People that have different cultures and backgrounds have different ways of solving problems. With people from diverse set of backgrounds, diverse skills can utilized to be able to achieve things in a professional atmosphere. Treating others equally whether in a professional atmosphere or a professional atmosphere is very important as well as keeping the business diverse. The company I work for helps minorities in the San Francisco poverty areas get off the street and get permanently housed. It is very supporting for the diversity and equality of the overall populace. I support this companies ideals and am rewarded everyday with the knowledge of helping the community as well as minorities in the area to improve the community. Treating people with respect and earning trust can be a challenging thing within this foundation, but I feel the program members that are struggling see what I do for them and it is very satisfying as well as just a job. I have been in bad situations such as them and can relate to the struggle. This understanding is very important to be able to make a difference in the community.

1.) I deserve a scholarship because of lack of motivation, low self-esteem, and underwhelming work ethic. My under par performance and low intelligence makes me a perfect candidate for this scholarship. With a slacker attitude and lazy personality, I feel that this scholarship is the perfect fit for me as well as making me well deserving of it. 2.) My academic goals are to achieve nothing less than F's and achieve as many incompletes as possible. I plan to be as useless as possible in a dead end job making bare minimum without a care in the world and no direction. 3.) A time that I have overcome an obstacle was this morning when I woke up, I looked over and my bed was made. I messed up the blankets and un-made the bed. This was an exceptional achievement and a welcoming good start to my day.

Everything in life is mathematical and having a basic understanding of the fundamentals of mathematics can improve your quality of life. The processes and methods of math is very rewarding, as well as keeping your mind from being fooled. By understanding mathematics people can understand the building blocks of how life is represented and the way life works in all aspects. Math is the universal language of all things in life. This aspect of learning math is very important and it is something that can be honed and mastered with enough practice. Math has a wide range of application whether it is something technical or even abstract such as art. With this understanding of structured elements that can communicate to the world and reverberate back onto oneself, people can improve their skills in other things or even their way of life. A basic survival skill of life is having a basic knowledge of math. Everything that is done throughout the day has to do with math whether its sticking to a schedule, budgeting, or formulating ideas with groups of people. The importance of using your mathematical brain is valuable for most things in everyday life. The ability to think critically and reason correctly can be improved with learning math and is very progressing for students of academia. Everyone is capable of understanding math at a high level, making the skill very useful for those that are persistent in the subject. The variety of uses that math has is very wide and is fundamental to things that seem like math is not used for. I love to learn things that are challenging for me. Math is definitely a challenging subject for me because I am a much more artistic mindset but I enjoy learning mathematics. For some people math seems to come very easy, but for me, it is actually one of the more challenging things that I learn. This does not mean that I do not like to learn it! I am a three dimensional artist looking to get into the videogames design field, so math is very important to videogame creation and is used very often. The different ways to create assets utilize mathematics in many ways. Most of the design elements of object creation use geometry and sometimes more math elements than that. It depends on the outcome of the scene as to what form of math's will be useful for the project. Learning math for me brings a lot of rewarding feelings because of the challenge. So the counter effect of learning a challenging thing is that the feeling of achievement is much more vibrant. I hope to hone my math skills further and be very adequate at the complexities of problems versus solutions in the future.

A simple pleasure in life that I enjoy is going to the park next to my house and walking to the top of the mountain to see all of San Francisco. This park has a very good view of the city and is very relaxing with a bench to sit on and enjoy the view. The sounds of the trees blowing in the wind and the birds chirping make it a very simple yet enjoyable way to relax from the complexities of life. Hearing the nature at this park is the most enjoyable thing about doing this hike to the top of the hill. The actual hike to the top is enjoyable as well as just sitting in the bench to enjoy the setting. The view on top of the hill is very nice and relaxing. When I feel kind of stressed or need to get out of the house I do this to ease my mind and let everything go at least for a little while. This is an activity that brings me pleasure and helps me to not be stressed by anything or anyone.

