My name is Samantha Ortega, and I was named after my grandmother who has always been around and now that she is not I want to continue her legacy. My passion of going into healthcare stems from my deep curiosity about the human body and my desire to help others lead healthier lives. I have always been fascinated by how our bodies function and how we can use science to improve our well-being. This interest has led me to consider majors such as Biology, Nutrition, Kinesiology/Physical Therapy, and Dentistry. Growing up in a family mostly made up of girls, I have learned a lot from their struggles and strengths. Witnessing their resilience has inspired me to become a strong advocate for women's health and empowerment. Their experiences have shown me the importance of having compassionate and knowledgeable healthcare providers who understand the unique challenges women face. This has motivated me to become part of the solution by pursuing a career in healthcare. As a Hispanic woman, I have also seen firsthand the disparities in healthcare access and education within my community. I believe that everyone deserves quality healthcare, and I want to be a part of making that a reality for more people. By understanding the unique challenges faced by underrepresented communities, I hope to bridge some of the gaps in healthcare delivery. In my future career, I aim to make a positive impact by focusing on preventative care and education. I believe that many health issues can be mitigated or even prevented with the right knowledge and resources. As a healthcare professional, I want to empower individuals with the tools and information they need to make informed decisions about their health. Whether it is through nutrition counseling or physical therapy, I want to help people improve their quality of life. Being a woman in the healthcare field also means being a role model and advocate for others. I hope to inspire young women, especially those from Hispanic and Latino backgrounds, to pursue careers in healthcare. Representation matters, and it is important for patients to see healthcare professionals who understand their cultural backgrounds and can communicate with them effectively. I want to be that person who can connect with patients on a personal level and make them feel heard and understood. Furthermore, I am committed to lifelong learning and staying updated on the latest advancements in healthcare. The field is constantly evolving, and I want to ensure that I am providing the best possible care to my patients. By staying informed and adaptable, I can contribute to improving healthcare practices and outcomes. In conclusion, I have chosen to pursue a degree in healthcare because I am passionate about helping others and making a difference in my community. As a woman in this field, I hope to bring a unique perspective and contribute to a more inclusive and equitable healthcare system. With dedication and hard work, I am confident that I can make a positive impact and inspire others to do the same. Thank you for considering my application for the Women in Healthcare Scholarship, which will help me achieve my educational and career goals.

The importance of this scholarship would not only help me financially but mentally. As a first-generation student, and coming from a broken family, I don't get the opportunity of my parents paying for my college. I will have to come up with the money on my own and also support myself. My whole senior year will be dedicated to working hard through many jobs to save money. I have also been trying my best to apply to as many scholarships as I can to lift some of that weight off my shoulders. There are so many scholarships and so many people, that I often worry I won't get any. No matter what there is much effort that needs to be put into everything I do, and that hard work will come to light at some point. With this scholarship, I will be able to support myself through college and offer help to anyone who asks. I may not have the money, but education is so important to me and I am grateful that even live in a country that is accessible to me. It may be hard and challenging at many times, but I will use the money towards education and become the best version of myself to help the lives of others. Sometimes I am glad that I have to work for the money because it teaches me the value of it. There is no waste, I have to use every penny and dime towards my education. I'm not just going to be handed money, I have to work for all of it. In college, this will push and motivate me to acknowledge the fact that it is rough at many times, but I am investing in my future. This scholarship would be such a blessing to me and offer support in many ways. It may not look like a lot to others, but to me, it is a large amount of scholarship. I am seeing all the down payments that I could pay off and get out of the way. I also do not want to depend or be a burden on my family to have to pay for my tuition and fees when they don't have the money themselves. Putting them in more debt would be no help. What I truly want to do is just do this for myself and stop the cycle of debt. I want to and will be financially stable. This scholarship will help start that cycle of no more debt. While I am working and fundraising I will already have the money set aside to pay off any expenses towards college that I haven't been able to save up for. All I know is that it is God's will and this scholarship would create a huge impact on my life and help start my plans for success.

