First, I would like to express how this scholarship spoke to me. I watched my father lose his sister who had breast cancer. The family battled with her and her legacy yet lives on. Aunt Daphne was free-hearted...if she had a dollar, you did too. Helping people reach their goals was such a joy, as if she climbed Mount Everest herself. At family gatherings, my grandfather would always say "Charity begins at home first." And so, my family has always been proponents of organized & individualized community service. Many individuals of my family have put on fundraising events, coordinated sponsorships, food drives and visiting events (i.e. prison, senior citizen homes, children's hospitals). Organized community service has been interwoven in the fabric of our family. It seems to have started with my grandmother creating a mitten tree at Church, where we would go out and give away mittens to school kids in the winter who had none. We held canned food drives as long as I could remember and finally, I became old enough to create my own baskets. Every fall, I make Thanksgiving baskets for my Church to pass out to families in low-income subdivisions. Then at Christmas, we buy toys for children and clothing accessories for adults. These items are sorted and wrapped as presents to give away to people in time for them to open for Christmas. As a family, we cook meals and deliver to the unhoused of Nevada. Thanksgiving 2024 after dinner, my father said to my four siblings & I, "We're going to put the 'Giving' back into Thanksgiving." Then he put a stack of to-go cartons on the table and said, "Fix their plate, like you would want yours fixed." After putting nearly 20 meals in grocery bags inside a box, we all piled in the van, and he pointed to a case of water and said, "Put that in each bag". Then he gave us notes that said "Jesus loves you, Happy Thanksgiving!" and said "Put that in there along with a cookie, napkin & cutlery packs". After spending a few hours passing out meals, I made that our new tradition. Every major holiday, I spearhead our family in preparing meals for the unhoused. This makes me realize three things 1.) I am blessed! 2.) I am blessed to be a blessing. 3.) Make sure to properly manage my own affairs so that I can remain in position to help others. A particular event that realigned my focus on the community around me is book reading to special-needs children. I noticed they enjoy someone giving them attention other than medical attention. They get an opportunity to escape reality by stepping into a story from a book. This stimulates their imagination, distracting them from their condition. If I can bring joy to them for a moment and make them forget their pain for a few minutes, it is worth it. I am unsure if I get more joy out of the faces of those we help, or watching the light bulb come on, over my younger siblings after they finally acquire the fire of giving. Though community service takes sincere devotion, it is one of the few activities that produce an everlasting autonomous passion. Sometimes I am the leader of the community service event and sometimes I am the follower of the community service event. No matter what role I operate in, I am always the ambitious cheerleader of the community service event.

I was so excited to finally meet my mother's sister at nearly 3 years old. We drove for hours in a rural area to find a huge farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. My interest was peaked, thinking that my aunt owned a farm and she lived in this huge house. I didn't understand why my Dad seemed so uncomfortable, my great grandmother looked worried and my mom was extremely quiet. I remember Daddy holding my hand tight and warning me "Stay right next to me!" He held both of my younger sisters in each arm, and told my mom "Go 'head". My mom seemed apprehensive, like she was about to brave a storm that she knew that she had to face. The door was opened by some woman in nurse's scrubs. As a child, I thought "She has servants too!?!" Now I had to meet her. Entering in, I heard really strange noises. I seen a few people with matted hair, some mumbling to themselves and people talking to the air. Still, I didn't understand who all these people were in my aunt's house and why they were so strange. "What weird servants she has", I thought. The woman in the nurse's scrubs told us "Wait here". She went into another room and brought out a really strange looking woman. This woman appeared to have orange tinted yarn contained in her hair. Her makeup was weird with lipstick drawn around her lips and black marker on her eyebrows. Her shirt had stains on it and her sweatpants looked like they hadn't been washed in a long time. My mom said "Hi Becki" and proceeded to hug her. At this point, I was thoroughly confused, because my mom told me her sister's name was Becki. My mom guided her to the couch and the woman looked really glazed over. They begin to talk and I finally realized this was my aunt. I wasn't prepared for this and this left a severe imprint on my mind. I didn't understand how I was related to someone so weird. Now that I considered it, I've only heard my mother talk about her sister when they were small girls. I never heard a story of them as teenagers or adults. We would go visit her from time to time during my adolescence to whatever group home that the system moved her to. Each time we went, I had one terrifying & recurring thought...this is in my family tree and I have to battle it too. I've endured a great fight of affliction to maintain proper mental health. I understand the constant struggle just to keep balance, not for selfish reasons, but also for my sisters. The importance of having stability is critical to my sisters' well-being and a healthy home. Watching our aunt doesn't just leave a negative impact, but a determination to overcome this battle. My aunt's mental struggles have left the entire family trying to put the pieces together while covering up some history. For us, this is transformed into a bonding element, so that my sisters and I make conscience decisions to avoid certain pitfalls and hold each other accountable. Unknowingly, my aunt's life is a driving force that advances us to pursue after an auroral future.

