This scholarship will help me pursue my future career in media and technology. I think this will be very beneficial not only for me in the future but also for my parents. They have worked very hard to be able to send their 3 kids to college. Our parents provide so much for us, it is easy to forget how much they do for us. When you sit down and try to think about how much it costs to raise you it honestly blows my mind. I hope to use this money and put it towards my college education. Doing this should lessen not only the load on my parents but also on me. This scholarship would allow me to have less student debt coming out of college. This would in turn allow me to focus on trying to find a job and career that I love instead of somewhere where I wouldn't love, enjoy, or even further the career I want as long as it pays off my debt. This is what I believe holds people back from truly pursuing their dream careers being stuck with debt and interests and having to focus on that instead of furthering their careers. I know very well what doing something you hate for a living does to someone. My mother is a dental hygienist but she hates it. She would rather do anything else. She now just works from home doing insurance billing for the dentist's office and she is so much happier. She has so much experience that I use for my decisions in the future. Since she can work from home, she can spend a lot of time with her kids which she tells us is the best part. In the future hope to have a career where I can work from home. That would be my dream career. I want to be able to enjoy life with my family while also being able to provide a living for all of us. I will work very hard to achieve this. To even do any of this I need to get a degree. Our parents sacrifice so much for us so that we all can live the life we want. I hope to be able to not only provide my parents with relief but also my future family. I hope to work hard in the future so I can fully enjoy life for what it is worth.

Going into high school, I knew that I wanted to continue playing sports. When I went into the meeting to pick our classes and look into extracurriculars, I asked to see the sports they were offering. As I looked down at the list, I saw at the bottom of the list was wrestling. So, I asked if they let girls wrestle, and the answer I got was “I think?”. I went home and asked my dad if I would be allowed to wrestle, and to my surprise, he said OK, but if I wanted to quit anytime, he would let me. I also talked with the coach, and he said he would be happy to have me. I was so excited about our first practice. It was the first year that North Catholic had a proper wrestling team, and there weren’t that many of us. I had so much fun for about a month until my coach asked to talk with me after his history class. He told me that I wasn’t allowed to wrestle anymore because, being in a catholic school, the diocese didn’t think it was a good look for a girl to be wrestling and in contact with boys. Also, because we are not funded by the government, they didn’t have to listen to Title IX. I was so dejected that I cried in the following class. I felt so stupid. Asking myself stuff like “why did you think it was a good idea in the first place?” and “You probably looked so dumb to everyone else.” Either way, I had the choice to just leave and go home, or I could go and watch practice. I went and I became the manager of our team. Even though I wasn’t allowed on the mats anymore, I was still able to help out and I still had lots of fun that year. I believe being able to watch others practice contributed to my success now. My sophomore year was more challenging. We got new members, which is exciting, but they couldn’t understand why I was there in the first place. After a while of hearing the things some of my teammates had to say about me being there, I wasn’t sure why I was there either. I told myself that I was done with wrestling after this year. At the beginning of my junior year, I got an email from my coach. This email was from the diocese saying that I would be able to wrestle again but only with other girls. I was excited again, but I needed another girl to practice with. Luckily, I have an amazing sister who was willing to help me practice. I got to compete for the first time, which was just such an amazing experience. My coaches did so much to make sure I had everything I needed to succeed. I made many new connections, for example, I was allowed to practice with girls from other schools. They allowed me to work hard and achieve many things. In 2022 I qualified for PA Women's Wrestling's States. I learned many things through this experience. . I learned that being dedicated and working hard really does pay off. When I finally got my chance, I showed everyone what I could do if given the opportunity. Wrestling made me a bold and more courageous person. I plan to attend Kent State in the fall.

I believe that I have many attributes that make me unique. One big one is that I am bold. The best example I have is because I am the sole girl on the wrestling team at school. I go to a catholic school and the fact that I wanted to play a "boy's" sport was a big thing. The diocese made special rules for me so that I would not be allowed to compete or practice during my freshman and sophomore year. I decided that I still wanted to help out and became a manager for them. My freshman year was a lot of fun and all my teammates knew my situation and were very supportive. My sophomore year though was a different story. We had most people graduate and leave last year but we also got a bunch of new people. This was wough because they did not understand why I was there. They called me things like a slave because I was doing all this work for them. They thought it was weird that I had an interest in the sport and wanted nothing to do with me. It hurt because I was giving so much to be there and they did not care. I told myself that I would not take any more disrespect and that I would quit next year. I changed my mind because in my junior year, they allowed me to practice and compete, but only with other girls. I was finally able to show everyone they were wrong. This was tough because no girl at a Catholic school wanted to wrestle. I had to endure so much in order just to be at practice. I was called many names by my peers and belittled because of what I wanted to do. My sister helped me out with practicing and would be my partner even though she did not want to bet there. Coaches and other people from other schools noticed me and helped me easily with practice and extra coaching which I am super thankful for. I kept working hard no matter what everyone was telling me and in the end, it paid off. I qualified to go to women's states in my junior year. I was able to show everyone that even against all odds, I was still able to succeed. I hope to do the same this year and be able to show all girls that they can succeed in anything as long as they put their minds to it.