chapter's, Smithson Valley FFA, Vice President and the River District's Vice President. My favorite animal would have to be goats. I have shown them since my freshman year. Every single one of them that I have owned have had different personalities and I have loved working with them. Being in our show animal barns at school has played such a heavy impact on my choice of major. I have gotten to interact with the steers, lambs, goats, chickens, and pigs. Being able to interact with all of the different animals has also helped influence my decision on wanting to be a large animal veterinarian. I would like to continue working with livestock animals. My love has only grown for animals within the time that I have spent in the barns. I have learned so many skills in the barn and in the classroom through my animal science classes. The responsibilities that we have over our show animals are so important and one of those is the health of the animals. The moment that one of my animals gets sick I immediately think about the steps that I need to take to get it to the veterinarian. These animals are more than just animals to most of us. They become our everyday routines and our best friends. We put hard work and effort into them that most teenagers do not understand. The 4 am wake up calls to load a trailer to head to a jackpot show or the late nights working hair teach us to have a dedication for something that is greater than anything than most people can imagine. It is going to be incredibly hard for me to leave the show world. Which is why I would like to pursue an animal science degree. So that I can be that veterinarian that the livestock exhibitor thinks of when their animal gets sick. The relationships that I have formed through my time in FFA have truly shown me how important this career is to me. I have been able to help the younger kids in the barn with their animals which has helped influenced my decision as well. I realized throughout my years that I wanted to be able to help people in some way while also working with animals.

I should start by saying that I have been "the new kid" 4 times in my life. So, I guess you could say that I am pretty familiar with all of the pros and cons. 3 of those times I was in elementary and middle school. However, the one time being the new kid had the most impact was when I moved schools before freshman year. I knew absolutely no one which is pretty scary. If you know anything about high school it is that teenage girls are pretty mean. Especially when they already have their set friend groups that aren't going to change. Or at least that is what they think. I moved to New Braunfels in August before I started my freshman year at Smithson Valley High School. My dad had gotten a promotion within his company which was the reason we had to move. He had been in contact with the ag teacher, at Smithson Valley, at the time because I wanted to show goats. My dad had chosen a great school for FFA which was really exciting to me. I had no idea just how much that would entail. I will admit that it was very difficult to fit in with all of these kids who had grown up together. I sat alone at lunch for months. It was extremely difficult to leave all of my friends behind just to come to a place where I had no one. However, one teacher changed that all for me. Mrs. Mayer, my principles of ag, food, and natural resources teacher. She had moved me into a leadership class where I would be put on a public speaking team. It blew my mind at the time that she thought I would be able to talk in front of people. However, I quickly fell in love with these contests that she had pushed me to be in. I was on a team with about 8 other people. The people who would become my second family. Mrs. Mayer grew my passion for the FFA and helped inspire me to reach the goals I thought I could never reach. Being the new kid allowed me to start from a clean slate where I could meet people who had the same hopes and ideals for their lives. Those kids that I met freshman year are my best friends. They are my home away from home. They are my second family. Being the new kid taught me endurance and how to reach out for help when you need it. It taught me how to get out of my shell and be myself. It taught me how to value friendships in a new way. And most importantly it taught me that you shouldn't let fear stop you from accomplishing anything and everything that you have ever dreamed of.

My name is Kennedy Surratt and I am currently a high school senior at Smithson Valley High School in Spring Branch, TX. However, I have not always lived here in Spring Branch. My dad's job has caused us to move around more times than we would prefer. The one thing that remained consistent throughout all of these moves was my passion for soccer. I started playing soccer when I was 5 years old. I was on a cute little team with all of my friends from school. We wore pink jerseys and always had our hair up in pigtails. It might seem silly but that is what soccer was about at such a young age. To this day I still have our team picture sitting in my room. I continued to play soccer throughout my elementary school/middle school career. That was the one thing that I could count on whenever I moved from city to city. I played for 8 years and never lost my passion for soccer. Then all of that came to an end. I got three concussions in six months. My neurologist gave me a choice on whether or not I would quit soccer. If I had gotten one more I would've had permanent brain damage because my memory would've been affected. I chose possibly the more logical option which was an extremely hard decision to make at such a young age. I tried pretty much every other sport in the book. But, I never found a passion for anything else. That was until I got to high school and found FFA. Through FFA I was presented with many different opportunities like showing, public speaking events, leadership, judging teams, and community service. I was also presented with a second family that loves me almost as much as my “real” family. I have had the chance to meet people all across the state through these different events. I am also my FFA chapter’s Vice President and my FFA district’s Vice president. In the end I wouldn’t change a thing about how my life is turning out. Within my high school, I am also involved in the NHS. Within our NHS I am involved in many different community service activities including highway cleanups, campus cleanups, and visiting the elementary schools and putting on activities for them. I love high school and all of the opportunities given to me during my time here however I am ready to move on to higher education. This scholarship will help me pay for my undergraduate degree in Animal Science. Once I get my degree in Animal Science the plan is to attend Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine. That may seem like a long time away but this scholarship can help me start this long journey we call life.

