As an psychology student I would advocate for wellness for healthier workplaces in honor of Dr Steve. I think that every little thing that you do to improve your life and health is huge! I people using mental and physical health together to make each individual so much healthier and happier. When you can help somebody process their thoughts and feel better about their mental state then you can start with their physical state. You can work with a group of healthcare providers come together in different ways to service this person in any way that you see may be beneficial. Exercise and diet are huge in this area. When you can find an exercise that you are passionate about you can stay with it for much longer than if you feel like you have to do it. I recently found Pilates and realized how much fun I am having doing it. I believe that the healthcare system needs to incorporate gyms and fitness programs into the wellness for well-being. I also believe that somebody's diet would make a huge difference as well. I feel like when your diet is healthier you feel better and when you feel better you want to do more things. You're more active you do things with your family and friends and it helps you even in your career. Being informed about how food can heal your body from the inside is super helpful. You can work with a dietitian as well to find healthy alternatives to be able to fuel your energy and to fuel your mind. It just takes changing one thing at a time . Changing your dessert to be a little less sugar . Changing to put more protein and fruits and vegetables into your diet . Also eating healthy meats like chicken and fish opposed to too much of red meat . Little things like this are very helpful in your diet I see myself using the education for psychology to pass down my education to help others love themselves again and to educate them and how to do that. I hope that I can have a small part in trying to change somebody's life for the better. I hope that I can pass that down also to my kids and my grandkids so they will be healthier and passionate about being healthy. When we were young we didn't have a healthy role model and that's so important. I hope to be that.

Good afternoon, I am so grateful to be completing another year of college. I went through a very tough divorce last year and my income has dropped significantly by 75%. My ex was trying to take everything away from me because I didn't want to put up with the abuse any longer. He took away my home, my phone and everything that belonged to us. I had been a stay-at-home mom for the past 8 years before I left and worked very part time. My body was physically in so much pain. I found out later that when your body is in fight or flight mode all of the time you start to shut down and hurt. I am free from the abuse now and overcoming my dream by going to school to become a psychologist. I was always told that I wasn't smart enough, so this is huge for me. This is my second year, and it is extremally tight with money, but God is so good and helping me every step of the way. I will have many more years to go before I can graduate with my Bachler's and hopefully master's as well. Being 48 years old is scary sometimes starting over but I know that I can do it and I will put in the hard work. This scholarship will help me to continue to give back to our community. I volunteer every weekend in hospitality at my church. I also went with my church to the Shiloh house where kids stay to help them with their yard work, so the kids have a nice yard to play in. I also helped our outreach a few weeks ago with kids with cancer. We played with the kids and watched a movie so we could give the parents a much-needed break. I plan to do many more things before the year is up. Now that I have a stamp collection and am a stamp member of the library, I have looked at stamps in a totally different way. I love getting mail to see what stamps are on the envelope, but especially the Scribbling's newsletter. There are so many beautiful stamps on the package. I carefully cut them out and put them in my stamp book. I have always loved Christmas, and I love the Christmas stamps, but I have really started liking the stamps and memorabilia with JFK on them. He will forever be an icon, and I have really enjoyed going to the stamp library and finding so many. It really has been so fun!

I just got a divorce after 20 years of marriage. He was very abusive and I finally have my freedom back. I'm going to school to be a psychologist. I want to be able to help others get out of that hard situation that I got out of. I now volunteer at my church every week in the hospitality and I run a small group at my apartments. I also volunteered at the Shiloh house doing yard work for kids that live there that have extreme circumstances. I left all of my house and a lot of my possessions and my financial stability for my freedom. I am now going on my third year at my community college and I'm loving it. I haven't been in school for over 25 years before that so it's definitely a new road to travel. When I get my psychology degree I will be able to help others in the community realize how much trauma your body holds on too and how to be free of that. So excited to work with others and hopefully work with kids as well. I have raised my kids and have loved every minute of that but now it's time for me to do something I am passionate about. I want to be able to be a mentor and someone that people can look up to for my grandkids I have two little granddaughters right now and I want them to be able to overcome any hard obstacles that they run into. And I want to be able to show them that. Attend church every week and volunteer with some of the most amazing people you will ever meet! I am so grateful God is turning everything around. My parents never went to college and I think that they regret that sometimes. I think college would have made life more fulfilling for my mom and dad. If I get this scholarship it would help me tremendously with my schooling. I hope someday that I can look back on this time and see how much strength it gave me to persevere. School is very hard but extremely rewarding afterwards. I have maintained and kept my grades up And learned an entire new system of school from when I was young. My GPA is now 3.85 and I'm very proud of that. It takes a lot of hard work and determination to get there but I'm doing it!

