My name is Makenzie Joyner, and I am an incoming freshman studying chemical engineering. As I was searching through scholarships, I came across the Mark Green Memorial Scholarship and something about it truly stuck out to me. It could partially be because my stepfather is a veteran who also did not come from a fortunate background. Or it could have been due to the fact that I will also be a first-generation college student in my family. No matter what the reason is that this scholarship caught my eye, I am extremely glad it did. Reading Mark and LaTonya's story showed me how thankful I should be for the opportunities I am given. My parents were only 19 when they had me and they spilt soon after I was born. Growing up, it was difficult to see all of my classmates' parents come to school functions together when I only had my mom. My mom invited my dad to all of my events and my father said he would show, but he never did. I had full faith that my dad would show up to every event even when he never did, which only made the disappointment even worse. Eventually my mom met my stepfather and my idea of what a dad should be was completely changed. My stepdad showed up to every single dance recital, school function, pep rally, and anything else I asked him to come to. I really am so thankful to have him in my life. I always knew that my stepfather was an Army Veteran, but I never really understood what that meant until recently. The past few years in high school, I have learned more about the U.S. Military, and it has made me more grateful for the service that my stepdad and all other members of the Military have put in to keep our country safe. While I am extremely grateful for the family I have in my life, I am also thankful for the volunteering opportunities I have had throughout high school. I have volunteered at local fall festivals, read to elementary students, and volunteered at my local baseball park. It is very important to me to give back to my community because I believe that volunteering is how a community grows. A plant is incapable of growing without water so we, as citizens, must be the water to help the plant grow. I look forward to finding more volunteer opportunities during my time in college to help the community that is helping to grow my education. On the topic of education, I am also thankful for the opportunities that I will have after college. As I mentioned above, I plan to study chemical engineering which is a major that will open doors to a wide variety of career options. My plans for after college are to become a research and development engineer to help make things more cost efficient and environmentally friendly. I want to use my career to make the world a better place and I believe that this plan will fulfill that. Although my major and future career are ambitious, I am excited for the challenge, and I believe that I have the drive to succeed. Being awarded this scholarship would truly help me pursue my passion and I would be incredibly grateful to be chosen. Even if I am not selected, reading the story of Mark and LaTonya Green has opened my eyes to be more thankful for the opportunities that I have in my life. With that being said, thank you for considering me for this honor.

Empowerment is defined as the “authority or power given to someone to do something.” I believe this definition does not encapsulate the meaning of the word. Empowerment is not having control or having power. Empowerment is the drive to reach your full potential despite any difficulties faced. Women in today’s society face challenges and feel like they cannot overcome them. Women are losing the idea of empowerment. We are forced to conform to the beauty, cultural, and traditional gender expectations set for us instead of becoming the person we want to become. If we as society do not show girls what it means to truly be empowered, the standards and expectations set for them will increase greatly. I believe that it is important to share stories of women rising above challenges and obstacles to show young girls' what empowerment is. One challenge I faced this year was finding out about my father's addiction. My relationship with my dad has been extremely rocky. My parents had me when they were 19 and they did not work out. When I was younger, I never noticed the dance recitals my dad missed, the school events missed, or the number of times he canceled on seeing me. As I grew older, however, I saw his flaws. I texted and called less and made excuses for not seeing him. At the beginning of this school year, he acted like he wanted to be a part of my life. He came to all my dance performances, asked to hangout, and did everything I wanted. I thought something had finally clicked and everything was going to be better. Everything changed halfway through football season when he virtually disappeared. No one would tell me anything. After about two weeks, I decided that I was done trying to build a relationship with someone who could not be bothered to respond to my messages. Two weeks later, I got the message of my dad asking to meet up for lunch. I was hesitant to respond, but something told me that I should go. That day is when I was told my dad had been in a rehabilitation center for a Cocaine addiction. I blamed myself. I could not understand why he had not told me. He explained that he chose to not tell me because he did not want me to worry. I understood where he was coming from but at the same time I didn’t. I was his only child. How could he not tell me? I thought it was my fault for pulling away from him. He assured me it was not. It took a week for me to fully forgive him. Currently, he and I are working on rebuilding our relationship and I have learned to be a more understanding and empathetic person. This situation is a perfect example of what empowerment means because although I was faced with a difficult situation, I was able to overcome and become a better person in the process. When I think of empowerment, one quote that stands out to me is from the novel, Catching What Life Throws at You, by Janice Trachtman, that states, “Everything is within your power, and your power is within you.” This quote serves as a reminder to myself that I have all I need to overcome any obstacle I may face. I believe that this quote could benefit young girls who are faced with adversity to show them the meaning of empowerment. It is not just about having the ability to do something. Empowerment is having the ability to rise above any obstacle faced.

