As a young girl, I always dreamt of having an abundant and financially free life. Instead of playing in my free time, I was journaling and researching the life I would build for myself. I wanted to drive a pink Tesla, live in a beach house in California, and help my family live the life we never received. At the time, life was tougher for a ten-year-old than it should be, and dreaming about a life greater than my own was an escape from my reality. I found myself babysitting my siblings late into the night because my mother, who was raising us alone, was working late shifts to make ends meet. I want to clarify that I don't see this particular time in my life as a drawback or a disadvantage in any way; growing up in a low-income home is one of my greatest motivations for pursuing higher education. For starters, I learned what hard work, perseverance, and dedication looked like. My mother showed me that no matter how tough life can be, it is always possible to come out the other side content. Her hard work has paid off financially and impacted my life in ways that I could have never imagined. I also defined the kind of life I wanted to build for myself early on which set me up for success at a very young age. I have faced many challenges at a young age, but I have turned my hardships into an unexplainable amount of motivation. I plan to pursue a degree in chemical engineering on the pre-medicine track and hopefully become a doctor. The chemical engineering degree will offer important problem-solving and reasoning skills that will help me become the best doctor I can be. To me, pursuing a higher education means I can help break the generational wealth curse once and for all. I want to give my children and my children's children the childhood I missed out on and help them live out their biggest dreams. I want to show them that hard work, consistency, desire, and focus are the keys to success. Pursuing a higher education also means I can actively participate in philanthropy and give back to my community in very impactful ways. I plan to donate to local organizations that support low-income families, provide scholarships to students with a similar background, and ultimately change the lives of those in my community. The path to becoming a doctor is not only time-consuming, but it is extremely expensive. According to statistics, the median debt for medical school alone in 2022 was $200,000. This does not include the costs of undergraduate studies, research, interviews, or residency programs. I will also be supporting myself as an independent, living off the salary I will make working part-time as an EMT, with little room to contribute large amounts of money to my education. This scholarship could greatly reduce the cost all around, assist my living status, and ease my path to pursue medicine.

As a student with a psychiatric disability, I have been through it all. Constant relocations and the COVID-19 pandemic took a major hit on my mental health. I began to isolate myself once I moved to Alabama from Florida; I didn’t want to socialize so I enrolled in virtual school. I also found a way to blame everyone else but myself for my problems, and my grades were suffering. After receiving counseling and drug therapy, I have changed my life. That isolation period served as a time of self-reflection, and I learned a lot about myself and how relationships work. For starters, I was super stubborn. Deep down I couldn’t even admit to myself that it was my fault I was so alone. Second, I have an immeasurable amount of strength. Despite the challenges, I still woke up every day and chose to show up for myself. Last, a new hobby of mine is researching cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. This has drastically improved my understanding of both myself and the connections I hold with others. I understand why I responded to my hardships the way I did. Looking back at it now, this experience has made me mentally tough as an individual. My morals and values are now based on the tried-and-true foundation of hope, perseverance, and willpower. I still struggle with my mental health, but I know it does not define me. This was only the start of my journey and I am extremely appreciative that I learned these lessons this young. I am now enrolled in an EMT program in the spring along with two other dual enrollment courses, I participate in as many school activities and clubs as I can (with lots of friends of course), and I know exactly where I want to go in life. I will be pursuing a degree in chemical engineering on the pre-medicine track. I plan to take my degree to medical school to become a neurologist. The chemical engineering degree explicitly focuses on application-based, analytical problem-solving that offers important clinical reasoning skills that will be useful in my career as a physician. I strongly believe these skills will put me a head above the rest and will help me succeed in the progression of my career. An engineering degree is also extremely challenging and mentally taxing, so it requires a great amount of dedication and time management; this will prepare me for the fast-paced, busy work environment. Although this path is extremely long, expensive, and tedious, it will prove to be the most rewarding. Helping other people who are experiencing neurological hardships as I do will make the hard work that much more worth it. My strength, self-awareness, and dedication to help those in need will change the lives of many people, and hopefully inspire others.

Moving around was a common reoccurrence throughout my childhood. Moving to the house down the block turned into navigating a brand-new city an hour away, and before you knew it, we were in a completely different state. I, a 17-year-old senior, has been to a new school every year since the sixth grade. As you’d imagine, this wasn’t the easiest hurdle to jump. Meeting new friends and desperately trying to mold to the cultural standards of new places takes a toll on one’s well-being. After seven years of constant change, it left me feeling depressed, anxious, and defeated. Going through this difficult time ended up propelling me way further into success than I thought. When the big move to Alabama occurred, I was angry. We moved five days before Christmas during the peak of the COVID pandemic. I didn’t even get to celebrate the holidays with my loved ones, let alone say a proper goodbye. Moving again felt just like a prison sentence, but somehow worse. In response, I isolated myself even more. I didn’t want to socialize so I enrolled in virtual school, I found a way to blame everyone else but myself for my problems, and my grades were suffering. Out of nowhere, on a random summer day, a realization equivalent to an epiphany struck me. Most of my issues were self-induced. Although it was tough, I wouldn’t trade this part of my life for anything. This isolation period served as a time of self-reflection, and I learned a lot about myself and how relationships work. For starters, I was super stubborn. Deep down I couldn’t even admit to myself that it was my fault I was so alone. Second, I have an immeasurable amount of strength. Despite the challenges, I still woke up every day and chose to show up for myself. Last, a new hobby of mine is researching cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. This has drastically improved my understanding of both myself and the connections I hold with others. I understand why I responded to my hardships the way I did. Looking back at it now, this experience has made me mentally tough as an individual. My morals and values are now based on the tried-and-true foundation of hope, perseverance, and willpower. I still struggle with my mental health, but I know it does not define me. This was only the start of my journey and I am extremely appreciative that I learned these lessons this young. I am now enrolled in an EMT program in the spring, I participate in as many school activities and clubs as I can (with lots of friends of course), and I know exactly where I want to go in life.