Reading about Kalia D. Davis immediately resonates with the core values I try to live by especially her impeccable work ethic and her drive to serve while maintaining excellence in every part of her life. As the oldest brother leading five siblings at home and a captain for seven different clubs at Coon Rapids High School, I’ve learned that life isn't about doing the bare minimum; it’s about building systems and holding yourself to the highest standard so that the people around you can also succeed. Kalia's commitment to being a straight-A student, an athlete, and an executive board member mirrors the balancing act that has defined my high school career. Whether I was on the Track & Field team during my freshman year or now managing the complex logistics of the school store and leading debates in Mock Trial, my ambition is driven by organization and consistency. I believe, like Kalia, that excellence is simply the habit of showing up fully prepared, whether it’s for a club meeting, an exam, or a family dinner. I am pursuing a career in Health Policy and Public Health Administration because I want to take this highly organized approach and apply it to systematic community wellness, helping thousands instead of just one. This drive to serve and excel also deeply connects to Kalia's kind spirit and focus on community. In her role on the Black Student Union executive board, she worked to create a supportive environment. Similarly, as a club leader, I focus heavily on creating inclusive spaces whether it's making new members feel welcome in the Asian Culture Club or making sure our Student Council projects genuinely uplift the student body. Community service, for me, is about solving problems practically. That’s why I plan to launch the Coon Rapids Youth Wellness Navigator next year. This initiative, which creates a simple directory and map of local mental health and food resources, is a direct application of my policy goals: closing the gap between available resources and the kids who need them most. My sports background (Track & Field and Hmong Dancing) and my extensive volunteer leadership experience meet the core requirements of this scholarship, but it's true help is deeply personal. As being the oldest brother who is going to be the third child in my family to attend college and the first son of five siblings, I am primarily responsible for funding my own higher education. Winning the Kalia D. Davis Memorial Scholarship would provide the critical financial foundation that allows me to dedicate my time fully to my studies in public health and, more importantly, to the execution of my community service plan. Receiving this scholarship means more than just tuition aid; it’s the ability to dedicate myself to the type of excellence and leadership Kalia embodied. It allows me to pursue my ambition of creating structural change without the immediate, overwhelming financial strain, ensuring that I can continue to work hard, encourage others, and build a lasting legacy of service and positive impact in my own.

If you look at my high school schedule, you’ll see seven captain roles, from DECA to Mock Trial to running the school store. But if you look at my home life, you'll see my most important role: the oldest brother of five siblings. Both roles are intense, and they’ve taught me one crucial lesson: systems matter. Whether it’s managing inventory in the store, delegating tasks for Student Council, or making sure three younger kids get homework done and dinner eaten, I’ve become obsessed with how good organization can prevent chaos and help everyone succeed. My aspiration isn’t just to help people one-on-one; it’s to build the better system that reaches thousands. That’s why I want to pursue a career in Health Policy and Public Health Administration. My passion for health and wellness comes directly from seeing how a lack of resources, time, or information can hurt families and communities. I’ve watched the challenges my own peers and family face challenges that aren't about lacking motivation, but about lacking equitable access to the right support. The skills I’ve honed in high school that is teamwork, communication, and resource management aren't just for winning debate trophies. They are the foundation for a career focused on policy, where I can design the programs and policies that make preventative care, mental health resources, and essential community services accessible to everyone, regardless of where they live or how much money their family makes. My goal is to use my organizational skills to create lasting, structural change, ensuring that wellness isn’t a privilege but a universal reality. I recognize that creating policy starts with understanding the ground level. That’s why, during the next year as I transition to higher education, I plan to launch the Coon Rapids Youth Wellness Navigator project. This project is a direct application of my future profession, even before I step into a policy class. The goal is to solve a simple problem: vital health and mental wellness resources exist in our city, but no one knows where they are or how to access them. I will leverage my current network and leadership skills to make these resources easy to find. First, I will collaborate with my former peers in the Student Council and the Cardinal Earth Club to recruit a small volunteer team. We will then spend the first semester collecting and verifying a database of free or low-cost local resources things like food bank hours, accessible transportation options, after-school tutoring, and youth mental health hotlines. Second, we will transform this verified information into two simple formats: a digital map accessible via a QR code posted around the school, and a small, discreet print brochure distributed through community centers and high school counselors. My commitment is not just to build the directory, but to ensure it’s used. I will organize at least two workshops during the year, offering simple training sessions for middle and high school students on "Finding the Help You Need." This initiative directly serves my community by closing the gap between people who need support and the resources that are available, all while giving me invaluable, hands-on experience in public service and effective system design.