Active listening requires certain things and can be somewhat challenging to master on its own. To actively listen you must pay attention, show that you are listening, provide feedback, defer judgement, and respond appropriately. The foundations of active listening can be a bit challenging in life because of the daily pressures and challenges that life may throw your way. As a start to listening actively, I try to slow down and really take in what the person is trying to say to me. Allowing a certain amount of wait time can be a very important first step to active listening. The next thing to keep in mind is to be open minded and try to see things from other perspectives. Periodically paraphrasing key points helps me to stay on topic within my head. Any questions that I have about the person that I am listening to can be clarified if necessary before moving onto the next topic or part of the listening. Then, I like to summarize, and share any of my information to the person that I am talking to. Listening, to me, means that you are hearing what the other is saying and attempting to understand the meaning of it. Giving attention to the sound and actions that the person is doing is important to the listening process. By actively listening to the person, you can show that you respect what the other person is saying and trying to tell you with the ultimate goal of finding meaning to the words that are said to you.

There are numerous reasons why giving is important to me, it is one of the fundamentals to the twelve steps of alcoholics anonymous method that I am fellowshipped to. These steps are what keep me down the right path and continued sobriety. Perpetuating the act of giving makes the world a better place by making it a more humane place to be. Giving helps you feel good about yourself and creates self-worth. The effects of kindness on others is always positive and people around that positivity can benefit from those acts by being influenced in a good way. Being proud about that kindness creates self worth and helps to promote good mental well-being for further acts of kindness. In the Alcoholic Anonymous fellowship, giving is a very important part of the twelve steps. Sponsorship is a very important way to give back to the others that struggle with sobriety. This is a way that I give back within that community. Helping with the chairs at meetings or making the coffee is another way I try to give back in a positive way. Finally, sharing my story, strength, and inspiration to the meeting is very important to give back to that community. These things help me to give back to others that need some help within themselves to stay sober and grow in their struggle, which in turn helps me to pursue the changes needed to stay sober and healthy.

My upbringing has been conservative to say the least, and my position on abortion has not changed from this position of pro-life. I have seen the pain and suffering that abortions bring and can understand the pro-life perspective much better over the years. The values that were instilled in me at a young age have dictated my views about this matter. My religious beliefs have an effect on my views about the matter as well. I believe that a child that does not have the ability to choose whether he or she can be born is not fair to that life so I am pro life. I have known many women that have had this decision laid upon them and know that it is a hard decision sometimes. By observing these people throughout my life I have decided that the pro life perspective is the best for my views. To promote value and dignity to all human beings I believe that the ability to speak up about how you feel is very important. Volunteering or donating to pro life organizations can be very beneficial to promoting life of the unborn. Listening to other people's stories and their views on the matter can be a very powerful way to promote the pro life position. Being informed about the resources that are available for mom's that are unsure about the decision to make when they are pregnant can be a very beneficial way to promote my position on the matter as well. It is wrong to intentionally kill a human being in the womb, and abortion is wrong. Pregnancy resource centers can provide alternatives to abortion and knowing these resources can help a person that has not yet had the ability to choose for themselves. I am a Christian so it is against my religion to take life away by any means and is in the ten commandments which are very important to my religion. The liberalization of abortion laws have created a society without care and concern for any human life. This trend is not good for society and can be controlled with the right amount of concern from society. With enough tension or conflict about this matter from the people, I believe that we can abolish the abortion trend to better the society in general. Most abortions are done out of fear for the family or themselves I have noticed. By reducing the stigma produced within society for alternative ways of life creation I believe that progress can be made in this position for the better. Being informed and providing services for people in certain situations where they need some help for their decision to keep life can be provided with enough concern about this matter. There is hope.

My career goal is to be a video game designer and be in the field of animation. I have always been good at art and plan to take my skill to the professional level. I want to hone my animation skills and be the best I can for the career that I choose. I would like to better myself in all aspects of my life and I feel like education is the best option for anyone in this mindset. Anything that promotes the success of my chosen path is beneficial to me in the future for the success of my career. I decided a while ago to pursue an art degree for the goal of finding a career that appealed to me and be very successful. The path to get educated has been a challenge for me but I have overcome many obstacles on the path to my education. I want to achieve a degree and start working in the animation field so that I can be the best that I can be. I plan to train to improve my performance and get an internship at a company that I admire. Finding a rewarding career and building networks will be very important at the start of my career. Once I get experience in the field of my choice I would like to excel at it and eventually develop my own company to provide quality products to consumers for their entertainment. The scholarship will help me achieve those goals by adding more positive reinforcement to the networking for the benefit of achieving my degree. I hope to network and use support for the future of finding the career of my choice. The cost of education can be overbearing so any help in this matter is for the better as far as debt.

