Connecting with my faith has given me the confidence in myself to pursue my lofty goals. Following God has helped me get through hardships and find my purpose in life. Through high school, I took it upon myself to deepen my relationship with Jesus and my understanding of my religion and the Bible. My faith has given me the tools that I need to succeed in my life despite the obstacles I face. As a rising freshman at Mississippi State University (MSU), I am excited to major in Animal Sciences. My passion for animals and my desire to make a difference in the world have always been strong, but it is my faith that has truly shaped my path. Jesus has taught me the importance of compassion, resilience, and dedication, which are all qualities that I plan to carry with me throughout my educational journey. High school was not always easy. There were times when I felt overwhelmed by the workload and the pressure to maintain a perfect GPA. However, my relationship with Jesus provided me with a sense of peace and direction. I would often turn to prayer and scripture for guidance, finding comfort in knowing that God had a plan for me. This spiritual support was crucial in helping me achieve a 4.0 GPA in both high school and college so far. My faith has also inspired me to be a leader and serve others. In high school, I was involved in various community service projects, such as volunteering at animal shelters and participating in church outreach programs. These experiences not only strengthened my faith but also reinforced my commitment to helping those in need. I plan to continue this service-oriented mindset at MSU by joining clubs and organizations that align with my values and allow me to make a positive impact. Studying Animal Sciences at MSU is not just about academics for me; it is about fulfilling a calling. I believe that God has given me a love for animals and a desire to contribute to their well-being. My goal is to become a veterinarian, a profession where I can combine my passion for science with my commitment to compassion and care. I am confident that my faith will guide me through the challenges of this rigorous program and help me stay focused on my ultimate purpose. In conclusion, my relationship with Jesus has profoundly affected my faith and shaped my educational journey. It has given me the confidence to pursue my dreams, the strength to overcome obstacles, and the compassion to serve others. As I embark on this new chapter at MSU, I am committed to living out my faith in all that I do, trusting that God will continue to lead me towards my goals. Thank you for considering me for the God Hearted Girls Scholarship.

When I was in elementary school, my beloved cat began losing her hair and her personality changed. She became aggressive, lethargic, and fearful. This cat and I were best friends; she had always taken good care of me when I needed someone to tell my playground drama to. My mom and I took her to every veterinarian in town. They ran tests, tried medicated baths, steroid shots, and medications but nothing helped. She was declining and we all feared for the worse. That summer, we were recommended to a vet outside of town. His clinic was nestled in the middle of Kemper County and looked like nothing from the outside. Nervous but desperate, we brought her to the new doctor, and left her there with him for over two months. She stayed at his clinic for two months. He called us multiple times over the summer with little news. I can imagine that he was less than keen on telling a little girl that there was nothing he could do for her best friend. Finally, right before school began, the doctor called my mom and told us to come pick her up. In a last ditch effort, he declawed her. She stopped pulling her hair out and her behavior flipped on a dime. On the drive to the clinic, my mom was visibly tense. Her mind was throwing up figures of how much this ordeal would cost us. She was a single mother with two kids and a teacher’s salary. At the time, I didn’t understand her fears but I can now recognize the financial pressure this would put us under and her dedication to this cat and her daughter. When I reunited with my little white cat, I will never forget the doctor’s words to my mother and I. He told her that we owed him nothing. Our reunion was payment enough. He charged us nothing for her two month stay, surgery, and all the other money she was sure to have spent him. This unnecessary act of compassion and empathy spurred me to pursue becoming a veterinarian. My college and career goals are centered around my passion for education and animal care. This passion has become a motivating force in my life in and out of the classroom. I began actively learning as much as I could about animals through whatever books or videos I could acquire. I want to use my position as a vet to advocate for animals and help educate owners on caring for their pets. I am passionate about animal rescue and ethical issues surrounding improper breeding and care of both small and large animals. Volunteering at multiple horse rescues, I have witnessed the results of neglectful, cruel, and uneducated owners. After college, I want to work with rescues to facilitate rehabilitation as well as educate people on the needs of their animals. I also enjoy challenging myself and I thrive in intense situations where I need to use problem-solving to deal with whatever issue is in front of me. I am detail-oriented and meticulous in my academics and personal life. Versatility and adaptability is also a skill I would like to emphasize. I am constantly observing and adjusting to my environment to best suit the situation. My skills and interests culminate into a passion for veterinary medicine. Science and animals are my two main passions. This career will allow me to use my passions to help both people and animals. I cannot see myself anywhere else. As I transition into the next phase of my life, I am focused on my ambitions. I chose animal and dairy science as my major as a stepping stone to veterinary school. Animal and dairy science is going to allow me to gain more hands-on experience with small and large animals. My strongest character trait is empathy. Each decision I make is rooted in compassion. I meet each challenge and person with understanding and attempt to see all of the perspectives in a situation. Throughout college I will be met with opposition and have to navigate issues both academically and socially. Compassion will help me solve problems with others and compromise to create a solution that best suits everyone involved. In my career, I aspire to be a veterinarian who treats each animal and owner with love and grace. I want to work with owners to provide the best care possible for their beloved pets and guide them through their treatment. Going to the vet can be intimidating and taxing on both people and pets. When I become a veterinarian I want to be a comfort to my patients and change the stigma around going to the vet. I want to make veterinary care more accessible and less intimidating for owners and their animals.

