Prospero, [To Ferdinand] You do look, my son, in a moved sort As if you were dismayed. Be cheerful, sir. Our revels are now ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air; And like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-clapped towers, the gorgeous places, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vexed. Bear with my weakness. My old brain is troubled. Be not disturbed with my infirmity. If you be pleased, retire into my cell And there repose. A turn or two I'll walk To still my beating mind. William Shakespeare's The Tempest stands out from the rest of his work due to its whimsical setting and plot. While many of Shakespeare's plays are set in European villages and palaces, The Tempest takes place on a deserted island. Controlled by the magic of Prospero, the main character, the island becomes something like what Dromio of Syracuse proclaims Ephesus to be in The Comedy of Errors--"a fairy land," filled with "goblins, owls, and elvish sprites." The Temptest's unique setting and magic-guided plot are perhaps due to Shakespeare's experimentation as he reached the end of his career. The Tempest was first performed in 1610, followed only by Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Shakespeare was forty-six years old at the time, and he would die less than six years later at fifty-two. The passage above is another example of Shakespeare's experimentation in this play that was published so close to the end of his life. In this passage, Shakespeare utilizes allusion to speak through the character of Prospero and allegory to explain the transient nature of life. In this passage, Shakespeare insinuates that he is speaking through the character of Prospero by bestowing upon him the words and actions of a theater director. Immediately before Prospero speaks the words in the passage, the characters in the play watch as spirits appear and perform a masque, a dramatic show involving singing, dancing, and dialogue. In the passage, when Prospero says, "Our revels are now ended," he categorizes the spirits' masque as a "revel." While today a "revel" is a celebration, in Shakespeare's time, a "revel" was a special type of masque or play performed in the court of Queen Elizabeth (from whom the Elizabethan era takes its name) or King James. Queen Elizabeth and King James were not only the English monarchs during Shakespeare's career, but they were also his most important patrons. He often performed revels in their courts. Additionally, Prospero is the director of this masque. A few pages before the above passage, Prospero instructs the spirits to perform "some vanity of mine art." "Art," throughout this play, is another word for magic. Therefore, the spirits received both their instructions and their power to perform the masque from Prospero. Prospero's role as a Shakespeare self-insert is firstly evidenced by his direction of the spirits' revel. Shakespeare solidifies Prospero's role as an image of himself by continuing to use language that alludes to Shakespeare's experience of theater. One of the most obvious examples of this is when Prospero refers to the spirits as "actors." If the spirits are the actors, then the role of author and director falls on Prospero. Furthermore, Prospero refers to the masque as a "pageant." This once again solidifies our understanding that the masque is a performance that Prospero has directed. More elusive is Shakespeare's final allusion to his theater. When Prospero says, "And like the baseless fabric of this vision,/The cloud-clapped towers, the gorgeous places,/The solemn temples, the great globe itself,/Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve," he is, on the surface level, reminding Ferdinand that all the world will eventually pass away. However, the comparison between "this vision," meaning the masque, and "the great globe itself" implies another layer of meaning. The Globe Theater was a theater in London, England that was built by Shakespeare's acting company. It was also the main place where he and his actors performed. The reference to The Globe Theater in this part of the passage suggests that Shakespeare, through Prospero, was not only comparing the spirits' masque to the fleeting nature of the world but also to Shakespeare's own plays. Actors who perform pageants--or plays--in The Globe Theater are only directed by one person: William Shakespeare. Therefore, the references within the above passage make it clear that Prospero is representative of Shakespeare in his role as a playwright and director. With the understanding that Prospero in some way represents Shakespeare, this passage can be understood as an expression of Shakespeare's thoughts. When Prospero says, "the great globe itself,/Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,/And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,/Leave not a rack behind," he compares the temporary nature of a play to the temporary nature of the world. Furthermore, Prospero says, "We are such stuff/As dreams are made on, and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep." Since a dream is typically short and easily forgotten, comparing a human's life to a dream emphasizes a life's temporary nature. It should also be noted that this passage is directed toward Ferdinand, a young man probably in his late teens or early twenties. With Prospero representing Shakespeare, it is plausible that Ferdinand, at this particular point in the play, represents the young people in Shakespeare's audience. Therefore, through this passage, Shakespeare uses his plays as an allegory to explain the fleeting nature of life in a way his young audience members can grasp. There is strong evidence to support the proposition that Shakespeare is speaking through the character of Prospero in this passage. Therefore, we can reasonably assume that Shakespeare sees his plays as images of human life as a whole. Young people, no matter when they are born, often have a sense of practical immortality. However, Shakespeare offers a powerful analogy to help his audience grasp how short life truly is.