1) A community is defined as a feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. To me, this is a very decent definition and I believe that sharing common interests and goals to better the fellowship of people is very important as an American. One of the most effective ways to give back to the community is to donate time to homeless shelters, schools, and animal shelters. The act of volunteering is a very good way to give back to the community. Being very kind to the people within your community and doing things such as random acts of kindness within the community spreads positivity. People that help others within the community can have a massive influence on others who observes this behavior. Participating in charities and fund raising events can be a good way to give back to the community as well. Finding a cause that you are passionate about can be very good for motivating others as well as creating confidence in the spirit of oneself. I have participated in beach cleanup events in San Francisco, and it felt really good to contribute to the green cause of cleaning up the beach of bottles and trash. These type of vents usually bring people together and create a social atmosphere that is not seen as much in any other type of event. These types of actions are all very good ways to give back to the community and being good in the community is very beneficial to the morale of the surrounding area. 2) I am a very motivated and persistent person in general. I have been through a lot of unfortunate events that have shaped my strength throughout the years. I have been a artist most of my life and plan to take my art to the next degree with a career in animation. I enjoy learning new things everyday and plan to expand my knowledge for the betterment of my future. The road to success can be very challenging and I plan to utilize my persistence and discipline to achieve my goals. My goals in life are to be happy and successful in my career. I have been working on myself for years to improve every aspect of my life. The vision that I have for myself is to work for a company in the career of my choice. I envision myself excelling in this career overall and being a success story for people to influence them to pursue their dreams no matter what life throws at you. Being through hard times in the past have strengthened me to be ready for anything in the future. If I can be a influencing factor for someone who struggles with finding a direction, than I have succeeded in my vision for success. Having the ability to achieve a degree in the field of education is a motivating factor for me and providing a good role model for my daughter is very important.

At around the time I was expecting my child, I decided to further my education. I was way behind in my academics and had to start with my GED. Over the coarse of my K-12 education I had numerous family issues and bounced back and forth from my grandmother and mother's house making it impossible to acquire the credits needed for the high school that was block schedule as opposed to the traditional schedule. The minimum requirement for graduation was different at these high schools and I was put in a predicament of staying back a year or settling for a GED. Of coarse, the only option was the latter if I wanted to further my education. I was working very hard as a carpet cleaner, my baby was expected to be born within that year. This caused me to think about my future and decide to further my education for the betterment of the child's life. The concept of being educated for the influence of my child appealed to me and was a good way to set up a successful situation for my daughter. Being able to provide was a motivator for me to educate myself. I am now almost done with my Bachelors and getting a good GPA as well. I will use my education to be a motivator for my child to be educated. My daughter will be able to see how being educated can open so many opportunities and the benefits of education can be very apparent. I will go into my career of choice and help her see that no matter what happened in the past anyone can move forward in life and be successful. Being a parent motivates students to take education seriously and every parent wants to be a good role model for their kids.

I grew up in a low income area and had family issues at home, I would often move from my mothers house to my grandmothers house. Going from a traditional schedule school to a block schedule school was very unfair to me growing up, and because of this I was not able to graduate. The schools that I attended were not adequate for the preparation of college even though my intelligence was very adequate. Public school system in United States, and especially in California, are very under par in my opinion. Most schools had one good teacher for every ten inadequate teachers that did not care about their students. The system that these teachers need to follow is definitely not competent, and the actual teachers themselves are unmotivated in general. This was my experience in K-12 schooling. I am a straight A college student and excel at my college currently. Because of the broken public school system, I was shy 60 high school credits even though I did the required amount of work that my traditional schedule school required. I ended up having to settle for a GED that I received from the local junior college at the location of the time. I do not feel that California schools prepare students well enough for college because of the lack of adequate pay and motivation from the teachers of public schools. I have read many articles about this problem and seen videos of teachers that are abusive to students or just sit their and read while relying on a student to do his own work. This is not what a college experience is like whatsoever, and professors at colleges care more about their students as well as actually lecture to the students. From a social aspect, public school teachers do not get paid enough and the school system does not provide enough support for our youths teachers. Their is a complete lack of motivation from all the leaders of the public school system. They care more about offending politics rather than teaching the kids. which is required of their work duties. Teachers that are abusive are not held accountable and very little evaluation of teachers are done to weed out the incompetence that permeates the lacking public school system. As far as an emotional perspective, I do not believe that emotions will have any effect on the actual basic requirements of teaching the future. To say I'm frustrated with the unfair and lacking public school system, would be an understatement for me. I worked really hard for years to be able to graduate and due to politics and disagreements by academic leaders in different counties, I had to pay the price for them. This, to me, is unacceptable and the system needs more improvement throughout California. To prepare students for college would require motivation, and with too much politics involved in the leaders that do not lead the academics in a decent direction, this will be a far fetched hope. More resources for teachers, and more scrutiny for the teachers performance is a start to repair the broken school system. Once these major issues are resolved to some extent, than the college preparation style teaching can be initiated. But, to me, the basics of teaching the future people are not even close to being adequate within the public school system in California.