My life really centers on two demanding but awesome jobs: being the oldest brother of five siblings and somehow holding captain positions in seven different clubs at Coon Rapids High School. This intense schedule isn't just about collecting titles, it’s about constantly figuring out how to manage complex, and messy situations. Whether it’s making sure everyone gets a turn to talk at Student Council or mediating a fight over the TV remote at home. These responsibilities taught me core values like patience, responsibility, and, most importantly, the foresight to plan ahead. This systematic way of thinking, of seeing the whole picture and anticipating problems, is exactly what sparked my deep interest in human health and wellness. I realized that leading a team or a family is essentially the same as running a successful support system. At home, I’m basically the Chief Operating Officer of a six-person household. I’ve learned that simply reacting to chaos doesn't work. If I wait for things to go wrong, they always do. Instead, I focus on preventative health through organization. This means more than just setting schedules; it means ensuring my youngest brother gets his allergy medicine before soccer practice, or creating a quiet, designated study space so my sisters can actually focus on homework. This proactive approach, addressing the root cause before a crisis hits is the same principle that powers successful public health initiatives. My goal is to apply this foresight on a larger scale. The other half of my experience comes from my seven captaincies. Every club is a different kind of community with different needs, and I've learned that wellness takes many forms. For the Cardinal Earth Club, wellness means ensuring our local environment is healthy and sustainable. For DECA, it’s about teaching financial literacy, because I know economic stress is a huge barrier to physical and mental health. Leading Mock Trial and Speech & Debate, I learned that giving people a powerful voice and the confidence to use it is a critical form of emotional and communal well-being. Even managing the school store and being a team member employee at Noodles & Company taught me the mechanics of institutional organization. My job is always to build inclusive, supportive structures where every single member feels heard and has the resources they need to thrive. Throughout everything I’ve done from managing the daily inventory at the school store to navigating complex club constitutions that has taught me that health isn’t just luck. It is profoundly determined by a person’s environment and their access to necessary resources. My passion has shifted from wanting to be a bystander to wanting to be a systems-builder. I want to move beyond simply treating sickness when it happens. Instead, I plan to use my strong organizational and leadership skills to study policy and build better healthcare and wellness systems. My ultimate goal is to craft strategies that help entire communities stay healthy and happy, ensuring everyone, especially those currently overlooked has a genuine and lasting opportunity to succeed.

The Discipline of Service: Building Community Through Leadership Throughout my life being the middle child of five siblings but the oldest brother in the family, I’m basically a built-in leader, mediator, and organizer at home every single day. This job, combined with being the captain of seven clubs in high school, has taught me the kind of dedication and teamwork needed to help others. My goal is simple: I want to build stronger communities by creating successful opportunities for everyone. The lessons I've picked up in organizations like DECA and Student Council are all about applied service, not just earning titles. Managing the school store, for example, is more than just running a business; it's about making sure we have a steady source of funding that gives back directly to our school. My work leading Mock Trial, Speech & Debate, and the Asian Culture Club is similar, it's about figuring out what our school community needs, whether that’s a space to share culture or giving students the tools to speak up for themselves. This is how I want to help people who need extra support later in life. I plan to study public policy or organizational development so I can use my skills in planning and strategy to set up good programs and make sure everyone gets a fair shot to thrive, just like I try to do for my younger siblings. The biggest challenge that changed my perspective wasn't a failure, but having to completely start over: transferring from Hmong College Prep Academy to Coon Rapids High School after freshman year. At HCPA, my cultural identity and activities like Hmong Dancing were naturally accepted. When I moved, I immediately lost that established community. This experience reframed my goals. I realized my resilience wasn’t about holding onto what I had, but about how quickly I could rebuild something new. That forced change is what drove me to become the captain of seven clubs. I wasn't just trying to fill my schedule; I was actively creating the strong sense of community and belonging that I missed. My goal shifted from what I could achieve to how much institutional impact I could make. I learned that being a true leader means jumping in, adapting to any environment, and immediately becoming the person who creates opportunities for everyone else. If I could be the world’s next superhero, I would be called The Catalyst. My theme song would be "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield. This song is a perfect fit because it talks about how exciting the future is ("The rest is still unwritten") and how we get to shape it ourselves. As the oldest sibling and a captain, I don't wait for a script; I lead by example. I encourage everyone, including myself, to embrace the blank page of our journey and understand that every action we take, especially when helping the community writes the next chapter for all of us.

There was a moment during my freshman year that taught me the real meaning of empathy and inclusion. At the time, I had just started at Hmong College Prep Academy, and I was figuring out how to balance being a student, an older brother to six younger siblings, and an active participant in extracurriculars like Hmong dancing and track & field. One day during practice, I noticed a teammate who was new to the school and who didn’t speak much English. While others were busy socializing and warming up, he stood off to the side, looking unsure of what to do. I could see the look of isolation on his face because I knew what that felt like myself being in a new environment, unsure of how to connect. Instead of leaving him there, I walked over, introduced myself, and showed him how to warm up with me. I made small talk, asked about where he was from, and invited him to join my group during drills. It was a small gesture, but I could tell it made a difference his shoulders relaxed, and he started smiling. Over time, he became more comfortable with the team and even opened up to others. I learned that empathy doesn’t always mean solving someone’s problems; sometimes, it’s simply recognizing when someone feels excluded and taking the first step to bring them in. That day, I learned that leadership isn’t only about being a captain or holding a title it’s about making sure no one feels left out. This lesson has stayed with me throughout high school, especially as I transferred to Coon Rapids High School and became deeply involved in seven different clubs, including DECA, Asian Culture Club, Speech & Debate, Student Council, Mock Trial, Cardinal Earth Club, and managing the school store. In each of these spaces, I’ve made it my mission to look out for people who might feel overlooked, whether that’s a shy new student in Speech & Debate or someone hesitant to speak up in Asian Culture Club. As the oldest sibling in my family, I feel a natural responsibility to take care of others, and my role in school leadership has given me the opportunity to extend that same empathy beyond my home. Sports played an important role in shaping this perspective. During track & field, I quickly learned that while individual performance matters, the support of teammates can make all the difference. When someone struggled during a meet, the team didn’t leave them behind we encouraged them, celebrated their effort, and made sure they knew they belonged. That culture of inclusion made me want to bring the same energy into everything I do. Sports taught me discipline, but more importantly, they taught me how to uplift others, even in moments when I wasn’t the one competing. Inclusion, to me, isn’t about checking a box or meeting a standard. It’s about recognizing the humanity in people who are different from you whether that difference is cultural, linguistic, or personal and making sure they feel seen and valued. From my experiences in sports to my leadership roles in school, I’ve come to realize that true leadership is rooted in empathy. It’s the quiet decisions, the small conversations, and the willingness to reach out that create a community where everyone feels like they belong.