I have two majors, Biblical Studies and Early Childhood Education. I am studying teaching because I want to have a significant impact on students. This would help my studies because I went to Clarks Summit University, but they shut down with so I was forced to transfer somewhere else if I wanted to finish my major. It was cheaper to go to Clarks Summit, and I transferred to Lancaster Bible College, which cost a good amount more than Clarks Summit. If I can get this scholarship, it will help me finish out my degree. I am pursuing a purpose, not a degree. To fulfill that purpose, I need to get my teacher certification, which means finishing college. Even though Lancaster Bible College is expensive, I want to pursue Christ, not just my degree. I want to reflect Christ when I am a teacher, and by going to a Bible College, where I can have a double major- biblical studies. On July 1st, I am going to Japan for mission work and a teaching internship. I will be there for a month and a half. I am so excited to go, but I will not be making a lot of money there as I would in the U.S., due to this, I am going to need more help with college, and this $500 scholarship will be so helpful for me. I am still so excited to do mission work in Japan, and I firmly believe that if it is God's will, he will provide. He provided me with this opportunity to be a missionary in another country, and I know if Lancaster Bible College is where He wants me, then He will provide. I want to work in less privileged areas, and not only spread the word to them, but also be there for my students. I know what it is like to feel lost at a very young age. When I was in second grade, my mother died two weeks before my birthday. My second-grade teacher knew this, and the hardship of having a family member with brain cancer, she decided to throw a birthday party for me at school and get the whole school involved. This is part of the reason I am pursuing Early Ed. I know what it is like to be the child who does not talk to anyone because of the hurt inside of me, with what was going on at home. I so badly want to help students like me who have had it rough at a young age, and be there for them as my teacher was there for me. Having missed half of second grade due to my mother's cancer in her brain forgetting to take me to school. Then, having all the staff at the school help me to get caught up, and not have to get held back. Having staff give me a stuffed animal at the time, a stuffed animal on the day of my mother's funeral. I so badly want to be like those teachers, and especially help those from less fortunate backgrounds. Although God will lead me where He wants me, my goal would be to specifically work in poorer parts of Appalachia, where my grandfather and father are from whom worked extremely hard to let me have a better life. My grandfather once told me, "Me and your father worked hard for you to have a better life, do not take it for granted." By giving this scholarship, you will help me achieve this goal.

Thank you for offering this scholarship it means so much to me, and others! I know how you feel about losing a loved one to cancer. When I was 5 years old my mother got diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. I remember the exact night that all of this went down. My father at the time thought that my mother was having a lot of issues because of her diabetes. The day that we discovered my mother had cancer was when my mother hired a tree company to cut off branches of a tree that didn't need branches to be cut off she just decided to do that. My father came home to see this, and he realized that something is going on, and it was not diabetes. He proceeded to take her to the hospital where she got diagnosed with brain cancer. My father sat me and my sister down to tell us that our mother was going to die. I said to him "what's cancer?" I was so young that I didn't even know the thing that would eventually kill my mother. I had no clue what trauma I would go through after that. My mother would not know who her own family was. She would be consistently sleeping. I was raised by babysitters since my father was working as much as he could. My mother had decided to not take me to school so much in first grade that I almost got held back. My mother decided to go after my father with a knife at one point. She would try to leave the house several times because she did not know where she was. I would have to feed my mother because she could not feed herself, and people who were taking care of her had to change her diaper because she could not move. Near the end of her life, my mother was basically in a coma-like state, so she did not talk, move, open her eyes, et cetera. Not just that, my father was $60,000 in debt with hospital bills. All of this happened because of cancer. Then in 2011 two weeks before my 7th birthday my mother lost the battle with cancer. I say loss but I believe that my mother never lost she just told cancer in the face "you have no control over me" and eventually died. My father once told me that when my mother went to get brain surgery and she told my dad that she was getting it for her girls (me and my sister). My mother was one of the strongest people I have ever met. My mother could have said "just let me die" but no she kept fighting to the end. She did it because she loved others! She loved her mother, father, brother, me and my sister, her husband, overall because she loved her family. My mother was a fighter. My grandmother recently told me that my mother told her that whatever happens Lydia (me) must have a Tinkerbell birthday because she knows how much I loved Tinkerbell. She told her that two months before she died. My mother was always thinking of others even when she was suffering the most. She was a selfless person. Now as a 17-year-old almost 18 who will soon be graduating, I have my mother as a role model in my life even now. I have learned a lot from her. She taught me to care for others even when you're going through tough times. She taught me to be a fighter even when it's hard to fight. She taught me to help others even when it's hard. Overall my mother taught me without even having to say anything some of the most valuable things in life. The famous saying "actions speak louder than words;" my mother was in action and spoke louder than words. Ever since I lost her I have focused on helping others. Either it is someone who has a rough home life I try to be a second home to them or I see someone crying and I go to encourage them. My mother taught me these things. I now want to fight to achieve a bachelor's degree in early education so I can become a teacher. I want to help others as my mom helped me through teaching. I know that in the future the kids that I will teach will have rough home lives or even bumps in the road. I want to be a second home to these students. For the ones that don't have moms or guardians, I want to be a motherly figure to them. I want to fight to help people in any way I can as my mother did for me.

