I want to have a positive influence and bring Jesus into the lives of kids. Not just the normal kids, but kids that have a refugee status over their heads, kids that are immigrants, and kids that I have seen struggle financially in my community. Just like them, I have faced many situations that challenged whether I could go on with life. Whether if it was financially, emotionally, or physically, I had mentors that were there to support me. Being from a refugee camp in Thailand, I have experienced what it means to be poor. Even living in the not-so-good part of town, I also know what it means to have to wait to get to school just to eat food. Luckily, I met mentors in my neighborhood that provided for me when I felt the lowest in my life. They turned me around and guided me to be a better man. I want to be the same to others in my community. I have a burning passion to serve underprivileged people like me that are immigrants, refugees, and just seeking a better way. I know that many kids look up to me and I want to show them that where they are from does not need to be where they are going. I am very excited about my future and what God has planned for me.

My name is Sai Phut. I have seen life come and go. I was originally born in a refugee camp in Thailand deep in the jungle of the Mae Hong Son province. When I was a little boy, around the age of three to seven, I remember starving most nights because food was very scarce. I saw my friends, the same age as me, go through daily struggles such as sickness just because there was no food. The refugee camps had nothing but piles of garbage and houses made from sticks, twigs, and leaves for the roof. But there was one thing that I do remember: even though my friends were skinny, boney, and on the brink of death, they were still smiling and happy. We didn't care what tomorrow was going to bring so we lived in the "today". This experience in my early childhood shaped my appreciation for life. I want everyone to experience the joy in the midst of chaos. It is the joy that no other feeling can relate to. As I got older, I moved to the United States when I was seven years old. After years of my family interviewing with the United Nations (UN) and waiting, they finally approved us to come to the United States. When I got here, I had a dream of pursuing my education and making my parents proud. Around my teenage years, I started to hear talks of pro-life and pro-choice. I wondered to myself, "what is that?" When I found out what it was, I continued to ask questions like, "why would anyone want to kill unborn babies or even kill people for the matter." Being a Christian, I value all life. Especially the unborn, they do not have a voice to speak out for themselves. We are all made in God's image and I stand by this. In the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, my friends and I decided to work for a pro-life organization that tries to spread the word about how many unborn babies are killed every year. We canvassed for a non-profit organization called Susan B Anthony List. There, we brought awareness to people across our city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Even though we were teens, we were met with backlash from adults yelling at us and calling us stupid, uneducated, and morons. We were left in distraught when we first encounter that experience, but we decided to persevere because we know we were neither of those. We also met so many people that were just like us and supported pro-life. They taught us things we didn't learn in school, prayed for/with us, and encouraged us to keep going. And so, that was what we did for the rest of that summer. That was only one year ago. Although it seems like it was such a long time ago, the lessons I have learned from that summer did nothing to strengthen my view: that all life should be protected so that all life can experience joy, as well as God's creation.

Keeping a growth mindset is just like anything else in life; it is very difficult. As an athlete, if I do not go into training with a mindset to grow and become a better player, that is a training day gone to waste. To sustain a growth mindset, it starts in the brain - its a mentality. You constantly have to remind yourself that there is no day where you are good enough. I keep a growth mindset by reminding myself that I am not doing this for me. I am not going to college for myself. I am not playing soccer for myself. I am doing it for the two people that sacrificed everything for me. I also do it for the little kid inside me that had a dream to succeed once. Failure is not an option for me so when I do fail, I have to get back up and do better - both on and off the field. A growth mindset thinks positive and faces adversity with all of it's capability. There is no challenge to hard, but they know when the challenge does not need to be faced. A growth mindset will always choose what is best for them, and make peace with what isn't. This allows no grudges to hold you back.

In the summer between my sophomore year and junior year of high school, I had a tough decision. I played on a club soccer team called Charlotte Eagles Soccer Club, which managed to qualify for US Club Soccer's regional tournament. I was also invited to be a part of the club's Leadership Development Program. I have wanted to be a part of the program since freshman year of high school, but I loved playing soccer and this was the first time our team had went to regionals. Ultimately, I knew that if I wanted to become a better person, the Leadership Development Program was the best for me. The program took us to a week to run a soccer camp for a church in Powell, Ohio. There, I learned what it mean't to be a man and what it looks like to walk in Christ. That week was full of learning experiences, values, emotional realizations, and bonding closer with old and new friends. We came back to Charlotte, North Carolina after that week fully charged and ready to run Block Parties. Block Parties are held once a week during the summer in a poor, below poverty line neighborhood. We contact local churches to ask them to help with food. We also run a little soccer game on a dirt patch of land. We would have hundreds of people from different nationalities come out to talk and hang out with us. The ages vary from as little as newborn to seniors, but it is always so fun. At the end of the summer, I gave my life to Christ and I strive to walk with him in all my walks. I went from this kid that got in fights at school to a peacemaker with all my enemies. Wouldn't change it.

