Growing up as a proud member of the Cherokee Nation while living hundreds of miles away from Oklahoma created a unique dynamic in how I connected with my heritage. My most cherished childhood memories center around our annual family road trips to Tahlequah for the Cherokee Nation National Holiday Powwow. The nineteen-hour drive was always worth it, especially when we picked up my great uncle along the way. Listening to him share Cherokee stories filled the long miles with warmth, history, and purpose. In those moments, surrounded by family and community, my connection to my culture felt grounded and unbreakable. As I grew older, maintaining that connection became more complicated. College demands, distance, and responsibilities made it difficult to travel to Oklahoma as frequently. At the same time, I began navigating a quieter, more personal challenge: the internal and external struggles tied to my identity. As a fair-skinned redhead with blue eyes, I frequently faced hesitant pauses or surprised looks from organizers at tribal events who did not expect someone with my appearance. Paired with a low blood quantum and my own social anxiety, those subtle reactions made me feel like an outsider within my own community, leading to a fear that I simply did not belong there. Interestingly enough, I never felt this way when attending the powwows. There were others who looked like me and everyone expected us to be there. Even when we went to the Ross family reunion I never felt out of place, just like everyone else I participated in the corn husk doll activities, basket weaving, and dancing when the audience was invited. It took me a long time to realize that my identity isn't defined by my physical features or a number on a card. True belonging is rooted in lineage, shared history, and an active commitment to one's people. Once I realized that, I stopped second-guessing myself and started taking action. Instead of letting distance or self-doubt pull me away from my roots, I began taking proactive steps to stay engaged. I started learning the Cherokee language in my spare time, reading tribal publications, and setting goals to join our campus branch of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) to connect with other Native students in STEM fields. This realization didn't just help me accept who I am, it directly shaped what I want to do with my career. Knowing what it feels like to be judged by an assumption or a single metric directly drives my passion for data science and computer science. As a mathematics student with a computer science minor, I want to use my technical training to build accessible digital tools (such as mobile language-learning applications and interactive cultural platforms) that help disconnected Native youth preserve their heritage and traditions, regardless of how far they live from their tribal lands. Navigating these cultural experiences taught me resilience, self-acceptance, and the true meaning of community. I am so lucky to have been born into the Cherokee Nation, as they accept and love all of their members no matter their blood quantum. Wado (Thank you).

I have always felt that technical skills don't mean much if they aren't being used to help real people. By studying Mathematics, minoring in Computer Science, and earning a Data Science certificate at the University of Utah, my goal is to use analytical problem-solving to directly support community care. Over the past few years, I have logged more than 190 hours volunteering with local non-profits, which taught me that the best work comes from simply recognizing a need and stepping up. For instance, as the VP of Technology for the National Honors Society, I co-founded a project to fix the cold, clinical feel of medical spaces. Alongside four friends, I spent fifteen hours on a Saturday painting a welcoming mural at Integrated Autism Therapies. Because my two stepbrothers have autism, I knew firsthand how deeply a stark environment can affect a sensitive child. I wanted to build a calm, comforting space for families navigating stressful days. Seeing the genuine gratitude from the facility owners and the comfort it brought to the kids showed me exactly how I want to use my math and tech background moving forward. I took a similar approach to leadership as President of the Girls Advisory Board, where I spent 45 hours running non-profit day camps for younger Girl Scouts. During a STEM-themed camp, several girls arrived completely intimidated, complaining that science and tech were too frustrating or boring. By breaking coding down into accessible logic puzzles and offering patient mentorship, we helped them build real confidence. Watching their eyes light up when a concept finally clicked showed me that good leadership is about empowering the people around you to succeed. Down the road, I plan to use data science to help charitable organizations and tribal communities operate more effectively. As a member of the Cherokee Nation, I want to develop accessible, open-source digital platforms to preserve our indigenous languages and cultural stories, keeping disconnected youth tied to their heritage. I genuinely love sitting down with someone who is frustrated and walking them through a problem step-by-step until it makes sense, and I want to bring that same patience to larger community initiatives. The Our Destiny Our Future Scholarship matches the exact values of community responsibility I live by. This funding will allow me to balance a heavy academic workload with my public service goals, ensuring that my education directly benefits the communities that need it most.

To me, college is a place to advance your knowledge and prepare for the future. In this day and age, especially in the state that I live, college is a necessity to get even entry level jobs. This made receiving a higher education a mandatory step in my life. Luckily, I love learning. I am currently in my first year of college at the University of Utah, but I am technically considered a Junior because I transferred from high school with 60 college credits. I am majoring in mathematics, minoring in computer science, and pursuing a certificate in data science. Honestly, college is a lot different than I expected. In my final year of high school I took 4 college classes and so college just feels like high school with the only difference being I am not living with my family. Even so, it has been a lot of fun being a college student. I have had the opportunity to participate in many activities, meet lots of new people, and learn many new interesting things. Even with just a semester of college, I have learned so much about my two favorite subjects (mathematics and computer science) and it has been a place where I can truly be myself and meet others that I get along with. Plus I get to be exposed to many new and differing opinions and ideas. College is a place where I am not only able to grow my knowledge, but I am also able to grow as a person. By achieving my degree in mathematics, minor in computer science, and certificate in data science, I can look for a job as a data analyst or data scientist. I believe that I would enjoy this job and also get paid enough to support myself and the future family that I plan to have. Plus that job would allow me to use all of the information that I accumulated in college as it combines math and computer science. Ultimately, I have a simple, but most likely unrealistic, dream of being able to work at a job I love. I've found that when I go into my classes that are mathematics or computer based, time flies by and by the end I just want to continue working instead of going home. I hope to find a job that I love so much that it doesn't feel like work.

Hi, my name is Lily and I am a first year at the University of Utah. I am majoring in Mathematics, minoring in Computer Science, and pursuing a certificate in Data Science. My parents got divorced when I was in elementary school and I got in a car crash in middle school that made it so if I sit for long periods of time my hip goes out of place. Despite these setbacks, during high school I worked hard and was able to graduate valedictorian (out of 781 students) and accumulate 60 college credits so I am technically considered a Junior at my university. I've been interested in Mathematics since elementary school. I've always considered it like solving a puzzle or a riddle. Your teacher would teach you how to do it or 'give you the clue to the riddle' and then from there you had to figure out how to properly use that information. I would come home from school begging my older sister to teach me what she learned in math that day. In 5th grade I participated in a math competition and even though I didn't even place I had so much fun being introduced to new problems and concepts I had never encountered before. I was that young when I new that I wanted to go to college for math and learn all that I could. When it comes to computer science I have a much more specific moment of when I began to love it. Through Girl Scouts I was able to participate in a Girls Who Code day camp where we were taught basic binary and simple block coding through scratch. It was so much fun to learn and be surrounded by other females who were interested in a topic that many generally considered "too nerdy" or "too difficult". After just one day I was absolutely hooked. The idea that I could create something that did exactly what I made it do from simple blocks or code on a computer was incredible. I begged my mom for more opportunities to learn about coding so she put me in an after school Girls Who Code class. Being able to learn more grew my love for coding and from there I took every programming class offered at my middle and high school. I even took a duel enrollment class at the Salt Lake Community College that I attended every day and received an internship during.