I come from a family with Bipolar Disorder. My grandmother suffered from Bipolar and ended her life in 1979 when my father was a junior in high school. My father was the one to find her dead. I don't know much about my dad's mother's side of the family since I never met her, and my dad does not talk to his mother's side of the family a lot. What I do know however is that my father's uncle committed suicide and also suffered from Bipolar. Other people on his mom's side also committed suicide it was just not his uncle and mom. I also have two cousins on my dad's side who have Bipolar. I have a brother who has attempted suicide twice because of bipolar. My point is that a good part of my family suffers from Bipolar. When I was thirteen years old I was diagnosed with Bipolar. My parents and grandparents had a suspicion that I had it which I was embarrassed about at the time. Bipolar is known more for how it affects others rather then how it affects people with it. Just look it up on google. "Can Bipolar people keep relationships," "are Bipolar people manipulative," "are people with Bipolar narcissist," "are people with bipolar crazy?" This is why I was so embarrassed about having Bipolar because people don't say good things about Bipolar. Most of the time it's about how they're obsessive buyers when their manic or feel like their better than everyone else when their manic it's never "Suicidal behavior is quite frequent among subjects with BD, as up to 4–19% of them ultimately end their life by suicide, while 20–60% of them attempt suicide at least once in their lifetime [2]. In BD, the risk of suicide death is up to 10–30 times higher than that of the general population [2,5,8,10,11,12]," (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). My brother even once told me "it is inevitable for you to not attempt suicide with Bipolar." Let's just say there is a lot of negativity surrounding Bipolar. Before I was put on meds I was depressed a lot. I wrote suicide notes and tried to end my life. I cut myself. Ruined all of my relationships with people. Scared to let people in my life. I was constantly in my messy room that I did not care to pick up. The lights were always off in my room. I did not want to hang out with anyone. My life was like a rollercoaster that never ended, I just wanted to be in the dark. You see Bipolar is not just depression it's also mania. Mania to put it simply is basically when someone is extremely excited and hyper "I can do anything" type of attitude or mood. I would go from extremely depressed to manic every other week. It was like constant mental whiplash. To make everything worse during that time my sisters would tell me "all 8th-grade girls are "depressed" you're just faking it, you just want attention." Then when I wanted a counselor because I needed serious help my parents took me to a marriage counselor where they blamed all their marriage issues on me. Although both of those things my family apologized for, it still affected me badly. When all I wanted was help and someone who could relate to how I felt there was no one. It did not change till I reached out to one of my friends, and told her how I was feeling. Her parents called the school and the principal had a talk with me in her office. After a long talk, she called my mother and told her what I told her. When my mother picked me up at school she just started balling, and said how she was going to get me actual help and said "please don't kill yourself." I felt so much love at that moment. Sometimes all it takes is reaching out to someone. I view it as being in an ocean drowning and then you finally decide to lift your hand above the water when someone in a boat grabs your hand and brings you in the boat with them. If I did not reach out to someone I firmly believe that I would not be here today. When I was put on meds I had a total U-turn. I had so much less anger, and better relationships, overall everything was better. There have been times when I have been suicidal even with meds but it has not been as bad as it used to be. I believe that there is a stigma around taking meds for mental illnesses. I've heard so many times people tell me that their parents won't let them take pills because they don't believe in medication. Well, I'm going to tell you meds and support from my family, friends, counselor, and psychiatrist saved my life. There is nothing wrong with telling someone that they need help. We live in a society where we have to be strong 24/7 and should not show emotions or we need to be extremely independent and do it on our own. I would say differently, we do need help and there is nothing wrong with asking for help. It does not make you any less independent I think it makes you stronger. Being able to ask for help on something many people are scared to ask help for is to me one of the strongest things you can do. As someone who wants to be a teacher, I believe that teachers have a big role in society. They have easy access to change how people think and view things. When I become a teacher I want to teach kids that it's okay to ask for help and that you're not alone in this. I want to be available to my students whenever they need help. I hope to change how future generations view mental health through teaching.