Faith, what is that? Who would have thought that this "idea" I didn't want to give any attention to would have saved me? I can handle everything on my own. Right? I'm stuck in this cycle of depression and have to figure out how to get out. Letting these negative thoughts win and get the best of me. Until I went to Him and He reminded me that what happened to me does not define me. What that man did to me does not change who I am. At the time did I understand this, or even fully believe it? No. My mouth was shut, but not by my own will, but because if I said anything it would be my fault that our family was broken. How do I stand up for myself when I feel so little and have no voice of my own? As I watched my little sister grow up, I couldn't imagine something like that happening to her. Even worse if she didn't say something and something wasn't done. I wanted to show her that there is hope and that we can have a voice. It stops here! God gave me strength at this time, even when I didn't notice, and he did and I was able to speak up. Silence...complete silence. What could my mother have even said, she was in complete shock. All I could think of was ever worst possible situation. Would she even believe me? Why did I wait so long to even tell her? What was going to happen to him? After the long long pause, she burst into tears and hugged me, but I just sat there, and I could only imagine the millions of thoughts going through her head. I hurt my mommy, the one I loved most. And to this day I know this was a big turning point in her life. It took so much faith and relying on God to believe that something that happened to me was not right, but he blessed me with someone willing to do anything to fight for what was right for me. She believed me. I was so relieved it was like I could breathe clean air again. After this, my mom my little sister, and I didn't see my family for months and it was the worst. Was it my fault that we couldn't see our loved ones? Why wasn't he getting any consequences? What I think of most to this day is how my family could forgive him so easily, and it even felt that sometimes he didn't even suffer one bit. But me, I was torn to pieces, shredded. During this time though, I was struggling. Even thinking that if I just kept my mouth shut so many things would be different. Knowing that I put my faith in Him, and trusted Him through it all, I now smile and am the strongest version of myself that I don't think I would be if I didn't have faith. I was at my lowest and had to believe that He would take care of it because I couldn't. And He did. God pulled me from the darkness where I thought I had to stay and put me in the light. He revealed to me His greatness and strength in the hardest of times. Now my family is the safest place I can be, and I hope that from this experience nothing like it will happen again. If it does, GOD WILL PROVIDE A WAY OUT, and give us faith!

Constate pressure to always be and do the best. I need to be training for the big game tomorrow, but what about the important test that will determine where I stand in my class? Do I study or do I practice? I am drained from working non-stop, but I enjoy my sport too much to quit. So I push through! It may be hard but when you look back you see all that you could accomplish even when you felt like you weren't getting anything done. All the people who are so "relying" on you are just proud and want to continue to see you grow, playing an exciting game. Watching others get to live a high school experience makes it hard to keep pushing. Everyone else gets to go out to parties and stay out late with their friends while I am either practicing, studying, finishing last-minute homework, or getting as much sleep as I can. I felt at many times that I was separating myself from the ones around me and was focusing on sports too much. I learned that I could experience both at the same time. I didn't want to spend my high school experience pushing myself too hard and wanted to learn how to have fun outside and inside school. Through this, I did better in my sports as well. I was able to create strong, long-lasting friendships with my teammates that continued throughout high school, and was no longer stressed with schoolwork. I learned to manage both, making it easier to do and more enjoyable to the point where I could also help others. As a student-athlete, people have this expectation that you should already know what you're getting into and should be able to handle it. So from this, I thought I could never ask for help because I was supposed to know how to deal with it. I chose to be a student-athlete so I couldn't struggle with anything. Since I saw this as a challenge, I pushed myself to make it a point that I didn't need help and needed to figure it out by myself, especially when everyone else was doing it. I came to a certain point where I broke down from all the pressure of needing to be the best in sports and academics, and it led me to open up to others and find out I wasn't alone. Many of my friends, who were also student-athletes, were dealing with the same challenges and mental hardships. They helped me understand that I needed help and that it's ok to not be ok sometimes. How would I be able to perform to the best of my abilities if I couldn't take care of my mental health? I learned that my mental health would show through my academics and the way I play in my sports. When my mental health got better, and I surrounded myself with people that were beneficial to me, there was a drastic change. Being a student-athlete can be difficult at many times, but there is so much of a reward that I got out of it. Overcoming many challenges helps me to use the many experiences I faced, and throughout life, I can look back on them and carry them with me throughout my future. Not only did being a student-athlete open my eyes to my capabilities but revealed to me that no matter what comes to me in life, I can overcome it. Knowing there will always be help to give me a little push, even if all I have is myself.

Seeing the struggles my mom had to go through, showed me how to be strong and the woman I am today. Seeing those struggles showed me how to figure out things by myself. So, I did what I could, and even helped with my siblings. I learned a lot from this experience, and think I grew up too fast. But because of this I am more mature and am not scared when faced with challenges. I always felt alone, like I never had anyone with an open hand when I was stuck. I never felt like I could ask for help because there is always someone going through worse. I never knew what it was like to have both mom and dad there. I became so independent and because of this, I tend to isolate myself sometimes. I also never got offered help from my parents, so now when they offer, I don't know what to do and sometimes don't even want it. Now that college is coming up they don't really care for it, since neither of them went, and I can't figure it all out by myself. Having a single parent showed me that you can do anything, especially when you have God, and that you don't need and a mom and dad to be complete. As long as there is love, at the end of the day all you have is each other, and nothing can break that. Now, my mom finally found someone who loves her and takes care of her. I am beyond happy for them, but it was so hard to become a "family". Me and my sibling barely knew this guy and then all of a sudden they were married and we had to move to a new city, plus live with his family. I hated this at first because what do you mean I have to move away from my whole life my senior year? Was this going to ruin my life, my love for sports, and most importantly my relationship with friends and family? Not only this, but his daughters seemed like they hated us, and wanted nothing to do with us. They didn't help us with anything, and since we were moving into their space, they did not like it. My whole future was over in my head and would become so miserable. But then after a while, and when moving time finally came, I realized: there was literally nothing I could do in this situation and I just had to make the best of this situation. I started going to volleyball camps and got blessed with some of the most amazing friends that have made my life so much better. My school is small, but the people there make me feel important and are way more supportive and genuine than the last friends I've had. Here I've got so much help on what I want to do in my future, dentistry, and resources, like internships and job shadows, to help me pursue this dream. From this, I learned that you can make every situation good. And when you think something is bad, God made it this way for a reason. So in the future, I want to create change and help those kids going through problems, letting them know that there is someone out there who understands. I want to get kids help because it starts in the beginning, and once you give them help for a good foundation in their life, they can prosper and use it for good in this world.

