Going into my undergraduate education as undecided will turn out to be beneficial in my college journey. I sustain a dedicated passion for visual art, specifically ceramics. Currently, I am apart of the AP 3D art program which works with various mediums such as clay, metals, and other 3D materials. My portfolio vividly depicts my mental health journey and overall effect it and art have on my life. I also have a growing affinity for environmental activism and wanted to incorporate it into my portfolio. Recently, I collected clay from my local state park, Harford Glenn, and processed it into a workable medium for sculpting. I want to create functional household utilities out of the natural clay. These works are a part of a functional pottery collection I look to create and raise awareness for a lesser need of manufactured home utilities. This will hopefully have a substantial effect on the worldwide move for sustainable lifestyles in every way possible. I believe that my portfolio works as a bridge between my mental health journey and something that I love, art. Lately I have been looking more into a career in being an art therapist. This profession allows me to help others with both studio arts and psychological exercises. I would be able to show others how using tactile mediums can help with emotional management and self control. By also working with wild clay, I hope to do research on sustainable ceramics of the fact that it is possible to harvest and refine raw earth materials into a workable substance. Being so I would also like to minor in environmental sciences. By allowing myself to stay undecided I will have the flexibility to explore different courses about the environment, society, and the arts. I want to pursue these opportunities because I want to use my skills to help the world. Right now I feel that there is such a divide within our world right now between humanity, itself, and nature. There is no better way in my opinion to express these divides and their potential solutions than through artwork. With my artistic skills I want to be the change through the endless visuals I can sculpt and through those sculpting means, show the potential of new sustainable materials. Art is ever the more beautiful when it is created using mediums that Mother Earth herself gifted to the human race. It is truly a privilege to be able to serve my entire world, not just humanity, through visual art.

Basketball is my love, everything about basketball is like music to my ears. Waking up for practice every day or going to practice after a long day at school is so worth it. I have poured my heart and soul out into my schools varsity basketball team. I have been playing basketball since elementary school, and these past four years for my high school team. My coach Mr. Skelton truly developed me both as a person and a player. My freshman year I was constantly bullied, made fun of, mocked, etc. Sophomore year went downhill after that, I lost all my friends and it felt like the hole world was against me. Junior year I felt that I had to be a different person to fit in but even that was not enough. This year, my senior year, I have learned to love myself how I am and not let others influence who I am. Mr. Skelton has stayed by my side and supported me though out all of this. After every bad day I would get to practice early, pour my heart onto the court, focus only on basketball in that moment, and stay after practice as late as I could until I felt better. I felt Mr. Skelton was always there for me, through it all, he truly helped my schooling and was always there for me as a person to talk to or a shoulder to cry on. I love basketball with all of my heart, I even got a job running games at my local rec center, but what really made me stick with the sport and put so much energy into it was my amazing coach and the things he taught me. As for how I will use the scholarship money, I will be using it to pay for college. I think its unfair that teens are based for FASFA off of their parental income when most of the time they are not the ones paying for college. In my case I will be paying over 75% of my college tuition which is a lot of money for a teenager. I have been trying to apply for many, many scholarships but can never seem to win one. If I won this scholarship it would go to my education. Currently I am looking at Virginia Tech and NC State, both with tuitions of almost $60,000. So any bit helps. I hope you will truly consider my application for this scholarship and I hope you have a blessed day.