When I was six years old I lost my mother to brain cancer. Most of my childhood is a blur and the stuff that I do remember is the bad things. The bad things meant the early morning to late night hospital trips via medevac or ambulance. My mother not knowing who I was told me that I was not her daughter and to get away from her. Her, collapsing on the kitchen floor. Threatening my dad with a knife trying to leave our house because she did not know where she was and who we were. Having mothers day at school with a mother who could not even read what I made her because she was basically in a coma or did not remember who I was or was dead. Babysitters raised me because my mother was not in the right mind state and my dad was working trying to pay for hospital bills even though he was in 60k in debt already. Missing half of the first grade almost got held back because my mom not in the right mind state did not take me to school. The times near the end of her life when I had to help take care of my mom by feeding her apple sauce with her mouth barely opening, eyes closed, wearing a diaper because she couldn't even physically get up, and laying on the bed basically in a paralyzed state of the body. When I was six my sister woke me up by telling me that our mother was dead, and I kept saying to myself "it's just a dream" while banging my head into my pillow. That day that they carried my mother's body out, I sat in the living room with no tears just numb. I had been stabbed so many times in the heart that I didn't even feel anything anymore. The cancer was so bad that being an ignorant child I said to a girl on my bus when I was six that I wished my mom had breast cancer like hers' mom because my mother would at least be able to recognize who her own daughter was. To give context to brain cancer, because it is in the brain and for my mom, cancer had spread like sand through her brain, the tumor will affect your brain functions so it was not her fault if anything my mother was a fighter she told my dad that she would get a brain surgery because of her daughters. She told my grandmother to make sure I have a Tinkerbell-themed bday party for my seventh bday because she knew I loved Tinkerbell. She said this two months before my bday. However, she did not get to see my bday party and died two weeks before my seventh bday. On my seventh birthday, I knew my mom was looking down from heaven watching. When I was nine my dad remarried. My stepmom is what has been supporting me the most. She has been there for me the whole way. She even told me once that no matter where I work she will always be proud of me. She will help me pay off student loans. My mother has taught me that I'm smart and that if I apply myself and work hard I can do anything I set my mind to. She is the one that paid for my private school so I did not have to go to the public anymore. She has been with me the whole way. My birth mom and my stepmom are my heroes.

