I've been raised in the same church community I've attended my whole life, and continue to be a part of today. Through these past 18 years, core principles have been instilled into my life, such as God's love, the fruits of the spirit, and the Golden Rule, among many others. I've had a plethora of chances to apply these principles to my life. It is because of these principles, the congregation I've been around, and the mercy and grace God has given me, that I have the spirit of giving back to my community. These values I learned pipelined to my community service, which started in the church. During the peak of COVID, our church had to resort to virtual worship. Having the spirit to give back as well as my continued interest in technology, I was eager to help. I wanted our church members to still be able to attend, because they called it their home the same way I did. I took up the role of managing live streams every Sunday, and recording the sermons onto CDs to be released to the radio weekly, extending our reach to my local community. Thanks to the talent I was blessed with, I learned quickly, and continued to improve myself and the streams as time went on. Even after our church could return in-person, virtual worship was still important for those who couldn't make it for any reason, especially sickness, and I'm happy that I am able to contribute to ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to worship. The values I learned translated to my community service outside of the church as well. Throughout high school, I dedicated over 60 hours to community service beyond my church. I volunteered at various places, including elementary and middle schools for fairs and marathons, my high school for dances, and banquets where I assisted with waiting tables and coat check. The fulfillment I gained from helping others was immense, and being able to make a positive impact in different ways meant a lot to me. I didn't view community service as just a requirement for my school's National Honor Society, but rather as a fundamental part of my Christian beliefs. Moreover, it aligned with my faith. Doing community service at my church has also strengthened my faith, because it's something that I'm doing not only for the church, but for God. I've been able to follow the Word more closely. In particular, when I do community service, I always think about Matthew 6:1, which tells us to do these deeds with sincerity and humility. I think about it in even the smaller community service acts I've done. I remember helping an old lady with her groceries just because it felt like it was what I was supposed to do as a Christian. I remember her offering me money for helping her, but my mind immediately connected back to this verse, and I rejected her offer. Without the combination of faith, my core principles, and the start of my community service inside my church, I know I never would have reacted the way I did in that situation, nor other situations I've been in. It translates into every decision I make. To end, I will forever be grateful to my parents for raising me in the church, because they gave me the perfect foundation to become the person I am today, constantly improving myself and my faith, and constantly deciding on how to improve and help my community.

Growing up, I have always been interested in technology. I found myself constantly interested in gaming and viewing it on YouTube. Watching video after video, I gradually began to ask myself critical questions, such as "How are these games even made?" and "Can I learn how to create something like this?". It was in 8th grade when I realized that coding was behind all of this, and it immediately encapsulated me. When I first discovered coding, I started on code.org. Through the curriculum, I selected a story game activity, where one could create a mobile story game. There were different endings to the story depending on the choices you made throughout it. It was exhilarating to develop a narrative and different outcomes for it. What I found to be the most thrilling, though, was the satisfaction I felt when my code would work. I believe it is a universal experience for every programmer to have a feeling of exhilaration and fulfillment when they eliminate all of the bugs and witness their code operate seamlessly. That feeling has persisted throughout my high school computer science classes I vigorously sought after, where I wrote in Python, HTML, CSS, Visual Basic, and (currently) Java and Pyret. In these classes, some of the most memorable, exciting things I developed both alone and with others include a slot machine, a Rube Goldberg machine and 3D game on Unreal Engine, a game of chance, and a birthday calculator, to name a few. In particular, I recently made a Hangman game on CodeHS using Java for my AP Computer Science A class project, which was probably the hardest thing I've coded so far. However, as difficult as it was, I enjoyed debugging and being able to finally complete it and let my friends play it. While I haven’t delved into advanced college-level coding yet, my aspiration remains strong to develop skills to a level where I can create successful video games or AI. Thus, computer science also connects to my future aspirations. After my collegiate years, I will improve diversity in the tech field and bridge the racial/ethnic gap in STEM jobs by creating a video game development team where colleagues will be able to cultivate a community where they can celebrate all types of cultures because of how diverse and culturally different each of the members are. Our mission would be to promote diversity in the games we develop and design. In a day and age where people like me make up such small percentages of jobs in the tech industry, it's important to have diverse teams like the one I aspire to create because it gives other historically underrepresented people the opportunity to see others who look like them and have the assurance that it's possible to pursue a STEM degree or career regardless of their race/ethnicity. It gives the feeling of "Wow, I can do that too!". The digital divide is real, but I believe this strategy is one of many ways to combat it. I realized the importance of representation firsthand by attending a predominantly white high school for the past (almost) 4 years and being only 1 of 2 Black people in my computer science classes, and I'm excited and determined to make that difference. I'm hoping that, by winning this scholarship, I will be able to do just that and more. Not just moneywise, but also knowing the fact that the creators of this scholarship believe in me and my aspirations, is what will push me to move forward.

