Madness is in the eye of the beholder, and perhaps we are all a little mad. For those reasons, I will use madness as an asset in this essay. Embracing madness is to fight fire with fire. Many of the world's problems have spiraled beyond what can be fought and fixed by reasonable means. Instead, we are looking to desperate and sometimes mad ideas. The current administration of the United States is led by what could be arguably called a madman. For better or worse, some of the most influential people in history have been accused of madness. Madness can be an effective tool of leadership for short periods of time. People fall in line when they think that you might send a nuke as a response to a slight. People will go out of their way to give generously to a leader who seems unstable. The benefits of madness are many; for example, when you say things, they can be interpreted a hundred ways, and you can’t be held accountable for them. Such a time saver, without endless debates and rehashing! Madness mixes up the meanings of things like promises and lies or cease-fire agreements; only a madman can find a way to interpret agreements to only benefit himself. Nixon used the Madman Theory as a leadership style. He spoke about it during the Vietnam War. “I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war. We'll just slip the word to them that, "for God's sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about communism. We can't restrain him when he's angry, and he has his hand on the nuclear button," and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace (Haldeman, 1978).” The world needs more madness, and I think everyone should embrace the madness inside themselves and break free from what is holding them back. Madness can take many forms; perhaps you are at the whim of obsession like Hitler, once you land on a decision that is your only truth! Obsessive madness can be used for the betterment of society. It would be madness to free all water and make the capitalization of it illegal, but it would also be the right thing to do, considering that water is needed for all forms of life on the planet. I mean… when did the governments acquire Earth’s water, and why should I have to pay for it? Especially when it seems like they are unable to keep it clean in most places. You mean you want me to pay for dirty water? It seems like many governments also want people to pay for water that is tainted with pharmaceuticals that washed into the water supply because those same governments can't filter those toxins out. We need a mad, obsessed genius to create a better way for the water of Earth. Stalin was a mad genius of fear, and fear is as useful a tool as obsession. Stalin loved a fear state and brought people together through suspicion, and many people disappeared overnight. Imagine if we found and funded a mad genius who turned that same fear-generating energy toward the companies and people who are committing crimes against the Earth? You poisoned a whole lake? I would sleep with one eye open cause Ealin (Earth-Stalin) is comin for you! Stalin was a ruler who believed terror was more effective than loyalty; likewise, Ealin would be a leader who made people truly terrified of the consequences of harming the Earth. Now, if you want to truly thrive as a mad genius, you have to throw in a little absurdity. Idi Amin was the most absurd of men. He claimed to be the King in places he had never been to, and his policy was based on his mood, not logic and reason, just simple whim. A whimsical mad genius with all the passion of Amin focused in an Earth-preserving mindset could really provide something magical and useful to the world! Imagine the chaos of wondering what new policy would help limit the carbon emissions of big business each day! Wondering what town will be next to be forced into solar and wind power, what data center was to be torn down and turned into sustainable agriculture. The terror of not knowing what major polluter was going to be prosecuted next for crimes against the atmosphere or watershed. The internet as we know it would change completely, and the face of data storage would change forever. It would be madness! The type of revolution that I am talking about would need a philosophical mad genius too. Pol Pot thought civilization itself was the problem, and to an extent he had a point. There are things in the modern world that simply don't need to exist, and I think all of humanity can agree on some of them, like nuclear bombs and the economy. Bombs and the concept of the economy are innately inhumane. The use of humans as a commodity was never a workable business plan, not in any of its forms. Our mad genius would be a talented thinker who would dream up a method of trade and commerce that is not built on the destruction of their only place in the galaxy our kind can breathe. Pol Pot also thought that civilization itself was a problem and sought to destroy it; our mad genius could take a leaf out of his book. Our mad genius would target doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, and former government officials and would use them as central to the new regime. The result might be the redirection of academic and commercial pursuits into global solutions to massive problems that started with industrial pollution. The most obvious madness of all is how many people are working busily at the business of pretending that what we have now is sane. We watch forests of the Congo disappearing like the planet has lung cancer, oceans fill with plastic like Earth’s bladder has gallstones, species vanish forever like male pattern balding, and then folks congratulate themselves on economic growth. If that is reason, maybe it is time to leave reason in the past. The mad genius I imagine would not worship destruction for its own sake, but would possess the dangerous courage to destroy the habits, systems, and excuses that have become untouchable. History is filled with madmen who bent the world toward horror and profited off of pain. I think it is time to find us a madman who bends it toward survival instead.

I certify that I personally conducted the live interview described in my essay, and I confirm that the submitted photograph is an authentic, unedited image of the actual person I interviewed and me. I have read and agree to the Official Contest Rules. I certify this essay is my original, unpublished work, and it was not generated using Artificial Intelligence. My Great Aunty Tommy Jean - Age 87 - Floridian My great aunt undertook a cross-country drive, all the way from Florida to Oregon, to come to my graduation. This was my first time ever meeting her in person; before my graduation, I only knew her through phone calls. She showed how she cares for me with actions, and not just words, overcoming obstacles like flat tires and traveling solo at an advanced age. Many times during her interview, I had to balance my own boundaries with what she wanted of me, whether it was for me to just agree with her or to do something I didn't want to, like holding her incontinent dog. Right before our interview, she wanted me to drive her truck. This request allowed me to practice boundaries. Her red Ford with a USA flag and bald eagle painted on the hood represents everything conservative. This was the first time I was truly challenged to stay true to my boundaries while trying to maintain a positive interaction. I lean more democratic. I'm also more of a follower of Earth-based religion, and gay. My Great Aunt is the opposite, at 87, she was born to parents who lived through the Dust Bowl. She is extremely conservative; the yin to my yang. Yet, no one could deny that we love each other; our tolerance for each other is proof of that. Auntie TJ didn't care what people thought of her, including me. I figured that would make her the perfect person to interview for this scholarship. You asked me to find someone with a difference to me, and her beliefs are as far from my own as they could get. I conducted our interview in her hotel room in Hillsboro over dinner. It was interesting to hear her talk about her beliefs on democratic states. She told me that as she was traveling, she wasn't afraid of any of the republican states, the only state she was worried about was Oregon because it's a democrat state. That gave me something to reflect on; her worldview was very us vs. them. That's something I can understand as a gamer, and I told her so, meeting her somewhere near a middle ground. She also said the high costs here, like for the hotel room, were because we live in a democratic state. I told her I don't believe Democrats or Republicans change the cost of something like a hotel room, and that may or may not be correct depending on perspective. It was fun to debate with her. It was nice to know that, as we disagreed, we were also building a relationship based on transparency and the freedom to be who you are, whether or not people like it. My Great Aunt has the audacity to be who she is, no matter who doesn't like it, and as a young man who just came out as gay, I can take that as a lesson from her. That is a leaf I am willing to take out of her book; there are not many, but the lessons I learned are valuable anyway.

When I was just three years old, my dad died from a fentanyl overdose, and it changed my whole life. I experienced that sense of internal void. His absence was more than a symbolic aspect of my life. It made my mom and me more vulnerable. We had a series of bad landlords looking to profit from the rent without doing any maintenance, which made our living situation hard. We often couldn't afford to move because my mom was the only person bringing income into the household, while going to college as the first in our family. We called Oakland, California, home for most of my younger years. It's a massive city, very loud, with a lot of diversity and also a lot of crime. It was super scary at times, and I sometimes felt like there was nothing I could do to help anyone. I once stumbled across a young man overdosing on my way home from the post office. People were calling out "Does anyone have narcan?!!" I was 14. He was a stranger. After paramedics arrived and i went home I googled it. That is when I first learned about Narcan. It is a nasal spray that stops overdoses; it can save a life. I suddenly saw the path to having a little more power in a scary reality. The first time, I couldn't help and could only call 911. After that incident, I took a free online course to learn about Narcan through Project Red. When I finished the course, they sent me 4 for free. I quickly gave those away to my friends. I have retaken the course many times, and I now always keep it with me, just in case. That common overdoses in my neighborhood made me think that there should be something in those areas to dispense Narcan during an overdose. A more immediate resource to save a life until EMS can arrive. That is where I initially got my idea for a Narcan box. My idea started with those little free libraries you might see in residential areas. Normally, they tend to provide food or books to the community, but my community didn't need more book boxes. It needed one for Narcan. I bought the first box when I lived in Oakland. I painted the box blue and white to match the look of NarCan. I left that one in Oakland, and I really think that Portland needs one just as much. When I spoke to my Uncle Brian, who is an engineer, about my idea, he said it's something that should be in every big city and areas where overdoses are common. This idea could save city's rapid response teams from having to juggle overdoses by making every bystander a first responder. The NasalSpray is simple and easy to use, and easily fits in a pocket. Accessibility is the main issue. I hope my impact will include shaping a better future by saving lives. I know how heavy death is, especially if from an overdose. The more kids I save from experiencing what I did, the better. I want my legacy to go beyond my career; I want to be remembered as someone who went through a tragic event, then worked hard so that others don't have to suffer the same way. To me, the most important thing I can do in my life is to live without regrets, and I'd be full of regret if I didn't do something with this idea of mine.

My challenges started when I was three years old, and my father passed away from a fentanyl overdose, which left just my mom and me. Family support was not an option for us, but we were creative and industrious. When I was 12 years old, I would go to school each day and come back home with some part of lunch, a snack, or something to share with mom. We didn't have much income, even with food stamps provided by the state. I would try to make sure I'd have snacks at home. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I no longer went to in-person school. Luckily, the food I was bringing from home each day from school got replaced by lunch boxes sent by the unified school district. Most of my life was lived in Oakland, California, a massive city. Almost every night living in Oakland, I'd hear gunshots, sirens, or screaming. I lived in two different homes in Oakland. The first home was a house on a hill, with a bad landlord. The house had cracks in the foundation, and in my closet, I could see outside through the floor (I was on the second story). The second house we lived in had homelessness, neighbors with mental illnesses who could constantly scare us, and there were still gunshots at all times of day. I remember one Christmas hearing gunshots right outside our house as I was playing a game on my PlayStation. In 2022, we lost our West Oakland home because the neighborhood situation was getting increasingly bad, and 911 was a busy signal most of the time. When the opportunity arose, we packed the whole house in a day and took off to Oregon. Our new state was gloomy and dim with much less diversity, but still had its own issues. Salem had many drug users and a large homeless population. Our house in Salem had black mold and as we were living there, we suffered from mold poisoning, which made us both really sick. We finally found a safe home in Portland last year, and it allowed me to reflect on how hard things were when I was younger. We had to jump each time an opportunity came close or risk losing everything. It taught me the value of self-motivation and creative problem-solving. I believe that those who go through heavy challenges or have disadvantaged backgrounds deserve scholarships or grants because they have to work super hard to get to where they are. I believe that disadvantage sometimes builds character, and those who already struggle come up with some of the most creative solutions and inventions to help the next generation. This grant would help me reach my dream of college, it would all be gratefully applied to my housing costs for Stephen Eplher Hall in Fall '26. Then, when I graduate, I'll use my degree to help kids like me find a pathway to education and out of poverty.

