If you could compare life to the construction of a skyscraper, the cement, rebar, and steel construction would be considered the building blocks of the edifice. Obstacles, specifically the obstacles of life, can be regarded as building blocks of character. The character that translates into the fulfillment of goals when exercising the power of persistence and drive. I have personal experience with this type of phenomenon in my own life. I had a personal struggle with incorporating optimism into my life. Optimism is a cerebral skill that takes mastery by experiencing life as you interact with it, both good and bad. Regardless of your condition, optimism is the egalitarian politician that fights for a positive outcome within your consciousness. In my personal life, optimism was something I had to incorporate gradually. Even though I was getting things done with school and life, I still felt like I tended to find the negative in every situation. This is something I felt like was holding me back. I realized that this was something that I needed to break out of, so a paradigm shift was necessary. I read self-help books, started meditating, and put my effort into unlearning and relearning how to incorporate positivity in my life. Things were going well, but in 2020, I needed to use all my optimistic power. In 2020, my mom got diagnosed with breast cancer after discovering her underlying health issues. Most people would be distraught, and honestly, I was too at first. This is the moment I “turned it up to eleven” by not only taking the cards I was dealt personally but using that as motivation for my self-improvement journey. At the same time, the craziest thing had transpired in my inner being. My budding optimism turned into fiery confidence because I realized I needed to operate in a manner bigger than myself. I graduated high school early in the top twenty percent of my class with a 4.04 GPA. Currently, I am pursuing a Business Administration degree with a concentration in computer information systems as I have a strong interest in the world of STEM. After college, I join the Air Force as an officer as a 2nd lieutenant working in cyberspace operations. From a negative situation, I had a new appreciation for life. I wanted to make my loved ones proud by advancing myself from a teen to a successful young adult.

Optimism is a cerebral skill that takes mastery by experiencing life as you interact with it, both good and bad. Regardless of your condition, optimism is the egalitarian politician that fights for a positive outcome within your consciousness. In my personal life, optimism was something I had to gradually incorporate. Even though I was getting things done with school and life, I still felt like I tended to always find the negative in every situation. This is something I felt like was holding me back. I realized that this was something that I needed to break out of, so a paradigm shift was necessary. I read self-help books, started meditating, and put my effort into unlearning and relearning. Things were going well, but in 2020, I needed to use all my optimistic power. In 2020, my mom got diagnosed with breast cancer after discovering her underlying health issues. Most people would be distraught, and honesty I was too at first. At the same time, the craziest thing had transpired in my inner being. My budding optimism turned into fiery confidence because I realized I needed to operate in a manner bigger than myself. From a negative situation, I had a new appreciation for life and I wanted to be able to make my loved ones proud through advancing myself from a teen to a successful young adult. Overall, optimism has been a shining light through my tough times and has molded me into a new individual.

The direct dictionary definition of independence from Merriam-Webster is “freedom from outside control or support”. Most people think they are independent or utilize independence in their daily lives. However, most people are far from independent as they rely on the influence, criticism, trends, and norms of society to mold themselves. All of those factors dilute one’s independence as the majority of society will use those factors to grade what type of person they are against those standards. I was once that person, but for the evolution and progression of my conscious (and subconscious) mind, I could not let that person continue to cohabitate with my physical anymore. With that in mind, my definition of independence is “the ability to have full jurisdiction over your conscious and subconscious mind by positively influencing your actions”. I live by that definition and ever since I decided to, the impact that has had on my life is worth more than any currency. The amount of control, the amount of power that I have actualized into my life goals and aspirations has paid me dividends. In the words of self-help author Napoleon Hill, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” From conception and belief, my independence has changed my life.

