When I was younger, public speaking was my worst fear. I was the kid who made my mom order for me at restaurants and speak for me when I was around others. She tried to force me to start talking independently, but I refused. Once I got to middle school, my mom decided that enough was enough and I needed to confront my fear head-on. Unfortunately, this meant she had signed me up for my school’s speech and debate team. I could not have been more terrified about joining the speech and debate team. Not only would I have to speak in public, but I would have to articulate complex arguments in front of complete strangers. I remember begging my mom to let me join something like the volleyball team or the art club, but as my mother, she knew I needed to be pushed out of my comfort zone and said no. I vividly remember the first meeting like it was yesterday. I was beyond petrified and could barely even introduce myself to the other students on my team. Thankfully, after a few meetings and a lot of pep talks, I was able to stand in front of my teammates and speak without fear. I wish that was the end of the story, but unfortunately, that was just the beginning. Soon enough, my first debate tournament rolled around. I did horribly and got last place, but I was proud of myself for trying my best and working through my anxiety. Fast forward to a few months into my speech and debate career, I was winning tournaments and my public speaking fear seemed like a thing of the past. That was until I transferred to a new high school, which happened to have one of the most competitive and prestigious speech and debate programs in the United States. Hearing “Saint Mary’s Hall” at a competition was every speech and debate kid’s worst nightmare. This school was known for winning every tournament in their circuit, getting first at State, and dominating at Nationals every year. I remember my first interaction with a student from their team, and it involved me completely losing all confidence in my public speaking abilities. Now, I was transferring to that school and had to fight for a spot on their top-tier team. Joining the Saint Mary’s Hall speech and debate team was by far one of the most challenging things I had ever done. For one, my previous team barely had ten members and our coach was my history teacher. Meanwhile, their team boasted over 40 members and was a split program with one coach for speech and another for debate. My previous program begged students to join, while the Saint Mary’s Hall team had interviews and auditions where most students did not make the cut. Thankfully, the speech teacher saw something in me that I did not and let me join. I thought getting a spot on the team was the hard part, but I was incredibly wrong. I had two to three private lessons every week with my teacher just to help me catch up to the level the team had been on for years. While I hated those lessons in the moment, I could not be more grateful for the doors they would open down the road. After months of extra practice and preparation, I was finally ready to attend my first tournament with the team. It was a local tournament with relatively low stakes, but carrying the Saint Mary’s Hall name on my back made every competition feel like I was competing at Nationals. This team never lost, and I did not want to be the first one to break that streak. Spoiler alert, I did not get first, but I did not get last and that was a win in my book. It also fed my desire to be the best I could be for not only myself but also for my team. With a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears, I finally won enough tournaments that year to qualify for State. Winning trophies was a fun aspect of this activity, but that was not why I continued to do it throughout my high school career. My preferred event of choice was Original Oratory, which is a 10-minute memorized speech aimed to inform or persuade the audience on a specific topic or problem. I used this platform to not only overcome my fear of public speaking but also to inform the public of pressing issues I thought needed immediate attention. This event caused me to find my true love for fostering change in our communities, and without it, I would not be where I am now. Now I stand here as a senior in college looking back at that experience, and it makes me sad that I did not appreciate it sooner. I learned not only how to speak well in public, but I also learned integrity, grit, compassion, humility, and the importance of giving back and helping those in need. My journey with speech and debate taught me to view failure as motivation and redirection instead of a roadblock. I learned that I needed those defeats to make me work harder and become better. I grasped the significance of activities and groups like these that help spread the gospel of change. Without this difficult yet rewarding experience, I would not be who I am today and would never have been able to achieve as much as I have. At this point, I have used my speech to help myself succeed, and there is only so much more that I can do for myself. Now that I have found my voice, I hope that I can utilize it to speak for others who are not able to use theirs.

The hospitality industry is one of the few fields in the world whose product about is a feeling or an experience rather than a physical entity. Yes, the industry has tangible items like hotel rooms, food and beverage, and traveling, but our job as providers of this industry is to create an unforgettable experience for our customers and make them feel like they have a home away from home. I have traveled to many places around the world and had the amazing opportunity to experience so many different types of hospitality and cultures. These travels have allowed me to take bits and pieces of the hospitality qualities I enjoyed and implement them into my work ethic and values. One of the main reasons I became so passionate about the hospitality industry was due to the way those hospitality establishments made me feel during and after my time there. I have rarely had a poor experience at a hospitality establishment, and when I did, it was usually due to an issue that I was able to identify and be sympathetic to. The staff at these establishments always made me feel so welcome and were the pinnacle of great customer service. The feeling I felt at these establishments made me want to pursue a career in this field so I could give that same feeling to others. While I doubt I can impact the entire world, I am confident that I can impact the customers who walk through the doors of whichever property I work at in the future. I think many people underestimate the power of kindness and the act of making someone feel welcome. You never know what a person is going through or what is happening in their life, and these small gestures can make the biggest difference. By using my experience and passion, I will strive to make every customer I interact with feel welcome and do everything in my power to make their experience not just a night in a hotel but a memory they will cherish forever.

