A life experience I am currently going through is a divorce after 20 years. This has not been an easy divorce. It has been upsetting emotionally, physically and spiritually. I received a cosmetology license 25 years ago and worked full-time when we started our family. After moving from Iowa to Denver, I stayed home to raise our four children. My youngest, Emma, is a student at Metro State University. Over the years, I have developed health conditions that have been triggered by stress during my marriage and now from the divorce so I cannot return to cosmetology. I have decided to attend Arapahoe Community College and obtain a degree in Health Information Technology. This is new to me as the entire degree program is online using my computer. I know my children and church family will be very supportive of me while I earn my degree. This scholarship will help me as I start a career in the healthcare field. Although I will not have one-on-one patient contact, I will be responsible to maintain patients’ medical information including medical care, medications, and allergies. I will give back to the community by ensuring they have accurate medical records for their continued medical care. Through my online courses, I will develop stronger computer skills. My additional computer knowledge will help me give back to my local church. Once I learn the church’s online web applications, I can navigate the church’s website, listen to the weekly message if I can’t attend in person, and use Zoom meetings for Bible studies. Giving back, I will then volunteer to introduce new church members to these applications to use for their enjoyment and benefit. I am not a stamp collector, but in completing this scholarship application my interest has piqued in this hobby. My sister’s husband does collect stamps. His job is handling estate sales and after seeing so many boxes of stamps in basements, he became interested in stamps. The two of us plan on visiting the RMPL to learn more about stamp collecting. Searching online, I found the Cypher Stamp Club for young collectors. Placing stamp club informational flyers in local schools may help spread the word about this club. Students today know about math, history and science so they could be encouraged to start collections based these topics. I believe a first step in getting children into stamp collecting is to get parental involvement. Parents usually drive the younger aged children to the meetings. I have an idea below to help out parents regarding the cost of stamp collecting. To expand membership in the current young collectors club, consider offering gift cards, maybe $20, donated by RMPL for the purchase of stamps only at the library. The gift card would serve as an incentive to members and visitors. A current club member who brings a new visitor to a meeting would receive a gift card. Anyone joining the club would receive the gift card. Anyone visiting for the first time, but not joining, would also get a gift card because being able to purchase stamps may help bring them back to another meeting to join. The gift card would also take the pressure off of parents to come up with money needed for their child to start stamp collecting. This process could boost club membership and would hopefully spur a lifelong hobby for children. Eventually these young collectors would become members of the RMPL! Thank you for your consideration in awarding this scholarship to me for my continued education and my new exciting career!