During my first year of college, my mental health was in a turmoil. That’s not just a dramatic way of putting it. Everything I used to care about stopped mattering. Classes, friendships, even basic things like eating or sleeping. I failed almost every class and was placed on academic probation. I didn’t care. I was going through weekly withdrawals at one point, and didn’t think I was going to make it. I wasn’t trying to succeed, or do anything, really. I was just trying to survive. However, somehow - I started living again. And over time, something in me started to fight back. Recovery hasn’t been easy. It’s been filled with relapses, setbacks, hard conversations, and harder choices. But I kept going. I worked to repair my life and climb out of the hole I had dug. Today, my GPA is up to a 3.2. That number might not impress everyone, but for me, it represents something powerful. It means I didn’t give up, even when it felt like the odds were stacked against me. During this time, I also began exploring different ways to make sense of pain and recovery. I then started living a life led with compassion, mindfulness, and understanding the roots of suffering. It gave me tools to quiet my mind and reconnect with my values. That quiet guidance played a meaningful role in my healing and helped shape the kind of person, and counselor, I want to become. I’m pursuing a degree in mental health because I want to help others who feel like I did. Lost, numb, hopeless. I want to show them that their pain doesn’t make them weak. That addiction doesn’t erase their worth. I know what it’s like to feel invisible inside a broken system. I also know how much it matters to have just one person who sees you. My goal is to become a Licensed Professional Counselor and help teenagers and young adults who are navigating anything in this life - mental illness, substance use, or just making sense of their place in the world. These issues are deeply connected, yet so often treated separately. I lived that disconnect, and I want to be part of changing it. I want to be someone who treats the whole person, not just their symptoms. Mental health care should feel human. It should be built on trust, not judgment. I believe in trauma informed care, compassion over punishment, and making therapy a space where people can be honest without shame. My life goal truly is to help others. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, rest in peace Brian.

I first encountered the Buddha at a dusty yard sale when I was sixteen. He was brass, seated in meditation, and could fit in the palm of my hands. It was different to see in my small Georgia town. I knew little to nothing about Buddhism at the time, but something about the stillness in his face felt deeply familiar. It was a kind of peace I hadn’t yet experienced but somehow recognized. I didn’t have the money for it, so I went home and did what I could. I opened my laptop and started researching. Was this a god? Was Buddhism a religion? A philosophy? I wanted to know everything. Less than two days later, I began reading English translations of the Tripitaka. That decision shifted the course of my life. I didn’t come to Buddhism through family or temple life. I came to it through fate, curiosity, suffering, and the longing to understand why pain exists and how we are meant to carry it. The more I read, the more I found language for things I had felt but never known how to express. Concepts like dukkha, anatta, mindfulness, and right intention were more than ideas to me. They were tools. They helped me survive in a world where I often felt I didn’t have a place for. Today, I practice Buddhism as both a faith and a path of daily living. I meditate almost daily, study sutras from both Theravāda and Mahāyāna traditions, and strive to live by the Five Precepts and the Noble Eightfold Path. I don’t have a temple nearby, but I study with online sanghas and read widely. The Buddha’s teachings have shaped not just what I believe, but how I speak to others, how I show up in conflict, and how I hold space for suffering, both mine and that of others. Buddhism is also what led me to major in psychology. I’m currently entering my junior year of college, and my goal is to become a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in grief, trauma, and general mental health support. I don’t see this as separate from my Buddhist path. I see it as a continuation of it. I want to serve my community as a lay caregiver, informed by the Dharma, even if I’m not on the traditional path toward priesthood. Eventually, I hope to offer low cost or donation based therapy and build a small community practice rooted in mindfulness, emotional healing, and nonjudgmental support. I would love to offer spaces for meditation, end of life support, and spiritual companionship to people who have been left out of traditional religious structures. I hope to embody what the Buddha meant when he said we should be a lamp unto ourselves and a light for others as well. This scholarship would help me continue that path with stability and focus. Though I am not pursuing a Master of Divinity, I am committed to caregiving as both a vocation and a form of Buddhist practice. I am deeply grateful for the chance to be considered, and for anyone who took the time to read. Sabbe sattā sukhi hontu - may all beings be happy!