Before my back injury, I believed in God, but I wasn't truly walking with Him. I knew who He was, but I tried to carry everything on my own. I thought I had to figure life out by myself, and when everything was going well, I didn't feel like I needed Him as much as I actually did. That changed after I suffered an L5 back injury in a car accident. Overnight, my life looked completely different. I lived with constant pain, struggled financially while trying to continue school, and lost the ability to play the sport I loved most. I had played volleyball since 2013 and competed in club volleyball from 2018 to 2024. Volleyball wasn't just a sport—it was my escape. Every day after school, my friends and I would play for hours, and for a little while, all the stress of life disappeared. When my injury took that away, it felt like I lost a part of myself. As the pain continued and the weight of everything grew heavier, I reached the darkest place I have ever been. I truly believed everyone would be better off without me. I almost ended my life. Looking back, I know that wasn't a coincidence. I believe God stopped me. In that moment, God opened my eyes to the life I had been living without fully trusting Him. He showed me that I had been trying to fight every battle with my own strength, and I finally understood that I couldn't. I needed Him. For the first time in my life, I stopped trying to control everything and surrendered it to God. My problems didn't disappear overnight, but my heart began to change. God replaced my hopelessness with hope and reminded me that my life still had purpose. Now, when I look at my injury, I don't only see pain. I see God's hand working through it. I believe He allowed this season to shape me into someone who depends on Him instead of myself. My injury brought me closer to Christ than I had ever been before. It taught me that God can use even our deepest wounds for His glory if we are willing to trust Him. My faith is also the reason I chose Radiography. I know what it feels like to be afraid, hurting, and uncertain about the future. I may not always be able to heal someone's body, but I can reflect Christ in the way I treat every patient. I want people to feel seen, valued, and cared for because every person is created in God's image. Whether it's offering a kind word, showing patience, or simply being present, I hope my actions point others toward the love and compassion that God has shown me. I don't know exactly what God has planned for my life, but I know He saved it for a reason. My prayer is that wherever my career takes me, I will honor Him by serving others with humility, compassion, and integrity. If even one person finds hope because God worked through me, then every hardship I have endured will have been worth it.

Being a first-generation college student means carrying more than my own dreams. It means honoring the sacrifices my parents made when they immigrated to the United States with little more than hope for a better future. They worked physically demanding jobs while learning a new language and adapting to a completely different life. Through years of hard work, they eventually bought a chicken farm and gave my siblings and me opportunities they never had. Watching them persevere taught me that success comes from determination, sacrifice, and never giving up. Because my parents never had the opportunity to attend college in the United States, every step of this journey has been new for my family and me. From applying for financial aid to choosing classes and planning a career, I've had to learn as I go. It has been challenging, but it has also made every accomplishment more meaningful because I know I'm creating a path that my younger siblings can follow. The road hasn't been easy. In 2024, I suffered an L5 back injury in a car accident that changed my life. I live with chronic pain while balancing school, work, medical treatments, and financial responsibilities. Before my injury, volleyball was a huge part of my life. I played from 2013 to now and 2018- 2024 club volleyball. It wasn't just a sport—it was my escape. Every day after school, my friends and I would play for hours, usually from five until nine at night. Losing the ability to play the sport I loved and stepping away from the friendships and routine that came with it affected me mentally and physically. Despite those challenges, I continue to fight every day. My injury may have changed my path, but it didn't change my determination. In many ways, it strengthened it. My experiences as a patient inspired me to pursue a degree in Radiography because I know how meaningful compassionate healthcare professionals can be during someone's most difficult moments. I want to become the kind of radiologic technologist who not only provides excellent care but also helps patients feel understood and respected. Receiving this scholarship would ease the financial burden of pursuing my education and allow me to focus more fully on becoming the healthcare professional I aspire to be. More importantly, it would represent another step toward fulfilling the dream my parents began when they came to this country. As the first in my immediate family to attend college, I hope my journey shows my younger siblings that no obstacle is too great when you are willing to work hard, persevere, and believe in a better future.