The day that I will never forget is the day that my father sat me and my sister down and told us that my mother had a brain tumor and it was cancerous. When I was five years old I remember my mom was sleeping most of the day. She did still spend time with me, but I remember her sleeping a lot. At the time I did not think much of it. I just thought that this was normal. One day my mother out of nowhere decided that she wanted some branches to be cut down. There was no reason for them to be cut down, it was just one of the trees in our yard nothing harming anyone or the house. So she asked a tree company to cut branches off a tree. My father came home to them doing this, and he asked my mom why people were cutting down branches on one of our trees. My father knew that something was wrong with my mom so he took her to the doctor, and she got her brain scanned. She had a huge tumor that would turn out to be stage four brain cancer. Everything after that began to fall apart in my family. My mother would forget who I and my sister were, sometimes saying "you're not my daughters" one time I even remember her calling me and my sister jerks who were not her daughters. She would go to the door and try to leave even one time grabbing a knife and threatening my dad if she did not let her leave the house. Most of the ages from five to six were in a hospital or taking my mom somewhere to get treatment. When I was in first grade because of my mother's cancer she did not take me to school for weeks, and the school called my father up to tell him that. They said that because I missed so many days I would most likely not get into the next grade and would have to repeat first grade. I ended up not having to repeat first grade because my dad worked extremely hard taking time to help me in my classes and tutoring me. Cancer got so bad that near the end of my mother's life, I was helping take care of my mom at the age of six when she should be taking care of me. I would feed her apple sauce, and she would barely be able to open her mouth. She had her eyes closed and she wore diapers because she was not even physically able to move. She was pretty much in a coma-like state. Then in 2011 two weeks before my bday, my mother passed away. I did not feel anything anymore I was numb and suicidal before I even knew what suicide was. Money was very tight and my father was 60k in debt with hospital bills. The effect cancer had on me was I had a lot of trouble letting people get close to me. I would push people away because I was scared they would die. I felt like I had no parents because my dad was working a good amount of the time I was raised by babysitters pretty much. it affected my beliefs, I became a Christian when I was seven, and I found out that there was someone who will never leave me, God. I also have decided to become a teacher so I can be there for kids who don't have such a great home life as I did.

Growing up with a parent who had bad eating habits has affected how I view food and health. My father has had four heart surgeries, he always jokes and says it's because "I've taught four kids how to drive." Which always makes people laugh, but the sad truth is that my father did not grow up with healthy eating habits. My mother who is a "health nut" (in a good way) always says "if you want to walk your daughter down the aisle then you need to start being healthier." Now, whenever I ask my father why he wants to lose weight is because "I want to walk you down the aisle." Why I say all this because although my father is now losing weight and is healthier if he did not start losing weight my dad could have died. Part of the reason why healthy eating habits are important is that unhealthy eating habits cost people their lives and affect people's lives around them. I could have lost my dad, but instead, he chose to eat healthier because he loved us. You can tell someone or even yell at someone "EAT HEALTHIER!" but that will do nothing. Healthy eating habits are not just physical but also mental changes someone can only make on their own. First off I was always taught that eating healthy is not just like eating a salad with chicken vs. eating at McDonald's it is also eating daily and not skipping meals. People with depression, busy or stressed tend to forget or chose not to eat. When I was going through depression before I was put on meds, I would never eat. I had no motivation to eat and no desire. Little did I know that by not eating I was making my depression worse. Eating healthier can boost your mood and reduce stress or depression. I noticed a difference in myself when I ate, although a small one it helped me get out of the rough spot I was in. Can a car run without fuel? the answer is no. So if a body's fuel is food then can a body run without food? the answer is also no. My point here is that if I had not eaten when I was depressed I could have sped up the process of going downhill. During that time I was a ball going downhill and if I did not eat, it was like someone made the ball the speed of a NASCAR car. Who knows where I would be if I did not apply myself to practicing healthy eating habits.

The youth is our future. Teachers are writers of the world, and what they teach shows in the future. If a teacher were to teach false things the future would grow with false teachings. If a teacher teaches kids to be mean the future shows anger. If a teacher teaches to love the future shows love. I believe that teachers are one of the biggest contributors to society. Nelson Mandela former president of South Africa said this: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Teachers are the wielders of the most powerful weapon, education and the future of the world. I firmly believe that if you do not educate and mentor the youth properly the country that is being badly mentored and uneducated will surely fail. Just looking at history you can see how the education system affects the future. Look at the difference that has happened to the U.S. after segregation was banned in school. Having white and black schools taught the youth that white and black should be separate. The white schools had significantly more funding and the black schools had zero to no funding. What does that teach the youth? Well, it taught the youth that whites are superior to blacks. However, when people started fighting for racial justice and equal rights the schools slowly, but surely became non-segregated. When students started having interracial schools it taught the future generations that everyone is equal no matter what skin color. In Nazi, Germany students were taught to heil Hitler. They taught that Jews were bad, and nazism was good. Hitler knew that the youth was the future so who did Hitler target? The youth of course. He started things like Hitler's youth. They wanted to get the youth engaged so that Hitler's ideals could go on past his death since the youth is the future. The Nazi-German Schools taught the students wrong so the students did wrong. The misleading, racist, antisemitism and overall awful teachings in Nazi-German Schools cost millions of people their lives. Education can cost people their lives. Overall what I am saying is that education and mentoring specifically correct and appropriate mentoring are important because the youth is the future. If we do not teach the youth right the U.S. or any country for that matter will fail. The president was a student once too, the senator was a student once too, and the congressman was once a student, what I mean by these examples is that we are not only teaching future doctors, counselors, nurses, veterinarians, soldiers et cetera... we are teaching people that will soon one day run this country. So teach them like your life depends on it because our lives do! “any nation that out-educates us will out-compete us.” -Jill Biden