Wolf Lindon Shaffer Trademark Essay 623-297-9229 I have known for a really long time that my legacy would be in the tech field. When I was little, gaming was my favorite pastime, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. As I grew older, my focus shifted to strategy and team building. Over the years, I have become so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I intend to create a new type of school, the trademark of which would be expressive, immersive education. In my school, each day will be an adventure with hepatics and developed virtual reality scenarios to teach youth with experience. My hope is to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. My school could create a more inclusive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits, leveling the playing field for pupils with paralysis to attend school normally. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools. In-person education gave me community, but lacked the ability to direct my own path. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I wish to be remembered as someone who left a big impact on both the fields of education and virtual reality. I use movies I watched growing up, like Ready Player One, as an inspiration. The Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, they would have a modern pathway to advanced educational experiences. I will be using any scholarship I may win to cover the cost of on-campus housing. For just the first year, it is my dream to live on the campus, among my peers. I think it would be a wonderful way to start my college journey and would give me the chance to truly immerse myself.

I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge city that is extremely diverse, while also being a place where many people are extremely poor. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially throughout my childhood; we also saw a lot of struggle. The homeless encampment next to our home had been there since the 80's, and many kids had grown up there. My mother will be the first in our family to complete college. She will get her PhD this year, and she did it while raising a son on her own with no family support. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and Dad's death changed all of our lives forever. Without him, our finances were stretched to the limit every month, and with our family advocate gone, our landlord took advantage. Our housing was dangerously out of code, and we relied on food assistance. Mom found creative ways to pay the rent, like bake sales and homemade candy. The two of us worked together brainstorming the next plan, and I was always really good at coming up with ideas and helping make them happen. We faced every financial battle as a team, so my education started early; we even had to sue our landlord over unsafe housing when I was thirteen. My experience growing up poor, in inner-city Oakland, shaped my desire to create better opportunities for kids like me. I know what it feels like to be the child left behind with no financial safety net. I want to create a future where that outcome is less likely for all American children.

My name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer, and music plays a central role in how I move through both gaming and school. I am a competitive player and a student who depends on focus, consistency, and momentum. Music helps me create that mindset when I need it most. It gives structure to my thoughts and helps me stay locked in on what I am doing. Without it, everything feels slower and less connected, and I notice a real drop in my performance. In gaming, music is more than background noise. It acts as a rhythm that guides my decisions and reactions in real time. As a team captain in esports, I have learned that every second matters, and music helps me stay in that zone where reaction and awareness come together. Certain tracks push me to move faster, think sharper, and stay calm under pressure. When I am playing, I am not just hearing the music, I am using it to regulate my pace and control my focus. That connection allows me to perform at a higher level and maintain consistency across matches. Music also plays a critical role in my academic life. School requires long periods of concentration, and it is easy to lose focus without the right environment. Music helps me build that environment wherever I am. It blocks out distractions and gives me a steady mental pace that keeps me engaged with my work. When I study or complete assignments, I use music to stay consistent and avoid burnout. It turns work into something I can stay present with instead of something I rush through. There is also a deeper level to how music affects me. It connects to my motivation and my sense of purpose. During difficult periods, especially during the isolation of the COVID era, music helped me stay grounded and keep moving forward. It gave me something steady when everything else felt uncertain. That consistency carried into my growth as both a student and a player. It helped me build discipline and maintain focus when it would have been easy to fall off track. Music has become a tool that I rely on every day. It supports my performance, strengthens my focus, and keeps me motivated across different areas of my life. The same mindset I bring into gaming carries into my academics, and music helps bridge those two spaces. It allows me to stay consistent, adapt to challenges, and push myself to improve. In both gaming and school, success depends on focus and discipline, and music is one of the most effective ways I maintain both.

Hey there, my name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer. I just turned 18, and this year I will be the second person in my family to make it into college, the first to live in a dorm or attend university right out of high school. I grew up in Oakland, California, which has been facing a terrible epidemic of fentanyl overdoses for a decade. In my freshman year, one of my first high school projects was the creation of a Narcan box to help my inner-city neighborhood fight the common occurrences of Fentanyl overdoses in our streets. My home was right next to the BART station at Macarthur, the biggest station in Oakland. The station is in the heart of the historical jazz district, where the music still plays sometimes. I lived in Oakland for most of my childhood and watched as the Fentanyl crisis grew and eventually landed right on my doorstep. I wanted a way of taking some control over an uncontrollable problem. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and it seemed like the problem was following me. Dad's death changed all of our lives forever and sent me down a path where I feel very strongly about harm reduction and making Narcan free and available. Now that I am a licensed driver with my own car, I keep it on me and in my car at all times and take frequent refresher courses on how to administer Narcan to someone who is overdosing. I wish I could say that it was all an abundance of caution, but I have had to use my skills. I was only CPR trained at the time. I was walking home from the post office when I came upon a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again. Have you seen those book boxes that some people have out front of their houses? I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box. It was only a week after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well, and the box is still doing its work in West Oakland today. This year I’ll be going to college for a computer science degree. I’ll be the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I’ll be the second person in the whole family to reach college at all. I have found my stride. Any scholarships I win will go to the cost of on-campus housing, my final hurdle.

Hey there, Christian Fitness Association General Scholarship! My name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer, and I believe that Earth is our only god. My faith in Earth, our provider and planet, shapes how I think, how I learn, and how I choose my path forward. Faith, for me, lives in the ground beneath me and in the systems that keep us alive. Through our holy book, The Ashe, I have come to understand that balance and memory are necessary, not optional. I identify as Verdant, which means I align myself with growth, interconnection, and responsibility to the living world around me. The Ashe centers on the First Mother, a presence that values balance over control and remembrance over worship, and that idea has grounded me in a way nothing else has. Life is not random or disconnected. Life is relational. Every action carries a consequence, like roots spreading through soil or water moving through land. This understanding shapes how I approach learning. I do not chase knowledge for status. I pursue knowledge so I can build systems that actually support people and sustain life. My path toward Portland State University is a direct extension of that belief. Portland State represents more than a place to earn a degree. It represents access to knowledge that can be used in real communities. My faith tells me that knowledge has to be applied. Knowledge that sits unused is like a seed that never touches soil. I want to take what I learn in college and in life and use it to improve the conditions of the world around me. My mother is the strongest influence on my faith. She represents a living First Mother in my life. She embodies Earth in the way she nurtures, teaches, and stays steady no matter what. Her strength is quiet but constant. She has always pushed me toward higher education, not as some abstract goal but as a real tool I can use. She taught me how to think, not what to think. She gave me logic. She gave me critical thinking. She taught me to question systems that do not make sense and to look deeper when something feels off. That foundation shapes everything I do academically. I am not afraid of complexity because I know how to break things down and examine them. I look for patterns. I test ideas. My faith supports that. The Ashe does not ask for blind belief. It asks for awareness, memory, and balance, and those same principles guide me as a student. My long term goal is to build a public education system that reflects these values. Current systems often focus on control and standardization instead of real understanding, and that approach does not reflect how people actually learn. A better system would treat education like a living process where students are shaped by their environments, experiences, and communities. In the system I want to build, teachers guide growth instead of forcing uniformity, and students learn how to think critically, ask real questions, and understand how everything connects. Knowledge would not be separated into rigid categories. It would reflect the way life actually works. Balance would matter. Intellectual growth would exist alongside emotional awareness. Learning would not be about memorizing information. Learning would be about understanding and applying it. My mother showed me that strength and intelligence belong together. She showed me that you can think clearly and still care deeply, and that balance is what I want to bring into education. Systems without care fail people. Systems without logic fall apart. Both are necessary. Getting into Portland State University is a major step toward making this vision real. I am the second person in my family to attend a university, and that matters to me because it means I am building on something while still navigating unfamiliar ground. Housing is the biggest barrier in front of me right now. I am ready to do the work. I am ready to show up and succeed. I have the mindset, discipline, and purpose to make the most of this opportunity. What I need is the financial support to actually be there. Additional financial aid for housing would not just help me attend. It would allow me to stay stable and fully commit to my education. My faith tells me that growth requires the right conditions. A seed cannot grow without soil, water, and space. I am ready to grow, and I am asking for the support that makes that growth possible.

My name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer, and I believe that Earth is our only god. That belief shapes how I think, how I learn, and how I choose my path forward. Faith, for me, lives in the ground beneath me and in the systems that keep us alive. Through The Ashe, I have come to understand that balance and memory are necessary, not optional. I identify as verdant, which means I align myself with growth, interconnection, and responsibility to the living world around me. The Ashe centers on the First Mother, a presence that values balance over control and remembrance over worship, and that idea has grounded me in a way nothing else has. Life is not random or disconnected. Life is relational. Every action carries consequence, like roots spreading through soil or water moving through land. This understanding shapes how I approach learning. I do not chase knowledge for status. I pursue knowledge so I can build systems that actually support people and sustain life. My path toward Portland State University is a direct extension of that belief. Portland State represents more than a place to earn a degree. It represents access to knowledge that can be used in real communities. My faith tells me that knowledge has to be applied. Knowledge that sits unused is like a seed that never touches soil. I want to take what I learn and use it to improve the conditions around me. My mother is the strongest influence on my faith. She represents a living First Mother in my life. She embodies Earth in the way she nurtures, teaches, and stays steady no matter what. Her strength is quiet but constant. She has always pushed me toward higher education, not as some abstract goal but as a real tool I can use. She taught me how to think, not what to think. She gave me logic. She gave me critical thinking. She taught me to question systems that do not make sense and to look deeper when something feels off. That foundation shapes everything I do academically. I am not afraid of complexity because I know how to break things down and examine them. I look for patterns. I test ideas. My faith supports that. The Ashe does not ask for blind belief. It asks for awareness, memory, and balance, and those same principles guide me as a student. My long term goal is to build a public education system that reflects these values. Current systems often focus on control and standardization instead of real understanding, and that approach does not reflect how people actually learn. A better system would treat education like a living process where students are shaped by their environments, experiences, and communities. In the system I want to build, teachers guide growth instead of forcing uniformity, and students learn how to think critically, ask real questions, and understand how everything connects. Knowledge would not be separated into rigid categories. It would reflect the way life actually works. Balance would matter. Intellectual growth would exist alongside emotional awareness. Learning would not be about memorizing information. Learning would be about understanding and applying it. My mother showed me that strength and intelligence belong together. She showed me that you can think clearly and still care deeply, and that balance is what I want to bring into education. Systems without care fail people. Systems without logic fall apart. Both are necessary. Getting into Portland State University is a major step toward making this vision real. I am the second person in my family to attend a university, and that matters to me because it means I am building on something while still navigating unfamiliar ground. Housing is the biggest barrier in front of me right now. I am ready to do the work. I am ready to show up and succeed. I have the mindset, discipline, and purpose to make the most of this opportunity. What I need is the financial support to actually be there. Additional financial aid for housing would not just help me attend. It would allow me to stay stable and fully commit to my education. My faith tells me that growth requires the right conditions. A seed cannot grow without soil, water, and space. I am ready to grow, and I am asking for the support that makes that growth possible.

