“How many representatives serve in the U.S. House?" I felt my face get hot, my palms sweaty, as I sank into a pile equally composed of embarrassment and shame. I had no idea. Looking around the room during my first time at the Ali Leadership Institute Fellowship based in Jersey City, I quickly realized I wasn’t alone. Each of us in the room, predominantly first-generation youth from Hudson County’s diverse communities and public schools, shared that same gap: we’d never been taught that civic engagement was for us. Growing up in New Jersey has meant learning how many worlds can exist within a few miles. I was born in Jersey City, raised in Bayonne, and educated in a county where dozens of languages, cultures, and ambitions intersect every day. In Hudson County, Polish bakeries, family-owned bodegas, mosques, churches, formed a mosaic of culturally-rich perspectives that shaped how I understand community. Driven by an openness to learn ignited a spark in me: to bring together communities through civic engagement. Yet, being raised as a first-generation Polish-American, politics never seemed to be a part of our dinner table conversations. From a young age, I have been learning how to navigate the blending of two cultures, two languages, and two sets of norms. Having immigrated from Poland, my parents have worked hard in pursuit of stability in an unfamiliar country; civic systems often felt distant, designed for others and not for families like mine. Still, I realized that, coming from an immigrant family, being civically literate shouldn’t feel inaccessible and exclusive. Instead of allowing that embarrassment to silence me, I transformed it into curiosity. Paired with a passion for creating opportunities for those in my community, these realizations are why I founded Project Coin: a student-led initiative centered around providing practical and engaging resources that combine financial education with a civic-oriented approach as a means of making civic and financial education more accessible to youth, especially in Hudson County. As the teen who once didn’t even know how many Representatives serve in the House, I hope to continue creating spaces for fostering civic dialogue and embracing the diverse New Jersey that I grew up in. Fueled by a passion for youth-led change, I hope to build a career at the intersection of business and policy, developing systems that expand economic opportunity rather than reserving it for those who already know how to navigate them. Serving as a Civic Engagement Coach for Citizens & Scholars, a Princeton-based organization, has only solidified this belief. This scholarship would allow me to pursue an undergraduate degree with a substantial reduction in financial pressure so that I can focus on what truly matters: growing my curiosity by diving deep into business and public policy, expanding Project Coin, and pursuing service-oriented opportunities rather than making every decision around cost. Ultimately, it would help me transform the way I learn from the various New Jersey communities that have actively shaped me, while leveraging that education to create opportunities for others.