In Honors US History, I was assigned the Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project. We set out to investigate any social problem and explore innovative ways to create change. My friend Sarah and I chose homelessness. We volunteered with Hope For the Homeless, a program that brings food, essentials, and hope to the unhoused every Friday. Through our conversations, we discovered that our unhoused friends needed more connection and acceptance as adolescents. Personally handing out food, as we did, spread smiles across the faces of disheartened individuals, softened my heart, and awakened new perspectives. I am surrounded by wealthy peers; I can struggle with comparing myself, but serving has increased my gratitude. I also find myself making a larger effort to connect with peers who seem alone. With this influence, Sarah and I created an action plan to address this underlying issue of homelessness and to increase youth involvement in caring for others. We connected with the Lucky Duck Foundation and started a Lucky Ducklings Club. Our youth initiative encourages teens to get involved in something bigger than themselves. If all goes well, this will be much bigger than Sarah and me, and it will expand youth involvement and increase San Diegans' compassion and empathy for years to come. As of now, the club is small, but I know that the impact is big. Each week, a little more people feel a little more loved. Additionally, the more I volunteer, the more curiosity and hype I spread to my peers, and that is how the mission spreads. I invite my friends to humbly sacrifice their Friday nights to join me in offering food and connection; I now have five new teens who want to serve. That is change-making! I know that food will not force a change in someone’s choices, but if giving them another day means another chance, then I am all in. Ultimately, my hope is that, by serving homeless people, my peers will become more accepting and caring towards each other, thereby initiating positive generational change. I come from a single mom low income family and I would use the scholarship to further my studies in college and if I receive enough funding through scholarships, I would love to attend a Christian university.

I love to sing, but it is so incredibly difficult. I sing when I am stressed, but singing also stresses me out. People always talk about confidence, how it is the most important part of performance. I beg to differ. I want to make my mom proud, and I know she loves to see me get on stage with a smile slapped across my face and to watch me sing for the worship team, choir and solos. I also happen to know that being uplifted for my confidence does not feel like a compliment. If my confidence is the best part of my performance, I need to work harder on my skills. I have been singing in church for years, and finally joined a choir class in my junior year. I have never had stage fright, only slight nerves, but boy, did I have to work hard to be uplifted for my skill. I watched my friends receive praise for their angelic voices, even being compared to Taylor Swift, while I felt like I was trying everything and getting nowhere. I was always losing pitch, cracking, or “not singing from your diaphragm!” It has been perpetually frustrating to watch my passion come so easily to others and not to me. Sophomore year, I took piano lessons and started to see improvement in my singing. The importance of dynamics and the relationships between musical notes finally started to click for me. Choir class helped reinforce my vocal training and strengthened my musical ear, while also bringing forth new opportunities. Last year, I auditioned and performed vocals with the jazz band. I must have done well because this year I was personally requested to sing at the music department's winter concert. Ladies and gentlemen, hard work does pay off. I have been in 2 HS plays and a musical with Patrick Henry's Black Box Theatre Co in which I dedicated rehearsal time before school 4 days a week for three months, learning and rehearsing choreography, scenes and songs, as a main character for a musical production of The Trail to Oregon. I love theater, and I am honored to be a part of the International Thespian Society. As the President of the PHHS Improv Club, I am learning to have more confidence in myself to lead my team towards growth. I encourage my team to step through discomfort to strengthen their skills, and develop both their comedic individuality and comedic mastery as a team. I am responsible for leading the club exercises, shows, promotions and team. I sing and play piano with my HS youth band. I have led the practices to help the team unite and lead others in praise music. I have played keys for summer camps with 400 kids. I currently volunteer to lead worship (sing and play guitar) for upper elementary kids, and sing worship for middle schoolers. This brings me a lot of joy, in many ways. Looking forward, I would like to continue singing for church and explore songwriting. I would love to study music, and if I enter the education field, I want to help raise the next generation of musicians. Music’s positive impact on well-being motivates me to keep learning and to share its benefits with others.