I've always loved big, crazy ideas. When I found myself with nothing to do during the summer of 2020, it only made sense to me to create a summer camp. After I began developing the idea, I fell in love. In 2022, after multiple test camps with siblings, cousins, and close friends, I welcomed 22 kids to the first official Camp Adventurers. Creating and developing Camp Adventurers helped me give back to my community, taught me leadership, and led me to find my passion. I organize Camp Adventurers at least once every summer. It is a 100% volunteer project, I am never paid. Working with my friends and siblings, I have developed a daily structure that allows campers to explore their interests, build friendships, and get excited through competition. This daily schedule includes time to work on "badges" of the campers' choosing, time with a small group (called a "house") of other campers, and countless opportunities to earn team (house points) and personal points. After receiving unanimous positive feedback from parents in 2022, I knew I had something worth sharing. Since then, I've organized Camp Adventurers sessions to serve my homeschooling community, different church communities, and others. Camp Adventurers has taught me not only how to plan and serve, but also how to lead. Over the years, I've worked with a myriad of parents, hosts, and teenage volunteers to make Camp Adventurers happen. I've coordinated sign-ups, worked with a host to arrange overnight accommodations, organized camp setup and maintenance, and taken on a variety of other leadership roles. My most important leadership role is leading the teenage counselors before and during the week of camp. Before camp, I communicate with counselors about job assignments, lay the foundations for their training, and delegate tasks like writing talks and preparing crafts. Once at camp, I train the counselors, delegate tasks to them, keep them on schedule, and answer any of their questions. Working with a dedicated volunteer is one of the most satisfying parts of Camp Adventurers. Organizing and leading Camp Adventurers has required me to learn and apply many skills. I've learned how to create designs for branding, communicate with parents and hosts, lead a team, create sign-up forms, get the most out of spreadsheets, create physical materials...the list goes on and on. What I enjoy most, however, is working with the campers and counselors. Whether I'm helping a camper earn a badge or teaching a counselor to lead an activity, I love empowering those around me to reach their full potential. This passion, discovered through leading Camp Adventurers, has led me to realize that I want to be a teacher. As I prepare for college, I hope to double-major in English and Latin and perhaps minor in Education. I hope to teach both English and Latin to middle and/or high school students, combining my love for language with my passion for teaching. A college degree, however, is not cheap. I've spent around 400 hours volunteering throughout high school (for Camp Adventurers and other organizations). Academically, I've maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout high school, completed 30 credit hours of college classes before 12th grade, and scored 1450 on the PSAT, which will likely qualify me as a National Merit Finalist. Receiving this scholarship would help me to continue to dedicate myself to service and academics without having as much financial stress. Thank you for considering me!

As far back as I can remember, I have been creating. I remember being younger and sometimes spending days or weeks working on a project, other times being amused by just sitting and making up stories. My mind was always bursting with ideas. There's something about art and stories that intrigues me, something that’s not quite quantifiable. Beauty draws me in and keeps me going. I can't simply abandon a story I've started or an art piece that's not finished. Even if I leave them for other endeavors, those stories and images are still a part of me. I create because it is my nature to create, it is what brings me joy, what shapes me as a person, and what helps me to, in a small way, heal the world. When I was six years old, my mother read Little House in the Big Woods and the rest of the Little House series to me. I was so fascinated with Laura's storytelling that I wanted to be like her--even at a subconscious level. Sometimes I would catch a voice in the back of my head narrating my life, the way Laura Ingalls Wilder narrates her life in Little House in the Big Woods. I was copying Wilder’s style and using it to tell my own story. This act of absorbing style is second nature to me, I do this naturally. What I read is how I write; what I view is how I draw. Therefore, the most crucial part of my creative process is reading great literature and studying great art: literature and art that aren't just fashionable but have stood the test of time and touched the hearts of generations. Through this process, I create a mental palette of all the ideas I want to emulate. As Lord Alfred Tennyson said in his poem “Ulysses”, “I am a part of all that I have met.” Equipped with this mind-palette of ideas, I try my best to create beautiful and worthwhile literature and art of my own. I have no specific, life-long project I wish to achieve. I don't know where the future will take me. Rather, I have one goal that I apply to all my creative endeavors: to capture humanity. This goal has become more and more clear to me over time. From the family newspaper I wrote in elementary school to the portrait I'm working on for my portfolio, I have sought repeatedly to capture the reality and beauty of the human person. One of the biggest problems in our world today is that we do not see the beauty and dignity of each human person. Our society sees people as assets to be used, not individuals worthy of respect. Art is the process by which we shed light upon a thing’s beauty. Through art, a stranger can empathize with someone who lives a world away. Art can show that a face in the crowd has intricate detail and inherent dignity. To bring out the beauty of humanity is one of the noblest goals of art, and it is this goal that I pursue. I have learned much about art and story throughout my lifetime, through classes, personal study, and extracurriculars. I wish, yet, to know more, to learn how to portray beauty better. I am a senior in high school, and I plan to double-major in English and Latin/Classics in college. This is firstly to immerse myself in the masters of written beauty and then to dive into the roots of language to learn how to effectively express myself. I currently hope, after I graduate college, to share my love of story and language by teaching English and Latin at the middle or high school level. While I will not be pursuing a degree in visual art, I plan to continually improve my drawing skills through practice and extracurricular classes. No matter where life takes me, art and story will always be my passions, and I will never stop believing they have the power to change hearts and minds.