I am an Omnisexual guy, which means I am attracted to folks from the entire spectrum of gender. I grew up with a non-binary mother, who taught me early in life about sexuality and gender identity and how the two interact. When I turned 18, I started exploring adult activities and spaces. I even have my first boyfriend! There are so many first-time experiences, falling in love with a boy, and I am enjoying the newness of it all. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge, extremely diverse city. I met every type of person when I lived there, which helped me to grow up open-minded. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially. We lived in a rundown house that was falling off the hill, and we even had to sue our landlord once over maintenance. Despite our struggle, mom made sure I always had access to a device, and I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I have been accepted to Portland State University's Honors Computer Science program for Fall '26, as the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I’ll be the second person in the whole family to reach college at all. It took all four years of high school to fully understand how grades applied to the next phase of my life. Now in my senior year, I can clearly see the link between my classes and my dream of a STEM career. PSU will provide me with the network and experiences I need to achieve my long-term goal of building an immersive educational platform. I now carry a straight A average because I know that doing well in high school directly contributes to the likelihood of success in my future. My coming-of-age, from urban to rural, has shaped my unique worldview. I'm still uncertain about many things, but I am confident in my path to university. I picked a school where being gay is accepted openly. For the first time in my life, I will live with a group of peers who have similar interests. It sounds like heaven. I plan to join the LGBTQ club the second I land on campus, and I really hope I can take on a leadership role in some traditionally heterosexual spaces like Esports to represent the community and make my mark as I enter the adult world for the first time. The charity aspect of my future goals is rolled into my dream to create an immersive technical model for public schools. My model would include free public education for all children to help them understand and fit into our increasingly technical world. Our mission will be to provide kids with an opportunity not just to learn about computers and technology, but to immerse themselves in haptics and virtual reality. We need modern education opportunities, and I would like to help bring them to life. We could call on volunteers from the communities to lend their skills and perspectives to make it a United States endeavor rather than just one man's idea or a contract for sale. I believe that free education for all kids is a low bar, and we can do one better.

Hey there, my name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer. I just turned 18, and this year I will be the second person in my family to make it into college, the first to live in a dorm or attend university right out of high school. I am an honors student now, but my journey wasn't smooth, and I did not understand where I was headed right away. If I am being honest, my dream only fully came into view this year; the pieces all came together as I wrote my college admissions essays and then scholarship essays. As I reflected on my life, I realized who I am and who I want to be in the world. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge city that is extremely diverse, while also being a place where many people are extremely poor. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially throughout my childhood; we also saw a lot of struggle. The homeless encampment next to our home had been there since the 80's, and many kids had grown up there. My mother will be the first in our family to complete college. She will get her PhD this year, and she did it while raising a son on her own with no family support. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and Dad's death changed all of our lives forever. Without him, our finances were stretched to the limit every month, and with our family advocate gone, our landlord took advantage. Our housing was dangerously out of code, and we relied on food assistance. Mom found creative ways to pay the rent, like bake sales and homemade candy. The two of us worked together brainstorming the next plan, and I was always really good at coming up with ideas and helping make them happen. We faced every financial battle as a team, so my education started early; we even had to sue our landlord over unsafe housing when I was thirteen. My experience growing up poor, in inner-city Oakland, shaped my desire to create better opportunities for kids like me. I know what it feels like to be the child left behind with no financial safety net. I want to create a future where that outcome is less likely for all American children. This year I’ll be going to college for a computer science degree. I’ll be the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I have started thinking about opening a Roth account through Robinhood and getting a high-interest savings account with no minimum balance at PNC Bank. It is the first time I have had to plan for my own finances. I find myself having to dedicate hours to this each school day, and I see why the teachers do not give as many classes in the senior year. I have started dreaming about graduating and formalizing my model for public education, becoming a beacon for free education. I will take advantage of the free tuition at PSU, but still have a gap of about 4-5 thousand dollars. I am planning for things like work study and scholarships to cover the gap. The steps to admission at PSU have been one heck of a learning curve in my financial education, but I am a super positive and determined person, and I can learn anything. When I succeed, the Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States.

Hey there, my name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer. I just turned 18, and this year I will be the second person in my family to make it into college, the first to live in a dorm or attend university right out of high school. I am an honors student now, but my journey wasn't smooth, and I did not understand where I was headed right away. If I am being honest, my dream only fully came into view this year; the pieces all came together as I wrote my college admissions essays and then scholarship essays. As I reflected on my life, I realized who I am and who I want to be in the world. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge city that is extremely diverse, while also being a place where many people are extremely poor. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially throughout my childhood; we also saw a lot of struggle. The homeless encampment next to our home had been there since the 80's, and many kids had grown up there. My mother will be the first in our family to complete college. She will get her PhD this year, and she did it while raising me on her own with no family support. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and Dad's death changed all of our lives forever. Without him, our finances were stretched to the limit every month, and with our family advocate gone, our landlord took advantage. Our housing was dangerously out of code, and we relied on food assistance. Mom found creative ways to pay the rent, like bake sales and homemade candy. The two of us worked together brainstorming the next plan, and I was always really good at coming up with ideas and helping make them happen. We faced every financial battle as a team, so my education started early; we even had to sue our landlord over unsafe housing when I was thirteen. My experience growing up poor, in inner-city Oakland, shaped my desire to create better opportunities for kids like me. I know what it feels like to be the child left behind with no financial safety net. I want to create a future where that outcome is less likely for all American children. This year I’ll be going to college for a computer science degree. I’ll be the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I have started thinking about opening a Roth account through Robinhood and getting a high-interest savings account with no minimum balance at PNC Bank. It is the first time I have had to plan for my own finances, and the undertaking feels a bit like a part-time job. I find myself having to dedicate hours to this each school day, and I see why the teachers do not give as many classes in the senior year. I have started dreaming about graduating and formalizing my model for public education, becoming a beacon for free education. I will take advantage of the free tuition at PSU, but still have a gap of about 4-5 thousand dollars. I am planning for things like work study and scholarships to cover the gap. The steps to admission at PSU have been one heck of a learning curve in my financial education, but I can learn anything. When I succeed, the Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States.

I love math because it is an opportunity to show the world what I can do. Math is not always an easy journey, and a good teacher goes a long way toward success, but the teacher I plan to tell you about changed me in another way. She taught me that you have to rely on your own sense of capability. When folks are spiteful, the only thing that works is to overcome what they throw at you. I have always felt pretty confident in math and had never struggled with it in middle school or freshman year. However, when I started Algebra 2 in my sophomore year, the teacher was challenging. She made it impossible for other teachers or the parents to view assignments on her class website. It made asking my academic advisor or parent for help impossible. The teacher constantly reinforced that I was not smart enough for her class. I started to believe her. Thank goodness my mother didn't. My mom was disturbed to see this teacher's effect on me. I had to advocate strongly to my advisor that I needed Algebra 2 to be accepted as a STEM student in a four-year university. It was strange to carry an F all year due to her grading policy. She required we calculate our own grades. I had to prioritize her class over all others. She failed me at the end of the first year. She used her discretion to remove one point, taking a C- down to a D. It crushed me. My mom viciously reminded me how I've always been good at math, but I spent the summer extremely depressed. We spoke daily during the summer break about our next move. I made a decision to continue following my dream even though I’d be taking the harder path. I retook Algebra 2 the next year because I needed the class to be a STEM major, and they put me back with the same teacher despite my protests, but I was ready this time. I retook the class at a higher level, Honors Algebra 2. I communicated to all my other teachers about this situation, which would cause me to fall behind sometimes. They could count on me to catch up. At the end of the semester, I was proud to overcome her and achieve a B.

Hey there, my name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer. I just turned 18, and this year I will be the second person in my family to make it into college, the first to live in a dorm or attend university right out of high school. I am an honors student now, but my journey wasn't smooth, and I did not understand where I was headed right away. If I am being honest, my dream only fully came into view this year; the pieces all came together as I wrote my college admissions essays and then scholarship essays. As I reflected on my life, I realized who I am and who I want to be in the world. At the start of high school, I struggled a lot. It was the 2020 pandemic era, and everything felt uncertain. My grades, physical and mental health, were less than ideal. I had mostly C’s in my classes, and I didn’t see much point in putting in effort. Would the world even still be there tomorrow? The topics in school interested me very little. Would it matter if a virus wiped out all of humanity? It was the switch to online school that slowly began to change my trajectory. I started online school in California. The online experience offered a lot more for me than the brick-and-mortar experiences I had in the past. I joined a game club, made friends, and started to feel like I belonged somewhere. That sense of connection with my peers made it easier to care about grades and the future again. Later, mom and I moved to Oregon to be close to family. I stayed in online school, switching from California Connection Academy to Oregon Willamette Connections Academy, same system, different state. This time, there were even more opportunities, including an esports team! I joined right away. It was like Harry Potter taking his first ride on a broom. I was born for this. It felt natural, like I had found something I was always meant to do. Over time, I grew into a leadership role and became team captain for two years. One of my proudest moments was leading my team to gold in the 2024 Oregon Esports League. As I became more involved in school events than I ever had in-person, my mindset started to change. I wanted to lead. I asked to host an Esports table at our school's Fall 2025 Festival to recruit more teammates and introduced myself to the student body in meet-up classes as a leader in the WillCA Esports scene. I also made personal changes to be a better role model. I went from earning mostly C’s to earning all A’s and taking honors and AP classes, because I want to be a good example to my team. I began to understand that effort and consistency actually make a difference, and that my future is something I can shape. I also try to coach my teammates to maintain an esports-academics-life balance. Through these experiences, I discovered my passion for computers and gaming. I want to be part of building those systems and making them accessible to students in public schools, so others can have the same sense of connection and purpose that I found. This fall, I will be attending Portland State University to study computer science in their honors program. I will be the first person in my family to go straight from high school to college, and only the second to attend at all. That responsibility means a lot to me. I took my time to understand why grades matter, but now I see how they connect directly to my future. College will give me the knowledge, network, and opportunities I need to reach my long-term goal of creating an immersive educational platform that helps students learn in a more engaging way. This scholarship and any financial aid I receive will be utilized to cover the outstanding costs of on-campus housing, my final hurdle to achieving this dream.