I played soccer for 8 years of my life. It consumed my life. I was so utterly in love with this sport that I thought I was going to play professionally.Whenever I made the club team that was the best time in my soccer career. I played for a club team for a while. Things were looking up for me. I was getting better and better and was going to achieve my goal of playing on the high school team. Then, all of those dreams came tumbling right back down at me. I had gotten three concussions in six months. One girl shoved me to the ground and I hit my head on the ground. The second one happened while I was defending a girl. She kicked the ball straight up into my face. Then, the third one happened during practice. The girl standing in front of ducked and she was taller than me so the ball hit me straight in the face. The neurologist told me that she wasn't going to tell me what to do but if I were to get one more I could have permanent brain damage. I was scared about the fact that getting one more could cause my memory to deteriorate among other lifelong side effects. It was a hard decision to make for such a young kid. I wanted everyone else to make that decision for me. I cried a lot because giving up something that you love so much is one of the hardest things that you will willingly do. I decided to quit playing soccer which was the last thing I wanted to do. I was so angry at the girls that I played with especially those girls on the other teams who knew how aggressive they were being. And trust me I am all for being aggressive when playing a sport but shoving someone's head on the ground is a little far. However, through all of that, I learned a lot of life skills that I can still use. One of those is learning to accept how life is while also working hard to accomplish what you want. I also learned how to get back up on my feet and find something else to have a passion for. Which I did and now I love what I do. But, soccer will always have my heart. And I wish every day that I could go back to the sweaty shin guards and long socks. However, time goes on even if we don't get what we want. This scholarship will help me pay for my undergraduate degree so that I can fulfill the second most important thing to me. And that is helping animals. But, in my mind I will never forget how much I loved that sport we call soccer.

My name is Kennedy Surratt and I am a senior at Smithson Valley High School. Here at Smithson Valley, I am involved heavily in our FFA program as well as our NHS. Both of these organizations have given me endless opportunities to help out in the community. Within our FFA program, I am our District Vice President as well as our chapter Vice President. Recently, I was given the opportunity to organize our community service project for the fall/winter semester of school. I have chosen to help the Women's Crisis Center here in New Braunfels. I researched what the center is in most need of and noticed that socks were number two on the list. Then, I worked with my fellow officers to make social media posts and advertisements. I have gone into all our ag classes and explained the importance of this community service project and asked the students to bring donations. I also worked with my officers in my chapter to make social media posts. So far the donations have been extremely successful and there are still two more months. We have had one large donation so far and at our next district meeting, I will be collecting the rest of the donations to take to the crisis center. I am trying to spread awareness for this crisis center because of its mission for our city. I also have been volunteering at the elementary schools around me. I love getting to spend time with the little kids. As well as being able to help the teachers out. My mom is a teacher so I know how stressful their jobs can be. I always love to help out in the schools wherever I can. Most recently I signed up to volunteer at the local elementary school's petting zoo for their "fall fest". I am also involved in highway cleanups and campus cleanups that my NHS sponsors. I have noticed that the highways around my high school campus are extremely messy. People do not have very much respect for our environment. My goal is to work hard on days that we clean up the highways and spread the message about being respectful towards the community we live in. My goal for my community is to create a better living and learning environment. Whether that is donating socks to the women's crisis center or cleaning beer bottles off the side of the highway. Either one of those things can be used to better our world. I want to make the world a better place even if it seems like what I am doing is small.

