Since I've been a little girl I have always loved helping people, whether that be picking up something they've dropped or doing any act of kindness. When I started my freshman year of high school I joined my church's youth group in the mindset that I could make a few friends and be able to help my community. It quickly became something I love. We began going on week-long trips to different states such as Rutland, Vermont and Raleigh, North Carolina. During our time spent there, we would play with kids, visit nursing homes, help out at the local Salvation Army and do yard work and housework for elderly couples in need. Our volunteering didn't stop there, when we returned home we continued helping out around our community until our next mission trip. Partaking in bottles and can drives to raise money, making sandwiches and meals for those in need, helping at our local soup kitchen, yard work and so much more. I was able to help those around me that didn't have the capabilities to complete things on their own all with the help of other caring people surrounding me. As I grew older I began to grasp an understanding of what being able to help was. It changed my outlook on a lot of things, my mindset grew and matured rapidly. As I gained maturity my outlook had become greater, I began to appreciate the smaller things in life and gained more appreciation for having meals at home, being able to buy new clothes, going on family trips or even being able to attend school. I was quickly able to find the positive in everything. Before having the opportunity to gain growth and knowledge in volunteering I would have never realized the blessings I have in my life and how I could make a difference in someone's life with the smallest change. Here I am a few years later in college, I still partake in my youth group and have even joined Huskython at the University of Connecticut where we fundraise for kids in need. As a teenager who has other siblings, my parents agreed that college was one of those things we needed to pay for on our own. The idea scared me, but in the end, I decided on attending UConn, it's cheaper for me as an instate school and I can gain a great education. Furthermore, because I do pay for college on my own, I've had to take out loans and apply for scholarships in hopes of gaining help. The process has not been easy but in the end, I know it will all be worth it. Therefore, I need this scholarship to help pay for school and increase my chances of being debt free. Thank you for taking the time to read my essay, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to apply and be considered an applicant.

I will grow to be myself and love myself with my best abilities and those around me while prospering to become the change to help others become who they love because love is a gift.

Are you Out of the Woods? In the clear? Life; is a constant ongoing fear of anxiety. Although not everyone experiences anxiety-ridden moments I think college brings out fear in everyone. Taylor Alison Swift portrays many emotions in her Album 1989/ 1989 deluxe edition. Not only is Out of the Woods one of Taylors' greatest songs on the album it is also so relatable. It exemplifies stress, anxiety and so much more. The lyrics, the chorus and the beats are outstanding in this song. It is my absolute favorite song on the album because of how much it helped me throughout my four years of high school and my freshman year of college...soon to help me through many more battles as I face sophomore year of college. I have been a Swiftie since the first time I heard one of her songs 'Love Story'. Since then her music has always been there for me, I would come home from school and listen to her music, go to the gym and lift to Taylor. When I first heard the 1989 album I remember loving Style and Blank Space, I mean who doesn't? It wasn't until I got older that I started to understand the lyrics and things Taylor sang about. Many of her albums were always there for me, through heartbreaks and bad friends I knew I could always fall back on Taylor. As I began high school I didn't have a solid group of friends, the girls from middle school bullied me out of our friend group and I was left, alone. Naturally, my great escape was music, I began to listen to Taylor more and more, during school, at home, at the gym, etc. I began to get familiar with all her albums and of course, each album had its great songs that spoke to me but there was one song that changed how I felt and inspired me. Taylor's album 1989 quickly grew to be one of my favorites for many reasons. As I mentioned before this specific album brings out emotions of fear, anxiety and stress which I found extremely relatable because of how I felt during the entirety of school. The constant fear of where would I go to school. How can I make some friends? I need good grades. How can I do better? And so on. Out of the Woods spoke to me so highly because of its sentences, "Are we out of the woods yet?" and "Are we in the clear yet?" made me feel as though I was eventually going to make it out of this constant fear, anxiety-ridden slump and be in the clear of finding myself and my friends. Overall, Out of the Woods is my favorite song from the album 1989. And there will never be a way to change that.

Climate change is a big issue in today's world, you often hear people say "pollution is not real" or "climate change does not exist". That does not explain the oceans that our sea animals how to live in, or the air we breathe. Climate change is a real issue. I try to do at least the basics every day and encourage my friends to do the same as well. I ensure promoting myself and the people around me to do the bare minimum of at least recycling and throwing garbage out where it belongs, using recycling bins for their real causes. Moreover, when I see someone throwing something out that belongs in the recycling bin I either tend to say something to them along with educating them, my most used example is seeing turtles with a soda can wrappers stuck around their necks and what sort of discomfort they feel through this. Another good way I strive in fighting climate change in my life is by using cars less, as a student who attends UConn I chose to live on campus, not only do they prevent me from having to commute an hour it also prevents the insanity of creating the unnecessary intense air pollution in our world. Furthermore, the campus offers a tremendous amount of public transportation which I tend to see students using often. The bus system prevents from students having to drive around campus. Alongside living on campus there are multiple benefits when it comes to fighting climate change. I find myself constantly walking to locations where I use to drive to. A walk to the grocery store to get my groceries for a week, along with getting groceries I use reusable bags instead of harmful plastic bags. Besides my weekly walks to the grocery store, I tend to walk to places such as Starbucks or other local coffee shops, to get to CVS I walk as well. When it comes to leaving town my friends and I also use public transportation to get from place to another. Lastly, something I find myself doing often in comparison to others would be reusing or repurposing. Since I have been little I have always loved arts and crafts which has allowed me to turn that passion into repurposing things into new and lovely things. My family always reuses grocery bags in any circumstance, some of them are years old! I use old honey jars to store makeup brushes or glass yogurt containers for small things. Overall, climate change is real and could be fixed in so many ways, people have no clue what the things they do affect the world.

Maggie was brave, and strong and pushed through her challenges to be the person she wanted to be. Similarly, I believe I also face challenges, when I was a freshman in high school I was diagnosed with SVT, and it was challenging for me and my family. I had to quit gymnastics, meaning I couldn't do the thing I loved. I was constantly going to checkups and appointments. Things were rough, I often felt lost and scared and had no clue what to do. As years went by and I learned how to live with appointments and feeling out of breath and weak so often I learned to find love in challenging myself to become and feel better. Like Maggie I challenged myself physically, I began to go on more hikes even if they seemed difficult, I would take frequent breaks and have to stay behind my friends going at a slower pace to keep up. From there I picked up skiing in the winter, it scared me but it scared me enough to love it. Furthermore, I love going to the gym now. A place that once felt so scary for me now feels like a place I can't imagine life without. It grew to be a place I could let loose, blow off some steam and become stronger all while feeling healthier. Similarly, my parents moved from Poland to America to allow me and my brother to receive a better education. Now here I am 18 years later with the ability and honor to not only know two languages, and be able to do the things I love but also the capability to receive a better education and grow up to be who I want to be. I honor my parent's choice in moving to America and live every day gratefully knowing I have the opportunity to seek my desired education. Through college I plan to receive a degree in which I can help people, specifically studying Health Science to have the ability to help and heal the young people of America so they too can seek and achieve the same goals and proper education to fulfill their lives. Overall, I am beyond grateful to have the ability to go to college, receive education and do all the things I love. Without my parents, I wouldn't be able to go on hikes, ski, go to the gym, hang out with my friends or most importantly, receive an education and grow up to be who I want to be.