It was May 25, 2020. During a period where we swore we would go back to normalcy after Covid-19. This was a period where many high schoolers at the time, like myself, found this to still be an extended break from the challenging period of our lives where all we had to do was turn in homework and wake up at 7:00 AM. We naively assumed many things during the beginning of the pandemic. However, one of the things we didn't comprehend we would see is an innocent black man killed in broad daylight. I remember exactly where I was when I watched George Floyd get lynched through the tiny rectangular screen on my phone. It was not something I intended to see, but it is a core memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life. It is much easier for someone to read about lynchings and other crimes of humanity that black Americans had to encounter, take a break, close the book, and walk away until we are ready to be reminded of this grim reality of antiblackness that surrounds us. It is much easier to visualize words on a page and try to clear my mind when things get too rough and too depressing. However, a live stream video of a black man being lynched in broad daylight is not something I had the luxury nor the incivility to walk away from. I watched the live stream, hoping the officer would hear Mr.Floyd's pleas. Yet, Derek Chauvin never listened to George Floyd. He did not remove his knee from George Floyd's kneck until George Floyd passed. I remember feeling choked and stunned as tears whelmed in my eyes when I realized George Floyd had become irresponsive. My heart sank to the floor, and I realized I watched an innocent black man that was someone's son, partner, and father die. I knew then that I could not let any more black bodies become lynched, brutalized, and disrespected in a country that our ancestors built. I knew I needed to change the legal system. I never wanted to see another black family lose their sons, fathers, or husbands again. Black and brown bodies have been the structure of this country's foundation for far too long. This country's surrounding body of water contains enslaved Africans who would instead commit suicide by jumping into the ocean than become a part of a cycle that dehumanizes them and their descendants for centuries. As you read this, Indigenous Americans are losing access to clean water. As I type this, medical racism is causing black mothers to be at an alarming risk for maternal death. A culmination of these issues pushed me to become a Civil Rights Attorney. My tears for my community and other marginalized groups of people in this country have turned into a fiery rave of protests and demands. I will not be silenced. I will continue to fight and march in student-led demonstrations, and when I get my Juris Doctor, I will take this fight and this justice-demanding spirit to the courtroom.

December 31, 2019, was the first report of Covid-19, and two years later, it is not the last. The airborne disease affected everyone globally. Every year has surprises, but if you told me we would stay in a pandemic this long, I would not believe you. Covid-19 has taken so much from us. Coronavirus has taken years away from us, people away from us, and experiences away from us. This is true for many people. No matter if you live in Hawai'i, South Africa, Germany, everyone has felt the effects of this pandemic. At this rate, I will not get to experience my senior year. However, a more prominent deadly impact of this pandemic has been losing time in the classroom. My mother is an educator. She struggled to create a fun, engaging, educated assignment virtually. However, another challenge was assigning homework. The pandemic has created another pandemic of cheating. Children are now looking up answers on google, or their parents are doing their homework. Cheating gets you the grade, but it does not make you educated. My mom has been a teacher for over two decades. She has taught a variety of grades, but she remains at the elementary level. It was her calling. Now that she is back in the classroom trying to teach while remaining social distance, she notices a gap. Virtual learning does not help everyone. I prefer in-person learning too. Instead of watching the kids get behind, I tutor and mentor some. One of the places I mentor children is at Jax Thrive. Jax Thrive is a local non-profit organization that helps mentor, tutor and teach refugees in Jacksonville, Florida. One of my first community service hours was to help a boy sign up for college and complete his FAFSA. I felt delighted to know I was helping my community out in some way. Due to him being virtual his senior year, he might have missed all those FAFSA and college tips. He wants to be an automotive technician, and I think that's amazing. Another place I tutor is at Growing Educated Minds with Anointed community services international. I mentor and guide one child, and we meet two times a week. The child I see two times a week is in elementary school. I feel happy to help this child do homework and learn math problems. I am proud to watch this pupil learn and grow. I end the gap one step at a time with my volunteer commitments. Everyone wants to see students succeed and go far. However, not many people are willing to go the extra mile. I am. I am ready to tutor children in my community to watch them flourish. I want them to love learning as I did. I want them to be able to chase any career aspiration they want. The greatest gift in life is to be educated. The worst curse in life is ignorance. By mentoring a few children, I can give them the greatest gift of life.

