OVERVIEW My name is Michael Bednarczyk, I am in the final year of my associate degree in Landscape Management. I am a Landscape Management major at Michigan State University and Muskegon Community College. I have always been around lawn equipment. My dad has had me outside and mowing since I have been able to reach the pedals. He has taught me quite a lot about how engines work. My neighbor has been generous too by allowing me to borrow from his tool collection. Over the years I gained a respect for working outdoors. I have taken so much pride in where I have grown up at our home in North Oakland County is on eight acres. It takes lots of hard work and dedication to keep up our property and house. My parents have so much work to their house that I have taken some ropes and helped with all of the outdoor maintenance. I learned this from watching my dad cut and clear the front yard with our old case tractor, to working on the cars, doing house projects, and even working with my dad in our community in Davisburg. I am passionate about the landscape industry because at an early age. I discovered I had the passion simply by learning how to cut the lawn. I learned to cut grass and from that to fall clean-ups then on to lawn maintenance for several neighbors. I started working with a landscape company a few years ago and finally, I found work in the hardscape industry. I continued cutting grass for three of my neighbors over the next ten years. I have recently started hardscape and integrated softscape in my summer jobs. It hit me while I was an engineering major that I should continue into landscape design and pursue being active in the hardscape industry. My dreams are to be in the hardscape and landscape design industry in the future. I would like to start my own company. First, I want to progress higher up in a smaller company that I become close with. I want to pursue this industry right after college and after I have finished my internship with my hardscape company this summer. I plan on working for a hardscape company next summer, as well as completing a couple of certifications through the national association for landscape professionals, the Michigan Nursery & Landscape Association, and the National Concrete Masonry Association. Receiving this scholarship would mean a lot to me in furthering my education. I have strived to be the best student I can be during my college career and I hold myself to high standards for my academics. Being able to further my education in this particular major of academics through Michigan State university will allow me to pursue a high-caliber job going forward in my career.