My favorite community event that I participated in was the opening ceremony for the local ballpark in my town. This was a wonderful opportunity for so many people in my community to come together in support of all the young baseball and softball players. My role was to handle the bounce house and make sure that everything else was running smoothly. Although it was a hefty task, it was worth it to see the ceremony come to life. Some of the people who volunteered did not even have a relative that was playing baseball or softball and simply came out to help support a local organization. It was a truly wonderful today pulling together so many people and creating new friendships. Seeing the children play friendly baseball games, the parents chatting over what's going on their lives, and the smell of popcorn from the concession truly made all of the stress that the other volunteers and I had planning the event all worth it. Although my contribution to the opening ceremony was small, I truly believe that the work that I, along with the other volunteers, did created a lasting impact on the community and the ballpark. It was a very meaningful time because it represented just how strong a community can be when it comes together in support of a common cause. I hope that this event inspires the people of my town to understand how even a small amount of support can play a very large role in something like this. Giving back to our community is so important and I hope that our opening ceremony is an example of that. I hope that this event changes the way that people think about our town. I hope that everyone can see that just because we do not have the same funding that other, larger communities have, does not mean that we are any less than them. Our ballpark can still be a clean, enjoyable environment for children to learn baseball and softball. I hope that with the extra support from our community we can eventually host a tournament at our ballpark and show the people in our area who we are. It would truly be a wonderful moment for us, and it would demonstrate how important help from the community is. I believe that the opening ceremony has already begun creating a positive impact on our ballpark. This year, we have had more kids register for baseball than in the previous three years. I hope that our community continues to come together in support of the baseball park and other local organizations in order to support and promote our beautiful town.

I have suffered from anxiety since I was very young. I often overthink, have panic attacks, have trouble sleeping, and other symptoms. While anxiety is something I live with, I do not let it affect who I want to become. School creates a lot of stress and anxiety for me. I place a lot of pressure on myself to do well and if I do not perform the way I want, I get upset with myself. Public speaking in school is also something that has a large effect on my anxiety. Presentations are by far my least favorite part of school. Despite the numerous factors of school that play into my anxiety, I have started learning to push past the worries. I have taught myself that it is okay to fail and that success is not achievable without failure. I have taught myself that speaking in front of a group is not as scary as my brain wants me to believe. Over the last three years, I have began taking control of my anxiety instead of letting it control me. My anxiety has influenced my beliefs by feeding me false information. Anxiety has made me believe that nothing I do will be good enough. It has made me believe that I am worthless. It has made me believe that all of the school work I put effort into is for nothing and that it does not matter. My anxiety has made me afraid of confrontation in my relationships. Anxiety has made me feel like my opinion on topics does not matter and therefore, I should not voice my opinion. Anytime I feel like I should like confront someone about a situation, my anxiety tells me that what I have to say does not matter. My anxiety has influenced my career aspirations by making me afraid to chase my dreams. I begin to worry about college and the workload I am putting on myself instead of how I am passionate about what I am pursuing. Even though anxiety has created many negative impacts on my life, I am learning to take control of my mental health one day at a time. I am proud of the progress I have made in not letting anxiety control me and I hope that one day, I can be an inspiration to others and show them that it is possible to overcome such a large adversity as mental health.

Growing up, I have always loved school. Math and science were my two favorite subjects, and I often helped my younger brother with his homework in those two classes. I would even make up math worksheets and solve them myself or make my brother solve them. Most people were surprised when I would say that math was my favorite school subject and would often ask why I liked it so much. I believe that I enjoy math so much because there is a specific formula for everything that must be performed in order to produce an answer. I like to think of myself as a very structured person so using a formula to solve equations and having a clear correct answer makes me feel more structured than having answers that are left to interpretation like in an English class. When deciding what path I wanted to pursue after high school, I knew I wanted to do something relating to math and science. I also knew that I wanted to help make the world better. After talking to one of the teachers at my school, I ultimately determined that chemical engineering was right for me. At first, I was intimidated by the difficulty of the field and how little females there would be. However, over the past few months, I have become extremely excited about getting to prove to everyone that women can excel in STEM fields. I believe that it is extremely important for young girls to see women achieve especially in male dominated fields like STEM. Not necessarily because pursuing English, nursing, or other fields associated with females is negative, but because young girls need to see that there are no limits to what they achieve no matter what path they choose to follow. I truly hope that one day, I can become a role model for these young girls and show them that their career options are wider than they may believe. I cannot wait to continue doing what I love in college and for the rest of my life. I am so thankful that I spoke to that teacher on that day and decided that chemical engineering is what I want to study. Although part of me is scared for this new chapter of my life, I am always reminding myself that by pursuing this career, I am not only being a role model to young girls but also showing my younger self that anything is possible when you put your mind to it.