I grew up in a family that taught me the value of hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance. My parents immigrated to the United States with very little, worked demanding jobs while learning a new language, and eventually built a better life for our family. Watching their determination taught me that success isn't given—it's earned through resilience, faith, and dedication. Their example continues to motivate me every day. Those same values followed me into volleyball. I played from 2013 to now and 18 through 2024, 3-4 years of club volleyball. The sport became more than a hobby—The sport became much more than a game to me—it became my escape from the stress of everyday life. After school, my friends and I would spend hours playing together, usually from five until nine at night. Volleyball gave me a place where I could clear my mind, challenge myself, and build lifelong friendships. It taught me discipline, teamwork, accountability, and the importance of encouraging others, even when things were difficult- i even wanted to play collegiate level but… Everything changed after I suffered an L5 back injury in a car accident in 25. The injury left me with chronic pain and forced me to step away from the sport I loved most. And in 22 my family moved to help start a chicken farm, which meant leaving behind many of the friends and routines that had been such an important part of my life. Losing volleyball, my daily escape, and my community affected me mentally and physically. There were moments when I felt lost while trying to balance school, work, medical treatments, financial responsibilities, and recovery. Even through those struggles, I refused to give up. Every day is still a fight, but I continue to push forward because I know my story is bigger than my setbacks. Being a patient opened my eyes to how much compassion from healthcare professionals can matter. A kind word, a patient explanation, or simply making someone feel seen can make an overwhelming situation feel a little less frightening. Those experiences inspired me to pursue a degree in Radiography. My goal is to become the kind of radiologic technologist who combines technical skill with genuine compassion. I want every patient to feel respected, understood, and cared for because I know what it's like to be on the other side. Although my injury took away the sport I loved, it gave me a new purpose. My family remains my greatest motivation, and I hope to build a career that allows me to support them while serving others. The lessons I learned from my parents, my years as a student-athlete, and the adversity I've overcome have prepared me to make a meaningful difference in healthcare and in the lives of the people I meet.

I have a family member with special needs, so I didn't come to this question as a stranger. I've seen firsthand how much patience, creativity, and trial and error it takes to actually reach a child who can't just tell you what they need. There's no single script that works for every kid, and I learned that early — you have to pay attention to the small things, the specific ways a child does communicate, before you can build anything on top of that. If I were working with a child like Rebecca, I wouldn't start by assuming I already knew the right approach. Her family and her care team spent years learning her specific cues, her likes and dislikes, and what actually got through to her — and that's the model I'd follow. I'd want to know how she indicated yes or no, what calmed her down versus what excited her, and I'd build my own methods around that instead of expecting her to adapt to a generic program. For a nonverbal child, that might mean using picture cards, AAC devices, gesture-based communication, or just consistent routines and physical cues that give her a way to respond even without words. The goal isn't to force typical communication — it's to find whatever channel is actually open and work through that one. Family plays a bigger role in this than people outside the field sometimes realize. Parents and siblings are the ones who know a child's full history, their baseline moods, and the difference between a bad day and a real setback. In my own family's experience, the professionals who actually made progress with my family member were the ones who treated us as part of the team, not just people to update after the fact. I'd want to build that same relationship — asking what's worked at home, what hasn't, and folding that into whatever plan I put together at school, instead of treating home and school as two separate, disconnected efforts. I'm currently studying with an interest in physical therapy, partly shaped by dealing with my own chronic back pain, and I'm open to working with kids across a full range of needs — including kids with significant disabilities in a school setting, pre-K through 12th grade. I don't think that work requires someone who's only ever pictured one specific path; it requires someone willing to learn each child individually, the way I've had to learn to understand my own family member. Right now I'm working while going to school, trying to balance both because of my finances and living situation. It's not always simple to manage school, work, and everything else at the same time, and a scholarship like this would take some of that pressure off and let me put more of my time into actually preparing for the kind of work Rebecca's story describes.

2 Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight." Ever since I heard this verse back in 2018, it has helped me understand that we won't see the plan God has for us. Rather, we need to put our absolute trust in him. Day by day we need to live for him, and follow in his footsteps. Yes, I struggle to lead my life from sin, but I know these are situations he throws at me to become stronger. I put my faith in him, and yes, he delivers. I've done a lot of wrongs, but he's helped me do a lot of good. Even through times of depression, Faith alone has struck the sadness away. It does wonder I should say, how faith can turn a boy who weeps alone in his room at night, wanting to end it all, into a man who is content with life around him, who treasures loneliness. All these experiences, yet the only thing that has dug me out of the ground was my faith in the Lord and savior. I am a man with words but driven by observation. I see in the young of this generation all the grief and sadness in their eyes, and they need someone who's gone through things to relate with them. As I have a sister who is entering her early teens, facing the same problems as younger me. I want to help her out of this mentally draining stage and show her the kindness I was never shown. As for the other people, yet I still have my family by heart. I want to guide or help out as much as I can, whether becoming a youth leader of my church or volunteering for the church. Just to show them that being "gangster" and "hard" to look cool will only deteriorate your mental health and your belief. Later down the road, people regret being gangsters, and I would dedicate my life to helping others if possible. We already live in a world full of sin; we don't need broken children to be the next, nor do we need crying mothers grieving the loss of their precious children. I will follow his plan to the end, and put my faith in him. That won't stop me from helping whenever I can. Because in this world, I think we all need a little bit of guidance, from God, our Shepard himself, and us. I believe everyone should have an opportunity for life and happiness, because it is heartbreaking to see the ones we love pass. Everyone deserves a bit of kindness and if we spread it little by little, we can make a huge difference in somebody's life. Show them the love of Jesus Christ, who showed his love when he died on the cross for us.