I want to create a change! The most amount of change that I can so that it will become normal to all of the next generations coming up, and something that you don't even question. I believe and now that I can cause change anywhere. When I see a problem I will do anything to try and fix it. Right now in school, I am doing a project on sex trafficking. I always saw this as a problem, but I never actually went out of my way to advocate and do something about it. There are so many minor problems that are talked about, but this major problem is not talked about enough. Child and human sex trafficking is a sensitive topic to many people, but we as a whole need to know how to protect our kids and society in this dangerous world. When I started doing research and seeing the amount of people affected by this, I knew there was something I needed to do about it. I thought that talking about it and educating people was enough, but I felt that I needed to do more. I am going to start doing fundraising so that all the money I get goes straight to organizations that help survivors and victims. I even want to host a walk in Colorado Springs that raises money for The Exodus Road. Then I even want to create Hope bags for survivors, so that when they get help they also have some belongings. Volunteering is also huge for me and something I enjoy when I can serve others and their needs. I wouldn't be able to do this without the help of my school, but also just knowing that I could do something. Being able to create a change in my community fills my heart. This project doesn't reflect my want to go to college for dentistry, but it created a love always to help others no matter the cost. Just being able to put a simple smile on someone's face, or helping someone enough that it changes their life, in a way that they start helping others. This would be such a big thing to me to just have a space where anyone is welcome and can be helped. I feel like in some places you have to meet requirements to be helped, but I think that we need to help all of God's children. I know that in this field of work, dentistry you can advocate for everything and help everyone, not just with a smile. Fixing that smile can even help that one kid with the most confidence, and helping their smile could help spread love to so many others. The funds of the scholarship would go directly towards my education and growing my knowledge in many fields so that I can help in all ways. I have to pay for college myself, so I am trying to get all the help I can. I am so passionate about being able to do the most I can for others because I don't know what is happening in other people's lives. If I get the scholarship money or not, I will continue to do what I love, and push to fight for others. I will continue to serve others, how God would want me to. I will continue to have a voice for others, and I will continue with all my efforts to create a change in our world and do better for the generations to come!

Watching her go from bar to bar kept my eyes open and focused on the screen. Her talent filled my brain and heart with a want to be just like her. I wanted to be so passionate about something that I would do anything to achieve this dream. Simone Biles is a woman many people today look at for her extraordinary skill, persistence, and sportsmanship! To this day, she is always working hard, pushing herself to her highest limit, and going past the expectation. I can consistently see hard work and persistence through her complex routines. I love how you can see her drive for this sport, and no problem could take that away from her. Even the many challenges she faced, mentally and physically. Through this, she advocated for mental health and used her platform to speak up about the abuse she and other girls experienced. Being able to do that takes so much out of a person, and this clearly shows how much bravery she has. Hearing her stories can inspire you to be and do better in this outrageous world. She is relatable and speaks up on many hardships and how anyone can be where she is. You need to be able to put in the work! Seeing how she had so many setbacks showed me that we are all human, but from those setbacks, she came back stronger and better. No matter what, she will always get to that top level. Cheering for Simone Biles isn't draining or just something easy to do because she's famous and an amazing athlete. No matter what, I'm choosing to cheer for her because she is the role model everyone should look up to. She always remains humble, trying to do the most she can. She respects her competitors and can see that they are also hard workers. She never disrespects anyone but will speak her truth when she knows something is wrong. Seeing how active she is in helping others is so amazing. Like not only is she such an elite athlete, but she's also helping the people around her. She helps the youth and connects them with mentors. I think that's amazing because maybe she sees that she can not do that much, but if she can start it up, it can create a domino effect on the next generation of young people. Cheering for Simone Biles isn't just cheering for any other athlete on the court, field, or even pool. Cheering for her is different because I can see a human being who uses her voice for good, and her passion creates a chain that will continue forever! The fact that she isn't just known for gymnastics but for talking about the problems she also faces and being able to see how she grows from all these challenges.