As someone who has been dancing since they were two years old, I have constantly been told that dance is not a sport and that dance is easy. Most of the time, the people saying these things are male. As a young girl, it would really to hurt to see the hard work I put in not be recognized. What the people saying these things do not see are the countless hours spent in the studio or theater practicing, the costs that many times led to my family being tight on money, the amount of effort it takes to dance, and so many other things that happen behind the scenes. I have done dance at both a studio and at my school, and I can honestly say that they are both extremely more difficult than many believe. Dancing at a studio comes with the constant comparisons to other dancers in the room, the mental and physical demands to make difficult skills look effortless, and so many hours spent rehearsing. Being on a school dance team includes the same comparisons, demands, and time while also tacking on the added effect of not being taken seriously by anyone at the school. While my dance team had cheered on our football and basketball teams throughout the year, we received little to no recognition for any of the accomplishments we made. Handling both school and dance has become just an extra part of my life. Since I have done it from such an early age I have almost perfected juggling both. I have learned skills about prioritizing the right things and managing my time while still having time to enjoy being a kid. I have been a straight A student since 8th grade, taken AP classes, dual enrollment classes, all while being on the dance team at my school. While there have been times that it has been a challenge, I have always found a way to manage it all. Despite all of the difficulties associated with balancing school and dance, I truly believe that it has made me a stronger person. Listening to people telling me that my sport does not matter has helped me become more confident in who am I and not listen to what others think of me. The demands of dance have made me stronger not only physically, but also mentally. Being on a team that does not get recognition has taught me that I do not need other people to be proud of me in order to be proud of my accomplishments. Handling school and dance has shown me that I can get through anything with dedication and perseverance. Dance has taught me discipline, adaptability, leadership, and so many other skills that will be beneficial throughout my life. I am forever thankful that balancing dance and school has helped me become such a strong female and taught me so many valuable skills.

Growing up, I have always loved school. Math and science were my two favorite subjects, and I often helped my younger brother with his homework in those two classes. I would even make up math worksheets and solve them myself or make my brother solve them. Most people were surprised when I would say that math was my favorite school subject and would often ask why I liked it so much. I believe that I enjoy math so much because there is a specific formula for everything that must be performed in order to produce an answer. I like to think of myself as a very structured person so using a formula to solve equations and having a clear correct answer makes me feel more structured than having answers that are left to interpretation like in an English class. When deciding what path I wanted to pursue after high school, I knew I wanted to do something relating to math and science. I wanted to continue to study my favorite two subjects and use them in my career one day. I also knew that I wanted to help make the world better by researching and developing new products. After talking to one of the teachers at my school, I ultimately determined that chemical engineering was right for me. When I told my parents what I wanted to study, they were a bit worried with how challenging the curriculum would be. Eventually, they began to understand that my passion is math and science. Even I was intimidated about pursuing such a difficult major at first. Despite this, I have started becoming extremely excited to prove that I belong. Another thing that I was worried about after deciding what I wanted to pursue was that engineering is a very male dominated field. However, I believe that this will be a wonderful opportunity to show the world that women can succeed in STEM fields. After college, I hope to start researching and developing new products and processes to make things more cost efficient and environmentally friendly. I believe that there are a lot of outdated products and processes within engineering, and I want to change that. As time moves on, technology changes, the cost of things changes, so why should the engineering community's products and processes not as well? I hope to make a difference in the world by making things more affordable, healthier for our planet, and easier to access. STEM is my passion, and I am extremely excited to study chemical engineering.

Growing up, I have always loved school. Math and science were my two favorite subjects, and I often helped my younger brother with his homework in those two classes. I would even make up math worksheets and solve them myself or make my brother solve them. Most people were surprised when I would say that math was my favorite school subject and would often ask why I liked it so much. I believe that I enjoy math so much because there is a specific formula for everything that must be performed in order to produce an answer. I like to think of myself as a very structured person so using a formula to solve equations and having a clear correct answer makes me feel more structured than having answers that are left to interpretation like in an English class. When deciding what path I wanted to pursue after high school, I knew I wanted to do something relating to math and science. I also knew that I wanted to help make the world better. After talking to one of the teachers at my school, I ultimately determined that chemical engineering was right for me. At first, I was intimidated by the difficulty of the field and how little females there would be. However, over the past few months, I have become extremely excited about getting to prove to everyone that women can excel in STEM fields. I believe that it is extremely important for young girls to see women achieve especially in male dominated fields like STEM. Not necessarily because pursuing English, nursing, or other fields associated with females is negative, but because young girls need to see that there are no limits to what they achieve no matter what path they choose to follow. I truly hope that one day, I can become a role model for these young girls and show them that their career options are wider than they may believe. I cannot wait to continue doing what I love in college and for the rest of my life. I am so thankful that I spoke to that teacher on that day and decided that chemical engineering is what I want to study. Although part of me is scared for this new chapter of my life, I am always reminding myself that by pursuing this career, I am not only being a role model to young girls but also showing my younger self that anything is possible when you put your mind to it.