I want to leave a legacy of compassion and service when I die. After college, I want to attend veterinary school in order to earn my doctorate. After gaining experience, I want to open my own clinic and offer more affordable medical care for my community's animals. I would like to start a prom for low cost spay and neuter and give back to my community. I also want to start a program to get young girls interested in veterinary medicines and help them reach their goals. It is difficult to find opportunities to get involved in veterinary medicine, especially for young or underrepresented girls. Volunteering means a lot to me and throughout high school, I have been blessed enough to be able to participate in multiple service projects. I participated in a soccer program for special needs children with my school. For several years, I also donated to several food, clothing, and toy drives that my clubs put on. Outside of school, I volunteered consistently for three and a half years at Coyote Hills Equine Rescue and Therapeutic Riding Stables. I volunteered at three, month long horse camps for both special and regular needs children. I was a side walker for therapy lessons where I assisted the individual and instructor to improve their fine motor skills and improve their mental health and capacity. All of the horses used in this program were rescued from neglectful and abusive situations. They are retrained and rehabilitated to be used at therapy and riding horses. I helped give these horses a chance at a new life. Rescuing animals is something I am very passionate about as well as the connection between human and animal. I have personally seen and experiences the benefits of animals on mental health. I hope to use my position as a veterinarian to be a delegate for human and animal by advocating for animals and helping their humans take the best care of them that they can. Connecting with my community is very important to me and I want to make veterinary medicine more accessible for people who love their animals but cannot afford their care. Getting young people interested in veterinary medicine is also very important to me. There is a huge shortage of vets, technicians, kennel workers, and receptionists. The veterinary care team must work together on each case, and there is a spot for everyone in veterinary medicine. I want to leave a legacy as someone who is driven, empathetic, knowledgeable, and as someone who advocates for others.

When I was in elementary school, my beloved cat began losing her hair and her personality changed. She became aggressive, lethargic, and fearful. This cat and I were best friends; she had always taken good care of me when I needed someone to tell my playground drama to. My mom and I took her to every veterinarian in town. They ran tests, tried medicated baths, steroid shots, and medications but nothing helped. She was declining and we all feared for the worse. That summer, we were recommended to a vet outside of town. His clinic was nestled in the middle of Kemper County and looked like nothing from the outside. Nervous but desperate, we brought her to the new doctor, and left her there with him for over two months. She stayed at his clinic for two months. He called us multiple times over the summer with little news. I can imagine that he was less than keen on telling a little girl that there was nothing he could do for her best friend. Finally, right before school began, the doctor called my mom and told us to come pick her up. In a last ditch effort, he declawed her and spayed her. She stopped pulling her hair out and her behavior flipped on a dime. On the drive to the clinic, my mom was visibly tense. Her mind was throwing up figures of how much this ordeal would cost us. She was a single mother with two kids and a teacher’s salary. At the time, I didn’t understand her fears but I can now recognize the financial pressure this would put us under and her dedication to this cat and her daughter. When I reunited with my little white cat, I will never forget the doctor’s words to my mother and I. He told her that we owed him nothing. Our reunion was payment enough. He charged us nothing for her two month stay, surgery, and all the other money she was sure to have spent him. This unnecessary act of compassion and empathy spurred me to pursue becoming a veterinarian. My college and career goals are centered around my passion for education and animal care. This passion has become a motivating force in my life in and out of the classroom. I began actively learning as much as I could about animals through whatever books or videos I could acquire. I want to use my position as a vet to advocate for animals and help educate owners on caring for their pets. I am passionate about animal rescue and ethical issues surrounding improper breeding and care of both small and large animals. Volunteering at multiple horse rescues, I have witnessed the results of neglectful, cruel, and uneducated owners. After college, I want to work with rescues to facilitate rehabilitation as well as educate people on the needs of their animals. I also enjoy challenging myself and I thrive in intense situations where I need to use problem-solving to deal with whatever issue is in front of me. I feel at my calmest around animals and I feel a special relationship with them. The more that I work with animals, the more I appreciate the complexity and diversity of their personalities. I want to help save lives and change the world, one animal and owner at a time.

