The career I would hopefully become a fifth grade teacher. I am extremely passionate about this career because I want to make an impact on the generation of tomorrow. Each student has their own story, and I want to be a part of each student's life in some way. We don't know what the students are going through outside of the classroom. Sometimes, the classroom or the teacher is the only thing that brings a student peace and joy. It's not only about the school's curriculum, but it's also about the life lessons that they learn. It's about the community within the school. I want my students to have a positive experience as well as look back and say: that teacher is the reason why I am here today. My job is to plant seeds in students, and I want to do my best that I plant seeds that are going to grow in abundance and produce much fruit. Over the years, I have made many sacrifices in order to accomplish my dreams as well as my educational goals. For the past fourteen years, I have dedicated my life to the classroom outside of school. I have helped in Sunday School, been a teacher's assistant in high school and college, helped my mom create lesson plans as well as co-teaching alongside her (since I was very little), and currently student teaching. This has taken up my free time on top of doing my hobbies and spending time with friends. There has been multiple times where I have had to say no to fun adventures because I am busy with teaching. Even though it's draining for me sometimes, it has helped me accomplish many of my educational goals. I was able to see many different teachers and how their classroom functioned. This helped me figure out what I want in my future classroom and what I can do to improve. These sacrifices also helped me to figure out how to build relationships with my students. Each student is unique and different, and I believe that every student deserves to be seen regardless of their background. They all deserve the best education they can receive. For my personal goals, these sacrifices allowed me to figure out who I was as a person. I have accomplished the goal of going out of my comfort zone. For the longest time I have struggled with going big and what people thought of me. I learned that it doesn't matter what other people think of me, I know who I am and I can do things that change the world. In the classroom, my students look up to me as a mentor, so I need to be myself and go all out! Also, these sacrifices I made helped me accomplish to not be afraid of what is going to come. I tend to become very anxious about things, especially when things are unexpected. I have learned to be okay with the unexpected, and this will help me become a stronger person at the end of the day! Sometimes it's okay to not have a plan. It's important to be flexible with life and give it your best every single time!

I am pursuing a career in education because I want to make a difference in the generation of tomorrow. I have had the privilege of having multiple opportunities to be in a classroom (observations from transitional kindergarten to high school, Sunday School, assisting in teaching, student teaching), and every single time I have been in the classroom environment, I have felt like I belonged. I want to pour into the students' lives in a way that's not only teaching them curriculum, but also life lessons. We only have so much information about the students outside of school, and sometimes the classroom is the only safe space for some. I want students to feel encouraged, uplifted, and loved no matter what is happening at school. I want to be the mentor to my students and help prepare them for the next steps to come. The person that has truly inspired me in the educational world is my mom. She has been teaching for 20+ years and every time I have been a part of her teaching life, I have absolutely loved it. Ever since I was really little, she would have me help her before and after school, create lessons, provide instructional tools and strategies, and even help teach her class. This alone has helped me grow in my teaching skills. She has always been so patient with me, encouraging my lesson planning skills (even if it was bad), giving me instructional feedback, and I could list so many more things. In addition, she has always had a heart for the students' growing process. She is a beginning instrumental teacher for fifth grade, where she sees students who are wanting to learn something new. Every year I ask her the same question: what is the most exciting part about your job? She always replies: I love seeing how the students grow from the beginning of the year to the end and how far they have come. Even though her job is specifically for music students in the fifth grade, her response is truly inspiring to me every year. When I see my students grow in a subject that is challenging to them, and they finally get the answer(s) right, it makes me so excited and I encourage them when they receive their assignment/assessment back. I want my students to not only understand the material, but I want them to be motivated and excited about the progress they are making, even when they don't realize it. When I have my own classroom one day, I want to carry on the experiences I had with my mom over to the classroom. I want my students to have a positive experience and look back at the classroom and say: my teacher believed in me and because she believed in me, I am where I am today. I want to make a difference in as many students as I can.

I am such a fan of Wicked because I am able to relate to the characters in a personal way, specifically the animals. Throughout the movie, the animals are being oppressed and became a target. One thing about me is that I am really involved in music, and have had the privilege of being a part of multiple bands/orchestras. Almost all of my life, I have faced oppression from many people about how I am not good enough compared to other people in the band(s). Because of this, I was stripped away from many opportunities (unless I was the last person there), wasn't able to grow in my gifts, had to "fit" everyone's expectations, and had to go through many "trainings" before I can do what they were telling me (even though this wasn't the case for many others). I was stuck in the same spot for seven years. Even though I was never physically persecuted, this was an attack on my mental health. I started to believe lies in my head that I wasn't ever going to good enough for everyone, I had to be absolutely perfect, and I should give up because nobody cares about my calling in life. This had caused me depression, anxiety, self-doubt, anger, and so much more. After I had time to figure out my life, I still don't understand why some things happen, but I do know that what happens in the past makes me a stronger young woman today. I am able to conquer whatever comes at me because I know who I am today. I'm able to face what the world brings me with all my might and know that what I am doing and what I am going to do will all be worth it. I'm still in the process of recovering from mental health, but I'm happy those events in my life happened and I can continue to grow with confidence in myself.