My grandfather whom I call, Pop, has had skin cancer quite a few times. Now I know that skin cancer isn't as severe as it could be. We thought we were very fortunate that he just had skin cancer. Of course, we prayed a lot that it wouldn't come back. Just recently we found out that he has stage 4 melanoma. Which has spread to his neck, stomach, kidney, and liver. It is also in his blood. The treatment that they are going to do works on 1 in 3 people. And if it doesn't work he has 4-6 months to live. I have always imagined that he would be at my high school and college graduation. That he would be there to see me accomplish the goals that I set for myself in fifth grade. I have lived with him for a portion of my life so he has played a huge role in my life. He has helped me throughout my college application process. He has helped me through the tough days of geometry during freshman year. And now I feel like I am going to lose him. It has had an impact on my willingness to want to do work and even get out of bed. It is like grief has already begun. I am seeing a slight effect on my grades. But, if anything I am starting to get to the point in this journey where I want to make him proud. I want to accomplish the goals that he has supported me in the whole time. He wants me to be a veterinarian just as much as I do. He has been an inspiration for me. Pop's hard work and ambition to do well in life have always been something I look up to. I hope with my whole heart that he will make it to my graduation. And I hope that he will be cancer-free and make it to my college graduation. However, if he doesn't I am going to do my best to make him proud when he is in heaven. Because I know that he would not want me to dwell and fall behind. He wants me to be a strong and courageous person. So from this point forward the grades that I get and the college that I choose will all be for him. I will succeed for him. And most importantly I will accomplish my goals for him.

I have faced quite a few challenges in my time here on earth. However, I think the one that stands out the most to me is whenever I developed anxiety tics. Starting from the beginning, I moved to my new high school in my freshman year. I joined my FFA program to show goats. I had an amazing Intro to Ag teacher who introduced me to all of the parts of FFA. Her name was Mrs. Mayer and she truly changed my life for the better. She stuck me on the chapter conducting team which is arguably one of the hardest contests. I was timid my freshman year and could not even go to the front of the class to present a project. Mrs.Mayer saw right through that and knew that I had to potential to do great things. Those of course are her words, not mine. She was breaking me out of my shell whether I wanted it to happen or not. By the end of my freshman year and the beginning of my sophomore year, I was able to speak in front of judges and talk to new people all of the time. I was feeling confident in the new skills that Mrs.Mayer brought to me. Then one day all of that changed. I was in the barn working my goats when I started to have an anxiety attack. A couple of my close friends were there and they were trying to calm me down. But, then my body started to make involuntary movements and it was freaking everyone out. I tried to act like it was nothing but my friends called one of the ag teachers down to check on me. She saw me and immediately called my mom. All of my parents were freaking out and they took me to the emergency room. The emergency room told me that it was a bad reaction to my anxiety medicine and told me to stop taking it. Looking back on that it probably made everything worse because my anxiety was heightened. I ended up going to a neurologist because the tics never stopped and I wanted to make sure that there was nothing we could do about it. The neurologist told me that I would most likely have the tics for the rest of my life. This was a huge setback in my career at FFA. I lost a lot of the confidence that I had gained. It was extremely difficult to go in front of judges because I was scared that my tics would make me less of a public speaker. However, I persevered and worked even harder to gain those skills back. With my teachers by my side and of course, my teammates I was able to get through it. Fast forward to my senior year, I am still on the chapter conducting team and I also help coach the freshman chapter conducting team. I was able to accept the tics that I have and it made me a better public speaker. I worked harder than I had before and gained skills that I didn't think that I could have.

My name is Kennedy Surratt and I am a senior at Smithson Valley High School. Here at Smithson Valley, I am involved heavily in our FFA program as well as our NHS. Both of these organizations have given me endless opportunities to help out in the community. Within our FFA program, I am our District Vice President as well as our chapter Vice President. Recently, I was given the opportunity to organize our community service project for the fall/winter semester of school. I have chosen to help the Women's Crisis Center here in New Braunfels. I researched what the center is in most need of and noticed that socks were number two on the list. Then, I worked with my fellow officers to make social media posts and advertisements. I have gone into all our ag classes and explained the importance of this community service project and asked the students to bring donations. I also worked with my officers in my chapter to make social media posts. So far the donations have been extremely successful and there are still two more months. We have had one large donation so far and at our next district meeting, I will be collecting the rest of the donations to take to the crisis center. I am trying to spread awareness for this crisis center because of its mission for our city. I also have been volunteering at the elementary schools around me. I love getting to spend time with the little kids. As well as being able to help the teachers out. My mom is a teacher so I know how stressful their jobs can be. I always love to help out in the schools wherever I can. Most recently I signed up to volunteer at the local elementary school's petting zoo for their "fall fest". I am also involved in highway cleanups and campus cleanups that my NHS sponsors. I have noticed that the highways around my high school campus are extremely messy. People do not have very much respect for our environment. My goal is to work hard on days that we clean up the highways and spread the message about being respectful towards the community we live in. My goal for my community is to create a better living and learning environment. Whether that is donating socks to the women's crisis center or cleaning beer bottles off the side of the highway. Either one of those things can be used to better our world.