When I was growing up, I used to get bullied often. I got bullied for multiple things, how I talked, how I walked, my clothes. I felt like my existence was offensive to people. Bullying makes you feel visible and invisible at the same time. It's such a contradictive experience. I didn't know how to resolve the conflicts I was having, so I lashed out constantly over and over. This led me to lose a lot of privileges like field trips, Safety patrol, and more. Often, my teachers and guidance counselor would push me off and give me detention. In seventh grade, I got into another fight. I didn't expect much. I was used to getting a slap on the wrist and no guidance. We had a new guidance counselor. I did not know much about her, but due to my prior experience with others. I did not have a reason to be suddenly optimistic or expect a different outcome. Looking back, maybe I judged her too fast, but I was a pre-teen trying to navigate one of the awkwardest phases of my life. Humans are unfortunately judgmental too, we all have that judgment inside of us that we need to work on. My new guidance counselor did something unexpected. She talked to me and questioned my actions. She did not belittle me. I felt like she was really listening and perhaps that's all I needed. I wanted someone to listen to me and hear me. I did not want to be written off anymore. I wonder how drastic my life would be if she did not take the time to listen to me. I wonder how worse this would be if this behavior continued in high school. That is a terrifying thought. Another unexpected thing she did was give me more chances. As I mentioned previously, my outburst caused me to lose privileges. The day I lashed back at my bully was two weeks before they selected National Junior Honor Society members. She called the adult in charge and told her how great of a student I am and how this one offense should not ruin my chances. I don't imagine I would have still joined if she did not do that for me. I also became student council president and kept my grades up afterward. Now I haven't got one referral or fight. I back away from confrontation. She changed my life for the better.

I wake up early on Friday mornings when the geese in my backyard are squealing, and I can hear my neighbors lawnmower, and the sound of my grandma's morning prayers. The average person in my position would be asleep. I have no classes, no obligatory reason to wake up. I could sleep till noon if I desired, but I wake up every morning to watch WandaVision, a hit show where episodes were released weekly on Fridays at 3:00 AM. It was February 26, 2021. I had recurring, vivid dreams of my lost loved ones, specifically my late aunt Zina and dog ChiChi. I missed them a lot, evidently. Sometimes the dreams were memories, and sometimes the dreams were in scenarios where I could still touch them, see them, and talk to them. However, besides the unexpected, strange dreams, I did not expect to hear a quote that stayed with me for six months. From a superhero show, no less, you expect to see a superhero beating bad guys, not a quote that will impact your life. Vision, one of the show's main protagonists, asks a question, "What is grief if not love persevering?" When he asked this, I felt like he was specifically asking me. Grief is an essential part of life but is dreaded. We grieve a lot because we're humans, we grieve the loss of financial security, we grieve detrimental changes in our health, we grieve failed relationships, we grieve so much. This quote speaks to me because it gave me a different perception of grief. It means the grief you harbor inside you is unspent love, longing, and it is not a negative emotion. Grief has a negative connotation, but if I didn't grieve over my aunt and my dog, that means I didn't miss them. I do miss them, I miss them so much, and I understand how much love I still have for them. I see them in so many things, in the activities we used to do together, in old pictures, in old memories. They are still in my heart, and they will always be there. Even if they are in a better place. One of the reasons why this quote is special is because it does not define grief as a negative trait. Grief isn't bad. It can be painful, but it is not bad. Grief is a cost of love. We never stop loving someone when they are gone. The last thing that makes this quote special is the time I heard it. I heard it as I was missing loved ones of my own. My aunt was funny, kind, intelligent, stubborn, and I loved her dearly. My dog was loyal, protective, and cute. When I start missing them, I can get very depressed, but now I know it is all just the love I have for both of them, and I will never forget that.