At the age of ten, I began volunteering at Coyote Hills Equine Rescue and Therapeutic Riding Center. Coyote Hills takes in neglected horses and rehabilitates them before training them to be riding and therapy horses. The therapeutic riding program helps special needs children and adults with physical and mental disabilities. Throughout my time volunteering here, I was exposed to a wide variety of service. From playing an integral part in the recovery of horses or by participating in therapy sessions, I got to help a lot of people and horses. One girl in particular that I really connected with was named Caroline. She had Down syndrome and was nonverbal with mobility issues when she began therapy lessons. I was an assistant in many of her lessons and even though she couldn’t use words, she spoke to me in meaningful ways. She had the purest heart and was so eager to see us and the horses every time she came. I was by her side the entire lesson, helping her with whatever she needed. From getting her on the horse to helping her steer to stabilizing her during new movements, we did it all. I was fortunate enough to know her for two years. In that time, she grew so much physically and gained independence in her lessons. She also began speaking in broken sentences and began talking through a tablet with us. It was an incredible experience and even now that we have both moved, I still keep up with her and her family. Another experience at Coyote Hills that deeply affected me was rescuing a particular horse. This horse’s name was Bentley. He was a scrawny, wild gelding who seemed afraid of his own shadow. I found him online at a kill pen in Tennessee. The rescue rallied funds and we saved him from going to slaughter. From the moment I met him, I fell in love. It’s now been five years since we rescued him. Our journey has been hard and full of obstacles. We had several health scares and training him was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. For the first three years of our relationship, I was leasing him through the rescue and contributing a ton of time to him. However, at the end of my freshman year of high school, we moved. The thought of leaving him tore me to pieces. I went out on a limb and asked the owner of the rescue if she would let me adopt him. Coyote Hills is a sanctuary and very rarely adopts out horses in order to ensure they have a forever home. My prayers were answered when the owner called me and told me that she wanted me to adopt Bentley. Two years later, he lives with me and he is a completely different horse than when I met him. I trust him with my life and he is incredibly well taken care of. I am majoring in Animal Science with a pre-vet concentration. I want to use my degree and career to give back to the animals and people in my community. I want to give compassion and education to my clients. I want to be an active partner in animal rescue through providing medical care and knowledge. I want to practice small and large animal medicine to give back to a wide variety of animals in my community. I also want to create a program in my community to get young girls interested in veterinary medicine and STEM careers.