I think the Millenials and Gen-Z are split. They are two very different generations. I have personal experience with the two generations considering my older siblings are in the Millennials group and I am in the Gen-Z group. In my opinion, Millennials and Gen-Z are two very very very different groups. Millennials are very entitled but also extremely hard workers. This deepens the divide between the generations. Gen-Z is also a very special group that in itself is divided. I think that there would be portions of Gen-Z that would be willing to work with Millennials to better our nation and even our world. However, I do have confidence in the fact that some members of Gen-Z wouldn't have any interest in fixing our economy. The government that we have now is partly to blame for this attitude because they aren't making their jobs seem very enjoyable. I am convinced that if the governors and leaders of our country were to do their jobs correctly and honestly we may see an increase in the number of Gen-Zers wanting to be a part of our economy. I do not doubt that Millennials will jump straight up when called upon to help the future of our country. However, I am not so sure about the entire generation of Gen-Z wanting to rise. As much as I would love for my generation to have the same mindset as me, which is to prove to the older generations that we are capable of running a country, I highly doubt that we will ever be on the same page.

My dream version of my future self is a good leader who stayed true in her beliefs and morals.

My experience with mental health has been long to put it in short terms. I have always felt like I haven't been set up for success in life. My parents got divorced when I was 4 years old and from that moment on I learned what trauma is. Not only trauma but all of the so-called side effects of trauma. My dad is very career-focused, which I will always support. However, it does have effects on the children in the situation. For me it made me feel as though I was a second choice with his job being his first choice. During this period in my life, my dad had main custody of me. Little me didn't understand why my father who valued work more than me would get custody over my mother. This led me to have extreme inner turmoil in my life. Fast forwarding to 4th grade I had to grow up quickly because I went from having a single dad to a dad with a "new mom". This new mom had a lot of new rules that I didn't quite understand at such a young age. This gave me a large amount of anxiety. On top of that, I was extremely depressed because I only saw my mom for a certain amount of days out of the year. My dad noticed that I wasn't just sad but it was affecting my daily life. In 5th grade, my dad found my therapist, Dr.Miller. I will admit that I didn't click with her immediately. Eventually, I began to find a safe space within her office. No matter where her office was moved I followed her. I found comfort in her advice and words. It set a good example of the mental health industry for me. She helped me with the most difficult times of my life. Now I am in the middle of my senior year and I still have scheduled appointments with her. I moved to San Antonio and so we began doing "Facetime" appointments. I will say that the mental health industry has had an extremely large impact on my life. I will recommend it again and again to anyone who is struggling. No matter their age, problems, or where they live there is someone who will be willing to help them. It might take a few tries to find the right fit but I promise there is someone out there for YOU.

The book I would have everyone in the world read would be Tuesdays with Morrie. I will admit that I had to read this for my sophomore English class. However, this book changed my life. I have never been so affected by a book. This book had me crying at 1 in the morning because of how impactful it was. I believe that we should all strive to have a mentor and be a student to someone like Morrie. I think it also brings awareness to the terrible, gut-wrenching disease known as ALS. I think from the book I learned most about how to accept the love that people will give you and how we can turn around and spread it to other people in the world. I believe that if everyone would read this book then we would see a change in how people act to others. We need to remember that we deserve love and that letting love and people in doesn't make us weak. Also, I believe it teaches a point of view to a huge life lesson. That being to have closure with death. We should not fear death we should be at peace with dying. Which I think is a hard thing for most people to understand. In turn, we can see how beautiful every life is. Death shows us how even the little things that we experience every day can have meaning. Overall if people were to read Tuesdays with Morrie I believe we would see a turnaround in the view that we have over death.