People think I’m weird. I like to match with my mom at Disney World, I actually enjoy going to school, and I still sleep with stuffed animals. I never change because I like my quirks. Every day for a year, I choked down walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts. When I was six years old, I was diagnosed with a tree nut allergy. From then on I had to avoid all tree nuts and foods that were cross-contaminated with them. When I was twelve I undertook Oral ImmunoTherapy to overcome this allergy. This meant eating something that could kill me every single day for five years until I wasn’t allergic anymore. It worked. Reaching my potential was difficult for me until seventh grade. Kindergarten through sixth grade I went to a private, Catholic school, with little to no diversity, and almost no academic challenge. I wanted more. During the pandemic, I decided blindly to take a leap and switch schools. I entered a school where I did not know a single person, teacher, and had never set foot in the building. This was the best decision of my life. I was able to take classes that were academically rigorous and challenged me in ways I hadn't been challenged before. I found myself in a diverse environment that I had longed for. This community displayed racial, social, and economic diversity, as well as LGBTQ+ representation. Sophomore year I started to mentally struggle. Taking 3 AP classes, playing a year round sport, and trying to keep all A’s wasn’t the main struggle. It was having to come home every day and keeping my cool. I would lash out on my parents, throwing myself on the floor and crying because I didn't know how else to express the emotions that had built up throughout the school day. This was something that happened often since I was little, but it had never been this intense. Eventually, when I hit my junior year of high school, I struggled even more. I finally got the diagnosis I needed, attention deficit hyper-activity disorder. Little did I know, I was a high-masking individual. This meant I spent all day forcing myself to fit the “perfect student” stereotype. By the time I got home, I took off that mask, without even realizing it, and took everyone crashing down with me. My diagnosis was hard to accept at first, but medication and understanding of how my brain works gave me tools to advocate for myself. Volleyball has played a significant role in my life. This is a sport that is dominated by size and I was much smaller than other players. I was underestimated and overlooked, yet I still excelled. I became 2nd all-time career leader in digs for my high school. Effort is my gift. I may not always be the best, but no one will outwork me. That mindset was instilled in me from a young age, and it drives everything I do—from academics to athletics. For instance, when I was in fourth grade I had to memorize and recite a twenty-line poem in front of the class; instead I chose a sixty-line poem; “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou. Running was something that I never thought I could do. Asthma has been with me for as long as I can remember. I once ran a Girls on the Run race clutching my rescue inhaler—and placed 7th. I refuse to let anything hold me back. Even though I am different, I don’t care. I’m not perfect or conventional. I’m resilient, passionate, weird, and unapologetically proud of it. I PERSEVERE.

People think I’m weird. I like to match with my mom at Disney World, I actually enjoy going to school, and I still sleep with stuffed animals. I never change because I like my quirks. Every day for a year, I choked down walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts. When I was six years old, I was diagnosed with a tree nut allergy. From then on I had to avoid all tree nuts and foods that were cross-contaminated with them. When I was twelve I undertook Oral ImmunoTherapy to overcome this allergy. This meant eating something that could kill me every single day for five years until I wasn’t allergic anymore. It worked. Reaching my potential was difficult for me until seventh grade. Kindergarten through sixth grade I went to a private, Catholic school, with little to no diversity, and almost no academic challenge. I wanted more. During the pandemic, I decided blindly to take a leap and switch schools. I entered a school where I did not know a single person, teacher, and had never set foot in the building. This was the best decision of my life. I was able to take classes that were academically rigorous and challenged me in ways I hadn't been challenged before. I found myself in a diverse environment that I had longed for. This community displayed racial, social, and economic diversity, as well as LGBTQ+ representation. Sophomore year I started to mentally struggle. Taking 3 AP classes, playing a year round sport, and trying to keep all A’s wasn’t the main struggle. It was having to come home every day and keeping my cool. I would lash out on my parents, throwing myself on the floor and crying because I didn't know how else to express the emotions that had built up throughout the school day. This was something that happened often since I was little, but it had never been this intense. Eventually, when I hit my junior year of high school, I struggled even more. I finally got the diagnosis I needed, attention deficit hyper-activity disorder. Little did I know, I was a high-masking individual. This meant I spent all day forcing myself to fit the “perfect student” stereotype. By the time I got home, I took off that mask, without even realizing it, and took everyone crashing down with me. My diagnosis was hard to accept at first, but medication and understanding of how my brain works gave me tools to advocate for myself. Volleyball has played a significant role in my life. This is a sport that is dominated by size and I was much smaller than other players. I was underestimated and overlooked, yet I still excelled. I became 2nd all-time career leader in digs for my high school. Effort is my gift. I may not always be the best, but no one will outwork me. That mindset was instilled in me from a young age, and it drives everything I do—from academics to athletics. For instance, when I was in fourth grade I had to memorize and recite a twenty-line poem in front of the class; instead I chose a sixty-line poem; “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou. Running was something that I never thought I could do. Asthma has been with me for as long as I can remember. I once ran a Girls on the Run race clutching my rescue inhaler—and placed 7th. I refuse to let anything hold me back. Even though I am different, I don’t care. I’m not perfect or conventional. I’m resilient, passionate, weird, and unapologetically proud of it. I PERSEVERE.

My family has always said that paying for college would be challenging, but that we would figure it out. Over the past three years, my family has had to replace the entire heating and cooling unit in our home ($7,000), purchase additional vehicles so that my sister and I can drive to separate high schools ($6,000), replace a $3,400 part on my vehicle, and pay parochial school tuition for the past two years to the all-girls high school my sister attends ($5,000). On top of all that, my mom was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes which has increased medical costs significantly for our family by about $5,000 a year. I also require upcoming dental work after having a tooth extracted that is about $1,800. More importantly, I have ongoing medical costs to treat my severe food allergies that are not paid by insurance ($3,000). Also, my sister continues to play, and I recently retired from playing sports year-round ($3,000). Overall, it has been very challenging for my family to remain above water financially and we cut costs where we can, but we still live paycheck to paycheck. I do plan to take the full amount of federal loans available, but my family is not in a financial state to take Parent Plus loans to fund what the federal loans and my 529 plan do not cover. In sophomore year of high school my parents started to run low on money. Even though my school is free to go to, my sisters were not. They told me that they might not be able to pay for my AP exams that year when I was in three different AP classes. This made me feel hopeless and unable to participate in something I worked so hard for. As AP exams got closer my parents and I came up with a plan to save enough money to pay for my exams so that I could succeed. This process made me realize that when you are in situations of financial need, you will have to work much harder to be successful compared to someone who has extra money at their disposal. I learned resilience, confidence, and hard work from having to earn the money to pay for my AP exams that year. Something that I learned about myself is that I was almost selfish in a way because my parents never used to be in these kinds of situations where they struggled with money. However, I turned that attitude right around when I learned to work my butt off to do hard work and earn my own money. I finally felt like I was growing up.