Imagine a world where you can use smart glasses to bring up a hologram that allows you to chat with your friends. Visualize using your phone to add an Instagram filter that changes your face into a cartoon character. All of these world-changing possibilities are feasible with augmented reality technology, the next life-shifting technology I am excited about. Augmented reality technology is the enhancement of real-world environments in combination with sensory and visual-based automation. Unlike VR (virtual reality), augmented reality thrives off of real-world settings and can be accessed from something like a smartphone, rather than utilizing a bulky headset. The uses and possibilities of AR are virtually unlimited, with present utility in the industries of business, medicine, logistics, and more. However, AR technology is not going to be just used by itself. With the evolution of other technology, it is going to be incorporated with wearable technology to television and even grocery stores. This is coming sooner than people think, most large corporations are taking this seriously. Microsoft, an enormous multinational tech company, has gotten a U.S. Army contract for their AR product, HoloLens 2. The HoloLens 2 are ergonomic glasses powered by the cloud and AI services that provide apps and different solutions for businesses and regular people. Another company that has taken strides in the direction of this technology is Google. Google has implemented AR technology in their Google Maps service through their new feature AR Land View. This allows landmarks, paths, and elevation to become more prominent and attractive. Overall, AR technology is a groundbreaking tool and eventual asset to our society. It will change the world as we know it socially, economically, and most importantly culturally. One day, you will be able to literally use objects out of thin air, all thanks to augmented reality.

My name is Matthew Marvine and I can confidently say that my goal in life is to be an educator of financial freedom. The direct definition of education after making a Google search is “the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.” However, the same type of education we receive during primary school to high school does not translate to success in real life when developing from a teen to a young adult. The education that you receive in these learning faculties can be considered “general knowledge”. General knowledge, regardless of the quantity, will not open the doors of prosperity. Another form of common knowledge can be deemed as specialized knowledge. The problem is that we receive this knowledge, however, we do not receive the tools to organize knowledge. In the words of Napoleon Hill, “Knowledge will not attract money unless it is organized and intelligently directed through practical plans of action to the definite end of the accumulation of money.” Educated people are not individuals whose minds contain a plethora of general and specialized knowledge. Educated people are directors of life who have developed a consciousness of ethically attracting and acquiring anything they want ethically in their lives. We are entering an age where living and relying on one income is not sustainable. This is not just a first-world issue, this is a world issue. So with that in mind, my goal of being an educator is solidified with the mission and vision of causing a paradigm shift of how we attract money into our lives and embracing entrepreneurship as a necessity. I currently do this through my YouTube channel and brand Out The Mud Media, a platform that is dedicated to motivating and elevating minds to a vibration that is magnetized towards gaining financial freedom. I also practice what I preach through the numerous streams of income that I engage in (decentralized finance, the foreign exchange market, options trading, and stocks). In combination with this, I currently attend York Technical College to complete my Associate's in Arts and transfer that degree to Winthrop University. From Winthrop, I will be completing my B.S. in Business Administration with a Concentration in Information Systems and my MBA thereafter. During my college career at Winthrop, I will be a member of UNC Charlotte’s Air Force ROTC as I plan to pursue the military as a career after college. I will scale Out The Mud Media through the knowledge I organize from this post-secondary business-focused education and social media advertisement. I can confidently say my “Why” is consolidated within a humanitarian effort to help others increase their quality of life by giving others the organized knowledge to be financially abundant. I know that the positivity generated from Out The Mud Media will be felt globally through the power and reach of the internet. If I was to receive this scholarship, it would not just be an investment in me, it would be an investment in the universal advancement of the world.

