Imagine "Baker Street" being played by a blasting saxophone through an empty alleyway surpassing all street noise, with the player having not a care in the world but the music flowing in him to perform this song. Passion and smooth rhythm bounce off of the walls through that alleyway. There's nothing like a worthy jam outdoors. This scenario has always been a dream of mine, to not only play by the book but to also just improvise anything that comes into the rhythm and beat. For about 5 or 6 years now I have taken up one of my favorite instruments, the saxophone. Our town has a homeschool band that I was blessed to be a part of and to share the love I have for the saxophone. Each day I am furthering my knowledge on my instrument and I'm improving each day. The first person who comes to my mind who has been influential in my life, when it comes to music, is Louis Armstrong. Though not a saxophone player, he has motivated me to go beyond my comfort zone and to really see the full potential of my instrument. From movies, videos and songs that I have heard and seen, Armstrong is always smiling and really feeling the music. His passion in what he plays is truly inspiring to me. By taking his passion from what he plays and integrating that into my saxophone music, I feel I can truly see the emotion of music through open eyes. My favorite part of any kind of music is that each song, each melody, each rhythm is unique in its own kind of way. From swing, to rock, to pop and jazz, music has taken over the spirit of each remarkable soul to create something simply beautiful in its own way. That's what sets each song and band apart to create different themes, tones and sounds. My hope and dream is to one day improvise swing, jazz or really anything that comes to me at a gig of my own with a couple other players. Big band is my favorite music to play, and I hope to one day bring joy to listeners, just like that of Louis Armstrong. To never stop bringing life into music no matter what life throws at me. Louis Armstrong once said: "Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them." Don't give up playing your instrument, and don't stop believing in your potential in all areas of the musical arts.

"WE NEED RICE!" shouted a packer group from the other end of the warehouse. Dried vegetables, soy powder, and granules of rice swiftly run away from the bustle of feet moving back a forth from table to table bringing the goods. A sea of hairnets and smiles fill the warehouse when you catch a first glance of the scene. Laughter and the joy of community aids us to withstand the tiredness we feel knowing we are helping others in need. Feed My Starving Children is an association where volunteers and employees take as little as two hours out of their day to come, serve, and pack food for countries in need. As said by the World Food Program, "hunger is the world's biggest solvable problem", and that "Hope begins with nutritious food" - Feed My Starving Children(FMSC). Unfortunately so many families in distant countries are struggling with the fact that they might not eat a meal until the end of the day let alone even at all. Without realizing it before I came, the FMSC mission has shaped my spiritual interior life to seek out others in need and to fulfill that need. Not only is it fun to volunteer with friends and family but it is also very rewarding to know you are saving families lives by packing their food. By the end of the volunteer day, the whole group says a prayer over the boxes to ensure safe travels to the destination and the people who receive those boxes of food. I am so thankful to have participated in this beautiful mission, and I hope to keep doing it for as long as I can! I plan to positively impact the world in the future by fulfilling the need within the Speech Pathology realm. My goal is to aid others with speech and/or to regain it from previous life experiences such as strokes and heart attacks. It pains me to see people who have a hard time speaking, to see them struggle to communicate. I have personally seen this example within my own family due to my late grandpa having a stroke and was unable to communicate. By starting up this new goal I have in mind, I truly believe that ensuring hope in others that they will speak again or to regain new speech, greater than what they experienced previously will give them a new confidence to pursue an even greater future. The fact that I may be able to help them to see that hope within themselves, I have already achieved the greatest thing in the world. By volunteering at Feed My Starving Children and starting up a possible practice of Speech Pathology after college, I am excited to see where God is leading me and will continue to lead in ways of helping others to pursue my future in community service.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Since as long as I can remember, before he passed away, my grandpa had trouble speaking due to the stroke that he had in his previous years. When I was little all the conversations I had with him were drowned out by his gibberish yelling and unresponsiveness, though not on purpose, he could not articulate what he wanted to say. This experience that I had with my grandpa challenged me to seek ways to help people who have trouble with articulating how they feel, and thus developed my speech pathology, communication science and disorder education dream. Through pursuing this career I will be able to aid those, not limited to, stroke survivors, speech impediment children/adults, and any other people who would be in need of help with talking, swallowing, and stuttering. Since the beginning of this year, I have a desire to help those in need and at first I did not know where to look into to fill that need. I looked into the University of Mary and found that they had a psychology, communication sciences and disorder program. This intrigued my search for a higher education and so I applied. My ultimate goal in my professional career is to help others, make an impact by aiding them with their speech, and teaching them in each session that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, even if you might not see it yet. You just have to persevere and trust the process.

Nothing is greater than those who have extraordinary faith. Since I was born, I am a cradle Catholic to the bone with a little bit of rebellious side in me, to go against the flow of the world, and to really defend the truths of Catholicism. My faith has brought me thus far to see what the world has readily become into the saying that Jesus said to Matthew in the Bible: "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?" Unfortunately in this world so many people find themselves struggling with the courage to face faith and to trust that the Lord has a plan for them. We all have freewill, but that shouldn't mean that we may try whatever we want, whenever we want to do it. Similar to some people in today's world, trusting in the Lord has been the theme of my year, as well as years in the past, but not as significant as the year of 2024. I have overcome some brief challenges in my life, such as doubting if God had anything in store for my life, if I was worthy of love, low self-esteem of my image and so on and so forth. The devil's doubting schemes worked in the back of my mind on and off for a good long three years. But one day I decided to change all that and to release the devil's hold on me. This day was the end of the 2023 year. To make a fresh start of the year, I established a commitment to praying a little more each day, to spend time with God in nature, to take a deep breath and inhale hope and trust of what is to become of me and my future. Though I am not perfect, I try to stay true to this commitment every night before bed and try to spend the weekend outdoors immersed in God's hidden beauties of nature. This newly found aspect of my faith has encouraged me to expand my scope of knowledge on trust and to believe without a doubt Jesus is here for me in my low moments, but then helps me to rise back up and aid others who have fallen away from His trust. By discovering this new ambition of my faith, I plan to utilize it into all areas of my life especially my potential future career in speech pathology. By integrating the faith into speech pathology as well as my teaching sessions, I may bring others to the Kingdom of Heaven through my servants heart and implementing the bible verse that would be taught in all of my sessions: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His Will in your life, and He will set straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