Hey there, my name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer. I just turned 18, and this year I will be the second person in my family to make it into college, the first to live in a dorm or attend university right out of high school. I am an honors student now, but my journey wasn't smooth, and I did not understand where I was headed right away. If I am being honest, my dream only fully came into view this year; the pieces all came together as I wrote my college admissions essays and then scholarship essays. As I reflected on my life, I realized who I am and who I want to be in the world. At the start of high school, I struggled a lot. It was the 2020 pandemic era, and everything felt uncertain. My grades, physical and mental health, were less than ideal. I had mostly C’s in my classes, and I didn’t see much point in putting in effort. The topics in school interested me very little. However, the change to online school slowly began to change my trajectory. I started high school from home in California, I joined a game club, made friends, and started to feel like I belonged somewhere. That sense of connection made it easier to care again. Later, mom and I moved to Oregon to be close to family. I stayed in online school, switching from California Connection Academy to Willamette Connections Academy, same system, different state. This time, there were even more opportunities, including an esports team! I joined right away. It was like Harry Potter taking his first ride on a broom. I was born for this. It felt natural, like I had found something I was always meant to do. Over time, I grew into a leadership role and became team captain for two years. One of my proudest moments was leading my team to gold in the Oregon Esports League. As I became more involved, my mindset started to change. I asked to have an Esports table at school in-person events and made myself known to the student body as a leader in the WillCA Esports scene. Over the years, I went from earning mostly C’s to earning A’s, cause I want to be a good example to my team. I began to understand that effort and consistency actually made a difference, and that my future was something I could shape. I am now an honors student with an A average. I take honors classes and frequently try to coach my teammates about maintaining esports-academics-life balance. Through these experiences, I discovered my passion for computers and gaming. I want to be part of building those systems and making them accessible to students in public schools, so others can have the same sense of connection and purpose that I found. This fall, I will be attending Portland State University to study computer science in their honors program. I will be the first person in my family to go straight from high school to college, and only the second to attend at all. That responsibility means a lot to me. I took my time to understand why grades matter, but now I see how they connect directly to my future. College will give me the knowledge, network, and opportunities I need to reach my long-term goal of creating an immersive educational platform that helps students learn in a more engaging way. This scholarship will help me cover some of the outstanding costs of attendance, and that will be my final hurdle to achieving my dream.

I am an Omnisexual guy, which means I am attracted to folks from the entire spectrum of gender. I grew up with a non-binary mother, who taught me early in life about sexuality and gender identity and how the two interact. When I turned 18, I started exploring adult activities and spaces. I even have my first boyfriend! There are so many first-time experiences, falling in love with a boy, and I am enjoying the newness of it all. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge, extremely diverse city. I met every type of person when I lived there, which helped me to grow up open-minded. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially. We lived in a rundown house that was falling off the hill, and we even had to sue our landlord once over maintenance. Despite our struggle, mom made sure I always had access to a device, and I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I have been accepted to Portland State University's Honors Computer Science program for Fall '26, as the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I’ll be the second person in the whole family to reach college at all. It took all four years of high school to fully understand how grades applied to the next phase of my life. Now in my senior year, I can clearly see the link between my classes and my dream of a STEM career. PSU will provide me with the network and experiences I need to achieve my long-term goal of building an immersive educational platform. I now carry a straight A average because I know that doing well in high school directly contributes to the likelihood of success in my future. My coming-of-age, from urban to rural, has shaped my unique worldview. I'm still uncertain about many things, but I am confident in my path to university. I picked a school where being gay is accepted openly. For the first time in my life, I will live with a group of peers who have similar interests. It sounds like heaven. I plan to join the LGBTQ club the second I land on campus, and I really hope I can take on a leadership role in some traditionally heterosexual spaces like Esports to represent the community and make my mark as I enter the adult world for the first time. The charity aspect of my future goals is rolled into my dream to create an immersive technical model for public schools. My model would include free public education for all children to help them understand and fit into our increasingly technical world. Our mission will be to provide kids with an opportunity not just to learn about computers and technology, but to immerse themselves in haptics and virtual reality. We need modern education opportunities, and I would like to help bring them to life. We could call on volunteers from the communities to lend their skills and perspectives to make it a United States endeavor rather than just one man's idea or a contract for sale. I believe that free education for all kids is a low bar, and we can do one better.

I am an Omnisexual guy, which means I am attracted to folks from the entire spectrum of gender. I grew up with a non-binary mother, who taught me early in life about sexuality and gender identity and how the two interact. When I turned 18, I started exploring adult activities and spaces. I even have my first boyfriend! There are so many first-time experiences, falling in love with a boy, and I am enjoying the newness of it all. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge, extremely diverse city. I met every type of person when I lived there, which helped me to grow up open-minded. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially. We lived in a rundown house that was falling off the hill, and we even had to sue our landlord once over maintenance. Despite our struggle, mom made sure I always had access to a device, and I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I have been accepted to Portland State University's Honors Computer Science program for Fall '26, as the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I’ll be the second person in the whole family to reach college at all. It took all four years of high school to fully understand how grades applied to the next phase of my life. Now in my senior year, I can clearly see the link between my classes and my dream of a STEM career. PSU will provide me with the network and experiences I need to achieve my long-term goal of building an immersive educational platform. I now carry a straight A average because I know that doing well in high school directly contributes to the likelihood of success in my future. My coming-of-age, from urban to rural, has shaped my unique worldview. I'm still uncertain about many things, but I am confident in my path to university. I picked a school where being gay is accepted openly. For the first time in my life, I will live with a group of peers who have similar interests. It sounds like heaven. I plan to join the LGBTQ club the second I land on campus, and I really hope I can take on a leadership role in some traditionally heterosexual spaces like Esports to represent the community and make my mark as I enter the adult world for the first time. The charity aspect of my future goals is rolled into my dream to create an immersive technical model for public schools. My model would include free public education for all children to help them understand and fit into our increasingly technical world. Our mission will be to provide kids with an opportunity not just to learn about computers and technology, but to immerse themselves in haptics and virtual reality. We need modern education opportunities, and I would like to help bring them to life. We could call on volunteers from the communities to lend their skills and perspectives to make it a United States endeavor rather than just one man's idea or a contract for sale. I believe that free education for all kids is a low bar, and we can do one better.

I am an Omnisexual guy, which means I am attracted to folks from the entire spectrum of gender. I grew up with a non-binary mother, who taught me early in life about sexuality and gender identity and how the two interact. When I turned 18, I started exploring adult activities and spaces. I even have my first boyfriend! There are so many first-time experiences, falling in love with a boy, and I am enjoying the newness of it all. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge, extremely diverse city. I met every type of person when I lived there, which helped me to grow up open-minded. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially. We lived in a rundown house that was falling off the hill, and we even had to sue our landlord once over maintenance. Despite our struggle, mom made sure I always had access to a device, and I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I have been accepted to Portland State University's Honors Computer Science program for Fall '26, as the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I’ll be the second person in the whole family to reach college at all. It took all four years of high school to fully understand how grades applied to the next phase of my life. Now in my senior year, I can clearly see the link between my classes and my dream of a STEM career. PSU will provide me with the network and experiences I need to achieve my long-term goal of building an immersive educational platform. I now carry a straight A average because I know that doing well in high school directly contributes to the likelihood of success in my future. My coming-of-age, from urban to rural, has shaped my unique worldview. I'm still uncertain about many things, but I am confident in my path to university. I picked a school where being gay is accepted openly. For the first time in my life, I will live with a group of peers who have similar interests. It sounds like heaven. I plan to join the LGBTQ club the second I land on campus, and I really hope I can take on a leadership role in some traditionally heterosexual spaces like Esports to represent the community and make my mark as I enter the adult world for the first time. The charity aspect of my future goals is rolled into my dream to create an immersive technical model for public schools. My model would include free public education for all children to help them understand and fit into our increasingly technical world. Our mission will be to provide kids with an opportunity not just to learn about computers and technology, but to immerse themselves in haptics and virtual reality. We need modern education opportunities, and I would like to help bring them to life. We could call on volunteers from the communities to lend their skills and perspectives to make it a United States endeavor rather than just one man's idea or a contract for sale. I believe that free education for all kids is a low bar, and we can do one better.

My father passed away suddenly in 2010 when I was just three. I don’t remember it, but I lived through the fallout. The sudden death of a breadwinner makes a family vulnerable, and it took most of my childhood for us to get back on our feet. I helped my mom build small business after small business and side hustle after side hustle so that we had enough money to live on, but she was also there for every school event and holiday. It has always just been normal for me to brainstorm with my mother on new and inventive ways to stay afloat. A lot of my confidence comes from the fact that she always valued my ideas and listened to me like she would another adult. She credits me for coming up with the idea to rent out a room in our house to make ends meet. We had a mini BNB all through my elementary school years. She also taught me to roll with the punches, and when the city created new restrictions that ended our little inn, we immediately pivoted to our cottage goods business that helps us get by to this day. We are a creative little family, and that has been what allows us to survive so far, but I would like to take our family to the next level, and I know that that means embracing the future and education for a lifetime. I cannot even remember a time when electronics did not fascinate me. I knew more about my mother’s phone than she did by age 9. I’m her tech guy and always have been. Even at a young age, I used to think of crazy ideas like charging our phones using lightning. Now adays im always checking out new apps and websites. I’ve been exploring the world of VR and animation. I've started using Blender and Unity, which are apps used to edit and create shapes or characters. I have loved my online high school experience, and taking it one step further could improve the lives of future students. I would like to create a new type of online school that is immersive. In my school, each day will be an adventure. I plan to utilize hepatics and develop virtual reality to create a more fun learning experience inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. My school will also create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. The goal is teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of.

Tonight in the villa, things are about to get a little more… interesting. Tension has been building all day, eyes lingering a little too long, conversations cutting off just a second too late. Islanders think they know where they stand, but that confidence is about to be tested. A new game is coming, and it’s not about strength or speed. It’s about chemistry, control, and who can really get under someone’s skin without crossing the line. One by one, hearts will be put on display, literally. Every glance, every word, every subtle move will count. Some Islanders will play it cool, others will take risks, and a few might surprise everyone. Connections will be questioned, loyalties might crack, and someone’s heart could betray exactly what they’ve been trying to hide. Because tonight, it’s not about what you say. It’s about how fast you can make someone feel it. Challenge Name: “Heart Rate Roulette” Islanders take turns sitting in a sleek chair hooked up to a heart rate monitor displayed on a big screen. One by one, other contestants enter and have 60 seconds to raise that person’s heart rate as much as possible. Here’s the twist: They can’t kiss. They can’t touch in an overtly sexual way. Everything has to rely on chemistry, confidence, and creativity. So what works? Whispering something bold in their ear Slow eye contact and teasing smiles A confident walk and subtle body language Light, playful touches like brushing a hand or fixing their outfit Inside jokes or callbacks to earlier moments After everyone has had a turn, the person whose heart rate spiked the most wins power for the night, like choosing couples for a date or sending someone to the hideaway. Why it works: It’s sexy because it builds tension instead of forcing it It reveals real attraction instead of just physical stuff It creates drama when someone’s heart spikes for the “wrong” person Bonus chaos element: At the end, reveal who caused the highest spike. That’s where things get messy in the best way.

A small stage and a piano don’t seem like much until Sabrina Carpenter sits down and everything gets quiet, and “emails i can’t send” stops feeling like a concert song and starts feeling like you accidentally opened someone’s notes app and now you can’t close it, because a weird thing happens watching it as a teenage guy where you go in expecting background music and then suddenly you’re locked in, her voice staying soft and careful like each word matters more than it should, and the piano carrying everything with no distractions so every lyric lands clean and kind of hits harder than you want it to, and the crowd going completely silent like nobody wants to breathe too loud and ruin it, and a different version of her showing up that doesn’t feel polished or performative at all, more like someone sitting alone at night replaying conversations that never got said right, and the emotion coming through in small details like slight cracks in her voice or pauses that stretch just a little too long, and the lyrics about family and betrayal landing heavier than typical heartbreak stuff because they feel permanent, not temporary, and some lines sounding almost blunt like she didn’t even try to make them pretty, which somehow makes them more real, and your brain kind of resisting at first because you don’t want to care that much but then a line catches you off guard and now you’re thinking about your own unsent messages and things you’ll probably never say, and the song not telling you what to feel but just sitting there and letting it happen anyway, and the ending coming in quiet with no big finish, just this emotional drop that leaves everything hanging while the audience waits a second before clapping like everyone needs to come back to reality, and somehow a performance with almost nothing going on ends up sticking in your head longer than louder, bigger ones, which is the part that’s hardest to explain without sounding dramatic even though it kind of is.

