Mohamed Magdi Taha embodied what is meant by an "up-stander," a person who always stands up for what is right and uses their voice and compassion to advocate for change effectively. His commitment to building his community is one that is admired. Like Mohamed, I am an African, thus I grew up knowing the privilege of my birth. I discovered that, despite the challenges I encountered, there was always someone else who would be fortunate to be in my shoes. Knowing that I've always tried to lend a hand in my neighborhood. I experienced many difficulties as a young immigrant who immigrated to the United States, but being an "Undocumented Student" was one of the worst. I could have given up because of the hardships of coming from a low-income family and the difficulty in obtaining financial aid. Still, I refused to let those obstacles stop me from pursuing my goals and furthering my education because, no matter how minor they may have seemed, I knew that others did not have the same opportunities. I became a Natural Helper at the "Immigrant Welcome Center" in my community because I wanted to speak out for immigrants like myself who had limited access to healthcare and education. This group aims to aid immigrants in Indiana in assimilating into the state and its culture. Any assistance I could provide to a possible family was essential to me because I was aware of how challenging it was for my family and I to move to Indiana. I have also in the past partnered with a local church, "Lakeview Church" where we worked with local grocery stores to get discounted products for low-income families and anyone in need. I continued to volunteer in this pantry at my local church during the pandemic as well as I noticed a lot of Immigrants found it just as challenging to find any form of employment. Wherever I am, I intend to use my voice to consistently promote local development and effect constructive change. I want to include people and motivate them to support my cause of bringing about change in my community, whether that be through more outreach initiatives, public speaking, or working with more neighborhood organizations. I want to use both my words and my actions to make a difference and effect real change in my community via inclusivity and empathy. With this mindset, I think real change—which is what Mohamed Magdi Taha stood for—can occur.

We have all been in classes where lecturers utter the famous words, "you'll need this when you're an adult". While in some cases, this might be true the one constant that remains is the fact that Mathematics is the one concept that will always be used. Mathematics cannot simply be ignored or discarded and although we aren't necessarily solving quadratic equations every day, we are finding similarities between things, we are finding profits and losses, sometimes we are looking for how fast an object is moving, and many more. These are all indirect uses of the quadratic formula which is an essential topic taught to most of us from a very early age. The fundamentals of mathematics help us to budget better, it helps us to plan our future and as an adult, it helps us to determine rates of loans if needed. Without numbers, it is far more difficult to understand the world and I would go as far as to say that without Mathematics, the world would descend into chaos. I personally always favored math to be my favorite topic in school as I loved digging into the complexities of what makes up a problem. I always enjoyed the feeling of arriving at a difficult calculus problem and unraveling it just like a puzzle. As this is one of my favorite classes, I have even gone as far as to tutor kids in math to try and help them feel the same excitement as I did at their age.

My name is Oluwadamilare Nelson Aderinwale and I am a 21-year-old junior at Indiana Purdue University studying Biology and Public Health. I was born In a rural town in Lagos, Nigeria to a family of 5, my siblings and parents. As a child, I always saw my parents working every day, even on holidays, to provide for us. All their hard work soon paid off as we all soon migrated to the United States when I turned 12. From a young age, the importance of education was always emphasized to us and my father never shied away from trying to understand new and complex concepts with us. I graduated High school at the early age of 16 and did as I was told, I got good grades and finished in the top 10 of my class. I developed my passion for science and realized I wanted nothing more than to work in healthcare trying to develop new ways to improve human health. I applied to several colleges and got accepted into my top schools and soon came to realize that I could not afford to pay the tuition rates unfortunately, I was still in the Immigration process so I was not eligible for financial aid. This was a very difficult obstacle for me to overcome, I thought I had no support, no money, and no means of me achieving my dreams. This led me to a very dark path of self-doubt and anger that lasted for a year. After that year was over, I realized I was the only one that could motivate myself so I attended community college where I worked two jobs just to afford tuition. I completed my associate's degree of science in Biology at Ivy Tech Community college and eventually moved to my four-year university where the tuition is twice as difficult but that is not going to be a form of hindrance to me any longer. I continue to work my way through schools while applying to external sources such as this in the hopes of achieving my dreams.