Within the last four years, the world has drastically changed in all aspects of human interrelation. However, the last two have been the most telling of how the world will be different within the next two decades. December 12th, 2019 was the catalyst for the beginning of the rebirth of the world economy. On December 12th, 2019, a group of patients in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China were the first to experience symptoms of the coronavirus. Overlooked and underestimated at first, the COVID-19 pandemic snowballed into one of the most devastating and life-changing events that have affected humankind in recent years. The loss of life during the last two years has been cataphoric, primarily affecting senior citizens with weakened immune systems. However, the most underlooked aspect of this whole ordeal is how the world economy will exist after a pandemic like this. More specifically, how does the economic hierarchy look globally, and how does that affect us in the United States. COVID-19 was a major wake-up call to unstable the middle class is. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in July of 2020, 16.9 million Americans were unemployed and 9.6 million (57%) were unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic. Also, as a result of the pandemic, many corporations decided to downsize or pursue autonomous workforce solutions. The most important caveat to this is that the removal of humans in the workforce to cut costs is not going away. The universal term for this shift in economics and society itself is called the Great Reset. The Great Reset entails an age where we live in an economy with a semi-autonomous workforce, leaving many displaced due to them being unskilled laborers. But the problem is that the world is not taking into account what will happen to these people. At the rate we are currently going, the next 20 years will not have a middle class. You will either be poor or wealthy. Mechanism must explore this issue because the backbone of business and entrepreneurship comes from the oil in the engine, the workers. As a venture firm that launches ambitious companies, Mechanism could incentivize these startups by guaranteeing more capital in return for uplifting people in these positions. For example, a startup that has more access to capital could be able to install a tuition assistance program within their business to do these two things. One, allow unskilled workers to transition and adapt to a new world economy through being able to access higher education in exchange for work. Two, allow Mechanism to set an example of what firms need to do to enact social change through the distribution of resources. The world we live in will continually change in all aspects. Regardless, those changes can have drastic effects on those who have less access to opportunities or resources. With that in mind, Mechanism can turn a negative into a positive through venturing towards a solution for those that are getting left behind.

My name is Matthew Marvine and my role model and beacon for wisdom and insight is my mother Melissa. I feel like to become a successful and productive member of society, you have to be sustained by some type of support system from child to adulthood and beyond. With that being said, I would say my mom is the foundation of my positive traits and knowledge that I currently possess. Everything I’ve wanted to do, especially graduating high school early and attending college months a year ahead of others, has been supported wholeheartedly by my mom. That type of support definitely translated when I decided to major in network systems management, she inspired me because of her involvement in the technology field as well. This is why role models are so valuable and having people in your life that care about you. At one point, I didn’t think I was gonna be able to handle the workload of early college life. But my mom influenced me to stick it through and persevere because she believed in my abilities, even when I downplayed my own. Network systems management for me is more than processing online systems, it’s about getting hands-on experience to further your knowledge about what keeps your devices and their counterparts running each and every day. In my eyes, being able to come in contact with different telecommunications of this nature by bridging the gap between software and hardware is something closer to magic more than people realize. This is why after I graduate from Midlands Tech, I hope to continue at a four-year college and acquire an internship position in my field. After that, I want to eventually progress into creating my own information technology company and net seven figures. As an avid player of video games, I want to be able to create some type of system unique to video game servers that can reduce ping dramatically without having to cause more hassle for the player. I feel that an invention regarding this concept would change the pace of online multiplayer games forever as everybody would basically be on the same playing field regarding technology. Furthermore, I feel that operating and creating technology solutions within this niche would be very profitable monetarily and could be modified for other sectors as well. Overall, I feel as a whole African Americans are unrepresented in the field of technology, so I can lead by example and be the model for others in my community who intend to join the profession. If I can do that, I’d really feel like I would be contributing not only to the field of technology but to the world as a whole. But my journey wouldn’t have been complete without the assistance and guidance of my mentor. She was the key driver of my success from day one and that is something I’ll never forget. So if I could get the opportunity to win this valuable scholarship, it would be monumental to not only me but my mentor as well.