A quiet stage inside Saturday Night Live didn’t look like it was about to hit that hard, but it did. November 13, 2021 felt less like a normal performance and more like someone letting you read their journal out loud. Taylor Swift stood there and just… stayed there, which somehow made it worse in the best way. Ten minutes sounds long until you realize you’re locked in and not even checking your phone. A weird thing happens when you watch it as a teenage guy. You expect to feel detached, maybe even a little above it, but then something clicks and you’re not. Lyrics from All Too Well (10 Minute Version) land like memories you didn’t know you had yet. Emotion comes through in a way that feels almost uncomfortable, like you’re overhearing something private that you’re not supposed to hear but can’t walk away from. A deep red dress pulled everything together visually. Fabric moved softly every time she shifted, like it was reacting to her breathing instead of the air. Sleeves hung light and sheer, catching just enough light to glow without being flashy. Bare feet made it feel real, not staged, like she just walked out there and started telling the truth. Hair fell loose around her shoulders, slightly messy in a way that didn’t look accidental. Makeup stayed natural, except for eyes that looked like they’d already been through something before the first note even started. A different version of her showed up that night. Thirty one years old, but not trying to prove anything anymore. Range stayed controlled and deliberate, never oversinging, never trying to impress. Every line sounded chosen, not performed. Confidence came from knowing exactly what the song meant and not needing anyone else to validate it. A sense of ownership hung over everything, especially with Red (Taylor’s Version) dropping right then, like she was taking back something that always belonged to her. A slow burn carried the whole thing. Early lines felt almost casual, like she was just remembering. Middle sections tightened, words getting sharper, more specific, harder to ignore. Anger crept in without turning loud, which made it hit worse. Final minutes softened again, but not in a comforting way. Ending felt like sitting alone after a fight, replaying everything and realizing nothing’s actually fixed. A strange silence hit at the end. Audience didn’t jump right in, which said a lot. Clap came after a second, like everyone needed to reset. Feeling lingered longer than the performance itself, which is probably why people still talk about it. A ten minute song turned into something way bigger than just music, and yeah, even a teenage guy can admit that without pretending it didn’t get to him.

My father passed away suddenly in 2010 when I was just three. I don’t remember it, but I lived through the fallout. The sudden death of a breadwinner makes a family vulnerable, and it took most of my childhood for us to get back on our feet. I helped my mom build small business after small business and side hustle after side hustle so that we had enough money to live on, but she was also there for every school event and holiday. It has always just been normal for me to brainstorm with my mother on new and inventive ways to stay afloat. A lot of my confidence comes from the fact that she always valued my ideas and listened to me like she would another adult. She credits me for coming up with the idea to rent out a room in our house to make ends meet. We had a mini BNB all through my elementary school years. She also taught me to roll with the punches, and when the city created new restrictions that ended our little inn, we immediately pivoted to our cottage goods business that helps us get by to this day. We are a creative little family, and that has been what allows us to survive so far, but I would like to take our family to the next level, and I know that that means embracing the future and education for a lifetime. I cannot even remember a time when electronics did not fascinate me. I knew more about my mother’s phone than she did by age 9. I’m her tech guy and always have been. Even at a young age, I used to think of crazy ideas like charging our phones using lightning. Now adays im always checking out new apps and websites. I’ve been exploring the world of VR and animation. I've started using Blender and Unity, which are apps used to edit and create shapes or characters. I have loved my online high school experience, and taking it one step further could improve the lives of future students. I would like to create a new type of online school that is immersive. In my school, each day will be an adventure. I plan to utilize haptics and develop virtual reality to create a more fun learning experience inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. My school will also create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. The goal is teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of.

At the start of high school, I struggled a lot. It was the 2020 pandemic era, and everything felt uncertain. My grades, physical and mental health, were less than ideal. I had mostly C’s in my classes, and I didn’t see much point in putting in effort. Would the world even still be there tomorrow? The topics in school interested me very little. Would classes matter if a virus wiped out all of humanity? It was the switch to online school that slowly began to change my trajectory. I started online school in California. The online experience offered a lot more for me than the brick-and-mortar experiences I had in the past. I joined a game club, made friends, and started to feel like I belonged somewhere. That sense of connection with my peers made it easier to care about grades and the future again. Later, mom and I moved to Oregon to be close to family. I stayed in online school, switching from California Connection Academy to Oregon Willamette Connections Academy, same system, different state. This time, there were even more opportunities, including an esports team! I joined right away. It was like Harry Potter taking his first ride on a broom. I was born for this. It felt natural, like I had found something I was always meant to do. Over time, I grew into a leadership role and became team captain for two years. One of my proudest moments was leading my team to gold in the 2024 Oregon Esports League. I became more involved in school events than I ever had in-person; my mindset started to change. I asked to host an Esports table at our school's Fall 2025 Festival and introduced myself to the student body in meet-up classes. I went from earning mostly C’s to earning all A’s and taking honors and AP classes. I began to understand that effort and consistency actually make a difference, and that my future is something I can shape. Outside of school, my thoughts on mental health expanded to include harm reduction out of necessity. I was walking home from the post office one day when I saw a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again. I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I painted it blue and white like the packages of Narcan I had been collecting. I filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box above the little door. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that each individual is responsible and has to be the one to do something. This scholarship and any financial aid I receive will be utilized to cover the outstanding costs of on-campus housing, my final hurdle to achieving my dream.

Hey there, my name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer. I just turned 18, and this year I will be the second person in my family to make it into college, the first to live in a dorm or attend university right out of high school. I am an honors student now, but my journey wasn't smooth, and I did not understand where I was headed right away. If I am being honest, my dream only fully came into view this year; the pieces all came together as I wrote my college admissions essays and then scholarship essays. As I reflected on my life, I realized who I am and who I want to be in the world. At the start of high school, I struggled a lot. It was the 2020 pandemic era, and everything felt uncertain. My grades, physical and mental health, were less than ideal. I had mostly C’s in my classes, and I didn’t see much point in putting in effort. Would the world even still be there tomorrow? The topics in school interested me very little. Would grades matter if a virus wiped out all of humanity? It was the switch to online school that slowly began to change my trajectory. I started online school in California. The online experience offered a lot more for me than the brick-and-mortar experiences I had in the past. I joined a game club, made friends, and started to feel like I belonged somewhere. That sense of connection with my peers made it easier to care about grades and the future again. Math is not always an easy journey, and a good teacher goes a long way toward success, but the teacher I plan to tell you about changed me in another way. She taught me that life is not fair, and sometimes people will move the goal posts just to see you fail. She taught me that you have to rely on your own sense of capability and never on others' opinions about what you can do. When folks are spiteful like that, the only thing that works is to overcome what they throw at you, and then watch them steam over their inability to foil your dreams and crush your passion. I am going to tell you about when I had to remember that I am good at math and always have been. I have always felt pretty confident in math and had never struggled with it in middle school or freshman year. However, when I started Algebra 2 in my sophomore year, the teacher was challenging. She deviated completely from the online Pearson pathway of the school. Her website modified all the assignments and made it impossible for other teachers or the parents to view them. It was as if she didn't want anyone providing oversight of her teaching. It made asking my academic advisor or parent for help impossible. The teacher constantly reinforced that I was not smart enough for her class, both in private weekly meetings and in meetings with others. I started to believe her. Thank goodness my mother didn't. We had many arguments about my mathematical abilities, and my mom was disturbed to see this teacher's effect on me. During a meeting with the principal, the teacher asked that I be moved out of her class into a lower-level math class. My mother immediately refused. I had to advocate strongly to my advisor that I needed Algebra 2 to be accepted as a STEM student in a four-year university, which was my goal. I had to work through all breaks and holidays to catch up on her course from the first day of the semester, and it was strange to carry an F all year due to her grading policy. She required we calculate our own grades. She required 3-4 hours per day, seven days a week. I had to prioritize her class over all others. My other teachers started to notice and grow concerned. They were concerned because, usually, I was never behind in my coursework. She failed me at the end of the first year. She used her discretion to remove one point, taking a C- down to a D. It crushed me; I wanted to give up. My mom viciously reminded me how I've always been good at math, but I spent the summer extremely depressed. We spoke daily during the summer break about our next move. I made a decision to continue following my dream even though I’d be taking the harder path. I retook Algebra 2 the next year because I needed the class to be a STEM major, and they put me back with the same teacher despite my protests. I was ready this time. I knew how to block my time. I don't know if that teacher hates teenage boys or just did not like me, but I retook the class at a higher level, Honors Algebra 2. I communicated to all my other teachers about this unfair teacher, who would cause me to fall behind sometimes. They could count on me to catch up. At the end of the semester, I was proud to overcome her and achieve a B. Now I have been accepted into the Honors program for Computer Science at Portland State University for Fall 2026, and my dream is becoming real. I just need enough scholarships to cover housing for my first year. Growing up dependent on public resources shaped my goal to create better opportunities for kids like me. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, leading them to advanced educational experiences and positive core memories.

I am an Omnisexual guy, which means I am attracted to folks from the entire spectrum of gender. I grew up with a non-binary mother, who taught me early in life about sexuality and gender identity and how the two interact. When I turned 18, I started exploring adult activities and spaces. I even have my first boyfriend! There are so many first-time experiences, falling in love with a boy, and I am enjoying the newness of it all. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge, extremely diverse city. I met every type of person when I lived there, which helped me to grow up open-minded. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially. We lived in a rundown house that was falling off the hill, and we even had to sue our landlord once over maintenance. Despite our struggle, mom made sure I always had access to a device, and I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I have been accepted to Portland State University's Honors Computer Science program for Fall '26, as the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I’ll be the second person in the whole family to reach college at all. It took all four years of high school to fully understand how grades applied to the next phase of my life. Now in my senior year, I can clearly see the link between my classes and my dream of a STEM career. PSU will provide me with the network and experiences I need to achieve my long-term goal of building an immersive educational platform. I now carry a straight A average because I know that doing well in high school directly contributes to the likelihood of success in my future. My coming-of-age, from urban to rural, has shaped my unique worldview. I'm still uncertain about many things, but I am confident in my path to university. I picked a school where being gay is accepted openly. For the first time in my life, I will live with a group of peers who have similar interests. It sounds like heaven. I plan to join the LGBTQ club the second I land on campus, and I really hope I can take on a leadership role in some traditionally heterosexual spaces like Esports to represent the community and make my mark as I enter the adult world for the first time. The charity aspect of my future goals is rolled into my dream to create an immersive technical model for public schools. My model would include free public education for all children to help them understand and fit into our increasingly technical world. Our mission will be to provide kids with an opportunity not just to learn about computers and technology, but to immerse themselves in haptics and virtual reality. We need modern education opportunities, and I would like to help bring them to life. We could call on volunteers from the communities to lend their skills and perspectives to make it a United States endeavor rather than just one man's idea or a contract for sale. I believe that free education for all kids is a low bar, and we can do one better.

