My future career in sciences has been a dream I can never let go of. As a little girl my mother would tell me stories of where we were from. She would describe the islands in such romantic detail, I would be immersed in the life we could've lived. She, however, also described how tourism had ruined the native environment, over populated, over priced, and polluted. We could never live there, being financially unstable, and so young. As a little girl I grew up in a small town in Kentucky, in an all white elementary school. I was picked on, teased, and I never had friends to talk about my dreams with, so they were locked away in a little box and stored far away in my mind. As years went on, my mother fought and worked hard for me financially, she wanted so much better for me. So we moved up, a city, it was big and new, and we were struggling. Mom had gotten us a little apartment and I had started my first year in high-school. I had trouble making friends still, I was quiet, and a little weird, and I became really discouraged. I failed a class, and barely passed the rest because I had felt I didn't need to. I didn't see a future for myself. The loneliness was overwhelming for me, and my mother noticed this too. After sophomore year I was presented with the opportunity to move in with a family member, in a new town, going to a new school. I jumped to take that chance, and it was the best thing I could've done in life. The school I went to in this new town was so family oriented, they were so welcoming and supportive of everyone and their dreams. I was seen. My biggest supporter was my AP Biology teacher, Ms. Birch, I told her my childhood dreams, and through my last two years she had done nothing but encourage me to chase them again. This move had brought life back to me, I saw what I wanted my future to look like. I wanted to work on the islands, make a better environment for all living organisms. My goal in life is to work with marine life and improve the local environment. I was accepted in University of Hawaii at Hilo, and accepted into their Bonner Leadership Program, which works with non-profit organizations, nature preservation, and local clean-ups. I want to make a difference in the world, and show the importance of nature. I am so close to my dreams coming true, so close to making my mother and myself proud, pulling myself out of the muck and fighting for my own future. I don't have much help, I only have my mother, so this scholarship will help me reach my goals of being a biologist, advocating for wildlife, and keeping the beaches, and forests clean on the islands. So I can make an impact on the world, and inspire others to reach for the same dreams.

He casted his shadow from above me, the brilliant dancing blue lights pushed away just for him. A sea turtle, his home a special tank in a little corner of Newport Aquarium in Cincinnati Ohio. Instead of a car, or a new laptop, or any fancy party for my sixteenth birthday, I chose to go to the Aquarium. Seeing all of the wonderful creatures had inspired me in a way I had never known before, it was different from my childhood dreams of scuba diving with sharks, and taking pictures of coral reefs, it was real. They were real and I was seeing them and they were seeing me, each creature so beautiful in their own right, so significant. Since I was small my mother had done everything in her power to show me my dreams were possible, she had taught me where she had come from, and the stories that came from our ancestors, and I felt even more connected to these creatures. I was meant to be there, I was meant for the ocean, I was meant to speak out for them. Living in a part of the United States where there is no oceans it became difficult to imagine my dream. I felt that I couldn't help in the way that I wanted to. I wanted to make a difference I just didn't really know how, but over time I discovered that helping doesn't have to be beach clean-ups or protests. I put a lot of my time in researching different aquatic creatures and supporting them through wildlife programs, writing letters, donating to organizations dedicated to the safety of sea creatures, planning out my education to be able to put my full effort into my cause. It's all given me a greater sense of admiration, I am full of passion each and every day as I continue to help in any way I can. Not only do I intend to support wildlife, I hope to inspire my community. As a young Hawaiian building to make a reputation, I want to motivate other Hawaiian children across the world to feel the same inspiration as I do, to feel the same connection to the ocean. In school I have felt the disconnection from my community, as I live in a part of kentucky that's not very diverse, however I make sure to go out of my way to support and encourage any person of color in their pursuit of education. In a world where people of color have trouble receiving higher education, I feel it is important to motivate and help out as much as possible. With lack of diversity in my educational career it's made me a subject of hardship. I come from a low income family, and have been ostracized as someone with a different skin tone than everyone else. Growing up being Hawaiian was taught to be a beautiful thing, while my peers taught me otherwise. I have come to ignore it though, I am proud of my heritage, proud of my skin. As of my household income, it's been really hard growing up barely scraping by, but applying to scholarship where I can is helping me to reach my dream career. My passion is to inspire others and to do that I need to be a leader. Leaders need the same values of Fa'a Samoa; responsible, respectful, caring to your community, and motivated. I try everyday to implement these values in my interactions with everyone because I believe it's mandatory for communication. To lead others into activism, or support them in their dreams.