Over the coarse of my life, many forms of adversity have been presented to me. One of the biggest adversities came to me when my mother died on Christmas day. This presented a very grievous emotional adversity that was hard to concentrate on the tasks that needed to be accomplished at the time. I spent a bit of time being very depressed and feeling the massive hole of depression swell within. I overcame this adversity by keeping myself busy and trying not to think about it as much. I started doing extra-curricular activities such as learning guitar and doing art to fill the voids. These type of activities help to express myself and let go of any negative emotion. Another point in my life sometime after the death of my mother I became addicted to drugs and slipped into homelessness. This had massive effects on my academic life and personal life as well. I believe, due to being depressed and having a hard time getting over the grief is what pushed me over the edge of addiction and because of that I started to lose sight on what mattered in life. After some time of being an addict and homeless, I decided that I needed treatment and went to a rehabilitation center. I had to put my college on hold and work on improving myself for the six months that I attended the rehab. After getting the treatment that I needed and regularly going to AA meetings, I was able to lock in a job and have a roof over my head. I am currently a 3.0 GPA student with a full time job, and three years of sobriety under my belt. Being resilient in the face of adversity can be very challenging, but like the twelve steps say, admitting your faults is the most important to recovering. Being through this immensely hard time will help me to motivate my future so that I do not fall into the dark abyss again even through any adversity that comes my way. They say whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger and having the experience with these adversity cements that reasoning for me. Strength is built by overcoming the problems and difficulties that can be overcome in life, this is very prominent for me in the different experiences that I have overcome. Looking back, I can safely say that I have come a long way and built much strength from the adversities that I have experienced, which in turn makes me a better person.

I currently work for a foundation that helps homeless less fortunate African American people within the San Francisco community through a county funded program. I go to school during the day and work for the foundation on the swing shift. The help that we provide for the residents of the site that I work for brings positive changes to the community in various ways. Being a former addict and homeless person I can relate to the program members and have empathy towards their situation. The area that I work for is riddled with drugs and unfortunate situations. Homelessness is rampant in the Tenderloin as people that have mental conditions or are just in unfortunate situations surround the area. Working for a foundation that helps the community is very rewarding to me and helps me to give back to the community that helped me when I was down and out. The impact that these types of programs have on the community is very high. Whatever I do in my future, I plan to give back to the community as much as I can whether it be through my professional life, or volunteering time to a organization that helps people get back on their feet. Our children's future is very important to the community that I reside. Cleaning up the area, providing humanitarian services, and helping people get the help they need is very important to the community and can influence the younger generation to do the same. The impact of providing human compassion to the youth is greatly influential for the future of how people deal with certain situations of poverty, addiction, and mental health. I will be active in the community no matter what my career choice is and try to abide by the twelve steps of AA that I am fellowshipped to, by giving back to the community. This aspect of giving back is very important to the steps of recovery for me personally and promotes a good progression to solving the addiction, homelessness, and mental health crisis that exist within communities such as the Tenderloin of San Francisco county. By keeping focused on the issues that are at hand as well as being empathetic to people in much worse situations than yourself, people can appreciate their place in life and motivate themselves to pursue the betterment of oneself for a better quality of life in the long run.