Laws are so important because our society cannot function without them. Law satisfies several roles that we need to live our daily lives. The law guarantees general safety, individual rights, and liberties, a way to settle disputes, and maintains order and peace. Law grants justice the ability to exist in our society. Law allows a sigh of relief. One of the most prominent obligations that the law has to fulfill is to protect our individual rights and liberties. An example of this is our Bill of Rights which grants several civil rights and liberties. The first amendment guarantees freedom of speech (with limitations), press, religion, petition, and the right to assembly, for example. The founding fathers of this nation were so adamant about the rights for a particular reason. They were placed in the Bill of Rights because those unwritten rights got snatched from them. The colonies faced taxation without representation and felt ignored while they voiced their grievances. Without our Bill of Rights, it is easy to see how powerful the government could be and how helpless it could leave us. A different example is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Act ensured fundamental rights and allowed us equal rights because every person deserves to work, vote, and live despite our differences. Furthermore, the law serves to solve disputes between individuals. An example of a dispute that can occur is divorce. There are two types of divorces, uncontested and contested; In an uncontested divorce, both spouses concur on all issues concerning the divorce. The spouses agree on the division of marital property and child support, for example. A contested divorce is when they disagree. Uncontested divorces are an excellent example of where the justice system solves something where there would be endless arguing and perhaps no solution. A different example is that the law protects people injured by automobile and workplace accidents, assault, and medical malpractice. A dispute that can come from this is car crashes. The law can determine who is at fault, thanks to the many traffic laws. The next thing the law and justice system provides is a settlement amount. If the settlement amount got left in the air, there would be no justice for the injured. Finally, the law sets standards and maintains order. Law can determine the fine line between legal and illegal. Some laws are straightforward, like thievery, murder, and child abuse being illegal. However, some include riding with a seatbelt or sitting in the front seat at a certain age. These laws protect our safety. For example, if a collision happened head-on without a seatbelt, the driver could fly out of the windshield. If younger kids are permitted to sit in the front seat, then if the airbag deploys, it can harm them. These laws set standards for road safety. Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Benjamin Cardozo stated, "the final cause of law is the welfare of society." Imagine how distraught society would be and how anarchic it would be without these laws. Children's labor laws being nonexistent, no laws to stop business pollution, no federal banking protection, to list a few. The country would be in chaos and turmoil. The fact that these protections exist gives peace of mind. In our civil society, the law has four primary purposes, to maintain order, establish standards, resolve disputes, and protect individual rights and liberties. These purposes are not separate, but they weave together to create a functioning, free society. Law grants freedom. To quote former President Ronald Reagan: "Law and freedom must be indivisible partners. For without law, there can be no freedom, only chaos and disorder, and without freedom, law is but a cynical veneer for injustice and oppression." Law remains so ingrained into our society, and we cannot function without it. Law cannot function without us law-abiding citizens and our justice system.

Autism awareness and acceptance are so important to me. To have the ability and privilege to be a part of a team that spreads this message would mean a lot for me. I have friends and a family member with autism. I want the world to accept them and make them feel more welcome. There is nothing wrong with them, and they do not need to get "fixed." One of the things I would love to see as I spread the message is empathy increasing. One of the reasons so much bullying, belittling, and infantilizing happens to those with autism is ignorance. I also think less bullying will occur too. Less stigmatization will be a plus too. Often I see autism used as an insult too out of pure ignorance. I hope becoming part of the team and spreading the information will stop this. Secondly, I am happy your non-profit business combats the high unemployment within the autism community. People with autism deserve the ability to contribute to the workforce. Also, reading about Michael Kessaris was awe-inspiring. Michael significantly contributed to his community. I want to do that for mine one day too.

I am a young black female. I will be the first person in my family to get a doctoral degree. That is my goal. I want to get a Juris Doctorate degree to become a civil rights attorney. This scholarship would help me incredibly in the long run. College is expensive, but law school is even more costly; if I finish my undergraduate degree with the least amount of debt possible, that will make paying back student loans more manageable. A single black mother raised me. She raised me the best she could. She gave me all the necessary items to grow into a proper young lady. My mother has raised me primarily by herself. She has been financially funding me by herself, too, from school supplies, school field trips, school projects, and more. I want to ease her of this burden during school. I also want to help my community. Not only will funding me help me out, but help my community undoubtedly so. As a civil rights attorney, I plan to fight for justice. I plan to go against white supremacy and anti-blackness. I will fight for the innocent black people failed by the justice system. I will fight to stop Asian hate. I will try to make this world more fair and equal for all.