My name is Oluwadamilare Nelson Aderinwale. I am the middle child of three siblings from Nigeria who migrated to the United States at a young age. As a young boy, my father told my siblings and I about his dreams and aspirations of being a medical doctor or at least working in healthcare but how he, unfortunately, could never attain them. He always pushed us to be the very best version of ourselves we could possibly be and always encouraged us to look to help people out as a career choice. After migrating to the US, it was especially difficult for me to adjust to a whole new life and unfortunately, it took me a while to realize what I wanted to do in the future career-wise. I thought of taking a pre-medicine route for a while to achieve the dreams my father was not able to and ultimately about two years in, I realized that path was not for me. I realized that being a doctor is a long road that I could not afford at the moment and that it was my father's dream and not mine. I struggled to accept this as I felt like I was disappointing him but I knew I enjoyed science and volunteering in my community. I knew I enjoyed research and wanted to continue down that path and that ultimately led me to realize what my dream looked like. I began studying Biology and Public Health as that would help me achieve my own dreams of being involved and eradicating problems that face my community. It has been a long road financially as I am not currently eligible for financial aid hence I have had to pay out of pocket for my tuition but I continue to persevere as I know that eventually this would pay off. While being an undocumented student in a huge block in achieving my dreams, I will not let that stop me from getting to where I would like to be in life.

My parents were finishing up their University education when I was born. This meant that for the first couple years of my life, even after their graduation I never saw them or spent time with them. I spent most of my school years in Boarding school and during summer or Christmas breaks, I lived with my grandmother. She took care of me and ensured I never lacked any form of love I needed to be the person I am today. Eventually my parents had full custody of me and began managing their time better. While this was great for my siblings and I, this meant I was losing my connection with my grandmother. I saw her less, I ate her food less and ultimately we started growing apart. My family eventually moved to Indiana where i finished my high school education. I began my first year of College at the University of Indiana and that was when I got the unfortunate call that my grandmother passed away. I was devastated by this news as this was the woman who raised me and I neglected her for years. I was very disturbed by this news and unfortunately had to take the rest of that semester off. I am now currently a Junior at Indiana-Purdue University and no matter how difficult things have gotten, I keep persevering and pushing to make my grandmother proud.

Maintaining a GPA while attending daily lectures is a difficult challenge that never seems to get easier. There is always something else to do, another lecture to watch, or assignments to turn in. For students like me who work full time to afford their college tuition, it is twice as difficult. I have always volunteered in my community ranging from food banks to helping new families get established in my neighborhood and I have made friends and families along the way. That keeps me motivated to still keep showing up to help and volunteer in whatever way i can. I currently volunteer as a natural helper at the Immigrant welcome Center where i help anyone get in contact with resources that are available for them. During the pandemic it was very difficult for me to volunteer while attending online classes but i spent my time working with churches to help deliver food and produce donated by grocery stores to families who needed support. While it may feel very stressful and overwhelming, the feeling of making a difference makes this all worthwhile.

As a young boy born in Nigeria, I was not exposed to a lot of opportunities to further my education. My parents tried their best to send my sisters and I to top-notch schools to get a quality education but unfortunately, in a country like ours, education is something only the rich could afford so my siblings and I would oftentimes find ourselves being kicked out of school due to lack of tuition payment. Our parents spent their life savings migrating to the United States and from there, I was amazed by the ample chances America provided for students. I graduated high school at a very young age in Indiana and was excited to attend college and live my dreams ultimately just to find out that I do not qualify for in-state tuition and could not file for any form of aid due to my immigration status in the country. Plans for continuing my education were derailed but not completely stopped. I worked hard to send myself to a community college, graduated from there, and now completing my bachelor's degree at a four-year university where I major in Biology and Public Health. I come from a country where healthcare is not readily available so I plan on using my degree and education on several fronts both in the US and in my home country to further create awareness of diseases that so badly ail my country and provide preventative methods for them as well. It has not been an easy road and it certainly doesn't look like anything will be changing soon which is why scholarships such as this help me achieve my goals by providing financial aid so I may worry more about my education and learning as opposed to worrying about how I may afford my tuition.

A quality of mine I value deeply is Patience. My father from a very young age always talked about the importance of patience to my sisters and I. Obviously, being that young I never fully understood what he meant and why he brought that trait up in most of our conversations, that was until I started growing up and was finally exposed to the harsh realities of life. I was born in Nigeria and it was when my family migrated to the United States that I got a full grasp of what my father talked about. I graduated High school at 17 and was very excited to go have the "college experience" I waited for my entire life but I quickly realized how difficult it was to attend college while being an undocumented student. I've had to pay twice as much for my tuition while not being eligible for any scholarships or grants. It has been a very difficult road and at times, I contemplated giving up on my dreams but every time I wanted to I pictured my father explaining to young me how patience is truly a virtue. Life is full of hardships and unfortunately, the older one gets, the more complicated life gets as well but having patience instilled in me will definitely help me visualize my goals and keep on persevering.