Graduation is important to me because it can prepare me for a specialized career that I can be happy in and succeed as a person. Education is a pathway to advancement in the professional field and creates growth and self-esteem that can be deeply rewarding. Earning a degree is empowering, boosts confidence, and provides a sense of achievement. These basic elements make graduation a very important achievement in my life to progress as a person. In my career, I plan to be the best at what I do and succeed as a professional. By being prompt, coming up with new ideas, and originating new concepts I hope to impact my career for the better. My goal in the career I choose is to keep one step ahead and become a person that people can count on. I will be a positive person in my career, and increase productivity as well as interpersonal relations with others. I am a natural leader and plan to serve others to grow confidence in my team. Thinking ahead is a very important aspect to making an impact in my career as well. Graduating is important to me because it helps me to grow my mind and gain knowledge in areas that interest me the most. I feel that graduating is an accomplishment that can help my personal development as a person and improve all aspects of my life. By achieving successful graduation the confidence in myself will increase as well as the opportunities in life. Job satisfaction is very important to me so being able to have more job freedom with graduation is empowering and very important to the progress of my life. I believe the most important thing about receiving a college graduation achievement is the boost in self respect and confidence that can be achieved for your mental health. This, along with the other benefits of achieving something that takes a lot of persistence can help to impact the career choice of students learning a certain career. I believe that with a higher education I can have higher goals and achieve the happiness that I set out for in my professional life. By achieving a graduation in college I can become a better citizen in general as well as have more options for the things that I want to achieve in life. A person that is educated is more likely to have a better job and be more successful in life, this to me is why graduation is important and can have impact on a students life.

The world and how we understand it can be shaped by education because we study to obtain a deeper knowledge of subjects that can be applied to daily life. This aspect of education can greatly influence the choices that I make in life to better myself and grow as a person. Numerous skills such as organization, time management, and professionalism can be honed for the real world application. Education helps me to think critically and clearly. Having the experience of critical thinking is necessary in all aspects of professional life and can open new doors to understanding things in the world. To think clearly I must practice it with education and going to school to produce assignments as well as projects open my mind to be more clear. To me, these two aspects of education form a mind that can be able to succeed at challenges in the real world applications that arise in professional life. Education can form freedom because of the doors that being educated opens when completing challenges or accomplishing things. This confidence building aspect of being educated can have dramatic long lasting effects on one's self confidence and assurance for students moving on. By being successful in schooling, my understanding of the world can be shaped in a positive way by knowing that I can achieve success with enough patience and commitment to a certain thing as long as I put my mind to it and don't give up. Education is the key to success and teachers make a lasting impression on a students lives. The experience of successfully learning new things as well as the interaction of teachers to the students creates a lasting impression to the student to propel him or her toward the future that they need to be successful. This aspect of being educated helps me to stay motivated and determined even in stressful times. The development of our abilities through education shapes the understanding of daily life to me. I can look at problems in a different way and know that if I put my mind to it, and stay determined, I will achieve what I set out for in all aspects of life. The future of myself can be shaped by education and I understand the persistence of sticking to something to achieve the grand goal of self worth and confidence. I believe that being able to achieve things in life can greatly improve my mental state and create a self worthiness otherwise absent without education.

Patience is important to me because it helps me to live with less anxiety, stress, and frustration as well as being able to let things go outside of my control. Patience is the ability to not be troubled by life's changes, delays, or other undesirables. In the greatest need for patience, I try to practice self-awareness by listening to my thoughts, notice where I feel stressed, and take notes of my emotions. Patience can be very challenging as a student with certain deadlines that need to be met and appointments needed to attend, can stress a student. Using awareness to maintain calm can be very beneficial when practicing patience. Practicing patience with others can be very important and is a different kind of patience. Other people are always acting, thinking, and doing things that can potentially be disagreeable. By expressing love and stillness to people that irritate me. I can grow as a person and hone the skill of patience which can improve my overall mental health, as well as my lifestyle. Life is about awareness, growth, and learning. These things are very important to me as a person and are very prominent in my life to progress as a human being. How I deal with and see things in life has the most effect on my potential happiness and mental well-being. This aspect of myself is the most important to the grand scheme of things, thus making patience one of the most important aspects of progression.

Growth can be defined as the process of developing or maturing physically, mentally, or spiritually. This is very important to my life and I try to prioritize this aspect by doing things everyday to increase my productivity in the forward movement of my life. I try to keep this "growth mindset" throughout the things I do by continually learning new things. I use online tutoring videos or watch videos that have a learning aspect to them so that I continue to grow my mind even when I am not at work or school. This helps me keep motivated and in line with what I would like to do in life. I practice meditation as well, which can help to create a growth mindset when I feel stressed or overwhelmed with what life throws at me and the challenges that I face on a daily basis. Having this growth mindset is very important to keep motivated on everything that I do no matter how mundane or simple the thing may seem.