I'm the type of person who loves to help people. I am very observant and can tell when someone is struggling, having this attribute makes me help people more. I help the seen and unseen people. Part of this is because I've just always been like this. Ever since I was very little my dad would say "you're the type of person to give the shirt off your back." Another part is because I know what it's like to feel alone, and have no friends that is what I used to be like. I know what it's like to need help, and not get help from anyone. I plan to become an early-education teacher. I have not fully decided where to work, but I am highly considering working in the Appalachian areas of the U.S., particularly the coal communities. The Appalachian area has a shortage of teachers, and it has been like this for years. I've done a lot of research about that area, and I'm tired of seeing the rest of the world forget that area. The coal communities are extremely poor right now. There is a very poor education there, and I want to help. My stepmother has always taught me that childhood is what shapes a person's life. I want to help shape a child's life for the better. Children must get a good education and a good upbringing. I can help in both those fields. Teachers affect a child's life in a way that many others won't be able to. I've had teachers who have shaped me as a person. I want to help children that have no help at home. I want to help the people that have been left behind and forgotten. Time and time again not just in the U.S., but all over the world people are being forgotten left and right. I believe that if I go, and teach in places with people who need help and the whole world has turned its back on them. By doing that I could make a big difference. Children especially in those areas need help. Although I never met this person and never will. The person who has been the biggest inspiration for me is Princess Diana. Princess Diana having the leadership she did went out and helped people who need help the most. She was the "people's princess." When the world was scared to get near people with AIDS. Diana went and hugged a seven-year-old boy with AIDS. Something about that is so powerful she did not care what could "happen" she just went and hugged him. That is why I want to hug people who are neglected by society. I want to help those who are neglected by society. I especially want to help children neglected by society. two quotes by Princess Diana that speak to me: "Nothing brings me more happiness than trying to help the most vulnerable people in society. It is a goal and an essential part of my life—a kind of destiny. Whoever is in distress can call on me. I will come running wherever they are." “Anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can.” Children are the future, and by making a positive impact on children I can help make the future positive.

Bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression) (source: mayoclinic.org). My father told me one day after I was diagnosed with Bipolar that he would pray that none of his kids would get the disorder. My family comes from a line of people with Bipolar Disorder in other words it is genetic and skips a generation, meaning that if my grandma had it there is a chance that I would get it, and that is exactly what happened. My father had grown up in a family with a mother who had Bipolar. Hers' was way worse than mine. She was in and out of mental hospitals, and on and off her med. She had gotten a doctor who told his parents to take her off her meds (take into account this was the 70s). They did that, which led to her committing suicide, my father at sixteen years old was the one to find her dead. You can imagine how hard that was for him to see his daughter get the same disorder. My stepmother on the other hand had no experience with anyone with Bipolar. So her having a daughter with a mental illness that she knew zero to none about was very hard for her. On top of that to be completely blunt without my medication I make my life and others around me lives hell. So up until the point that I had started taking meds, it was hard for the whole family. To suffer from Bipolar is like a rollercoaster except you can never get off and you have extremely bad whiplash the whole time. That was what I had to go through until I was thirteen, and was finally put on meds. Before I was on my meds I was cutting myself, writing suicide notes, did not want to leave my room, everything was a mess, pushed people away, and lost motivation. That was only the depression phase. When I was manic I had so much motivation and wanted to do everything and anything at the same time. I had very weird thoughts almost psychotic. Brought people back into my life just to hit rock bottom again and push everyone away again. Then once I had gotten older and was on my meds. I had to deal with calling the pharmacy, scheduling appointments, et cetera. Now a senior high school I will soon be out on my own. I will have to start paying for my meds along with college which is not cheap. I have learned however that Bipolar is not my weakness. It has no grasp on me and never will. I have also learned that Bipolar has gifts such as people with bipolar tend to be more creative. I call it a gift rather than a curse now. I am no longer ashamed to have it if people want to judge me and assume things about me go ahead, I don't care what they think. Richard Dreyfuss said this about suffering from Bipolar: "No matter what you call it, this is an illness no different from, say, diabetes or asthma—and like those conditions, [it] should be neither ignored nor stigmatized. Feeling ashamed would mean surrendering to someone else’s judgment—and ignorant judgment at that.” Thank you for reading my application, and giving me and so many others suffering with mental illness or having a family with mental illness this opportunity. This truly means a lot to the mental health community.

