Picture this: you’re on your way to an event with the main dish, passing through a rough part of town marked by homelessness, violence, and crime. You encounter a criminal, a prostitute, a runaway, and a disabled man. Do you keep walking or stop and share? Morally, many would say to help, but today’s world often normalizes turning away from “other people’s problems.” My faith, as demonstrated in Mark 2 and 10, John 4, and 1 Kings 19, shows how to respond to problems in living with compassion, love, and humanity. As such, there should be no excuse for inhumanity and injustice. What kind of world are we tolerating when such unconditional principles become conditional? Stories from the past teach us how to look forward and remedy injustice today. The world has evolved, but problems have persisted; therefore, it's only natural that unconditional love, kindness, and tolerance should persevere amid dark social issues.  As Miep Gies once said, anyone can turn on a small light in a dark room. I refuse to stand by silently in the face of darkness. “Helpers,” past and present, inspire my pursuit of a Bachelor of Social Work. In recent years, as a member of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, I was able to identify problems in living and act with community support. I now intern at the national headquarters of the same non-profit, hoping to continue my community work. My past projects helped 218 local foster children and displaced Ukrainian children receive blankets, gathered 667 donations of resources for homeless youth, and hundreds of families across multiple states were served by the Ronald McDonald House Charities through in-kind and philanthropic efforts. The time between was spent serving in soup kitchens, volunteering at shelters, peer tutoring at-risk students, and working with mental health organizations.  I love all of my past projects. However, my actions felt small. It was never enough. In the news, I see the vast darkness of social, educational, medical, environmental, racial, identity, and community injustice. I see war, poverty, intolerance, and hate I will never understand. When facing social justice issues, it’s easy to feel small. Attending Women’s and minority marches, training to become a mental health peer support group coordinator, volunteering, and advocating for policy change amid social injustice is intimidating. What am I doing to address social issues? Although it's small, the thing I’ve found that always means the world to the person I’m with, is listening. Social work starts with empathy and a listening ear.   Like Miep Gies said, in small ways we can be light in darkness.   All the steps I’ve taken and will take, big or small, are steps forward for my future and the future lives I hope to impact. I hope the education I gain can be shared with those who need it most, so they can approach their hardships equipped with tools to overcome them. A story that guides me is from 1 Kings 3, where Solomon asks God for wisdom, not for personal gain, but to serve others. I pursue my education with the same heart. This scholarship will help me continue on the path to achieving my education and training in the Social Work profession. My education, listening ears, and empathetic actions are how I’m combating social issues. I understand that this isn’t a change we’ll see overnight; addressing social injustice will take time, and the fight isn't over - it is just beginning. As I’ve found, grace costs us nothing; however, the outcome might just be everything for someone else. What light shines more beautifully than that?

As I have called it since I was a baby, Lamby Blankie, a gift from my parents, has been an immense source of comfort for me my entire life. I always valued my blanket, but I will never forget the night when I held onto it, sobbing when I found out the six-year-old foster child I knew had never had that comfort, nor did my sixteen-year-old teammate in similar circumstances. I had just joined a student organization called the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. I directed community service for my school's chapter. As such, I organized, ran, and oversaw a donation drive and social media awareness initiative in our school and community to gather blankets- a desperate need but not often a luxury found in foster care when children only have trash bags of meager belongings. In collecting 228 blankets for local youth, I was blessed to coordinate with a local non-profit to send fifty blankets to orphaned children in Ukraine during the height of the war. Soon after, I saw my shampoo bottle and remembered how luxurious I thought the grocery store brand was as a child when we had little money to buy more than anything from the dollar store. I thought of the foster children I had helped, and recalled the striking number of homeless youth in my area. Utilizing the same methodology as the prior initiative, I established my All You Need is Love project to help homeless youth secure clothing, hygiene, and house cleaning products (as suggested by a local shelter). It was incredible to see how the community rallied, as we donated enough for 668 individuals, the largest donation the shelter had ever seen from a single group. This past year, as a senior, I