When I was younger, I believed that jet streams in the sky were rockets going to space. Every time someone told me it was just a plane I would be disappointed. As I got older, I learned about the effects of mankind on the Earth. I embody working to break stereotypes in a male dominated field. I am very passionate about the environment and space and I hope to make the space industry as environmentally conscious as I can. I am currently a senior at Tahlequah High School, and I plan to attend Oklahoma State University. I am on the varsity soccer team and captain of my cheer team, and I am my high school class valedictorian, and I am an AP Scholar. I am involved in many clubs that are service focused. I have served on the OERB (Oklahoma Energy Resource Board) student board directors, and I have paged in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. In my free time I like to read, embroider, and hang out with my friends. I have always loved science, and have a fascination with the aviation industry. I plan to double major in mechanical and aerospace engineering. I plan to double major in mechanical and aerospace engineering so that I can work in the space industry and develop tools that will help us colonize Mars. To achieve this goal, I plan to work hard in college and make good grades so I can get internship opportunities. I am currently involved in many engineering groups and societies outside of school and in school I am taking STEM classes and AP classes that will help me in college. I have also attended many networking events and internships to meet people in my career field. All of this will help me be as prepared as possible and will help me pursue my passion of working in the space field. I have been selected as a Freshman Research Scholar and will get to conduct my own research plan that I will design and implement during my Freshman year of college. When I am working in the space field, I plan to work to ensure nothing harms the environment. I plan to make the space industry better by finding better energy sources and by limiting the amount of energy needed. Being able to do that would allow me to be able to follow both of my passions at once while making an impact in both. I hope that I can impact the space agency in an important way while also being able to follow my passion of working on tools to help with space exploration. I believe that I should win this scholarship because it will help me be able to focus on college work thus leading to me having better grades and better job opportunities. As a Freshman Research Scholar that will also limit my time to work. I currently have an unmet financial need freshman year of 26,700. Without scholarship assistance it is likely that I will take out absorbent loans which may still not be enough to pursue my educational dreams. I also believe that I should win the scholarship because my parents' savings were depleted in circumstances that surrounded Covid and they are teachers and cannot afford to pay for college. I believe these reasons showcase that I deserve this scholarship and that I will work hard and reach my goals.

For my 12th birthday I decided that I wanted to help the animals at the shelter. I spoke with a local shelter to see what they needed and what would be helpful. I then gave friends and family this list and requested them to bring items that could be donated to our local animal shelter instead of birthday gifts. This brought awareness of the needs of the animal shelter to others. I also started making bracelets to sell to family, friends and teachers to raise funds for the animal shelter. After the party I made arrangements with the local animal shelter and was able to take the donated gifts I received in addition to money I had raised to the shelter. I got to spend time with the staff and animals and learn about their needs and the impact of my donation. This involvement showed me the importance of giving back to the community and instilled in me the desire to continue to help others. This experience, while it may seem insignificant to some, made me aware of the importance of being involved in my community and the impact of community service. I have since joined many local organizations during high school that have a focus on community service. This year I have reached out beyond my local community and I am now a member of a state wide community as a student board representative for the Oklahoma Energy Resource Board sponsored by Oklahoma Oil and Natural Gas. I plan to continue to seek out organizations throughout college to continue to give back to my community through organizations such as Engineers without Borders. This organization designs projects to empower communities to meet their basic needs on a global scale. My goal is to become an engineer. I want to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical/aerospace engineering, and then pursue a master’s degree. Engineering is a rigorous career that teaches you more than just designing projects. With engineering you develop many skills such as problem solving, communication, collaboration and teamwork. Tackling the issues on a local and global level requires all of the skills that you learn while becoming an engineer. An engineering degree, and the development of these skills will help me solve intricate problems and give me the ability to help my community in more creative ways. Donating to the local animal shelter taught me about the importance of giving back to my community. The experiences and skills learned through involvement in my community service organizations, the connections I make and hard work will aid in achieving my goals of becoming an engineer. By achieving my goals I will gain knowledge to solve complex problems. The knowledge obtained and the connections I make will enhance my abilities to continue to give back to my community.

I started cheer and soccer by the time I was four. When I started school, my parents explained to me how important learning and keeping good grades were. They always pushed me to put my best foot forward academic and athletic wise. Sports and school have helped shape me by challenging me to work though fear and accept failure. Cheer has shaped me into the person I am today by teaching me valuable lessons. These lessons caused me to learn how to accept differences and persevere through difficulties. Even though cheer is a female dominated sport, male cheerleaders often excel much faster than female cheerleaders. This always frustrated me when I was younger because I could not understand why the boys would get skills that I had been working on for longer, before me. It was not until I was older that I learned that the physiological differences between male and female athletes caused male athletes to be naturally better at most sports. I had to learn how to work hard to get these skills and that hard work taught me how to fight for what I want. Soccer has shaped me by proving to me that I could do things in a male dominated field. Soccer is a male dominated sport and growing up in soccer was much different than growing up in cheer. In soccer, I was slower and overall less athletic than the boys I was watching play. This caused me to compare myself to the boys and frustrated me even more. When I learned that there was only one cleat designed for female athletes, I felt that the girls were not seen as important as the boys were. This became one of the experiences that shaped me by helping to form my passion for equality. While sports have greatly shaped me, the place where I have been changed the most is the academic setting. In my calculus and physics class I was the only girl and that put pressure on me in many ways. It put pressure on me to try to make friends with boys for the first time. But it also put a different kind of pressure on me, every day I was scared that I was going to fail, or that I was not as smart as I thought. I became scared of failure because I felt responsible for every girl who wanted to go into STEM and if I failed it would mean every girl would fail too. I would also feel left out because I could not relate to the experiences of the boys in my class. These differences caused me to feel isolated in my class and caused me to be too scared to ask questions. But as time went on, I realized that the boys felt like they were not good enough either. This revelation helped me learn to not listen to my fears and to trust myself thus helping me become stronger overall. This experience changed me by helping me get over my fear of failing and learning how to communicate with others. My experiences in sports and school have taught me many valuable lessons that have shaped me into the person I am today. Sports have taught me how to work though my fear as well as shaping my passion for equality. School has taught me how to accept failure and how to communicate with others. All of these experiences have shaped me into the person I am today.

