One memorable Sunday morning, my pastor delivered a sermon during church service where I was introduced to the mantra “blessed to be a blessing”. I personally understand being a blessing as being a positive influence on others through service. Ever since I was 11, I would dedicate my time to helping kids at my church with their reading or math assignments. I’m naturally able to provide insightful explanations and guide others through tricky concepts. These experiences from my church community and more have framed my value of commitment to serving others. Every year, my church conducts a 5-day program called Vacation Bible School(VBS) during the summer to create lasting memories for children inside and outside the church. For the past 4 years, I’ve guided children through arts and crafts activities and encouraged them to create authentic art during VBS. Through VBS, I've helped younger children come closer to God and devote themselves to spreading His love around the world. My work with children has allowed me to carry out my calling of being a blessing to others. I have advanced the spirit of giving in my church community by giving younger children my time and efforts to help them learn and create. I believe that direct involvement in local communities can make a huge difference in the lives of the people around us. In college, I plan to continue being a blessing to others in the computer science industry. I am eager to continue inspiring younger students to persevere through the subjects they struggle with. I plan on doing this by participating in organizations like Girls Who Code to encourage young women in my community to learn how to thrive in a male-dominated field like computer science. It has always been a dream of mine to create games that illuminate the stories of people who don’t have the opportunity to make their voices heard. I plan on studying coding and computer science to become a game developer. I hope to use my passion for innovation in the gaming industry to creatively represent the stories, experiences, and values of people from underrepresented communities. Diversity inspires me to persevere through difficult subjects and pursue my dreams. After my junior year of high school, I challenged myself to learn a coding language called Python over the summer in a virtual class. I am a Nigerian, and when I joined the first meeting of the summer Python program, I was surprised to see that the other students looked and spoke like me. My virtual classmates had common names written in Yoruba, my parents’ native tongue. Before then, I had rarely seen African coders mentioned in the news, so I thought Africans weren’t interested in computer science. When I joined the class that day, my assumptions disappeared and I felt encouraged to continue through the class. I want to make a positive impact on the technology industry by being an inspiration to women of color.