My name is Matthew Marvine, and I want to create and scale a platform where people young and old can become more knowledgeable about relevant world skills to be successful in 2020 and beyond. I currently do this now with my brand, Out The Mud Media. Through Out The Mud Media, I educate people about how to motivate themselves, manifest positive energy, and create passive income streams so reliance on a traditional job becomes obsolete in your life. I run Out The Mud Media through my Twitter and YouTube platforms. On Twitter, I post motivational quotes, retweet and create entrepreneurship content, and promote Out The Mud Media branded eBooks. On YouTube, I post all my content in video form for the masses. Through my creation, I want to be able to say that everyone has the opportunity to be unique and find their own path, rather than conforming to society’s standards of what a life is supposed to compose of. With that being said, I think that it is vital for the world to see my creation as it will make self-reliance mainstream and inspire millions. Especially with me being a young African American man, I would love to take this opportunity to build my platform and uplift others of my complexion as well. My brand has an abundance of potential with my niche and if I could scale Out The Mud Media up and eventually dive into philanthropic endeavors, the sky would simply be the limit. To me, this scholarship is more than $1,000, I view it as an investment for me as a Black man in America to show society what people of color can bring to the table regardless of the stereotypes. So with that in mind, I’d appreciate any chance to be the definition of what it means to be a creator.

My name is Matthew Marvine and music has an extensive role in my daily life from the time I wake up to when I go to sleep. To me, music is more than mere sound, all of the elements that go into it provide positive feelings for my wellbeing. Every day, music is an energizer, a relaxer, and most importantly a motivator. My playlist starts with “Floating” by 03 Greedo to provide an uplifting and motivational vibe. The purpose of my playlist is for inspiration and aligning your mind to the grind.

In my eyes, education is the gateway to prosperity and wealth regardless of it being in the classroom or at home watching YouTube videos on a specific topic. I believe in the saying, “Knowing is growing”, meaning that the more knowledge acquired through education ultimately leads to a greater benefit of your overall wellbeing. With that in mind, my name is Matthew Marvine and I want to study information technology with a concentration in network systems at a four-year university. My passion is so strong for IT that I have graduated high school early to pursue a network systems management associate’s degree at Midlands Technical College. However, this is just a stepping stone on my path to receive a bachelor’s degree to expand my knowledge of information technology. I feel that this field of work is something that is underrated in terms of importance considering that having a running network is crucial to the success of any type of web-based platform. Especially with us going into the 2020s and the integration of 5G and other new technologies. With this in mind, being able to fix, manage, and modify the moving parts in the machine of our global internet of things has been a passion of mine. This is essentially why I want to study this at a four-year university, the other reason being my goal as a young African American man to influence others of my complexion to join this field of work as well. Overall, I feel as a whole African Americans are unrepresented in the field of technology, so I can lead by example and be the model for others in my community who intend to join the profession. However, all of those amazing aspects of diversity start with distributing opportunity. So if I could get the chance of receiving this immensely valuable scholarship, I’d be one step closer to a four-year university and ultimately diversifying the information technology workforce for the better.

In my eyes, education is the gateway to prosperity and wealth regardless of it being in the classroom or at home watching YouTube videos on a specific topic. I believe in the saying, “Knowing is growing”, meaning that the more knowledge acquired through education ultimately leads to a greater benefit of your overall wellbeing. Currently, however, I’m using education to my advantage through graduating high school early to pursue a network systems management degree at Midlands Technical College. After that, I expect to attend a four-year college and earn a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. With that in mind, education in my life plays an enormous role in my life, from day to day and years so on. The importance of education is something I feel so strongly about because knowledge opens the doors of potential, leading you to greater opportunities to manifest in your life. With that in mind, I use the blessing of being able to wake up every day to learn something new and grow as a human being. Technology has always had a significant role in my life, so much that it’s become one of my passions. As a result of this, I find myself learning about new ways to build on or manipulate technology from learning how to build websites to coding with HTML and JavaScript. In my opinion, there is no feeling like learning a skill and being able to apply it effectively. This feeling becomes more pronounced when there is delayed gratification involved from having adversity during the process. Taking that into consideration, I feel like the value of education can be compared to food or water. I want to be the role model of being able to leverage education for a greater cause, so if I could receive this scholarship I’d be one step closer.