Intersectionality is a term that was coined over 30 years ago by Kimberlé Crenshaw, who is a lawyer, civil rights advocate, philosopher, and leading critical race theory scholar. Intersectionality simply explains how different genders, races, ethnicities, and individual characteristics yield different experiences in life. My experience in the workforce won't be the same as an Asian man or Hispanic woman. Intersectionality collides in all parts of life. Due to every person having different life experiences, there are present issues in the workplace because of ignorance, lack of education, and misguided judgment. One of these pressing issues is mico-inequities. Micro-inequities are different from micro-aggressions. Micro-inequities are subtle comments towards an individual, often unconscious, that can devalue, belittle, and discourage a person. Individuals can be ignored, and the cause of this can be because of characteristics like gender and race. An example is a team leader neglecting someone or not talking to a particular person, like not listening to a female coworker's advice because of her gender. Micro-inequities can be conveyed by facial expressions, tone of words, and gestures. Micro-aggressions are acts that stereotypes that belittle or stereotype the recipient. An example is complimenting people who are persons of color for their English as if it was not expected because of the color of their skin. I have a similar experience with micro-aggressions. I had a white teacher imply that I got extra work for my paper because my English was too good. Despite the fact that I have always done well in English. It is reflected in my academic record and accolades. The teacher only asked me this out of a class full of other races, ethnicities, and genders. This made me feel personally attacked and awful since I was only 12 at the time. The way I would combat this is to do training and lessons led by marginalized communities. The communities could teach how particular comments and experiences make them feel. Just as intersectionality states, everyone has a different experience; perhaps, someone said something disrespectful out of ignorance. The training and lessons would be suitable to combat this. They would also stop a lot of ignorant stereotypes that are untrue. A woman can go into the STEM field, and A Man can be interested in ballet, and more stereotypes can be broken. Another issue is greater wage inequality due to intersectionality. In 2021, a white woman makes 82 cents to every man's dollar. However, a woman of color would make five-cent less than her—intersectionality showing us once again how different all our experiences are. The way to correct this, businesses need to start paying all their employees equally. Protestors and advocates need to push for companies to close the gap. Hopefully, with pushback and boycotting, companies will make the correct decision.

As a lover of academics, I can say I am passionate about a variety of things. However, one thing sticks out compared to all of my other interests. I am very passionate about history. My favorite historical subjects to learn about are women's rights, world history, LGBTQ+ history, and black history. I feel as if history can educate people and defeat ignorance. I feel as if one reason there's so much sexism, xenophobia, anti-blackness, and other forms of bigotry and prejudice is ignorance. If people knew the history of the past and how far marginalized communities had to go, more people would care, maybe more people would fight for them. The career path I plan to follow is being a civil rights attorney. Civil rights attorneys protect against discrimination and harassment, specifically harassment and discrimination to physical or mental disability, gender, religion, race, national origin, age, status as a member of the uniformed services, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Civil rights attorneys also preserve individual rights like privacy, right to speech, right to practice one's religion, and more. My passion for history led me to want to fight harder for marginalized communities like my own. To fight for other's communities and my own, I have to know the origin, how long the fight was, and when the injustice started. Another importance of history is to not repeat it. History does repeat itself though, marginalized communities suffer for a long time. They are silenced, ignored, frustrated from all of the wrong-doings and past grievances. For example, George Floyd's death was not the first black person to be wrongly killed by law enforcement. He was not the first one to be failed by the justice system. There is a repeated long and tragic history of failings. Now that more people know, more people want to fight for my community. I feel the same way about other movements like stopping Asian hate crimes, standing against antisemitism against Jewish people, expressing support for disabled people. I want to be the change and see justice. A time I overcame my obstacles even when the odds were against me was passing Geometry. At the beginning of the year, I had a lousy teacher. He was new to it, but he did not help much. He did not offer after-school tutoring, the tests were complex, and hardly anyone passed or learned anything. After much complaining, we got a new teacher after winter break. Things did not go smoothly afterward either. The teacher's grading was excruciatingly rigorous. She also gave more assignments. However, with pure grit, work, and determination, I pulled through and passed the exam and class. I got good grades too.