It started as another pandemic hobby. I had decorated paper bags before, with my middle school youth group or as part of team bonding retreats, but I had never thought to decorate bags on my own. Even though art was not my strong suit, I could copy pictures well enough. So I continued decorating. Whales, apples, princesses, you name it. It all ended up on the bags. I joined the Youth Action Board of Kids’ Food Basket, a local nonprofit in my area that provides Sack Suppers to kids facing food insecurity fall of my junior year, months before the pandemic hit. The more I learned about food insecurity in my area, the more convicted I became by Kids’ Food Basket’s mission to ensure each child has access to healthy food. I had no idea 1 in 5 children in West Michigan experience food insecurity. As I picked up my markers and brown paper bags, in between online school, the reality of the hunger crisis became even more clear. Food insecurity was already a large issue for many children in my area, but now it threatened more, as a global health crisis forced school closures, leading to the loss of a stable meal for many students. As the Youth Action Board reconvened that fall, this time virtually, I decided, with the help of a classmate, to start a Kids Helping Kids Club at my school. These clubs are founded on KFB’s principle that 5 in 5 kids have the power to help fight childhood food insecurity. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we knew major gatherings were out of the question, but we prioritized consistency. We met every week to decorate bags, and by January, we collected over 700 decorated paper bags, providing an extra touch of love to each child who received them. Most of our work, however, went into planning and executing our food drive. I worked with the administration to emphasize not only the unique issue of childhood food insecurity, but how we should work to address it as a Christian institution. I researched the most needed food items and determined a way to make the food drive a competition to generate more involvement. Once the food drive began, I organized the food. It was a huge success, bringing in around 2,500 pounds of food for kids in our community. I do not know if I have ever been more proud of anything than the role I had in the Kids’ Food Basket drive. Although overall, a few thousand pounds of food is only a small dent in the worldwide problem of food insecurity, the cheese crackers and fruit cups we provided served actual kids in my community. Change starts right in front of you. Anyone can sit back and speculate on the state of things, but it takes bravery to actually do something about it. As I navigate the future, I am unsure of what exactly it will look like. But I do believe my experiences in leadership, especially this one, continue to profoundly impact my discernment. I entered college intending on pursuing actuarial science, but decided against it, mainly because it felt deeply impersonal. I will likely decide between either a career in statistics, where I could use my passion for mathematics to pursue pertinent issues, or the field of education, which I am passionate about making better, and thus feel compelled to do something about. Regardless of what career I pursue, I know that my days as a volunteer are not over. I know that, although I may be only one person, my actions matter.

Most often, when people ask me this question, it comes with a strong tone of shock, almost resentment, at the fact that I would devote my college years to a subject like mathematics. Usually, I respond with a gentle smile and shrug, and tell them I simply “love math!”. But I often wonder too, what it is about math that keeps me engaged even when so many of my peers are so averse to the many challenges the subject holds. Because the challenges are real for me too. The difficulties of memorizing multiplication tables have simply transpired into solidifying my proof-writing skills recently. Despite the challenging nature of mathematics, I have always appreciated the objectivity and reliability of the subject. I have never been purely an objective thinker, but for both the elementary student who loved language arts and the high schooler who was passionate about history and religion, math provided the perfect space for me to find one right answer. While I saw the value in gray areas in other facets of my life, I knew that for my college major, I desired something predominantly black-and-white. I think all human beings desire to know the truth, and I was drawn to the subject’s consistent dedication to accuracy and integrity. I now have the opportunity to attend a liberal arts college, and within the liberal arts it is not uncommon to discuss the human search for “the good, the true, and the beautiful”, and I see now that the declaration of my mathematics degree was my way of using my gifts and talents to pursue this goal. I suppose the truth of mathematics needs no explanation - everyone has seen an algebra equation solved or can trust the validity of Fermat’s Theorem. But, I have come to believe also that mathematics is good and beautiful. Even if I could not articulate these things back when I decided I should pursue I mathematics degree, I believe I knew it. I had begun to see the ways in which mathematics is woven into the fabric of the world around us. I had seen the goodness and beauty of mathematics as I noticed the way math provided the elements necessary for physics, computer science, chemistry, and so many of the other subjects that are essential to everyday life. I had seen goodness and beauty when I relished community in my high school math classes, and also when I learned to embrace the struggles the subject had to offer me. I chose to pursue a mathematics degree because I had come to know that mathematics truly was good and beautiful, in its never-ending quest for truth. It is these same principles that compels me to stay, even when piles of homework or late night study sessions beckon me to choose otherwise, the wonders of truth, beauty, and goodness compel me onward.

My dream future self is the Molly who is authentically who she was created to be, the Molly who works hard, but is not driven to unrealistic perfectionism, who is selfless in the pursuit of all she does, who loves unabashedly without fear of repercussion; my dream future self is the Molly who knows God and loves Him most.

The Planet Earth, Intro to Music, Psalms and the Christian Life, and a First Year Seminar about Christianity, Covid, and Chocolate. When I first looked at my assigned schedule for my first semester of college, I felt a bit out of my element, to say the least. Besides the Calc II class, my intended math major might have gone unnoticed. But as I neared the end of my semester, and reflected on the liberal arts for my seminar class, I realized I was really grateful to have been placed in classes I would not have picked for myself. I had been pushed out of my comfort zone, forcing me to open up beyond my strictly academic worldview. I began at my liberal arts college intending to pursue a career in actuarial science because of my love of mathematics. As I prepare to enter my junior year, I still love math, but I no longer think actuarial science is the career for me. Additionally, the opportunities I have had to study a variety of subjects, such as Basic Drawing or German, have inspired me to consider pursuing a different path after graduation. The experiences I have had in college have reignited my childhood dream of teaching. I am deeply grateful to have had incredibly impactful teachers that shaped me into the person I am today, and I continue to see those impacts as an adult. I know the value of teachers that care, making sure to educate the whole child, and I want to pass that on to other children. A private college education is not cheap, but actuaries are incredibly well compensated, so that was a risk I was willing to take. As I consider whether to continue pursuing a career in mathematics or statistics or to take a leap of faith and seek out an M.Ed or Teaching Fellowship after graduation, I know I need to make a financially feasible choice. This scholarship would allow me to continue to finance my undergraduate education now so that I could pursue a career in education. The difficulty of financing another degree, or taking on a low-paying fellowship position, might make it challenging to strive for a position as an educator, especially if much of my undergraduate education remains to be paid for. That is why scholarships like these would be incredibly important in allowing me to do something I am passionate about. I believe every child should have teachers who care for them, push them, and the ability to fall in love with learning. I want to work towards making that possible and would be deeply grateful to this scholarship for making that happen.