When I was in 5th grade, my dad tragically passed away due to suicide. My parents had been divorced for some time when this happened, however, his absence left a huge strain on my mom. As a single mother working full-time to support me financially, it was a daunting task for her to provide for the both of us while also supporting my goals and aspirations, but she did so with ease. I have rarely seen her upset or stressed, and even when she was, she did her best to make sure I did not notice. She has always put me first, and for that, I will be forever grateful. When my mom became pregnant with me, she immediately started putting aside what little savings she had into a college fund for me. No one in my family had been able to attend college, and she wanted to make sure I had the opportunity and ability to go to college if I decided I wanted to. She always thought ahead and put me in the best schools she could so that I had the tools I needed to succeed. When it came time to apply to colleges, my mom went out of her way to get help from others who had experience with those applications and knew what schools were ideal for my major. She always told me to pick what school I liked best and that she would make it happen if it was feasible. Due to her help and support, I was able to attend a college I was in love with. Going to Alabama has been the best part of my life and has helped me achieve so much more than I ever thought I was capable of. Without my mom's determination to give me the best opportunities in life, I would not be who I am today and would not have been able to accomplish everything I have so far. Now, my mom is happily remarried and has an amazing support system so that she does not have to deal with the pressures of supporting me alone. I have always wanted to help my mom in any way I could since she did so much for me, so I have been working part-time since I was 15 to help ease the amount of money she had to spend on me. I currently work two jobs along with being a full-time student so that she does not have to contribute any more money to my cause. I also work hard to get outside scholarships to lower my tuition. Besides financial help, I also try to give her all the love, support, and kindness that she has always given me. She is my number one fan and I am hers as well. Losing my father was extremely difficult, but my mom always worked overtime to try to compensate for those hard times and to make sure I was always supported in every way possible. Without her, I would not have been able to move past the grief of losing my father and would not have been able to attain my goal of going to college and becoming successful. I still have many academic goals such as going to law school, but I know that my mom will always be right by my side supporting me along the way. I am beyond thankful for everything she has given me and I hope one day I can return the favor and be the one doing the supporting.

My name is Nicole Kaufeldt and I am a current undergraduate student at The University of Alabama. I am majoring in Hospitality Management with a concentration in Hotel and Lodging Management. I plan to hopefully become a general manager for a hotel. My love for the Hospitality Industry started when I was 15 years old and became a busser and hostess. I loved the constant interaction I got to have with guests as well as the hard work that came along with the job. Since then, I have worked in the restaurant industry for over 3 years and absolutely loved it. I currently work at a private golf club in Tuscaloosa and will be doing a golf club management internship with them this summer. Though I do not foresee myself going into golf club management, I am extremely excited to learn new things and gain experience in a side of the hospitality field I have not worked in before. I have been working part-time since high school to help pay for my schooling and other things. I am lucky I find working fun and not a burden, especially since it is helping me towards my future. This scholarship would help me financially towards my future and help me reach my goals. Working part-time to help pay for my education is extremely hard and time-consuming, so this scholarship would help me reduce the hours I need to work so I can focus more on school. I am also a first-generation college student, so my family was not necessarily expecting me to want to go to college and nor were they expecting to pay for it. This scholarship would not only help me financially but would also help me reaffirm to my family that I made the right decision to go to college and pursue this career and show that my hard work is paying off.

My story is not necessarily unique, but how it has shaped my outlook on life and impacted me is. I grew up the child of divorced parents, which was not necessarily terrible, but definitely an adjustment, especially with new people entering and exiting my life frequently. I thought the constant packing and unpacking of bags to go from my mom's house to my dad's and the consistent miscommunication on who was getting me for which holiday would be the most difficult things I would have to go through. However, despite this thinking, their divorce would not be the hardest thing I would endure. I remember this day like it was yesterday. I remember sitting in the lunch room in 5th grade on February 16th of 2014 surrounded by all my friends. I remember being excited to eat lunch because my mom had packed my favorite fruit snacks and it was ice cream day. The next thing I knew, my teacher approached me and said I needed to go back to the classroom and pack up my stuff to go to the office because my parents were there to pick me up. I recall being confused because I did not know why they were picking me up early, but I just assumed they forgot to tell me I had a doctor's appointment or something like that. When I got to the office, I immediately knew something was terribly wrong. I saw my stepdad waiting for me and he looked like he had seen a ghost. We did not talk on the way to the car and when I got in I saw my mom crying in the passenger seat. For some reason, my first thought was that I did something wrong and I was in huge trouble. How I wish that was the reason they were acting like that. Little did I know until we reached my house was that my father had passed away the night before. I remember my mom telling me the news and it hitting me like a pound of bricks. To make things even worse, it was not what one would have considered a normal death. My dad had committed suicide for reasons I would come to find out years later. The thing about suicide that is worse than a natural death or another cause of death is that the loved ones who are left behind feel like it is their fault and that they could have done more. That was exactly how I felt despite the fact that there really was not anything I could have done to save him. It took years of therapy and recovery to get to where I am today. For the longest time, I blamed myself and the people around me for his death. Now, I have realized that I was one of the reasons he did not do it sooner. As much as I dreaded my life when I was younger and wondered why this had to happen to me, now I realize how much all of this impacted me for the better and has made me someone I am proud to be. It taught me how to not take my loved ones for granted and to take in the small moments in life because you never know when it will end. It has taught me to cherish my quality time with people even when I would rather be alone because you never know what someone is going through or if it might be the last time you will see them. His death and the events that followed taught me how to be a stronger person, that I can achieve whatever I want to, and that it is okay to not be okay, but it is not okay to keep those struggles a secret. As much pain as this whole experience caused, it has made me grow as a person and it gives me the motivation to get up in the morning every day and strive to work hard and be the best person I can be.