"Good teachers teach while, Great teachers inspire." This quote has motivated me to become one of the few great teachers that are in the our education industry. I have encountered various of types of teachers while going through my adolescence years in school. Most of my teachers have molded me into the young lady that I am still growing into be. This motto has influenced me to become a teacher to impact the next generations by teaching and inspiring young minded students. Becoming a teacher for me means that each day and each year I continue to spark a passion for learning in students, while having a bit of fun along the way. Since a teenager I really enjoyed supporting younger childern by tutoring and assisting them with their schoolwork. During 2021 I have started working at a daycare that I have been attending since the 3rd grade. Since working and being around young children I have grown to love the presence of the younger generation. While interacting with my students at the daycare I have come to the realization that I would like to spend the rest of my life devoting my time to changing young peoples lives. While working at a daycare and still growing as a young women it has alter my views on life and my future. I have always known I wanted to help children in some way, and volunteering my time to kids it has shown me that I should commit my life to teaching young bright students. A teacher who has changed my life was Ms.Blackmon. Ms.Blackmon was my 3rd grade math elementary teacher. Growing up my favorite subject was math because of Ms.Blackmon. Many students before me thought that she was a "mean and strict" teacher, which discouraged at the began before meeting her. Being around her and learning her teaching ways I grown to love her and the way that she taught. She excepted her students to do well and had high expectations for her class. Ms.Blackmon not only taught me how multiple, divide, and my fractions, but she also encouraged me to become the best verison of me. Ms.Blackmon would give me compliments often inspiring me a better person and motivate me to do better with my studies. Another amazing teacher I had was Mrs.Harris, Mrs.Harris was my 4th grade math teacher. She not only taught math lesson each day, but she also gave life lesson to the class everyday. She taught me how to become a better ciziten within society, and how to be a better student to my classmates. Mrs.Harris gave her class many "come to Jesus" moments because she loved us and wanted us to understand and learn how to treat eachother with kindness and respect. I will never forget these two astonishing teacher that I had the great privellege of having. Someday I desire to become as great of teachers as these two wonderful women were to me. Both of these teacher not only taught me the curriculm for that grade, but they taught me life lesson that are needed to become a better person to others and yourself. When I become a teacher I want to be a great role model for my students and myself, and teach the young people their studies and wisdom that comes with life.

My name is KymReanna Smith-Ashley. I am currently 17 years old and a senior at Clinton High School. I was born in the small town of Clinton North Carolina where I was raised by my wonderful mother. Being raised by a single mother who devoted her life to providing for her children has demonstrated to me the meaning of hard work. As a girl of color, I have always had to work harder and dedicate more of my time to achieve my goals. I have had to prove myself repeatedly to show others that I can do anything that I put my time and effort into. As a result of being determined, I have achieved many academic awards. I am on the honor roll list at my high school and the local community college. I have maintained an unweighted GPA of 3.6 and I was inducted into the CTE Honors Society. I have also received my ServeSafe certificate which is good for the next 5 years. I am truly fortunate to participate in extracurricular activities. I am the senior class secretary in the club SGA (Student Government Ambassadors) at my school, I am a dancer at Carolina Dance Company, and I am a member of the Clinton High School Colorguard. I have been in SGA since the 10th grade, and I am an active member who takes part in lots of school functions. I have been dancing since I was 3 years old, and I have a great passion for dance and that is what led me to discover Colorguard. This is my very first year of colorguard and my last year of school so, I felt that I had to do as much as I could to finish high school off well. I attend Christ Missionary Baptist Church where we do lots of activities to support our community. We support our community by engaging in the organization Backpack Buddies which provides elementary children with pre-packaged food to students. During the winter season, we take part in Toys for Tots which is another organization that delivers foster kids with Christmas gifts. My family and I also do community service on our own time. We take part in giving clothes to those who need them, and we also have given socks and toothbrushes to families in Africa. Working at a daycare has inspired me to continue working with young children. I currently work at a Christian facility called Happy Ours. When I was younger, I attended Happy Ours and I loved being a helper to the teachers. This experience has impacted my choices for the future because being in this environment has altered my plans for the better. Since working at a daycare, it has helped me to find what I want to do for the rest of my life. I've always known that I wanted to positively change young kids' lives because I had great role models in my childhood. When I attend college, I want to major in education or social work. I haven't yet decided on the exact major, but I do know that I want to give young adolescents opportunities to make their lives better. So, with this money, I want to make a better living not only for my future self but for our future generation.

My name is KymReanna Smith-Ashley. I am 17 years old and I am a senior at Clinton High School in North Carolina. I am an active member at my church Christ Missionary Baptist Church. At my church, we do lots of missionary work for our community such as Backpack Buddies which is an organization that provides elementary students with food, during the Christmas season we participate in Toys for Tots which is an organization that gives toys to less fortunate children. I also do missionary work with my family we have given socks and toothbrushes to families in Africa, and we have given lots of clothing and shoes that we can no longer wear anymore to clothing bins that are displayed in thrift stores or supplied to people who need them. I have watched lots of movies but none of them have changed me like the movie Break Through has. Break Through is based on a true story that happened to John Smith. There is a young boy who goes on a lake that is frozen over with ice. Then the boy makes a wrong move and suddenly falls through the ice, he is fighting for his life screaming and crying for help. Then he goes under the cold water record and says that he was in the water for about 15 minutes before the rescuers came and pulled him out. He is rushed to the hospital but all the doctors claim that he isn't going to make it because he was in the water too long. The young boy's mother rushed into the room and heard the news she refused to believe that her son's time was up. She begins to pray over her son and asks God if he could revive her son and give him a pulse. Moments later her son regained a pulse and the doctors were shocked, they couldn't believe what had just happened. This goes to show that people don't know what God has in store for their lives and don't quit when things seem like they are over just continue to pray keep your trust in God and let him do the rest. With this money, it will help me to pay for my future schooling. I have not decided on a particular college yet and I am still choosing my major but I definitely know that I want to help make an impact in young children's life. I currently work at a private Christian daycare in Clinton North Carolina called Happy Ours. There are lots of young amazing kids that attend Happy Ours ranging from the ages 4 to 13. At work, I assist them with their homework, reading, spelling, etc. After their schoolwork is done we have fun and play games, go outside, and do fun activities. With my education, I plan to continue making a positive impact on young kids whether I impact their learning or impact their lives by getting them out of a bad situation. I know that I want to make a difference in someone's life because God has made a difference in mine.

The climb by Miley Cyrus is a song that has the most important message to me. I choose this song because it is very relatable to any young adults who have dreams and may have doubts about continuing their dreams. My favorite lines in the song are "I can almost see it That dream I'm dreaming But there's a voice inside my head saying You'll never reach it." "There's always gonna be another mountain I'm always gonna wanna make it move Always gonna be an uphill battle Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose Ain't about how fast I get there Ain't about what's waiting on the other side It's the climb. They are the most relatable lines because they tell exactly how you would feel if you were going through this situation. The message of this song is that if you have a dream then chase your dream into you get it. You may go through many struggles or mountains but continue pushing through the fight because you will get through it. The artist wanted us to know that you should always keep pushing and keep climbing because we all go through battles while trying to accomplish our goals. This song is very important to me because I am going through a lot of struggles at school and this song encourages me to keep going and try even harder to achieve all the goals that I set for myself at school. The climb has one of the most important messages to me and lots of other people as well.