I grew up in Oakland, California, which has been facing a terrible epidemic of fentanyl overdoses for a decade. In my freshman year, one of my first high school projects was the creation of a Narcan box to help my inner-city neighborhood fight the common occurrences of Fentanyl overdoses in our streets. My home was right next to the BART station at Macarthur, the biggest station in Oakland, a place that is always buzzing with activity. A place where unhoused folks go to find a bit of warmth and community. The station is in the heart of the historical jazz district, and music still plays there sometimes. I lived in Oakland for most of my childhood and watched as the Fentanyl crisis grew and eventually landed right on my doorstep. I wanted a way of taking some control over an uncontrollable problem. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and it seemed like the problem was following me. Dad's death changed all of our lives forever and sent me down a path where I feel very strongly about harm reduction and making Narcan free and available. Have you seen those book boxes that some people have out front of their houses? I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I painted it blue and white like the packages of Narcan I had been collecting. I filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box above the little door. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well, and the box is still doing its work in West Oakland today. Now that I am a licensed driver with my own car, I keep it on me and in my car at all times and take frequent refresher courses on how to administer Narcan to someone who is overdosing. I wish I could say that it was all an abundance of caution, but I have had to use my skills. I was only CPR trained at the time. I was walking home from the post office when I came upon a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again.

I have always been enthusiastic about video games. Gaming began for me as a hobby when I was a kid, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. I used to play video games at random. Slowly, as I got older, that changed to strategy and team building. I am so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. I grew up in Oakland, California, and started high school there. It was a large, inner-city environment with tall buildings. I remember it as being sunny all the time, with sparse trees, and massive six-lane highways near my house. In my first year in high school, my club and peer groups were limited. I played games online, but didn't have much of a community. On top of the isolation I felt was the COVID-19 pandemic that made the world feel like it was ending right as I was starting high school. Our last few years in Oakland were hard, and when the time came, and we had a chance to leap, I encouraged my mom to go for it. Mom and I moved to Salem, and eventually Beaverton, Oregon, to be close to family. I stayed in online school, switching from California Connection Academy to Oregon Willamette Connections Academy, same system, different state. This time, there were even more opportunities, including an esports team! I joined right away. It was like Harry Potter taking his first ride on a broom. I was born for this. Over time, I grew into a leadership role and became team captain for two years. One of my proudest moments was leading my team to gold in the 2024 Oregon Esports League. I have been accepted into the Honors program for Computer Science at Portland State University for Fall 2026. I just need enough scholarships to cover housing for my first year. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison. I plan to lead the next generation to advanced educational experiences and positive core memories. After I get my degree, I plan to utilize haptics and develop virtual reality to create learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I grew up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me about the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother perfectly. This school could create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. The school I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. Imagine learning E=Mc^2 from Einstein himself!

I have several skill sets, and the photos I chose actually exist at the crossroads of my acquired talents. I started taking pictures for my mother at age ten when she bought me my first phone. I assisted with big things like legal cases by creating documentation and little things like generating an awesome Instagram page. When I was ten, I also started learning to cook. My mother had limited skills herself, so she outsourced my education to HelloFresh. HelloFresh is a box company that sends out pre-portioned meals with corresponding recipes to help make cooking easier. Before I knew it, I was the family cook, and I was teaching my mom skills! Our diets also got better because we were eating more fresh food and craving less fast food. I make all sorts of meals, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and even holiday specialties. One of my absolute favorite meals to make would be fried tofu. Fried tofu always tastes amazing and looks fantastic in any photos I take. The images I have selected are some of the most savory, sweet, and delicious things I have ever created. That's right, I both made the meal and acted as the culinary photographer. It has become a nightly ritual to upload my meal images on the Discord server I share with friends and encourage them to up their culinary game as well.

After college, I would like to create a new type of school. In my school, each day will be an adventure of immersion. It's an idea I have had for a long time; I first had this idea at age 14, when I joined an online school during the 2020 Pandemic. I plan to utilize haptics and develop virtual reality to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. My school could create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools; in-person education did not work for my timelines or interests. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for, so I ended up going off to YouTube to create my own. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I grew up in Oakland, California, and started high school there. It was a large, inner-city environment with tall buildings. I remember it as being sunny all the time, with sparse trees, and massive six-lane highways near my house. After my first year in high school, my family moved to Oregon. It was a much smaller town, with no tall buildings, vastly larger trees, and somehow perpetually cloudy. The major difference between the two areas blew my mind, and it is my understanding that this experience is rare. Maybe it should not be, the culture shift broadened my worldview, and it would probably do the same for other young adults. Through these experiences, I discovered my passion for computers and gaming. I want to be part of building those systems and making them accessible to students in public schools, so others can have the same sense of connection and purpose that I found. This fall, I will be attending Portland State University to study computer science in their honors program. I will be the first person in my family to go straight from high school to college, and only the second to attend at all. That responsibility means a lot to me. I took my time to understand why grades matter, but now I see how they connect directly to my future. College will give me the knowledge, network, and opportunities I need to reach my long-term goal of creating an immersive educational platform that helps students learn in a more engaging way. This scholarship and any financial aid I receive will be utilized to cover the outstanding costs of on-campus housing, my final hurdle to achieving this dream.

I grew up in Oakland, California, which has been facing a terrible epidemic of fentanyl overdoses for a decade. In my freshman year, one of my first high school projects was the creation of a Narcan box to help my inner-city neighborhood fight the common occurrences of fentanyl overdoses in our streets. My home was right next to the BART station at Macarthur, the biggest station in Oakland, a place where unhoused folks go to find a bit of warmth and community in the heart of the historical jazz district. I lived in Oakland for most of my childhood and watched as the fentanyl crisis grew and eventually landed right on my doorstep. I wanted a way of taking some control over an uncontrollable problem. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and it seemed like the problem was following me. Dad's death changed all of our lives forever and sent me down a path where I feel very strongly about harm reduction. Have you seen those book boxes that some people have out front of their houses? I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I painted it blue and white like the packages of Narcan I had been collecting. I filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box above the little door. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well, and the box is still doing its work in West Oakland today. Now that I am a licensed driver with my own car, I keep it on me and in my car at all times and take frequent refresher courses on how to administer Narcan to someone who is overdosing. I wish I could say that it was all an abundance of caution, but I have had to use my skills. I was only CPR trained at the time. I was walking home from the post office when I came upon a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again. Through these experiences, I discovered my passion for harm reduction and public education. I want to be part of building safe systems and making them accessible to students in public schools. This fall, I will be attending Portland State University to study computer science in their honors program. I will be the first person in my family to go straight from high school to college, and only the second to attend at all. That responsibility means a lot to me. This scholarship and any financial aid I receive will be utilized to cover the outstanding costs of on-campus housing, my final hurdle to achieving this dream.

Hey there, my name is Wolf Lindon Shaffer. I just turned 18, and this year I will be the second person in my family to make it into college, the first to live in a dorm or attend university right out of high school. I am an honors student now, but my journey wasn't smooth, and I did not understand where I was headed right away. If I am being honest, my dream only fully came into view this year; the pieces all came together as I wrote my college admissions essays and then scholarship essays. As I reflected on my life, I realized who I am and who I want to be in the world. At the start of high school, I struggled a lot. It was the 2020 pandemic era, and everything felt uncertain. My grades, physical and mental health, were less than ideal. I had mostly C’s in my classes, and I didn’t see much point in putting in effort. Would the world even still be there tomorrow? The topics in school interested me very little. Would it matter if a virus wiped out all of humanity? It was the switch to online school that slowly began to change my trajectory. I started online school in California. The online experience offered a lot more for me than the brick-and-mortar experiences I had in the past. I joined a game club, made friends, and started to feel like I belonged somewhere. That sense of connection with my peers made it easier to care about grades and the future again. Later, mom and I moved to Oregon to be close to family. I stayed in online school, switching from California Connection Academy to Oregon Willamette Connections Academy, same system, different state. This time, there were even more opportunities, including an esports team! I joined right away. It was like Harry Potter taking his first ride on a broom. I was born for this. It felt natural, like I had found something I was always meant to do. Over time, I grew into a leadership role and became team captain for two years. One of my proudest moments was leading my team to gold in the 2024 Oregon Esports League. As I became more involved in school events than I ever had in-person, my mindset started to change. I wanted to lead. I asked to host an Esports table at our school's Fall 2025 Festival to recruit more teammates and introduced myself to the student body in meet-up classes as a leader in the WillCA Esports scene. I also made personal changes to be a better role model. I went from earning mostly C’s to earning all A’s and taking honors and AP classes, because I want to be a good example to my team. I began to understand that effort and consistency actually make a difference, and that my future is something I can shape. I also try to coach my teammates to maintain an esports-academics-life balance. Through these experiences, I discovered my passion for computers and gaming. I want to be part of building those systems and making them accessible to students in public schools, so others can have the same sense of connection and purpose that I found. This fall, I will be attending Portland State University to study computer science in their honors program. I will be the first person in my family to go straight from high school to college, and only the second to attend at all. That responsibility means a lot to me. I took my time to understand why grades matter, but now I see how they connect directly to my future. College will give me the knowledge, network, and opportunities I need to reach my long-term goal of creating an immersive educational platform that helps students learn in a more engaging way. This scholarship and any financial aid I receive will be utilized to cover the outstanding costs of on-campus housing, my final hurdle to achieving this dream.

Math is not always an easy journey, and a good teacher goes a long way toward success, but the teacher I plan to tell you about changed me in another way. She taught me that life is not fair, and sometimes people will move the goal posts just to see you fail. She taught me that you have to rely on your own sense of capability and never on others' opinions about what you can do. When folks are spiteful like that, the only thing that works is to overcome what they throw at you, and then watch them steam over their inability to foil your dreams and crush your passion. I am going to tell you about remembering that I am good at math and always have been. I have always felt pretty confident in math and had never struggled with it in middle school or freshman year. However, when I started Algebra 2 in my sophomore year, the teacher was challenging. She deviated completely from the online Pearson pathway of the school. Her website modified all the assignments and made it impossible for other teachers or the parents to view them. It was as if she didn't want anyone providing oversight of her teaching. It made asking my academic advisor or parent for help impossible. The teacher constantly reinforced that I was not smart enough for her class, both in private weekly meetings and in meetings with others. I started to believe her. Thank goodness my mother didn't. We had many arguments about my mathematical abilities, and my mom was disturbed to see this teacher's effect on me. During a meeting with the principal, the teacher asked that I be moved out of her class into a lower-level math class. My mother immediately refused. I had to advocate strongly to my advisor that I needed Algebra 2 to be accepted as a STEM student in a four-year university, which was my goal. I had to work through all breaks and holidays to catch up on her course from the first day of the semester, and it was strange to carry an F all year due to her grading policy. She required we calculate our own grades. She required 3-4 hours per day, seven days a week. I had to prioritize her class over all others. My other teachers started to notice and grow concerned. They were concerned because, usually, I was never behind in my coursework. She failed me at the end of the first year. She used her discretion to remove one point, taking a C- down to a D. It crushed me; I wanted to give up. My mom viciously reminded me how I've always been good at math, but I spent the summer extremely depressed. We spoke daily during the summer break about our next move. I made a decision to continue following my dream even though I’d be taking the harder path. I retook Algebra 2 the next year because I needed the class to be a STEM major, and they put me back with the same teacher despite my protests. I was ready this time. I knew how to block my time. I don't know if that teacher hates teenage boys or just did not like me, but I retook the class at a higher level, Honors Algebra 2. I communicated to all my other teachers about this unfair teacher, who would cause me to fall behind sometimes. They could count on me to catch up. At the end of the semester, I was proud to overcome her and achieve a B.