held this role in FCCLA at the state level. I served as the liaison between Kentucky FCCLA and the Ronald McDonald House Charities, ultimately coordinating statewide (and beyond) philanthropic, donation, service, and partnership efforts for families in need. Working with our diverse communities, paired with high school and local community college classes, where I have both graduated, I have intensely focused on psychology, human services, and social and behavioral sciences. Each project I have taken on has required me to adopt a multicultural lens of consideration and competence. Likewise, it's been essential to understand that equality and equity mean vastly different things. Equality in serving in each of my projects meant, for example, providing a blanket for each child, giving each homeless youth shampoo, or providing each RMHC family with a meal. Equity, while considering the diversity within the population, meant providing each child with an age (0-17) appropriate blanket; having diversity in hygiene products as it pertains to gender, ethnicity, age, and personal need; and providing meals that accommodate allergens, nutrition, dietary restrictions, religion, and so much more, as to make the projects holistically inclusive by considering the intersecting factors contributing to one’s multicultural identity as it pertained to their problems in living. I have learned a considerable amount through my classes, and I plan to continue my education to earn a Ph.D in Psychology at the University of North Carolina - Wilmington to continue my efforts in ways that genuinely consider each individual as the person they are and make a meaningful impact. In college, I also plan to work and study within my school’s Health Equity Bonner Fellowship to serve and profoundly understand the surrounding community. It is with this in mind and the communities I will encounter, that I humbly submit my story and academic/career aspirations for your consideration to support my endeavors.

My legs hang and sway gently from the wind, stories above the ground. I’m not concerned with the rocks below, nor mind the rolling thunder I’m faintly aware of. My breath hitches, my eyes brimming with tears from the salty wind. My family is probably looking for me, but they can forgive me for my absence later. I remember the distant, melodic ringtone letting me know my best friend was calling- I ignored it; she’d be okay. My fingers barely hold on to the railing now, my gaze fixed intently ahead. I had made my peace and was ready. Finally, allowing a tear to fall, I let my muscles go limp. Did you think that was my end? A silent end to a story untold? That’s how I imagine it’s been for so many; I know it’s the end of someone I loved. It’s true; I literally was sitting on the edge, and there was a time when I would’ve gone forward if the fear and guilt didn’t shackle my heart to everyone I loved. However, this time, the sturdy railing I sat behind served as a place to rest my head and body as I cried and laughed above the beach. This was my new beginning, my safe haven, letting my trouble float away with the horizon's clouds. I used to see the world through rose-colored glasses, a hue of innocence and wonder, amidst difficulties. You always hear of children’s resilience, and I am proud of my younger self for surviving challenges surrounded by a big, loving family- it was all rosy. That is, until the glasses shattered, and I stumbled in the darkness. In 5th grade, I read 13 Reasons Why, but to me, suicide was never a big problem until it was looking me in the face the summer before 7th grade. My cousin, who I saw a week before, cut her life short. I remember the day after, the fear of it happening to anyone else, or myself. I remained silent, keeping up a smile, but behind the mask, there was nothing left. For the next three years, I’d meet many with the same battle, giving everything I had to save them while letting myself waste away, unbeknownst to anyone. I tried to drop hints, maybe whisper for help in a storm, but to no avail. I was pessimistic of rose-colored anything, but performed the perfect ruse. It was the summer of 2022 when I realized the storm was over; that evening my legs hung below me, and a horizon of rose-colored clouds gave me hope. I had survived, and my fears of loss hadn’t transpired. My best friend's mental health survival was a testimony that brought me to my faith and my truest salvation- the comfort and coping I survive on. It didn’t take long for me to recognize my pull to help others combat their problems in living by pursuing my Ph.D in Psychology at The University of North Carolina - Wilmington, just by the beach of my new beginning. I hope that the education I gain I can impart to those who need it most so they can approach their hardships equipped with the tools required to overcome challenges. I've known hardship, experienced and witnessed engagements in symbolic self-immolation by masking the struggles beneath the surface and pain inflicted upon oneself to carry the weight of realities we have not chosen but learned to adapt to silently. While many might not see through rose-colored glasses anymore, I pray that we can help many more find hope and comfort in rose-colored clouds together.