My name is Matthew Marvine and music has an extensive role in my daily life from the time I wake up to when I go to sleep. To me, music is more than mere sound, all of the elements that go into it provide positive feelings for my wellbeing. Every day, music is an energizer, a relaxer, and most importantly a motivator. Every task you can think of from homework to life planning, music has had some type of role from beginning to completion. Especially when I am working on something difficult, music creates a therapeutic space for me to lock in and achieve my goals. I even dabble in creating my own music through FL Studio. A song that is particularly notable to me would be “Floating” by 03 Greedo. This song encaptures what it means to be carefree and joyful as the melody transports you into a different world. As soon as the beat plays, a wave of relaxation and happiness comes across from your ears to your body. When the song arrives at the hook, it’s all of these things combined tenfold, especially when says “Floating, I can touch the sky, I’m high enough”. This song has been with me through every mood and frame of mind but allows me to stay aligned at all times. Overall, music has a special place in my heart because the soundtrack of my life gives me something to look forward to regardless of the ups and downs. Even when I’m not listening to a specific song, humming music delivers a dopamine boost that other pastimes can’t match. But if I could be blessed with the chance to receive this valuable scholarship, it would just make my love for music stronger and motivate me to pursue my dreams even more.

My name is Matthew Marvine and in life, the one thing I hold most valuable and seek to achieve is one goal. It’s something that isn’t physical, you can’t buy what I’m striving to have an abundance of. “Why?”, you may ask. Simply because my goal is having an abundance of time. I feel like time is something we as a society and as humans in general take advantage of. We are constantly abusing our time by wasting it on meaningless things like binge-watching our favorite shows, slaving over at a 9-5 job, obsessing over celebrities on social media, and etc. We only finally realize how much time we wasted at the end of our lives when our monopoly on time morphs into scarcity. In my life, I want to be known as the blueprint to maximizing the time we have here on earth. I plan to do that by creating passive income streams, side hustles, and businesses that make money no object in my life. I’ve always been a hardworking individual, whether it be through creating my own social media imprint, Out The Mud Media, or learning different skills like Photoshop or HTML. You may ask, “What does time have to do with having money?”, well as cliche as it sounds time is money. The more time you spend working for money at a job each and every day, the less time you have to focus on yourself. I firmly believe in the saying, “You shouldn’t work hard for money, you should work hard on yourself”’. This drive I have to be self-sufficient was not an overnight occurrence. I have always been known as a creator, especially at a young age by my family, friends, and community. Furthermore, I’ve used my skills as a creator for volunteer work at the Eau Claire Community Council in Columbia, SC, and numerous outlets around my city. Even though in the past it may have been on a smaller scale, I’m taking advantage of the free time I have now to invent new ways of making money so I can be more than prepared for adulthood. I started this journey by deciding in my junior year of high school that I wanted to graduate early so I could focus more on my goals. With this in mind, my first thought was to create “virtual real estate” so I could create the income I desired. I define “virtual real estate” as anything that you can create on the internet that has the potential to create permanent passive income. Examples of this include YouTube channels as they can be monetized and other social media platforms. Also, affiliate marketing and selling digital products are some other ways that I have put the effort into building the foundation of my “virtual real estate” portfolio. I’ve done this with my own brand (on YouTube and Twitter), Out The Mud Media, a platform that is centralized around motivation and finding ways to free yourself from the idea of a 9-5 job. I’m very passionate about Out The Mud Media because I feel like I’m giving the world a new outlook on what it means to live through education on how to live the life that a person truly desires. Furthermore, I’d want to use this platform to promote different types of philanthropic purposes in the future. At the moment, however, I currently attend Midlands Technical College and major in Network Systems Management. I plan to use this degree and leverage the money from my future job so I can fund my dreams even further. Overall, I feel like as a person what I can contribute to this world through my vision is simply invaluable. To me, this scholarship is more than $1,000, I see it as an investment for me as a Black man in America to show society what people of color can bring to the table regardless of the stereotypes. So with that in mind, I’d appreciate any chance to be the definition of what it means to dream big.