Self-care can be an important facet of a student or person in life. Practicing this is very important to anybody as the results of doing this can be tremendously beneficial. This can be in the form of eating correct diet, quitting smoking, or having time for mindfulness to oneself. I practice self care by making sure that I diet and exercise daily. This is important both mentally and physically to do on a daily basis. Eating decent food can have an impact on the way a person can perform in school and in the professional field and exercising can increase energy as well as motivation. I recently quit smoking cigarettes, and this has had a major impact on my health and mental health as well. I smoked for a long time, and I decided that I wanted to have a healthier lifestyle for my future and decided to quit smoking. This decision has led me to be able to breathe better and perform exercise without getting so winded after some time. I believe practicing self-care is very important to any student or person who wants to live a healthy life. The discipline of this practice can be a challenge, but the thought of preserving ones health can be the first step to achieving this life skill.

The definition of friendship is the state of emotional trust and support between two people. Friendship to me is much more than this definition. Friendship requires a bond between two people that cannot be broken even by external forces. A good friendship can change the way a person lives their life and enhance the living experience immensely. Friendship requires the bond between two people, a connection of minds, and the ability to see each others point of view easily and open mindedly. The connection built over time with people I consider friends is to be cherished and is of the utmost value in life. In this new age of living, creating good friendships with people can be a challenge, but with that challenge comes the value of said friendship. This value cannot be determined by numbers or any other external factor because the mental and emotional value is very important to the growth of a person in his/her life.

In 2018 I lost my mother due to a misdiagnosis of a mental disorder, she was given prescription medication that had a complication to the other medication she was taking for manic depression. This event was very sad as it happened on Christmas day. I was working at a show and got a call from my sister that she had passed away. I fell into a depression after this because I just lost my father to cirrhosis of the liver a few years before her death. With both parents lost, I was depressed and started getting addicted to drugs. Because of the internal grief of losing my parents and most of my grandparents before that, I slipped into addiction very easily. I went through a long grief period with my grades slipping and purpose in life losing its grip on my consciousness, and soon hit a bottom I never want to be in my future. After some time, I decided to go to a residential treatment program for my addiction, specifically one with a religious element to stimulate some kind of spirituality to help with my losses. I went to a six month residential program and was much better after that with more emphasis on being grateful and consideration of mindfulness within. This experience was painful and had stall on my progress through life but I came out of it a better person with much more empathy towards people that are going through a hard time in their life and express it with addiction or bad behavior. I picked up the pieces of my dark tour of rock bottom and climbed out of the hole that I created due to some bad hands that have been dealt for me in the game of life. I am now employed at a place where we help addicted people get back on their feet, and I can relate to them on a personal level due to my experiences in life. My academic life has improved with the help of AA meetings and meditation, and now get straight A's with a 3.22 GPA. This experience, along with the fellowship of others that have been through similar experiences in AA meetings, have shaped me into a much stronger person. I believe that the bad things that we experience are for a bigger purpose than what we can comprehend. Because of the losses in life, I can gain an understanding of being grateful for all the things in life to strive for the best in any situation. I think that the process of grief can be very hard for someone to overcome, but with the right elements and enough patience, one can become stronger from any situation mentally.