When I hear the term financial hardship, it is unfortunate to say that I am not a stranger to that lifestyle. Finances have not always been exceptional or even satisfactory in my home, but we have never been out on the streets, or homeless. God has always allowed us to have clothes on our back, and a roof over our head. I have been attending a private school, ever since I was old enough to go to school, I have never experienced a public school. Now you may assume that if my family’s finances were efficient enough to have (5) girls in private school, surely, there would not be much poverty in their home. My school P. A. Owens Christian Academy is connected to my church Immanuel’s Temple. Considering that my school is a part of my church, there was less of a weight on my parents shoulders than most people would have had, because we had understanding leadership that knew my parents financial situation, and they were even willing to help concerning me and my sisters' education. Despite my parents' multiple financial issues, all of my siblings and I have managed to maintain an approximate GPA of 3.0 throughout the multiple school years. Now that I have become older, I am starting to understand more and more the gravity of not only getting a high school diploma, but receiving higher education. I am not saying if one of my parents had a degree that all of their troubles would have just gone away, but it definitely would have lessened the stress and pressure of knowing where the money for education was going to come from. Neither one of my parents have a college degree, but this did not start off as a problem at first. When they decided to move to Las Vegas, Nevada with a baby on the way things became slightly unsteady. According to my parents' knowledge, finding a good paying job with benefits in Lansing, Michigan was not a very hard task. Once my parents moved out to Las Vegas, they quickly realized that the competition for just a regular paying job was very intense. My father has always had to have multiple jobs in order to keep our family provided for. My Mom was a stay at home mom for 10 years straight. As time went by my parents have had (5) children. This has had a major impact on my parents finances. I remember times where we did not have a car, and my father had to rely on people from our church to take him to and from work. I remember getting on the bus as my dad picked me and my sisters up from school. I also remember the time where there were (7) of us living in a (2) bedroom apartment for (4) years. In the year of 2018 my mother had received her first job in (10) years, and shortly after, our family was able to move into a (3) bedroom house, of which we are still living in now. Even to this day, my father still continues to work two jobs, and my mother also has worked two jobs, just over a year now, and even now my family is barely making six figures. My experience in living with low income has taught me that I need to get a career and not a job. It has also taught me that the best way to start with a career is by striving for a formal education.

Since I was a young child, I have had a desire to help people, there are many ways to help people, you can be a firefighter, a lawyer, a policeman, or a doctor. The profession I chose was an anesthesiologist, an anesthesiologist primarily administers anesthesia to a patient needing surgery, they also have the responsibility of monitoring the vitals and heart rate of the patient during the surgery. It is also the anesthesiologist's responsibility to make sure that the patient recovers well after surgery. Throughout my adolescent years I have repositioned my career many times, but I found myself landing on the career of an anesthesiologist. There was one major event that made me pick this specific career. The event that occurred was when my teacher had a sibling, and her sister had certain disabilities. Her sister was supposed to get her wisdom teeth pulled. The doctor administered too much anesthesia, and she died. This catastrophic tragedy was a turning event for me, and it really made me want to help defenseless people going under anesthesia in surgery. My mother also has five children and for all of them she had to have a C-section. Whenever she talks about her giving birth to each of us, she always talks about the different effects that she had from the different anesthesiologist. Knowing that there are so many people that go through surgery every day, and some do not live because of the negligence of the anesthesiologist, it makes me want to help those who have to succumb to anesthesia. Anesthesiologists have a big part in saving people's lives, it prevents people from being in pain during or after surgery, anesthesiologists also help prevent traumatic memories that occurred during the surgery. A person knowing that they were cut open can have an effect on their mental well-being, and would also cause them to go into shock, nausea, have anxiety, or even faint. At first, I did not want to be an anesthesiologist because I learned that there are legal threats against many anesthesiologists. A challenge is a defeat if I don’t overcome it. My passion to preserve lives is the fuel for endurance to conquer this battle. I have also learned that I owe it to add value to my race by letting them know that there is yet hope for people of color to achieve greatness by restoring the community, with dignity and integrity.

The Civil Rights Movement seems to have been the timeline in which the majority of our greatest African American Leaders came about. I want to speak of a modern-day hero who has cultivated the legacy that they began that has played a salient role, in not just my life, but in my purpose in life. This person’s name is Minister Rachel Owens-Vancobb. The journey of this very significant leader began with her parents, Bishop Philip Owens and Elect Lady Patricia Owens in Lansing, Michigan. This couple devoted their lives to serving and honoring God in everything that they do. Beginning as Elder and Sister Owens they served their pastor by facilitating youth classes and activities, serving as local coordinators for Billy Graham crusades and counseling youth locked in detention centers. At the age of 8 years old Rachel finds out that her parents have been called to start their own ministry which they called Immanuel's Temple. This was the start of humble beginnings featuring low income, battles with self-esteem as a product from being bullied, because now she's a pastor's kid. Caught in a world where a child should be seen and not heard, instead she had seen too much, and her tears were never heard. Betrayals from those closest, threats from congregants, odds stacked against, yet they had to go out smiling to help those in need, exhibiting exhausting patience. Ascending above all challenges at the age of 14 Rachel came to the realization that having the title of a preacher's kid served no benefit for her parent's ministry. She made her mind up, that it was time to help her parents serve the community. Her public speaking began at 15 years old whiling up people to live a quiet and peaceful life in the midst of an immoral time. The debt-free edifice that contained a 2,000-seat sanctuary, 10 classrooms, multipurpose room, and commercial kitchen, had finally been completed in 1999. This building gave the space that Minister Rachel needed to test her administrator skills. Vacation Bible School began, a Theatrical Department was born and a safe for teens rescuing them from the streets and the trappings of this life. With Rachel's administration the ministry expanded, opening a second location in Las Vegas, Nevada which meant a larger platform and more people to reach. Finally, the church began a school with Min. Rachel as the principal which has produced doctors and lawyers already. In 2017 with a husband by her side she was the catalyst for the ministry, taking social media by storm with messages to build the community and creating avenues to call people from a life of drugs, alcohol, and an immoral life that destructs the family unit. She even has an annual camping retreat to teach teens how to overcome their toxic environments. Min. Rachel has many hats that she wears, and it has not always been easy for, and it still is not. She has suffered and toiled for Christ, and she has never complained, even when she is tired. She has continued to let God use her from generation to generation, for example, she was my father’s youth leader, and she is now my youth leader. She has truly defied every stereotype of a preacher's kid. Minister Rachel is a prime example of how not only to serve God, but to serve God with gladness.