I am a great candidate to receive a scholarship because I have worked diligently to become the best I can be in school, extracurriculars, and volunteering throughout my community. I have a 4.0 GPA and have earned numerous college credits with high scores on AP exams, earning me the AP Scholar with Distinction award from the college board. I have earned the Microsoft Office certification and Python programming certification. I am in the top 1% of my graduating class of 800 students. I am the Captain and letterman of my varsity high school swim and water polo teams. I made the All-State team in swimming and set my school record for the 200 freestyle relay. I also do club swimming year-round and have a challenging schedule, swimming 20-plus hours per week. I have job experience holding leadership roles at Dunkin’ Donuts over the summer. I volunteer throughout my community at organizations like the San Antonio Food Bank, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Flags For Fallen Vets, Special Olympics, and more. I am a member of the National Honor Society and have earned the Student Volunteer Service Award. I have always been motivated to give back to my community because my parents taught me that not everybody is as fortunate as I am or has the same opportunities I do. In high school, I joined the prestigious National Honor Society, because it’s a positive way I can impact my community and learn about new volunteering experiences. My favorite volunteering experience is to build beds for less fortunate children in San Antonio through Sleep in Heavenly Peace. I have helped build, deliver, and assemble these beds multiple times, but there was one particular time that my volunteering there stood out to me. It was around Christmas time and some of the kids on the waitlist for beds had been sleeping on the freezing cold stone floor because their parents couldn't afford beds. I brought the bed pieces that I had built over to their house and assembled it for them. Then I put the mattress, blankets, and a few stuffed animals and goodies I got them for Christmas on the bed. When the young kids saw the final result they bounced up and down in excitement! Their faces showed so much happiness as they received the beds just in time for Christmas! This made me realize just how significant of an impact I have on my community by volunteering at Sleep in Heavenly Peace. I continue to volunteer at Sleep in Heavenly Peace among other places like Flags for Fallen Vets, the San Antonio Food Bank, and retirement homes. Because of the impact it has on others, volunteering to help those in my community is the activity I am most proud of in high school. When I go to college, I plan to continue volunteering in hopes that I will continue to have a positive impact on my local community.

Mathematics is one of the most important subjects that you can learn in the education system. We apply math in the world all of the time, both consciously and subconsciously. Math is a crucial category of STEM learning and can often be used in other sectors as a "universal language". Although many interesting and well-paying jobs involve non-math sectors of STEM education, math is essential to society and holds many opportunities for people who pursue a degree in it. Math is essential to society in a great many ways. One way that we use math every day without realizing it is by using the code that runs our phones. Without math, we would not have many of the great technological advancements such as phones, laptops, televisions, or smartwatches. Along with math leading to technological advancements, it also runs the world economy with the regulation of different currencies. In the U.S. we would not be able to have a U.S. dollar to trade with if Hindu numerals had not been made thousands of years ago, after the collapse of the Roman empire. This realization of the importance of math to society has led me to pursue a mathematics degree to have a chance at changing the world and contributing to further technological advancements. Many people find math difficult to understand. This has led to rising opportunities such as increased job openings and salaries to attract more workers to this important field. People who have STEM careers will oftentimes use math to accomplish their objectives, such as how an engineer must use math to calculate what the angle of a roof must be to avoid water damage. STEM fields on average hold some of the highest paying salaries in the United States and are often the most fun and interesting job positions to hold. Some people choose to pursue a degree in a STEM field such as biology because they say it pays well and is very fascinating, however, I would rather pursue a degree in mathematics because math is used in most STEM positions and is very interesting when you learn how to use it. I would like to be able to pursue a mathematics degree in college to get the opportunity to change the world with revolutionary ideas in this dazzling and ever-expanding field.

I would like to see people around the world get along and work together towards common objectives. I believe that we as humanity have already taken a large leap landing closer to this eventual goal through the creation of supernatural organizations such as the United Nations. The goal of the United Nations is to guide the governments of the world towards these common objectives such as eradicating poverty and hunger. Although we have taken a large step in the right direction we can still unite better. For example although the United Nations brings the governments of the world together, many wars are still being waged between governments. If everyone got along with their neighbors and didn’t judge others, then I believe that the world and all the individual communities of the world would be a better and more peaceful place. I volunteer locally in my community by attending trash clean ups, helping with Special Olympics, and more in hopes that others will join efforts to improve this world. Therefore if I could see one change happen in the world, then I would have everybody get along with each other so that we could work together towards a better future.