I want to make a difference in each child’s life that I teach. When I was in first grade, I lost my mother to cancer. Losing her was like someone grabbing my heart and then pulling it out. There was all darkness and no light, I felt alone. Until Ms. Frytag, my first-grade teacher decided to throw me a birthday party at school for me. My mother died two weeks before my seventh birthday, and because of this, my teacher wanted to be a blessing in my life. She was a huge blessing in my life and still is today. Although I have not talked to her for years she still inspires and encourages me to this very day. Another teacher was Mrs. Wagley. When I was a sophomore most of my teachers did not care for their students, but Mrs. Wagley, my American History teacher cared for her students. I remember I was talking to her after school since my mother had not picked me up yet, and she said to me before I left “if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here.” When I heard those words, I almost cried. I was going through so much during that time, and just knowing that someone cared and wanted to listen meant so much. Two things that have pointed out to me the most are first, actions speak louder than words, and second, childhood is what shapes a person’s life. I want to be the type of teacher whose positive actions speak louder than all the negative words in a child’s life. I want to be the type of teacher who prevents their students from growing up full of regret because of what happened to them as a child. I want to affect a youth’s life by helping them as much as I can and being there for them when no one else is. With all this said, you never know what someone is going through, and especially as teachers it’s important to be there for your students and help change their lives for the better as my teachers have done for me. I want to be just like Ms. Frytag and Mrs. Wagley, I want to show love and care to all the children I teach. I want to inspire children to love one another because you never know what someone is going through.

When I was four years old my mother got diagnosed with stage four brain cancer. My mother was absent in my childhood because of this. It was almost like I had no mom, she forgot who I was several times. I remember once walking into her room as a five-year-old bringing her coffee when she looked at me and said, “dad you’re supposed to be in the helicopter.” I responded and said, “no I’m your daughter,” she then proceeded to say, “you are not my daughter.” That hurt so much that I felt that there was no female leadership in my life. When I was in first grade, I had an amazing teacher named Ms. Frytag. Two weeks before my seventh birthday my mom passed away from cancer. My teacher, aware of my situation, decided to throw me a birthday party at school. Ms. Freytag had the whole first grade come to my birthday party at school and bring me gifts. I was so happy and grateful; she was not asked to do this. Instead, she took time out of her day to bless a little girl who needed a blessing. She did not do it for self-gratification she did it because she loved her students. It did not end there with her. She knew my grandmother and would check up on me asking how I was doing and making sure I was okay. Until I was in seventh grade, that was all she would ask about. She had become a female leader in my life and showed me how a teacher can change someone’s life. I was very depressed during that time, and her doing that was like a light in a dark tunnel. She had made a huge difference in my life. I don’t know where I would be without her. She is one of the big reasons why I want to be a teacher. She showed what a teacher can do in a child’s life or even a teen's for that matter. That is why I decided to go into Pre-k – 4th-grade education. I want to make a difference in a child’s life. Childhood is what shapes a human being, and you never know what a child may be going through. A lot of kids may be neglected by their parents, I’ve seen it myself. When their parents are always working, the children never get their attention. The kid’s parents may be always fighting or getting a divorce. These are just some examples, but overall, what I mean is that there are kids out there who were just like me who are going through something hard and need a light in their life. I want to be that light. I want to change a child’s life for the better, that will be my goal as a teacher. I don’t want to major in it because it’s a stable job, I want to be a teacher because I love children. I want to be like Sandy Jenkins, the type of teacher who makes a difference.