Soccer is my passion and I have been on the field every fall, winter and spring since 2016. I enjoy playing soccer, watching soccer games, and sharing my excitement with young athletes through coaching. I volunteered with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for their FCA summer PowerCamp, where I mentored young boys in soccer and in their spiritual lives. In 2024, I started coaching U6 for Cecil Soccer. Watching the players develop their skills gives me a sense of accomplishment. Being involved with my community has always been a big part of my life. In fact, I have over 570 documented service hours. When I joined Cub Scouts in first grade, we participated in community service activities. After crossing over to Boy Scouts, I was able to give back to the scouting community by volunteering a week each summer helping with Cub Scout Day Camp. I really enjoyed working with the scouts by developing teamwork and learning outdoor skills. I earned the rank of Eagle Scout by building a little library for the Elkton Alliance courtyard. By speaking at town meetings and working with younger scouts, I developed public speaking and leadership skills. Working at Les Petites Bisous and I’m Just Wingin’ It have helped me with time management and customer service. I plan to use these skills in my future career as a marine biologist. A trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, organized by my school, inspired my interest in researching and caring for marine animals. I was able to get a taste of what a marine biologist does when I volunteered at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center last summer. There, I helped with turtle care, center maintenance, and public education. My number one goal in life is to become a marine biologist. I want to discover things about marine animals that no one has ever seen before, I want to uncover mysteries in this field and bring light to endangered species and ocean conservation. I want to be able to lead the next generation into a path of conservation and make them love the ocean just as much as I do. I want to teach others about the research I will perform and give others the knowledge they need to improve upon the work once I have passed. I want to teach them to do the same for the next generation and the next generation after that. Being a leader is not just about telling others what to do, it's about guiding them into a future where both them and the world will be better. It's about passing down the knowledge from one person to the next and so on. The more people I can reach out to and guide into my passion, the better the world will be. I would be proud to be honored with a Proverbs 3:27 Scholarship. I will not withhold good when it is due to either man or animal. Remaining drug and alcohol free, putting forth my best effort in college, and continuing to volunteer are ways I can honor my community and the values of this scholarship. I understand that while my career will have a positive impact on the environment and the wildlife around us, being a marine biologist is not going to bring in a big salary. I want to spend my time in college focusing on experiences and research, while not having to worry my family or myself with student debt. This scholarship will help me do just that.

My mom is a science teacher, and for as long as I remember, she would take us kids to every science related experience possible. As a family, we visit natural history museums, aquariums, nature centers, and zoos wherever we go. At five years old, I attended my very first summer camp learning about dinosaurs at the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science. In second grade, my parents drove me each day to a summer camp in Smyrna called “Creatures Under the Sea to Dinosaurs on Land” because they knew how much I loved animals. As a boy scout, I focused on earning merit badges in nature science, fishing, oceanography, and wildlife. I had the opportunity to go into the penguin exhibit at the Baltimore Zoo, take a behind the scenes shark tour at Sea World, spend a day with a zoologist and swim with dolphins at Discovery Cove, and travel to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. While in the Galapagos, we got to tour a tortoise sanctuary, visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, and snorkel with white tip sharks. Last summer, I volunteered at The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in North Carolina. I cleaned tanks as well as fed and helped give medication to the turtles. I also educated the public about how to protect marine turtles. Many of the turtles needed rescuing because of interactions with boats and humans, which was very frustrating to me. I was able to enjoy this experience because I was accepted to a special Sea Turtle Camp on TopSail Island. In addition to learning about turtles, we dissected squid, studied other ocean animals, and participated in beach clean ups. My number one goal in life is to become a marine biologist. I want to discover things about marine animals that no one has ever seen before, such as the reproductive habits of a certain species of eel. I want to uncover mysteries in this field and bring light to endangered species and ocean conservation. I want to lead the next generation into a path of conservation and make them love the ocean just as much as I do. Being a leader in this field is not just about telling others what to do, it's about being an example and guiding others into a future where both people and the world around them will be better. It's about passing down the knowledge from one person to the next and so on. The more people I can reach out to and guide into my passion, the better the world will be. My experiences volunteering with kids at day camp, coaching soccer, working counter service at part-time jobs, and at the Sea Turtle Rescue will be invaluable as I move forward into college, internships, and eventually my dream career in marine biology. I would be proud to be honored with a Paws for Progress Scholarship. Remaining drug and alcohol free, putting forth my best effort in college, and continuing to volunteer are ways I can honor my community and the sponsor of this scholarship, Little Landmines. I understand that while my career will have a positive impact on the environment and the wildlife around us, being a marine biologist is not going to bring in a big salary. I want to spend my time in college focusing on experiences and research, while not having to worry my family or myself with student debt. This scholarship will help me do just that.

My family is a great example on how people can give back in so many ways with our varying interests. They have inspired me to pursue any passion that also gives back to others. My mother is a cancer survivor. She likes to tell people that I am her miracle baby, because she was not supposed to be able to have kids after the treatment for her aggressive type of cancer. She supports cancer research and helping cancer patients. One of the things she did to try to go into labor with me was to walk laps and laps in a Relay For Life just days before I was born. Additionally, she wanted to be an inspiration for cancer patients that there is hope for a normal life after surviving cancer and the aggressive treatments she had to endure. We support cancer research through donations and the annual Relay for Life. My father is part of an organization that dresses as Star Wars characters and he only wears his Storm Trooper suit for charity events. I can see how passionate he is about making everyone smile when he stops to talk to them along a parade route or poses for photos at an event. My sister has been running a book drive for the past ten years. She is interested in giving back to the community by collecting and donating gently used books. Her connections from her book drive helped me find my Eagle Scout project, which is to build a Little Free Library for the town square. In this way, we are working together for a common goal to meet the needs of people in our community. Through scouting, I volunteered for a week each summer for five years at the local Cub Scout Day Camp where I led a group of elementary age boys through their daily activities at camp. The connections I build with these kids are so important and I want to encourage them to continue in scouting as they get older. I have been playing soccer for almost ten years on a local recreational team, my middle school team, and now my high school soccer team. Last fall, I started volunteer coaching a U6 team of four and five year olds. Sharing my love of the game with them has been amazing and I enjoy watching their athletic skills and team work develop each season. I also volunteered as a Huddle Leader for two summers for the FCA PowerCamp and taught soccer skills to middle school kids. Coaching helps the kids as well as strengthens my own techniques. This summer, I volunteered at a Sea Turtle Rescue facility. I cleaned tanks as well as fed and helped give medication to the turtles. I also educated the public about how to protect marine turtles. Many of the turtles needed rescuing because of interactions with boats and humans. I want to go to St. Mary’s College of Maryland to become a marine biologist and use my skills to help with marine animal rescue. My future career will be involved with conservation and helping animals in need. Marine biologists not only work with animals, but with educating the public on how to care for our environment. My experiences volunteering with kids at daycamp, coaching soccer, and at the Sea Turtle Rescue will be invaluable as I move forward into college, internships, and eventually my dream career in marine sciences.