At the age of 3 during my first exposure to school my preschool teacher told my parents that no matter what interests I may bounce around between, music would be the one thing that would stick. She said if my parents wanted me to learn something challenging, set it to music or sing it. I would find this prediction of my future self to be very accurate. I picked up a trombone in grade 3 and have not put it down since. Each year I would watch my fellow trombonists decide it wasn't for them and close the lock on their cases and return it to the music store. I have enjoyed every minute of practice, concerts and new experiences music has brought to me. I have been lucky to be selected for multiple years in the Massachusetts Honors Bands as well as the New England All Bands. I have benefited greatly from the master classes and guidance from these experiences and have grown so much as a musician but also as a person. I am frequently the only female at these band festivals. I am often seated 1st chair and I have enjoyed the challenges to showcase my musicianship and play with so many other talented people. My father is from Portugal. He came to the US when he was 5 years old and later became a citizen. We are active members of our local Portuguese club. They happen to have a cultural band where I have been able to play with the other band members all the traditional Portuguese cultural songs. We perform at festas and we march in parades. The Portuguese songs are so different from the concert band, pep band and jazz bands I have played in. I am able to fine tune my skills and use them slightly differently. Some of my other interests have allowed me to still play. I attended Massachusetts Girls State last summer and was able to join their band which included male and female musicians all about to enter their Senior year of high school to come together to share patriotic and historical pieces. I will be attending the University of New Hampshire in the fall with a double major in social work and music performance. I plan on joining their pep band and concert band and someday in the future I hope to be able to connect my social work goals with music. Music has been such a gift to me and sharing that with others to bring them healing or happiness would be an amazing thing. I hope to continue playing and possibly learning another instrument as well.

Trying to decide on a career path has been a journey. Personally, I have always been interested in working in a helping profession such as teaching or social work. Exposing myself to opportunities to experience what either may be like has helped me grow and settle on a course of study, social work. For two summers, I have been able to work as a student paraprofessional in an elementary and preschool classroom with students with disabilities to help them prevent regression of their abilities over the summer. As the President of my high school GSA for 3 years, I have had a front row seat to be actively engaged in conversations and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community. I have been given leadership opportunities within my high school to interact with the public, the student body, administration and teachers for both advocacy, consultation and community support. These experiences have helped me find perspective for my future studies in social work. An additional experience I have had which promoted my growth and guided my college decisions is the summer of my Junior year, when I was selected to attend Massachusetts Girls State, sponsored by the American Legion as the female student representative from Norton High School. Initially, I planned to take a passive role while at Girls State and absorb information. The whole experience and the other Girls Staters I was placed with in my Loyalty Community motivated me to get involved and take on a leadership role. The premise of Girls State is to spend the week living in a mock government community, learning about the details of local, state and federal government. I successfully ran for Auditor for the Federalist Party and won. I have been so positively influenced by my time at Girls State I have applied and have been selected to return this coming summer as a volunteer counselor for the next group of Girls Staters. Gaining the confidence to be engaged and join in new things will be something I take with me to college. Knowledge is power and being well informed of how the government governs will help me to more advocacy leadership opportunities. To be granted this scholarship would have special meaning to me. Not only because of my own orientation but because of my family. My mother is the middle child of 3 women. Her older sister and younger sister are both lesbians and married to women. Both of my aunts have children and one is transgender. My whole life the level of love and acceptance that is unconditional by my parents and extended family is something not everyone experiences. I am very lucky. I hope to learn to become the best social worker I can be so I might replicate this feeling of unconditional acceptance to others.

Empowerment to me means choosing to believe in myself and turning that belief into action to reach my goals. Being and feeling empowered provides a sense of purpose and motivation to accomplish small tasks every day as well as taking those larger steps towards future endeavors. As a female, high school senior I have many future experiences coming that will challenge me. I am empowered to have confidence to meet these challenges coming up head on. In order to meet challenges I need to use my self advocacy, communication, problem solving and conflict management skills. The idea of being empowered to me includes using my abilities and skills I have learned along the way to not only help myself but promote those around me. Sharing my perspective and opinions in a thoughtful manner, making choices to lead with confidence and not follow with a lack of confidence and advocating for my voice to be heard and considered in the sea of other voices empowers me to show up, join in, participate and take the initiative. Being empowered provides opportunities to be more than who the world might think I am. I attended Massachusetts Girls State in the summer before my senior year of high school. I was immersed in learning about local, state and federal government, all male dominated professions. Gaining the knowledge of how our government systems function motivated me to higher levels of leadership to be a club president, student representative for my school, honor society officer positions as well as teaching younger students. My confidence empowered me to represent myself and my school with pride. The opposite of being empowered is being embarrassed to be you. It means you hold yourself back and miss out on experiences that inform you and guide you in identifying your opinions. Not being empowered means you work to meet the expectations of others instead of working to meet meaningful goals you have chosen for yourself. It means you let opportunities for personal growth pass you by. It means you remain still with a voice that can be overlooked. I choose a different pathway. Empowerment is not arrogance either. It begins with an inner message that I am worthy and capable and can do hard things. It's the message that gives permission to try as well as make mistakes so I can learn from them. Empowerment creates interests in the world around me creating questions and conversations. My empowerment motivates me to keep going and to find joy and a sense of accomplishment even in the little things.