One movie that had the biggest impact on my life would be YesMan (2008) starring Jim Carrey. The first time we ever watched it, my mom and I had borrowed it from the local library because we did not have cable or internet. I've probably watched this movie more times in my life than any other film. The premise of the movie is going from saying no to saying yes to life. Changing your mindset from opt-out to opt-in, and taking chances on new experiences. The protagonist is a man named Carl, who had a couple of bad experiences, like a breakup and a crap job; he gave up on life because of them. Then he meets an old friend who throws a rock through a window at his bank and invites him to attend a seminar on saying yes to life! Carl took the chance and went to the seminar only to be hypnotized by the speaker. This starts his journey of trying new experiences like skydiving, learning guitar, Korean, and karaoke. He begins to live his life again, saves a life, meets a girl, falls in love, seemingly motivated by the hypnosis. The movie doesn't end all happy-go-lucky, though, and Carl makes the harsh realization that you can't just say yes to everything; you have to use your discretion and say yes only to the things that are right for you. He makes some really bad choices before he realizes this, and it almost costs him everything. In the end, Carl realized that the power to say yes was his all along and that the YesMan theory was just there to get him started living again. Carl learned to make choices for the purpose of being happy and helping make others happy. Carl and I have this in common, I also would like to live a happy life and make others happy. The movie YesMan is really about opportunity, learning to create, identify, and take advantage of opportunities to better your life and make it more like your dreams. I wish to be remembered as someone who left a big impact on both the fields of public education and virtual reality, someone who brought kids' dreams to life. I use the movies I watched growing up, like Ready Player One and YesMan, as an inspiration for the future I envision. The Wolf trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States. My dream is a public education system pipeline that no longer takes kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, to advanced immersive experiences that teach students in a way a classroom never could. I love the idea of saying yes to life because opportunity doesn't always look like opportunity until you leap. Attending a 4-year institution and living in the dorms is a big leap for me; it will be the first time I live away from home. I am going to say yes to this opportunity though, because I wanna dive into the unknown!

I have known for a really long time that my legacy would be in the tech field. When I was little, gaming was my favorite pastime, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. As I grew older, my focus shifted to strategy and team building. Over the years, I have become so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I intend to create a new type of school, the trademark of which would be expressive, immersive education. In my school, each day will be an adventure with hepatics and developed virtual reality scenarios to teach youth with experience. My hope is to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. My school could create a more inclusive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits, leveling the playing field for pupils with paralysis to attend school normally. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools. In-person education gave me community, but lacked the ability to direct my own path. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I wish to be remembered as someone who left a big impact on both the fields of education and virtual reality. I use movies I watched growing up, like Ready Player One, as an inspiration. The Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, they would have a modern pathway to advanced educational experiences.

I know you are probably looking to hear a story about a time a teacher helped, like MR. Foster, but the teacher I plan to tell you about changed me in another way. She taught me that life is not fair, and sometimes people will move the goal posts just to see you fail. When folks are spiteful like that, the only thing that works is to win in their faces, to overcome what they throw at you, and then watch them steam over their inability to foil your dreams and crush your passion. I have always felt pretty confident in math and have never struggled with it. However, when I started Algebra 2, the teacher was challenging. She deviated completely from the online Pearson pathway of the school. Her website modified all the assignments and made it impossible for other teachers or the parents to view them, as if she didn't want anyone providing oversight. She constantly reinforced that I was not smart enough for this. I started to believe her. During a meeting with the principal, she asked to have me moved out of her class into a lower-level math class. I had to advocate strongly to my advisor that I needed Algebra 2 to be accepted as a STEM student in a four-year university, which was my goal. I had to work through all breaks and holidays to catch up on her course. She required 3-4 hours per day, seven days a week. I had to prioritize her class over all others. My other teachers started to notice and grow concerned. They were concerned because, usually I was never behind in my coursework. She failed me at the end of the first year. She used her discretion to remove one point, taking a C- down to a D. It crushed me; I believed that I wasn't good at math anymore. My mom viciously reminded me how I've always been good at math, and we had fights about how I used to help her with college-level math. Over the summer, I made a decision to continue following my dream even though I’d be taking the harder path. I retook Algebra 2 the next year because I needed the class to be a STEM major, and they put me back with the same teacher despite my protests. The teacher was the same, but I was ready this time. I knew how to block my time. I don't know if she hates teenage boys or just did not like me, but I retook the class at a higher level, Honors Algebra 2. I communicated with all my other teachers about the expectations of this unfair teacher and how it would cause me to fall behind sometimes, but they could count on me to catch up. At the end of the semester, I was proud to overcome her and achieve a B.

I have known for a really long time that my legacy would be in the tech field. When I was little, gaming was my favorite pastime, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. As I grew older, my focus shifted to strategy and team building. Over the years, I have become so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I have been accepted to Pportland State University's Honors Computer Science program for Fall '26. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I intend to create a new type of school, the trademark of which would be expressive, immersive education. In my school, each day will be an adventure with hepatics and developed virtual reality scenarios to teach youth with experience. My hope is to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. My school could create a more inclusive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits, leveling the playing field for pupils with paralysis to attend school normally. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools. In-person education gave me community, but lacked the ability to direct my own path. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I wish to be remembered as someone who left a big impact on both the fields of education and virtual reality. I use movies I watched growing up, like Ready Player One, as an inspiration. The Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, they would have a modern pathway to advanced educational experiences.

I am an Omnisexual guy, which means I am attracted to folks from the entire spectrum of gender. I grew up with a non-binary mother, who taught me early in life about sexuality and gender identity and how the two interact. When I turned 18, I started exploring adult activities and spaces. I even have my first boyfriend! There are so many first-time experiences, falling in love with a boy, and I am enjoying the newness of it all. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge city, extremely diverse. I met every type of person when I lived there, which helped me to grow up open-minded. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially. We lived in a rundown house that was falling off the hill, and we even had to sue our landlord once over maintenance. Despite our struggle, mom made sure I always had access to a device, and I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I always wanted to go to the library after school to use the computers. This year I’ll be going to college for a computer science degree. I’ll be the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I’ll be the second person in the whole family to reach college at all. It took all four years of high school to fully understand why grades mattered. Now in my senior year, I can clearly see that it's so I can reach college, which will provide me with the network and experiences I need to achieve my long-term goal of building an immersive educational platform. I now carry Honors, Esports Captainhood, and a straight A average because I know that doing well here directly contributes to the likelihood of my success in the future. The journey of my coming-of-age, from urban to rural, has shaped my unique worldview. I'm still uncertain about many things, but I am confident in my path to university. I picked a school where being gay is normal; I've even been accepted to the Honors program. For the first time in my life, I will live with a group of peers who have similar interests. It sounds like heaven. I plan to join the LGBTQ club the second I land on campus, and I really hope I can take on a leadership role in some traditionally heterosexual spaces like Esports to represent the community and make my mark as I enter the Queer community and the adult world for the first time. My experience growing up without many resources as a queer kid shaped my worldview and desire to create better opportunities for kids like me. When I succeed, the Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, leading them to advanced educational experiences and positive core memories.

I have learned that acting on opportunities during a challenge can create a positive chain reaction that leads to a whole new chapter in life. Growing up as a low-income kid pushed me to be observant and creative. From a young age, I helped my mom brainstorm financial solutions. It was always just the two of us because my father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and his death shaped many of the choices we had to make. Growing up in Oakland, I was surrounded by diversity, which helped me develop an open mind. My mom worked hard to be the first in our family to complete college while raising me with no family support. We struggled financially, lived in unsafe housing, relied on food assistance, and found creative ways to make ends meet, like bake sales and homemade candy. My mother had instilled in me from a young age that I was her photographer. She told me that this was a way I could help with adult situations without putting myself in danger. Over the years in our low-income housing, I explored more of the property than anyone, with my friend Jeremiah, who was the same age and lived in similar housing on my block. I took lots of pictures, which I always showed my mother. Our landlord in Oakland is invisible in my memory until the end of our tenancy. For the first years of living there, we never saw her. By the 2020 pandemic, we had lived there for 7 years, and the housing had become increasingly unsafe. The pandemic created a unique situation that allowed us to finally fight back. We used all the pictures I had taken, and after 3 years in court, we won the case. Despite everything, my mom made sure I always had access to a device and the library. It became a peaceful place in the chaos of our big-city life. I have had a library card in every place we have ever lived, and some of my first memories are of spending hours waiting for my turn to use the library computers. Sometimes, if my mom finished her work early, I could use the extra time on her adult computer. The library filled many gaps in our lives. We used the internet there because we could not afford it at home. That is where my interest in computer science began. Now I have been accepted into the Honors program for Computer Science at Portland State University for Fall 2026, and my dream is becoming real. I just need enough scholarships to cover housing for my first year. Growing up dependent on public resources shaped my goal to create better opportunities for kids like me. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, leading them to advanced educational experiences and positive core memories.

I have known for a really long time that my legacy would be in the tech field. When I was little, gaming was my favorite pastime, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. As I grew older, my focus shifted to strategy and team building. Over the years, I have become so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I intend to create a new type of school, the trademark of which would be expressive, immersive education. In my school, each day will be an adventure with hepatics and developed virtual reality scenarios to teach youth with experience. My hope is to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. My school could create a more inclusive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits, leveling the playing field for pupils with paralysis to attend school normally. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools. In-person education gave me community, but lacked the ability to direct my own path. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I wish to be remembered as someone who left a big impact on both the fields of education and virtual reality. I use movies I watched growing up, like Ready Player One, as an inspiration. The Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, they would have a modern pathway to advanced educational experiences.