Any kid with strict parents who want them to perform perfectly in school will probably relate to some of what I’m about to discuss. What may shock them, though, is that I have found it is possible to crave academic validation while balancing your mental health. Let me explain. From the moment I started Kindergarten, the expectation set by my father has always been to receive straight A’s on my report card. It was fine at first. Sometimes stressful, but manageable. I wasn’t struggling with understanding school subjects, especially since my dad had given me math tutoring outside of school, as well as reading comprehension tutoring from one of his peers. But it would only get worse. By the time I reached 7th grade, I realized this expectation would require exponential amounts of dedication. It wasn’t necessarily the thought of not understanding a subject, but rather the thought of receiving a bad grade that stressed me out. I had an example of what could happen when I received a D on my project. He was furious. Even though I knew I could pull the grade back up, the thought of my father seeing the grade and his reaction to it was a nightmare in itself, especially after seeing what could happen firsthand. This terror combined with the mindset he instilled in me cultivated a craving for academic validation. I’d stay up into the wee hours of the night to keep a good homework grade, and wouldn’t get the recommended amount of sleep. I’d avoid my friends. I’d even psych myself into believing that I would never be successful if I couldn’t perform well academically. There was no room for prioritizing mental health. I even tried to explain to my father that he was putting an unnecessarily immense amount of pressure on me, but he invalidated it by comparing it to his own pressures at work. Unfortunately, this carried on into high school as well. My freshman year was when I had enough. I was online because of COVID-19, and I saw the slight effects it was having on my grades. I stood up to my father and told him his expectations were too much. At the end of the day, I couldn’t necessarily blame him. He had the right idea of wanting me to be successful and better than he was, especially as a Black male, but he went about it the wrong way. As scary as it was to speak up, my dad eventually calmed down a bit. At least, enough for me to perform even better than before without pushing myself too hard or having an immense amount of pressure. (Spoiler Alert: the sleep schedule is still messed up, but we’re working on it). Now, I had to figure out how I could still receive all A’s while maintaining good mental health. Time on the weekends to play video games helped, but it alone couldn’t remediate the years of stress I had built up. I needed to find something that would make me feel good about myself. The summer before junior year started, I finally did just that. I decided I would start working out. If I’m being honest, I began working out because I disliked my physical appearance. I had no idea that it would become a routine and a pastime, as well as a method for relieving stress. I’ve been working out at home for the past year, and the benefits are great. The physical benefits alone are awesome. The aesthetics, the increase in strength, and the compliments from other people barely scratch the surface. In particular, my dumbbells are important to me because they serve as a constant reminder of my fitness journey, from when I started to where I am now. Seeing the weights on them gradually increase reassures me that I’m improving. Not only do the dumbbells symbolize physical development, but they also symbolize principles of hard work and determination that I intend to carry with me in the future. They are not just pieces of metal, but companions on my journey towards self-improvement and a constant source of motivation. In essence, working out has truly given me immense joy that is hard to acquire. Overall, I believe that some of the experiences we go through are necessary because they build us both mentally and emotionally, (and in my case, even physically) and allow us to develop new strategies for our problems. Without the imbalance of academic validation, procrastination, and mental health that I developed, I might not have been able to truly value academics or working out. Finding that balance was one of the best things to happen to me, especially as I look forward to college soon to pursue a degree in computer science. Now, I can enjoy both the happiness of good grades/study habits, and the happiness found in hobbies outside of school, like fishing, exercise, and video games. Mental health is real, and sometimes men especially can be taught otherwise. I agree that this is especially prevalent in the Black community, which gives us all the more reason to normalize the prioritization of mental health. Realizing it exists and developing methods to actively combat and maintain it is one of–if not the most important–things you can do for yourself.

Beauty exists in everything and does not require praise to be validated. Marcus Aurelius does a fantastic job of proving this claim through his book as shown in the text below. "Everything which is in any way beautiful is beautiful in itself, and terminates in itself, not having praise as part of itself. Neither worse then nor better is a thing made by being praised. I affirm this also of the things which are called beautiful by the vulgar, for example, material things and works of art. That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty. Which of these things is beautiful because it is praised, or spoiled by being blamed? Is such a thing as an emerald made worse than it was, if it is not praised? Or gold, ivory, purple, a lyre, a little knife, a flower, a shrub?" - The Meditations Book 4 by Marcus Aurelius. The point Marcus Aurelius tries to prove here is simple yet powerful. What is most fascinating about this specific piece of text is the relevance it holds in modern times despite its age. Marcus Aurelius puts it plainly that anything beautiful is just that, beautiful. The analogy he makes with emeralds, gold, ivory, flowers, etc., fits perfectly. These things are beautiful despite the negative opinions someone might have about them. He goes on to say that praise is not a prerequisite or requirement for something to be considered beautiful. Again, the analogy works here because gold does not need to be praised for it to hold value. This can also be applied to a plethora of real-world situations, especially with social media. For example, I have many friends who feel insecure based on the amount of comments and likes a post gets. As understandable as that is, the praise given by those is not necessary and does not define beauty. A post with 0 likes could subjectively be infinitely better than a post with 100,000 likes, especially considering the traction a post receives relies on an algorithm, something uncontrollable by us as users. In short, this means that your beauty is not defined by other people, nor do you need their praise. Marcus makes beauty objective rather than subjective. He highlights that anything could be beautiful in any way possible, meaning appearance is not the only aspect. In a society where "pretty privilege" exists, it can be difficult to appreciate other aspects of a person. A person's beauty is not simply their looks, but their character as well. Nowadays, it is hard to find someone who appreciates the personality and behavior of a person rather than their looks. People are bullied because of their outward appearance as if it is some sort of socioeconomic class that they do not fit into. I think this text could, in that aspect, be used as a wake-up call to society that we are not to be so shallow in that we focus solely on one detail. It is also worth noting that Aurelius mentions how even the ordinary facets of life ("material things and works of art") are beautiful in their own way. This particular part of the text holds great importance in that it calls the reader to enjoy the small, ordinary things in life. As fast and busy as life gets, it is hard to take a moment to notice the world around you and the beauty within everything. Time waits for no one, so it's important to enjoy moments while they last. Overall, beauty is objective. There is no point in searching for validation. I'd go as far as to say that this text contradicts the commonly known phrase "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", which makes beauty subjective. Aurelius unintentionally creates a piece of text that motivates and gives the reader a sense of security they may have lacked. What I appreciate most about this text is the values that can be learned from it. As this is one of his many pieces of literature, it is also made clear the significance of literature itself and its timeless value. Without literature, where would our basic fundamentals reside? How would they even come to fruition? Literature is integral to our society, and this piece of text only proves so.