Defeat. Nothing came close to the top of the 50 foot climb of my life. Since I was little I felt that I wasn't able to reach the top of a rock climbing wall, due to the irrelevant fear of heights and the fact that I didn't even try to get to the top of those towering walls. Anger, frustration and envy began to creep in as I glanced at other kids and adults muster the courage and scale up those death defying rocks in the eyes of a 10 year old. Two thoughts come into my conscience: you can either climb up the wall and feel relief of your fear and feel victorious, or you can suffer defeat and feel the wrath of my inside conscience that would be screaming at me later telling me why I didn't do this or that. My eyes scaled up the wall. I can do this, I just have to shake off the feeling that I'll be up about 45-50 feet in the air with only a rope attached to my waist. Giving myself a few words of encouragement, I took the first climb. The more I got closer to the middle of the wall the easier it became. Quicker than I knew it myself, my hand grabbed hold of the bell at the top and I descended down. My heart was beating fast due to the rush of adrenaline I just experienced. As soon as my feet hit the ground I felt a new found courage I have never experienced before until that moment in time. Since that day, I have taken an interest in going out of my comfort zone to really feel the adrenaline rush I did when I was rock climbing. To match that feeling, I have encountered that overcoming the fear of rock climbing has expanded my horizons into every area of my life, including my higher education. I have a great desire to learn and try new things, and I felt that rock climbing helped me see what I was missing. All you have to do is try, no matter where you are in life because you don't know when you'll get another opportunity like this again. I have had plenty of dream careers throughout my life but I just recently found that I am called to aid people with speech pathology. Through this career I am expanding my knowledge by taking that first step into greatness. By getting out of my comfort zone, taking that first initial climb of my life, I can really see what I am fully capable of in every area of my life. You just have to have the courage and the persistence to see it.

The 50-foot climb. Anxiety pools down to the sweat on my hands, as I shakily make the first step up. Pausing to take a breath and to deeply exhale, I reach for the next rock on the wall. With the tug of the rope line, it propels me upward and I find a new determination to finish the wall. By sheer determination and perseverance, I made the climb up the 50-foot rock wall. Climbing has been a huge part of my childhood and beyond. From climbing on trees, rock climbing at the fitness center or just simply ascending stairs, climbing can be found and experienced everywhere. When I first started rock climbing, I was scared of heights and had no intention of going all the way up to the top of the wall. When I saw other climbers at the fitness center, I quite frankly was envious of them that they could go all the way up to the top with ease. On my 15 birthday, I went rock climbing with my friends. Something changed in me that day that made me say "I want to go to the top of that rock wall". It was like if my body had completely taken possession of my actions and immediately started the climb. I didn't know what I was doing until I was halfway up. Determination, courage and perseverance held me accountable. This day shaped the rest of my climbing career. To this day, one of my favorite sports is rock climbing. Though I still have a healthy fear of heights, it does not bring me down completely or change my mind not to climb up. It compels me to move forward and know that I am safe within the reach of the anchor rope or belayer. Many times before I have touched the top of a rock wall, but I have yet to touch the top of an actual boulder. That is one of the many things on my bucket list. With what I have learned from my experiences of rock climbing, my passion for climbing, perseverance and persistence through it all, formed who I am today. This scholarship would able me to fund a portion of my tuition to the college of my dreams, Ave Maria University. As I pursue higher education in business administration, my experience with determination, confidence and passion will truly thrive in whatever career I encounter. Thank you for your time and consideration in reviewing my application to the Sean Allen Memorial Scholarship. Rosemary Gilligan

The smell of heart warming soup fills the kitchen as volunteers are bustling to pour a ladle for each hungry smiling customer. Accompanied with soup, the scent of fresh crusted bread with a hint of rosemary herb creates a picture of perfection in love, smiles and the willing to sacrifice time and effort for others. In the early spring of last year, I got the opportunity to serve at a volunteer soup dinner at my home church. This opportunity was one I will never forget. The smiling faces who we served and the satisfaction of see the content of the people having food in their bellies. Community service is one of my strong attributes. In comparison to the soup dinner I volunteered at, my family also got the opportunity to serve at our local Feed My Starving Children community. This corporation packages meals to children in third world countries and as a way to support them as they support us they create homemade gifts, mugs and other goods to sell at the FMSC store front. This was one of my favorite volunteering events to experience during my late childhood until now. The fact that I knew I was helping someone; that I was making a difference in someone’s life in another country truly made an impact on my life. The main reason why I love giving back to my community is, by the way I see them after serving them. The smiles on their faces, the true utter joy that becomes them, makes me joyful. Even if someone is not joyful or grateful for what I give to them, I still take it with a happy heart and know that God loves them, so that I may love them. Joy in the little things, even when it’s tough sometimes to love others. My faith in the truth will always pave a way to the main reason why we are here on this earth, to be one with the One who created us; that is the Lord. I long to see others joyful and myself joyful, so I seek joy in the truth to give back to my community. Whenever I go to work I always have a smile on my face to spread joy all around, wherever and whenever I can. Because this life does not have to be as hard as some people say it is. Life can always be joyful as long as you have the eyes, ears and the heart to see it.