I am a senior in highschool and as I enter the next step of my eduction, I have decided to pursue Animal Sciences with a pre-vet concentration. I am attending Mississippi State University and I have applied to the early entry program fo the vet school. I am thinking that I want to specialize in small and large animal surgery. I want to become a veterinarian to help animals and their owners in sickness and in health. I want to be a beacon of compassion and knowdlege. Throughout high school, I have volunteered at multiple horse rescues and rescued my personal horse. I have been able to watch the change in him from an emaciated and abandoned shell of an animal to him thriving and loving life. Horses have always held a special place in my heart because they have such an intrinsic personality that is unique to each of them. They have incredible heart and courage. They are the best therapy and the best friend a girl could have. I have worked alongside several veterinarians to help my horse get back to a healthy state. I owe so much of my knowledge and skill to them. They have inspired me to pursue this career. As I found myself interested in veterinary medicine, I began searching for a job so I could see what the day to day job looked life. I now work in a small animal clinic as a kennel tech and a veterinary assistant. I have gotten to learn to much about client interaction, veterinary skills, and I have improved my handling skills. I have also been witness to many cases of neglected or abandoned animals that have only ever felt kindness at the hands of their veterinary staff. A case in particular that affected me was a puppy named Blueberry. He was a small lab puppy who was only about six months old. When he was very young, his owners put a puppy-sized collar on him and put him outside on a chain. They only brought him in to see the doctor after a few months of growth which completely encapsulated this collar. His skin and muscle grew over the collar, his breathing being heavily impacted. Despite their neglect, his owners wouldn't pay for the surgery necessary to remove the collar and save his life. Finally, they surrendered him to the clinic. He is now a happy and healthy year old puppy who has found his forever home. They love and cherish him in a way he and his siblings had never known. I want to become a veterinarian so that I can help animals in need and educate owners on their pets needs. I want to be a voice for the voiceless. I know that this is a difficult path that I have chosen, but I have been called to this life. Animals have been an integral and important part of my life and I want to give my life to them.

My name is Lilliana Burkes and I am a senior at Northwest Rankin High School in Flowood, Mississippi. I was born into a single-parent household in Meridian, Mississippi where I lived until I started high school. Growing up, we struggled with money and making rent each month. I think watching my mom struggle and work herself to the bone gave me an incredible appreciation for hard work and everything I had access to. I consider myself to be ambitious and hardworking. I have worked various jobs and created my own petsitting business to help offset my school and family expenses. As I started high school, my mom got married and my life turned upside down. We moved and suddenly money was less of an issue for day-to-day life. This allowed me to dream about going to college and pursuing my dreams. From a young age, my mom instilled in me a desire to give back to my community. I have a passion for animals, specifically horses. Starting at age ten, I began volunteering at a horse rescue and therapeutic riding facility in Chunky, Mississippi. I had the opportunity to assist in the rescue and rehabilitation of over 30 horses in the time that I volunteered there. I was also trained to be a side-walker in the therapeutic riding lessons. This meant I walked alongside and assisted the riders with whatever they needed. This gave me valuable insight into people with special needs and disabilities. This was a very important experience for me and has shaped my career goals and personality. Since then, I have participated in several other service projects. This includes volunteering with the Salvation Army, the TopSoccer program, Mississippi Horse Rescue, Operation Christmas Child, and several school beautification events. This scholarship would help me pursue higher education and achieve my dreams. I want to become a veterinarian and give back to the animals and people in my community. I am very interested in shelter medicine and helping connect people with animals in need. I want to make an impact on my community. I demonstrate the qualities that make a good leader and I hope that I will be able to contribute to a brighter future. It is important to give back to the community and help those in need. I am fully aware of how incredibly blessed I am and I want to help those in need in my community. Through my school, I worked with a mobile shower company that provides the homeless with hygiene products in Jackson. Through this experience, I was able to directly assist the people in my community who are disadvantaged. Throughout college and in my career, I want to continue to give back to my community.

George Stubbs is one of my favorite painters. Maybe it's his color choices, his delicate techniques, or his subject matters. Quite possibly, it is all of the above. His work encapsulates two of the most important things in my life, art and horses. "Two Horses in a landscape" painted by George Stubbs from 1724-1806 is my favorite of his artworks. This piece has a simple name and concept but the connection shared between the two horses is one that speaks greatly to me. From firsthand experience, horses has deeply complex emotions and relationships. Often times, people don't realize that or get to see it up close. I think Stubbs was trying to paint a piece that showed this bond that horses share with each other. Horses often come up in my own work and while my style is very different than Stubbs, I aim to capture the same expressions in my work. His paintings make the horses so incredibly animated and lifelike. Other artists from the time period would paint horses and background objects that rarely has any emotion to them. Stubbs had to have been touched by the herd dynamics that horses display. I too have been changed by the same thing. So, I suppose I relate to Stubbs in one way or another. This piece and many of his other pieces inspire me to create but also to stop and draw from my best reference, the world around me. I read that many of George's pieces were done from a real situation. I have tried to do the same with my work and improve on my ability to understand and paint the world as it is.