My name is Matthew Marvine and I’m currently pursuing the network side of the technology industry. At the moment, I am working on my network systems management associate’s degree at Midlands Technical College. I feel that this field of work is something that is underrated in terms of importance considering that having a running network is crucial to the success of any type of web-based platform. Especially with us going into the 2020s and the integration of 5G and other new technologies. With this in mind, being able to fix, manage, and modify the moving parts in the machine of our global internet of things has been a passion of mine. Network systems management for me is more than processing online systems, it’s about getting hands-on experience to further your knowledge about what keeps your devices and their counterparts running each and every day. In my eyes, being able to come in contact with different technology of this nature by bridging the gap between software and hardware is something closer to magic more than people realize. This is why after I graduate from Midlands Tech, I hope to continue at a four-year college and acquire an internship position in my field. This experience will be the driver of my ultimate goal, being able to solve the issue of inconsistent latency for video games in the future. As an avid player of video games, I want to be able to create some type of system unique to video game servers that can reduce ping dramatically without having to cause more hassle for the player. I feel that an invention regarding this concept would change the pace of online multiplayer games forever as everybody would basically be on the same playing field regarding technology. Furthermore, I feel that operating and creating technology solutions within this niche would be very profitable monetarily and could be modified for other sectors as well. Overall, I feel as a whole African Americans are unrepresented in the field of technology, so I can lead by example and be the model for others in my community who intend to join the profession. If I can do that, I’d really feel like I would be contributing not only to the field of technology but to the world as a whole. So to get any chance to be a future leader in technology through this valuable scholarship would be monumental.

My name is Matthew Marvine and in life, the one thing I hold most valuable and seek to achieve is one goal. It’s something that isn’t physical, you can’t buy what I’m striving to have an abundance of. “Why?”, you may ask. Simply because my goal is having an abundance of time. I feel like time is something we as a society and as humans in general take advantage of. We are constantly abusing our time by wasting it on meaningless things like binge-watching our favorite shows, slaving over at a 9-5 job, obsessing over celebrities on social media, and etc. We only finally realize how much time we wasted at the end of our lives when our monopoly on time morphs into scarcity. In my life, I want to be known as the blueprint to maximizing the time we have here on earth. I plan to do that by creating passive income streams, side hustles, and businesses that make money no object in my life. I’ve always been a hardworking individual, whether it be through creating my own social media imprint, Out The Mud Media, or learning different skills like Photoshop or HTML. You may ask, “What does time have to do with having money?”, well as cliche as it sounds time is money. The more time you spend working for money at a job each and every day, the less time you have to focus on yourself. I firmly believe in the saying, “You shouldn’t work hard for money, you should work hard on yourself”’. This drive I have to be self-sufficient was not an overnight occurrence. I have always been known as a creator, especially at a young age by my family, friends, and community. Even though in the past it may have been on a smaller scale, I’m taking advantage of the free time I have now to invent new ways of making money so I can be more than prepared for adulthood. I started this journey by deciding in my junior year of high school that I wanted to graduate early so I could focus more on my goals. With this in mind, my first thought was to create “virtual real estate” so I could create the income I desired. I define “virtual real estate” as anything that you can create on the internet that has the potential to create permanent passive income. Examples of this include YouTube channels as they can be monetized and other social media platforms. Also, affiliate marketing and selling digital products are some other ways that I have put the effort into building the foundation of my “virtual real estate” portfolio. I’ve done this with my own brand (on YouTube and Twitter), Out The Mud Media, a platform that is centralized around motivation and finding ways to free yourself from the idea of a 9-5 job. I’m very passionate about Out The Mud Media because I feel like I’m giving the world a new outlook on what it means to live through education on how to live the life that a person truly desires. Furthermore, I’d want to use this platform to promote different types of philanthropic purposes in the future. At the moment, however, I currently attend Midlands Technical College and major in Network Systems Management. I plan to use this degree and leverage the money from my future job so I can fund my dreams even further. Overall, I feel like as a person what I can contribute to this world through my vision is simply invaluable. To me, this scholarship is more than $2,550, I see it as an investment for me as a Black man in America to show society what people of color can bring to the table regardless of the stereotypes. So with that in mind, I’d appreciate any chance to be the definition of what it means to make an impact.