Hello everyone! My name is Rachel Schmidt and I am a senior at Big Valley Christian High School in Modesto, California. Throughout my life, I have been very involved in a lot of hobbies such as music, theater and softball. I have also been super involved in volunteering. Some places I have volunteered at include my church's youth worship team, main service worship team, kids ministries, H Street Ministries (a non-profit organization that helps the homeless in Downtown Modesto) and Miracle League (an organization that helps kids with special needs play baseball). When I become an adult, I would love to become an elementary music teacher. My mother is an elementary music teacher as well and it has been amazing to help her with her lesson planning and helping the kids hands-on. I am very passionate about becoming a music teacher because the more I have been volunteering to help, the more I want to help kids in the future. Not only do I want to become a music teacher, but I want to be a mentor to the students as well. You never know what each student is walking through, so I want to pour into the students as much as I can and I want the students to know that they can always come to me. One sacrifice I have made to accomplish my educational goals is my volunteering in kids ministries. Over the years I have served most of the Sundays in the year and have volunteered for big kids events. This opportunity to volunteer has made me fall in love with children and has made me realize that I want to impact many kids. Another sacrifice I have made is becoming a teacher's assistant for the elementary music teacher at my school. I was thinking about only having five classes instead of seven my senior year but I decided to become a teacher's assistant for a teacher I'd never met before. I am her assistant for two of my periods and I have learned so much. I could have not been at school for most of the day, but I decided to help and learn more about the education field. One last sacrifice I made for my educational goals was helping my mother with her lessons during Covid. I created a hand puppet named Bobilina that taught the musical lesson of the day in a short video and the kids absolutely loved her! The students understood the musical terms like never before and they always asked if she was going to be at the next lesson! I could have not helped since my homework load at the time was tremendously awful, but I wanted to help my mom and I loved making the kids happy. One personal sacrifice I have made is to take multiple online college courses during my school year. My personal goal is to graduate early so I can help kids as soon as I can. I didn't need to take the courses but I did anyway. The classes I took have helped me with my time management and have made me more responsible. I would love this scholarship because it would help my parents financially since this is a very hard time for them. Also, this would help me become more determined and motivated to make my dream become my reality. Thank you for your consideration.

Hello everyone! My name is Rachel Schmidt and I am a senior at Big Valley Christian High School in Modesto, California. I am an only child with wonderful parents and an amazing dog named Butterscotch. Throughout my life, I have been a part of many hobbies such as music, theater and softball. I have also had many opportunities to serve in the community including my church's youth worship team, main service's worship team, kids ministries on Sundays and major events throughout the year, school's worship team, H Street Ministries (a non-profit organization that serves the homeless) and Miracle League (an organization that helps kids with special needs play baseball). My life so far has been an amazing ride and I can't wait for my future. Throughout my high school years, I have volunteered in many places as you have read in the previous paragraph. I tried to keep my life busy with multiple things going on at once. Not only did I keep myself occupied with charity, but I also occupied myself with softball and theater, which would be all week. Last year I was a part of my school's varsity softball team and my school's production of Fiddler on the Roof. I had the privilege of playing Yente in Fiddler on the Roof and I had a great time playing third base for the softball team. Little did I know that my season would last a month longer and little did I know that we would go to the state championships. Because of the extended season, I had to work super hard both in softball and theater. Sometimes I had to go to extra rehearsals for theater since my character needed more time for character development. If I wasn't doing one thing I was doing the other. Every day would be dedicated to doing my extracurriculars and it was very exhausting. Unfortunately, the softball championships were on the same day as my production date so I had to make the hard decision of missing a show to play for the championships since my coaches wanted me to be there. Eventually, we won the state championships and I got to be in three out of the four shows for Fiddler. Even though it was very stressful, I proved to my director and coaches that I was responsible and I am reliable. My vision for my future is to either be an elementary music teacher or an elementary school counselor. I have been taking multiple classes online all through my high school years and my main goal is to graduate early to get started with adulthood as soon as I can. I also want to try to earn my master's degree in education if I decide to become a music teacher. This goal has been a goal of mine for a long time and I hope that everything will turn out. I would love this scholarship because it would help my parents financially since this is a hard time for finances. Also, it would help me become more determined and motivated to make my dream become my reality. Thank you for your consideration.