Think of being independent as being free and in the wild. No one tells you what to do, and you can do whatever you want. But, being independent also means having responsibility. After losing both my parents, I have learned to grow up quickly. I had to provide for myself and think of the future. Having to be independent impacted me to mature. Being independent made me realize that I am my own responsibility and I had to take care of myself. I am responsible for my own judgment and actions. I've also grown to realize that being independent does not mean working alone, but I can have support. I can ask for help from people - that is the responsibility part of being independent. One must know when you reach out for help when they need it. There are some things that I can do alone, but there are so many other things that I need help with. As a freshman college student, I have to use my resources because, honestly, I have no idea what I am doing.

"I will live for you," I whispered to my father on his death bed. I heard the machines go blank with a single beep sound and my world crashed. Memories of him flashed in my mind, as well as my mother, who had passed 7 years earlier due to heart disease. Growing up, we didn't have much in our pockets. Both my father and I had major struggles in our lives but he was definitely one of the most inspirational people in my life. Being kids from a refugee camp in Thailand, we have faced civil war and saw things no kid should see. My father ran from the oppressive Burmese military all his life. My dad had to work hard to support my family. In the refugee camps, there were no jobs at all so my dad had to go into the city that was a many days walk from us and worked hard labor while my mother stayed home to take care of us and farmed any seed she could. My father's determination to support our family shined a light when we applied to come to the United States with help from the United Nations. With the loss of both parents, it meant that I had to work. Not just financially but in life. I learned from my father that everything must be earned and he showed me what it meant to be a man. A man had to have drive, determination, and compassion for others no matter who they are or what their background is. From there, I have decided to become a first-generation college graduate. Not just a college graduate, but to play NCAA Division 2 soccer in college. I had to work hard to sharpen my skills on the field and off. After college, I want to be a soccer coach go into the lower-income neighborhoods and help them in any way I can. I will use soccer as a tool to build relationships and mentor kids like me that are from similar backgrounds as me. Education was also a big thing in my family. My father always talked about how he wanted me to go to college because he never did. The highest education he got was middle school and some high school. The education system was not as good in refugee camps in Thailand as they are here in the United States. He said to use every resource I can and so that is what I am doing. I plan on transferring to NC State or UNCC to study sports management. The loss of both my parents at a very young age helped me mature. It forced me to go from a kid to a man real quick. Financials are my struggle right now as I strive to make my parents proud. I come from nothing and I am determined to become something. Not in the public eye but for the people around me.

My name is Sai Phut. I am a refugee kid from Thailand and I have looked at War in its face. My family had been in the midst of the longest civil war in human history, the Karen Conflict, which no one knows about. In the refugee camps, the United Nations only came once a month and they weren't enough to keep us "comfortable". I remember starving most nights and all we could eat was rice. I have seen all the horrors from rape, to murder, and the evil that is in this world. I had friends that I would hang out with every day to get our minds off of the harshness of our lives. We would go down to rivers to skip rocks and swim or even hike the mountains that surrounded our village and chased waterfalls. When I was 7 years old, In 2009, we moved to the United States after years of waiting to be approved by the UN. Everything felt so new but from the beginning, I knew that I wanted to help people. As the years go on, I began to search for me what my goals and dreams were. I became involved and played for a non-profit Christian soccer club organization called the Charlotte Eagles. From there, I have learned all about life with a ball at my feet. As I looked back on my experience in the refugee camps, I began to look at the neighborhoods around me. They were rundown and some families were living from paycheck to paycheck, and kids are influenced by bad people around them. From there I realized that I wanted to help those kids. Just like how my compassionate, loving, and caring coaches have mentored me, I want to mentor those kids as well. I want to use a soccer ball to connect to families that are from similar backgrounds as me. I am currently playing Division 2 soccer at Belmont Abbey College, but I feel like I am called somewhere else. Right now, I am planning on transferring to either NC State or UNCC to study at top sports management programs. I am praying for some financial aid so that I will not come out of those colleges in debt. After college, I want to give back and work with the Charlotte Eagles because they have helped me so much in my life. Since they are a non-profit organization, they do not have a set salary or hourly wage for their staff members. All of them get paid by the kindness and donations of other people. It will be harder to do this work if I am in debt from loans and college. I am in dire and desperate need of financial support. With the money from this scholarship, it will help me achieve my goal of being a mentor to younger kids. Poverty is a huge issue, even in our own backyards. I want to get these kids out of the bad neighborhoods and teach them to become good men and women like how the Charlotte Eagles' soccer coaches have done for me. I truly feel inspired to be the light in this world after seeing so much darkness in my own life.