Like Darryl, I never miss an opportunity to use my God-given talents to help others. The times which I have stepped up to help have granted me experiences that have shaped my future, my faith, and who I am as a person. Although my mother had to convince me to get out of the car on my nerve-wracking first day, being a part of my church’s production team introduced me to my passion: live TV production. Although I was the only kid on the crew, I met wonderful mentors in the church community who showed me the ropes. They recognized a talent in me, and moved me from camera work to calling the entire show on a switcher board - the essential equipment needed for live production. After Covid-19 closed my high school, I volunteered to continue our annual charity tradition based on the show “Survivor” remotely. I dedicated my time to producing all of the videos from home, being the catalyst in raising $51,400 for COVID relief in my hometown. The depression and loneliness in my community inspired me to continue the tradition, boost morale and do something positive for my classmates. An online event sounded simple, but I struggled to edit quickly. I was working from my unreliable laptop, a drastic change from the high-speed Macs at school. Since contestants filmed themselves, the low-quality clips increased my editing hours exponentially. Videos still had to be released every 24 hours. I was supposed to take breaks, but tomorrow’s clips were being sent, contestants had filming questions and I was attending production meetings. We ultimately uploaded five videos while raising $51,400 for COVID-19 relief. However, fundraising wasn’t my goal. With creative thinking and leadership, I affected positive change in my community not just through charity money, but by raising spirits when it was needed most. After reviving Senior Survivor in a dark time, I learned of my ability to lead the way in giving back to others, but my most influential realization was that my talent can be used to truly help people. In my future television career, I will forever act with this value. During my senior year we held an in-person Senior Survivor competition. As the director of the film crew, I recruited and trained my crew in technical skills like camerawork, sound, livestreaming, and editing, while planning the camera angles and audio for each challenge. My Senior Survivor videos were declared the best in the competition’s history, and I made a name for myself in the community. I enjoyed the recognition, but I felt true joy in knowing my videos inspired people to donate to the charity cause. The grand fundraising total of $229,659 broke our fundraising record, and allowed the three-year project of building a sensory-friendly playground to be completed in one year. My small town high school has a tiny budget, and my video production class only gets scraps. This year I was the only student taking the course and worked without a crew. I took it as a learning opportunity, engineering homemade livestreams for school events that would've had an audience pre-pandemic. Like with Senior Survivor, I was honored to use my talent to help my school. Leaving my small midwest town to attend Hofstra University, an out-of-state NY school is worth its pricetag because of Hofstra’s emphasis on live production. I’ll practice on equipment donated by NBC in my multicam and lighting courses. I’ll build my skill set as a producer on “Thursday Nite Live” or in the control room running the switcher board. Attending college near NYC grants me unique internships and makes me employable in the entertainment industry. I’ve worked throughout high school to earn merit scholarships for my grades, but I need help closing the financial gap. My goal is to increase female representation in television. I've often been the only woman on a crew, but my struggles taught me to fight for my seat at the table and prove my talent. As a Lebanese-American, I'll also work towards positive representation in television for Middle Eastern people, because it's rare that I see myself onscreen or behind the camera. A personal career goal of mine is to mentor someone like the amazing, influential mentors that God has placed me on sets with. I feel live TV is my calling in life, and I’m willing to work hard and help whoever I can to reach my goals.

I never thought I’d be the person to unite my community during a global pandemic. After Covid-19 closed my high school, I volunteered to continue our annual charity tradition based on the show “Survivor” remotely. I dedicated my time to produce all of the videos from home, being the catalyst in raising $51,400 for COVID relief in my hometown. The depression and loneliness in my community inspired me to continue the tradition, boost morale and do something positive for my classmates. An online event sounded simple, but I struggled to edit quickly. I was working from my unreliable laptop, a drastic change from the high-speed Macs at school. Since contestants filmed themselves, the low-quality clips increased my editing hours exponentially. Videos still had to be released every 24 hours. I was supposed to take breaks, but tomorrow’s clips were being sent, contestants had filming questions and I was attending production meetings. We ultimately uploaded five videos while raising $51,400 for COVID-19 relief. However, fundraising wasn’t my goal. With creative thinking and leadership, I affected positive change in my community not just through charity money, but by raising spirits when it was needed most. After reviving Senior Survivor in a dark time, I learned of my ability to lead the way in giving back to others, but my most influential realization was that my talent can be used to truly help people. In my future television career, I will forever act with this value. During my senior year, we held an in-person Senior Survivor competition. As the director of the film crew, I recruited and trained my crew in technical skills like camerawork, sound, livestreaming, and editing, while planning the camera angles and audio for each challenge. My Senior Survivor videos were declared the best in the competition’s history, and I made a name for myself in the community. My videos inspired people to donate to the charity cause, and this year's total of $229,659 broke our fundraising record. My small-town high school has a small budget, and my video production class only gets scraps. This year I was the only student taking the course and worked without a crew. I took it as a learning opportunity, engineering homemade livestreams for school events that would've had an audience pre-pandemic. Like with Senior Survivor, I was honored to use my talent to help my school. Leaving my small midwest town to attend Hofstra University, an out-of-state NY school is worth its price tag because of Hofstra’s emphasis on live production. I’ll practice on equipment donated by NBC in my multicam and lighting courses. I’ll build my skill set as a producer on “Thursday Nite Live” or in the control room running the switcher board. Attending college near NYC grants me unique internships and makes me employable in the entertainment industry. I’ve worked throughout high school to earn merit scholarships for my grades, but I need help closing the financial gap. My goal is to increase female representation in television. I've often been the only woman on a crew, but my struggles taught me to fight for my seat at the table and prove my talent. As a Lebanese-American, I'll also work towards positive representation in television for Middle Eastern people, because it's rare that I see myself onscreen or behind the camera. I hope to fulfill these goals by founding scholarships for Arab-American women interested in the arts. A personal career goal of mine is to mentor someone. I've had amazing, influential mentors that I met on sets, and I will likely meet many more throughout my lifetime in television.

Throughout high school, I thought to myself “Keep working. Keep that 4.0 GPA. You’ll get into a great college, and not have to pay a cent.” Despite my 4.0, despite my leadership roles, despite my community service, merit scholarships weren’t enough. Even though my father had just taken a pandemic pay cut, financial aid wasn’t enough either. If I wanted to pursue my goal of trading my small Midwest town for New York City and becoming a TV producer, I’d have to double down on scholarships. While my friends were focusing on senior year, I was learning the scholarship game. After purchasing stacks of books, creating profiles, and subscribing to email lists, I developed an organizational method that optimized my time. I began keeping a spreadsheet with each scholarship’s link and due date, and continue to devote at least 1 hour each day to the process. It can be overwhelming at times, but I still have to continue to raise the grand total that will keep me from getting a knock on my dorm room door, saying the payment wasn’t made and that it’s time to pack up and go home. Being in that rut of not winning for a while can bring a lack of motivation, but the relief I had when I found out I’d have enough to pay for my first semester made it all worth it. Winning this scholarship will allow me to pursue my unique passion for live TV production at Hofstra University. I will join the TV and radio stations, being on-air, a writer, or a producer as early as my freshman year. Coupled with year-round internships in New York City, I'll graduate with a thorough view of the television industry. After graduation, I hope to work up the ranks at NBC, eventually reaching The Tonight Show, as well as create a better environment for women in the broadcast engineering world, and starting scholarships of my own. Because Hofstra is a private school, and I’m an out-of-state student, it’s expensive. However, my knowledge of the scholarship process, financial need, and perseverance make me a great candidate for this award.