I grew up on Hawai’i Island understanding that our schools didn’t have the best education, and that my family could not afford a lot of things. I also grew up knowing that we didn’t have a workload that compared to mainland schools. I never had the best luck with teachers–I often ended up being taught very little or having a teacher which only taught in one way, and didn’t care that some people learned differently. In middle school and the beginning of high school, I was told to work extra hard because college would have a workload that I wasn’t used to and I was told to work hard to get scholarships because we couldn’t afford tuition. My bad luck with teachers continued to follow me into high school, because many of my teachers often left before or in the middle of the school year, which left the substitute teachers with no curriculum to teach. Some new concepts were taught, but I know I didn’t get the education I could have had. While there were many good and fun moments during my high school years, I was always aware that I was going to have to work extra hard to be able to handle the workload and afford college. I am passionate about pursuing higher education because I love learning, and there may be better opportunities for education in college. Despite the fact that I know college will be an incredible financial hurdle, I still want to pursue my passions to a higher level. Higher education is also important to me because my passions aren’t commonly taught in high school. I want to learn and explore my passions, and college is an opportunity for that. Additionally, my mother attended college in the past, and has been a big motivator for me going to college and earning a degree. While attending college is important for me in my academic dreams, pursuing higher education is also important because I know I will make my family proud. As I plan to attend University of Hawai’i at Manoa, I know it will be difficult to balance finances and studies. I know that without earning scholarships, I will not be able to afford even one semester free of debt. This scholarship would help take some of that financial stress off of my shoulders and allow me to focus on my studies and pursue my passions. The two photos I've submitted alongside this essay are of me alongside other students being awarded a CTE Honors cord (Career and Technical Education - students had to create and work on a project outside of official class time, present to a board of teachers, and write a research paper.), and a photo with my Mom after the awards ceremony. I am proud to say I received awards for CTE Honors, academic honors, National Honors Society, and National Art Honors Society.

I began falling in love with space in my freshman year of high school, although it didn’t have a specific form yet. I was interested in pursuing many things, particularly art. Space emerged as something I loved because it was beautiful, mysterious, and there was so much to explore. By my junior year of high school, I had wanted to pursue robotics engineering instead of art, with the intent on sending machines to space. My teacher for robotics recommended me to participate in a CTE Honors program for the robotics branch. I thought it might be a fun challenge, and I would be able to explore my interests in robotics and space, and get some real hands-on experience. I took my teacher’s advice, and started a project where I built a mini Mars rover. This experience was more difficult than I could have ever imagined, as I had to learn coding, building, and wiring from scratch, on top of in depth research for a paper. I ended up not being able to get my robot to work by the presentation deadline, and I struggled with processing that failure. I was fortunate to be given a second chance, however, and changed my approach to build with something I was more familiar with. This time I succeeded, and was able to present it to my peers. This experience left me with several lessons. First and foremost, it taught me how to process failure from something important. But it also taught me how to build off of that failure to succeed. Secondly, if one approach is not working, an alternative approach can lead to success. Finally, I learned that my passion wasn’t the robots I’d send to space, it was space itself, and that robotics was simply one version of that passion. In my senior year of high school, I was determined to take on challenges like AP classes and dual credit courses, motivated by the belief that even if I stumble, I can find a different path to succeed. With my newfound passion for astronomy and astrophysics, I can confidently say I’m ready to begin higher education with the current goal of earning a Bachelor of Science. Despite the challenge I feel now, I finally recognize the core of my interests, and that motivates me to understand it in all its science and math. My passion has taken many forms over the years, from art to robotics engineering, and though it has changed, I still love each form it has taken. Knowing now what it exactly is that draws me in, I have found my true passion in space. Finding my passion has only made me want to understand it on a deeper level. I am passionate because astrophysics has made me who I am today, and I want to develop the skills to understand it. Whether those skills are hands-on or not, simply learning about space and the physics, chemistry, and math will continue to fuel my interests, passion, and motivation.