Hello everyone! My name is Rachel Schmidt and I am a senior at Big Valley Christian High School in Modesto, California. I am an only child with loving parents and an amazing dog named Butterscotch. Throughout the years I have been involved in multiple hobbies such as music, theater and softball. I have also been a part of many opportunities to volunteer including the church's youth worship team, main service band member, kids ministries, H street ministries (non-profit organization to help the homeless in Downtown Modesto) and Miracle League (organization for kids with special needs to play baseball). When I grow up, I would love to become either an elementary music teacher or an elementary school counselor. I want to be a person that many students can look up to, not just as a teacher but as a mentor. My mom is an elementary music teacher and she is an amazing teacher (not to be biased). However, when everyone had to move online for teaching, my mom struggled to keep her students engaged. Many of her students wouldn't pay attention and it was heartbreaking seeing her students not wanting to engage in her class. That's when Bobilina came into their lives. Bobilina is a hand puppet that taught the students the lesson of the day in a short video. Once Bobilina came into their lives, many students could not go through a lesson without her. Every time they had a lesson they would constantly ask my mom if Bobilina was going to be in their lesson and they also believed that my mom was the voice behind Bobilina when it was mine. This creative idea made me decide that I wanted to become a teacher and that I could impact many young lives through a puppet. If I had the money and resources, I would improve my backgrounds and props for my videos. I would use very old props for my videos and the props I do have are not beneficial for the students to learn. I believe that new doll props, outfits and backgrounds (ex. doll homes, sets, etc.) would make the videos more engaging. If I earned this scholarship, it would mean so much to me and my family because it is a very scary time for finances and I don't want to put that burden on my parents. We plan on taking loans out but I don't want my parents to have too much college debt. Also, if I did earn this scholarship, it would help with my motivation and determination to make my dream of becoming a teacher/counselor become my reality.

Hello everyone! My name is Rachel Schmidt and I am a high school senior in Modesto, California. I am very involved with lots of extracurricular activities such as music, theater and softball for multiple years. I also have volunteered throughout my life which includes: kids ministries at my church, youth worship team leader, main service worship member (singer), H Street Ministries (serving the homeless downtown), and Miracle League (special needs organization that allows those with needs play baseball). When I become an adult, I would love to become an elementary music teacher. I believe that the people of today are struggling to find people who are educated. There are a lot of problems in our world right now and it is very important to have leaders that have had experience and/or education that lead up to the leadership role. Currently, multiple jobs are looking for and/or hiring people who don't even have an understanding of the job or have had no experience whatsoever. I believe that this is not the way that society shouldn't go. This is why it is so important for the future generation of youth should have a good education so they can make the world a better place and help keep our country succeeding. Not only do I want to impact students through music I would also love to impact and mentor the youth by making personal connections with them. Becoming an elementary music teacher means seeing multiple students per day and it is very hard to make personal connections with each student that walks through the door. When I become a music teacher, I want to be different and I want to make sure that I know a good amount about each student. My goal as a person is to be a light to as many people as possible and to be the person that people can come to me about anything. As a teacher, this is the perfect opportunity for me to pour into the students. You never know what each student goes through at home and it is important for these students to have someone they can count on to talk about their lives or maybe just to have a friend. This is something I want to happen when I become an elementary music teacher. I would love this scholarship because it would help my parents financially since this is a very important year for finances. I would also love this scholarship because it would give me motivation and help me with my determination to make my dream become a reality. Thank you for your consideration.

Hello everyone! My name is Rachel Schmidt and I am a senior at Big Valley Christian School in Modesto, California. I am an only child with wonderful parents and an amazing dog named Butterscotch. I am also involved in a lot of hobbies such as music, theater and softball that I have done for many years. Not only do I like my hobbies, but I serve in multiple areas as well including my church’s kids ministries and youth worship team. When I go to college, I would love to become an elementary music teacher. My mother is also a music teacher and I have been very blessed to help her with her lesson planning and helping her students hands-on. When I become a music teacher, I plan to inspire many students not only through music but through my teaching. I want to pour into each student and I want to become a person where they could look up to and to inspire other students. The most important part about teaching is to have your heart set on the students, and I believe I can inspire students through my attitude and happiness every single day. I would love this scholarship because it would bless my family financially since this is a hard time for finances. I would also like this scholarship because it would mean the world to me that I earned this money and I can really make my dream become a reality.