I have experienced depression due to mental abuse growing up with my mother who was manic depressive schizophrenic, for many years. My depression over the years caused me to suffer from substance abuse and I was addicted to drugs for a few years. This addiction caused many problems in my relationships and career aspirations. I decided to go to a treatment center for my addiction and to improve my mental depression. I went to a residential treatment program for six months to work on my mental addiction along with the depression that I was suffering from my past abuse, both self afflicted and environmental. This treatment center had group meetings, work therapy, and addiction therapy. I have always been a somewhat religious person and believe in a higher power in general, although I try not to denominate myself into any category of religious beliefs. My belief after the depressive addictive state that I experienced over the time of my addiction cemented the belief in a higher power and improved my spirituality as well. During the time that I was in the treatment center, I regularly went to church meetings and concentrated on forgiveness in myself as well as others within the religious context. Forgiveness and acceptance were a big part of the AA groups that I attended for the twelve-step recovery program in the setting at the time. The AA groups that I attended were very helpful in treating depression and I have a sponsor that I talk to long a regular basis to help with anytime I need to talk to someone. I have now been clean going on three years and am academically successful although it took some time and patience to get here. Because of my sobriety the depressive mental state that I have been through has been reduced and I regularly attend meetings to keep my sobriety. I do believe that having a higher power and attending AA meetings help with my depression overall, as well as create a sense of belonging and purpose. My experience with mental health has been very eye opening, and due to the steps that I took to overcome addiction I have been able to deal with depression in a better way. It takes time to deal with the issues of your mental health but it is possible with the help of meetings or spirituality of a community that cares. The ability to communicate your experience and changes to others can have a massive positive effect on your life and create a sense of well-being that may not be there due to past experiences. Overall, I am a much more improved person after facing the fear of talking about my past abuse and making amends with not only others, but also myself.

1.) Living in San Francisco, there are many artists that work on pieces out in the open. The one time that I experienced the arts in my community was when I was walking by a artist painting a mural on a wall and it was of these different Egyptian images and symbols. I was impressed with the method of drawing it out, then painting it over the drawing. It was a very nice piece and a crowd gathered around, I watched about an hour until he was almost done. It was very inspiring to watch the artist create the mural from the top of his head and make it very beautiful, as well as the use of color for the piece. 2.) My favorite teacher from high school was Mr. Johnson, a science teacher. The most important lesson that I learned from him was to evaluate everything before making a conclusion in a learning setting as well as test every theory. He was a very hands on teacher and most students had a lot of fun with him. 3.) I believe that the arts creates a inspiring atmosphere in the community and impacts people to expand their imagination. I have always been interested in mural creation that have a meaning that benefits the minds and concourses of the community. Pieces of art around the city that promote acceptance and tolerance are very influential in creating a good mentality as well as acceptance of different ideals for a better future. 4.)There are many attempts and failures in life that a person will go through, it is normal and a part of the growth of a human to experience these. The failure that I learned the most from has to be not being able to do good in college at first due to external factors. I struggled in the beginning and ended up changing my life strategy due to this failure and now excel greatly in my academic life. Because of our failures we can improve as a person.

My academic history had a rough start with family problems causing me to drop out of high school. I eventually decided to get a GED and continue education a few years later when I moved out of the stressful situation of living with a mentally abusive family. I passed the GED with a good score and researched available schools that I could apply to. The college that I decided on was Laurus College and went there with a travelling photography job working 12-14 hours a day for 8 months out of the year. I was having issues with that, so I decided to walk away from that situation and concentrate on my education. With no job and having problems finding permanent housing, I realized that my grades were suffering because of this. I continued working hard at my education and raised my grades to 3.22 GPA, along with finding a 9-5 type job that payed the rent. My academics have been very challenging for me due to external problems but I have been working hard to achieve a consistent progress towards success. I earned my associates degree in digital arts and computer animation, and am currently working on my Bachelors in the same field. Sometimes being able to achieve academic success can be difficult when life occurs, but with enough persistence people can achieve success.

This piece of art is a concept for a character in a video game named Sprocket. I was inspired by the videogame "Old-world: Abe's Odyssey" as the basis for the initial concept. The character design is somewhat similar to the character in that game. The character's story is about self discovery and acceptance about who he is and what his place is in the world that he awakes to. He awakens to slowly discover that he is a robot and explores the world around him to find out more about himself. He discovers many dangers and eventually has to accept the fact that he is artificial. The game that I was concepting for would be a exploration story driven design, with stealth aspects involved in the gameplay. I was envisioning a side view type of game that is well paced and keeps the player interested throughout the story.

My passion is three - dimensional art and video game design, I enjoy drawing and creating new characters for animations or videogames. I envision myself as an animator or computer artist and continued endeavor for the improvement of myself as an artist. I have been a portrait photographer for many years and have learned art concepts such as composition, lighting, and overall appeal. These skills have transferred over to other mediums such as computer art. I enjoy computer art because of the limitless potential and the ability to do things that need physical supplies to achieve outside of the digital realm. My dreams for the future are to be a successful digital artist and designer. I plan to work hard and be diligent to reach those dreams, as well as improve my skills as a artist.