I started cheer and soccer by the time I was four. When I started school, my parents explained to me how important learning and keeping good grades were. They always pushed me to put my best foot forward academic and athletic wise. Sports and school have helped me become a stronger female by challenging me to work though fear and accept my differences. Sports in general are not designed for female athletes because of our male dominated world. This caused me to have to learn how to accept differences and persevere through them. Even though cheer is a female dominated sport, male cheerleaders often excel much faster than female cheerleaders. This always frustrated me when I was younger because I could not understand why the boys would get skills that I had been working on for longer, before me. It was not until I was older that I learned that the physiological differences between male and female athletes caused male athletes to be naturally better at most sports. I had to learn how to work hard to get these skills and that hard work taught me how to fight for what I want. Soccer is a male dominated sport and growing up in soccer was much different than growing up in cheer. In soccer, I was slower and overall less athletic than the boys I was watching play. This caused me to compare myself to the boys and frustrated me even more. I was in my sophomore year of high school when I heard about the first soccer cleats designed for female players. At first I was very excited, but then I became angry with how long it took to design cleats for female players. I was even more frustrated when I saw a promotional video about those cleats that stated that female soccer players were 2.8 times more likely to tear their ACL when compared to male soccer players. After hearing that information, I became very scared of tearing my ACL because I had planned to continue soccer and coach while I was in college. Despite that fear, I learned ways to strengthen my knees to prevent injuries so that I could play through my worries. Learning how to work through my worries helped me become stronger in the male dominated sport by growing my mental strength and by teaching me how to work though fear. I have also learned how to accept my differences and work through my fears in the academic setting. In my calculus and physics class I was the only girl and that caused me to feel like I was forced to represent all of the females in academics and if I failed then so did every other female. I would also feel left out because I could not relate to the experiences of the boys in my class. These differences caused me to feel isolated in my class and caused me to be too scared to ask questions. But as time went on, I realized that the boys felt like they were not enough too. This revelation helped me learn to not listen to my fears and to trust myself thus helping me become stronger overall. Even though the world is not designed for females sports and academics have helped me become stronger by teaching me how to accept my differences and not be controlled by fear. Sports have taught me how to work though my fear and school has taught me how to ignore it all together.

My first experience with the SAT was when I was a sophomore in high school. Many of my friends took the SAT, but I didn't know that it was an option for me to take it as well until after the scores were released. That was the only test that my school offered for the year and I would have to wait for next year to take the test. After I got my scores back, I realized that my score was lower than my friends. This made me feel as though I wasn't smart enough and that I did not deserve to be in hard classes. So I decided to study for the next test. I started reviewing online resources as well as working out practice problems. Online resources have been an immense help to me for reviewing for the SAT, as well as helping me define my goals with the test and my future. The College board SAT daily question is how I start my day. I read the question and start working out the problem. When I get an answer, I compare my answer with the correct answer to determine if I got it right.. After I do the daily question, I look into various online practice questions. I have found that the best course of study for this test is through doing questions from the previous test. The many resources online have been a large help in finding effective ways to study for the SAT. My normal course of studying starts with the question of the day from the College Board, then I read practice questions, and at least once a week I time myself while doing a practice test. I try to focus on one subject a day, but like to do at least one question from each subject so that I do not digress on my progress. I think that this study plan will help me increase my score on the test, further leading to my future goals. My goals for the test are to increase my overall score, but also to learn how to build a study plan and stick to it. The test motivated me to begin studying, but it was hard at first because I had never had to study before. The first practice test I took scored lower than my initial test. This made me realize that I would have to be serious about my studying and that I would have to make it a priority to reach my goals. The development of my study plan started slowly. I started with the college Board question of the day, but quickly noticed that I would need to do more. I then watched youtube videos of people going over the questions, but soon knew that it would not work as a study technique for me because I would not actually try to solve the question since I knew that they would solve it for me. So eventually I learned that practice problems would be the most beneficial way to study thus helping me reach my goal of building a study plan. I believe that the study plane will also help me increase my score and help me with scholarships and college applications, further helping my future. I am confident in my scores increasing because I know that I have put in the work necessary to increase my scores. Studying for the SAT has helped me learn important life skills, and has hopefully caused my scores to increase. Both of these will help my future by helping me in college and in the workforce.