I am 47 years old and God has blessed me to be back in school after being out for over 25 years. I have had a very rough past few years. I raised all four of my kids and then went through a tough divorce after 20 years of marriage. I am very sad about the divorce but for my mental health it had to be done. That is when I decided to go back to school. I'm super excited to be back in school and learning so much. My major is psychology and it's so fun learning how the body and brain work together. I am only in my second year so I have many years left but I feel like my experiences can help someone else. I was in high school when I had my first child. It was a really tough time getting through high school but it was so worth it. He is 30 years old now and doing amazing. He is a realtor and I have three other kids as well. When the kids were young I worked as a cosmetologist and then my husband at the time got a job in Colorado so we all moved here. Once we moved here, I decided to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. It's been the best job that I've ever had other than being a grandma. I love kids and I love people. That was such a gift to be able to do things with them and be with them. Now I get to hang out with my grandkids and enjoy them in my spare time. It's so fun! I also like to volunteer at my church in hospitality helping set up and cleaning up afterwards. I run a Bible study as well every other week and there is 12 of us in the group. Jesus is my favorite person of all time. I also love hanging out with and walking my dogs. My youngest daughter still lives with me and we are both in college. I tease her about being in college at the same time as her mom. She has helped me so much to figure out how to get back in school after being out so long. I would be so grateful if you picked me for the scholarship and it would really go a long way for me. Thank you so much for your time.

I want to thank the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library for choosing me as a finalist last year. I appreciate I have another opportunity to apply. This past year has continued with changes in my life since my divorce. I now live in an apartment with my daughter. We have had to go to food banks on occasion, but I am thankful for the food that was provided to us. My online college classes started out very rocky since I had not developed proficient computer skills while being a stay-at-home mom, but I received additional computer training from the college and now I am doing much better in my classes. I find myself drawing on my life experiences to help deal with obstacles I still face. Going back to school and being financially on my own are two of my biggest fears, but I face them knowing with my continued education, I do have a brighter future ahead. This past year I started a weekly Bible study in the apartment complex where I live. At first, only my immediate family attended to give me their attendance support. However, through the months some of my friends and people from the apartment complex have also started attending. Our group continues to be very active and friendships are being made. I am reaching out and inviting the people from the Bible study to visit my church. By introducing them to a spiritual way of life, which is so important in helping to deal with today’s society, it is a way for me to give back to the community. We do things together as a group like pack boxes for Samaritan’s purse to ship to under privileged countries for Christmas gifts to kids. Applying for your library scholarship last year made me interested in starting my own stamp collection. My collection is topical stamps. The topics I have started to collect are what interest me such as nature, dogs and the holidays, especially Christmas! To add to my collections, I mainly watch for stamps that arrive on mail that is sent to me. I asked my family to save their stamps for me too. During Christmas, I was able to cut Christmas stamps off of the envelopes to save. I went to the United States Postal Service website to learn more about the 2025 Christmas stamps which included “images that evoke scenes of the season.” I also read about the 2024 Christmas stamps. I loved their color and the joyful feeling of them. The site described the design of the four stamps in detail and stated they were “inspired by folk art that create a modern graphic look”. Then I did more research and found there is an online Christmas Philatelic Club. Their website, along with your website, has helped introduce me to this hobby. I see collection terms I know nothing about such as: used or mint, blocks, booklets, sheets and covers, which have nothing to do with bedding! My next step will be coming to the library to help me learn more about stamp collecting and to find stamps to add to my collections. I joined your library this year and as a member and since you have volunteers, I hope to offer some time over my college breaks. Hopefully, I will be able to meet many of you who serve on the scholarship committee. My daughter keeps asking me when she can come as well so I can’t wait to bring her also next time! Thank you for your consideration in awarding this scholarship to me for my continued education.

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!