I grew up in Oakland, California, which has been facing a terrible epidemic of fentanyl overdoses for a decade. In my freshman year, one of my first high school projects was the creation of a Narcan box to help my inner-city neighborhood fight the common occurrences of Fentanyl overdoses in our streets. My home was right next to the BART station at Macarthur, the biggest station in Oakland, a place that is always buzzing with activity. A place where unhoused folks go to find a bit of warmth and community. The station is in the heart of the historical jazz district, and music still plays there sometimes. I lived in Oakland for most of my childhood and watched as the Fentanyl crisis grew and eventually landed right on my doorstep. I wanted a way of taking some control over an uncontrollable problem. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and it seemed like the problem was following me. Dad's death changed all of our lives forever and sent me down a path where I feel very strongly about harm reduction and making Narcan free and available. Have you seen those book boxes that some people have out front of their houses? I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I painted it blue and white like the packages of Narcan I had been collecting. I filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box above the little door. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well, and the box is still doing its work in West Oakland today. Now that I am a licensed driver with my own car, I keep it on me and in my car at all times and take frequent refresher courses on how to administer Narcan to someone who is overdosing. I wish I could say that it was all an abundance of caution, but I have had to use my skills. I was only CPR trained at the time. I was walking home from the post office when I came upon a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again.

I grew up in Oakland, California, where fentanyl overdoses have become a constant and devastating presence. My home was next to the MacArthur BART station, the busiest in Oakland, where people constantly passed through, and many unhoused individuals gathered for warmth and community. It sits in the historic jazz district, a place full of life but also deeply impacted by the crisis. I watched the fentanyl epidemic grow throughout my childhood until it felt unavoidable. I wanted a way to take control over something that seemed uncontrollable. My father died from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and that loss shaped how I see this issue. His death changed my family’s life and pushed me toward ideas like harm reduction and making Narcan accessible to anyone who might need it. In my freshman year, I decided to take action by creating a Narcan box to help my neighborhood be more prepared to respond to overdoses. Inspired by the small book-sharing boxes people keep outside their homes, I went on Etsy and found a blank wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. My mom was all-in. Once the box arrived, I got to work turning it into a Narcan station. I painted it, filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes, and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well. The box is still doing its work in West Oakland. Now, as a licensed driver, I carry Narcan with me at all times and take refresher courses regularly. This commitment comes from experience. Before I started carrying it, I encountered a young man overdosing on the street. I only had CPR training and did what I could until help arrived. I promised myself I would never be in that position again.

Being homeschooled made my high school experience feel much safer and more focused. I didn’t have to worry about bullying or school violence, which had been a real problem for me during middle school. The at-home learning sense of security gave me the safe space I needed to grow into myself and try new things without fear of being judged. Online homeschool kept me on track with an accredited curriculum, while weeding out the scarier parts of attending high school in 2026. At the start of high school, I struggled a lot. It was the 2020 pandemic era, and everything felt uncertain. My grades, physical and mental health, were less than ideal. I had mostly C’s in my classes, and I didn’t see much point in putting in effort. The topics in school interested me very little. However, the change to online school slowly began to change my trajectory. I started high school from home in California, I joined a game club, made friends, and started to feel like I belonged somewhere. That sense of connection made it easier to care again. Later, mom and I moved to Oregon to be close to family. I stayed in online school, switching from California Connection Academy to Willamette Connections Academy, same system, different state. This time, there were even more opportunities, including an esports team! I joined right away. It was like Harry Potter taking his first ride on a broom. I was born for this. It felt natural, like I had found something I was always meant to do. Over time, I grew into a leadership role and became team captain for two years. One of my proudest moments was leading my team to gold in the Oregon Esports League. As I became more involved, my mindset started to change. I asked to have an Esports table at school in-person events and made myself known to the student body as a leader in the WillCA Esports scene. Over the years, I went from earning mostly C’s to earning A’s, cause I want to be a good example to my team. I began to understand that effort and consistency actually made a difference, and that my future was something I could shape. I am now an honors student with an A average. I take honors classes and frequently try to coach my teammates about maintaining esports-academics-life balance. Homeschooling gave me the flexibility to grow at my own pace, and it helped me turn things around academically while building confidence in myself as a leader to my peers. Through these experiences, I discovered my passion for computers and gaming. I want to be part of building those systems and making them accessible to students in public schools, so others can have the same sense of connection and purpose that I found. This fall, I will be attending Portland State University to study computer science in their honors program. I will be the first person in my family to go straight from high school to college, and only the second to attend at all. That responsibility means a lot to me. I took my time to understand why grades matter, but now I see how they connect directly to my future. College will give me the knowledge, network, and opportunities I need to reach my long-term goal of creating an immersive educational platform that helps students learn in a more engaging way. This scholarship will help me cover some of the outstanding costs of attendance, and that will be my final hurdle to achieving my dream.

I have learned that acting on opportunities during a challenge can create a positive chain reaction that leads to a whole new chapter in life. Growing up as a low-income kid pushed me to be observant and creative. From a young age, I helped my mom brainstorm financial solutions. It was always just the two of us because my father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and his death shaped many of the choices we had to make. Growing up in Oakland, I was surrounded by diversity, which helped me develop an open mind. My mom worked hard to be the first in our family to complete college while raising me with no family support. We struggled financially, lived in unsafe housing, relied on food assistance, and found creative ways to make ends meet, like bake sales and homemade candy. My mother had instilled in me from a young age that I was her photographer. She told me that this was a way I could help with adult situations without putting myself in danger. Over the years in our low-income housing, I explored more of the property than anyone, with my friend Jeremiah, who was the same age and lived in similar housing on my block. I took lots of pictures, which I always showed my mother. Our landlord in Oakland is invisible in my memory until the end of our tenancy. For the first years of living there, we never saw her. By the 2020 pandemic, we had lived there for 7 years, and the housing had become increasingly unsafe. The pandemic created a unique situation that allowed us to finally fight back. We used all the pictures I had taken, and after 3 years in court, we won the case. Despite everything, my mom made sure I always had access to a device and the library. It became a peaceful place in the chaos of our big-city life. I have had a library card in every place we have ever lived, and some of my first memories are of spending hours waiting for my turn to use the library computers. Sometimes, if my mom finished her work early, I could use the extra time on her adult computer. The library filled many gaps in our lives. We used the internet there because we could not afford it at home. That is where my interest in computer science began. Now I have been accepted into the Honors program for Computer Science at Portland State University for Fall 2026, and my dream is becoming real. I just need enough scholarships to cover housing for my first year. Growing up dependent on public resources shaped my goal to create better opportunities for kids like me. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, leading them to advanced educational experiences and positive core memories.

I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge city that is extremely diverse, while also being a place where many people are extremely poor. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially throughout my childhood; we also saw a lot of struggle. The homeless encampment next to our home had been there since the 80's, and many kids had grown up there. My mother will be the first in our family to complete college. She will get her PhD this year, and she did it while raising a son on her own with no family support. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and Dad's death changed all of our lives forever. Without him, our finances were stretched to the limit every month, and with our family advocate gone, our landlord took advantage. Our housing was dangerously out of code, and we relied on food assistance. Mom found creative ways to pay the rent, like bake sales and homemade candy. The two of us worked together brainstorming the next plan, and I was always really good at coming up with ideas and helping make them happen. We faced every financial battle as a team, so my education started early; we even had to sue our landlord over unsafe housing when I was thirteen. My experience growing up poor, in inner-city Oakland, shaped my desire to create better opportunities for kids like me. I know what it feels like to be the child left behind with no financial safety net. I want to create a future where that outcome is less likely for all American children. This year I’ll be going to college for a computer science degree. I’ll be the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I have started thinking about opening a Roth account through Robinhood and getting a high-interest savings account with no minimum balance at PNC Bank. It is the first time I have had to plan for my own finances, and the undertaking feels a bit like a part-time job. I find myself having to dedicate hours to this each school day, and I see why the teachers do not give as many classes in the senior year. I have started dreaming about graduating and formalizing my model for public education, becoming a beacon for free education. I will take advantage of the free tuition at PSU, but still have a gap of about 4-5 thousand dollars. I am planning for things like work study and scholarships to cover the gap. The steps to admission at PSU have been one heck of a learning curve in my financial education, but I am a super positive and determined person, and I can learn anything. When I succeed, the Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States.

I took a DNA test to help my Aunt Janine with her family tree research and unintentionally discovered something about myself in the process. It turns out I have four siblings. I contacted them and made a plan to visit Indiana and meet them. I expected some awkwardness, but not how unfamiliar their everyday language would feel. Early in the visit, I heard the N-word used casually, as if it were normal. I quickly realized that in their world, it was just another word. They also used “gay” to describe things that were bad. I froze, unable to understand how the language I had always been taught was harmful could be treated so lightly by them. I grew up in Oakland, a place with a proud black culture, home of the Black Panther Party, where words carry weight and history. Hearing my brother's casual use of hate language showed me how differently people can be shaped by where they grow up. I didn’t want to cause conflict with my new family, so I listened. Observation taught me that, for them, the N word wasn’t intentional hate, but the result of the normalization of racism in their Indiana culture. The experience taught me about my own values. I began to understand them as something learned, repeated, and then questioned or accepted. Without questioning, ignorance wins. My upbringing shaped me as theirs shaped them. After reflecting, I decided not to stay silent. I talked with my brothers and explained how I felt about the N-word and why it matters, and I told them I didn’t think “gay” should be used as a slur. I was afraid it might damage our relationship, but it didn’t. They understood and expressed some shame. I don’t know if they’ve stopped completely, but they don’t say those things around me, and that is a start. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I grew up in Oakland, California, right next to the BART station at MacArthur, a place where unhoused folks could find warmth and community, in the heart of the historical jazz district. I had watched the fentanyl crisis grow until it felt like it had reached my own doorstep. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and that loss shaped how strongly I feel about harm reduction and making Narcan free and available. I wanted a way to take some control over an uncontrollable problem. I once came across a young man overdosing, turning blue. I didn’t have Narcan then, only CPR training, and I did what I could until help arrived. After that, I promised myself I would always be prepared. A commitment came from experience. Inspired to do more, I bought a small wooden box and turned it into a community Narcan box, painting it to match the packaging and filling it with supplies from free trainings. Within weeks, neighbors began adding items like Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms. The box brought my community together, showing that we could take care of each other. Even after I moved away, a neighbor continued to maintain it, and it still serves West Oakland today. Now that I am a licensed driver, I keep Narcan with me at all times and take refresher courses on how to administer it.

I am an Omnisexual guy, which means I am attracted to folks from the entire spectrum of gender. I grew up with a non-binary mother, who taught me early in life about sexuality and gender identity and how the two interact. When I turned 18, I started exploring adult activities and spaces. I even have my first boyfriend! There are so many first-time experiences, falling in love with a boy, and I am enjoying the newness of it all. I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge, extremely diverse city. I met every type of person when I lived there, which helped me to grow up open-minded. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially. We lived in a rundown house that was falling off the hill, and we even had to sue our landlord once over maintenance. Despite our struggle, mom made sure I always had access to a device, and I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I have been accepted to Portland State University's Honors Computer Science program for Fall '26, as the first in my family to go directly from high school into college, and it's a heavy responsibility to carry. I’ll be the second person in the whole family to reach college at all. It took all four years of high school to fully understand how grades applied to the next phase of my life. Now in my senior year, I can clearly see the link between my classes and my dream of a STEM career. PSU will provide me with the network and experiences I need to achieve my long-term goal of building an immersive educational platform. I now carry a straight A average because I know that doing well in high school directly contributes to the likelihood of success in my future. My coming-of-age, from urban to rural, has shaped my unique worldview. I'm still uncertain about many things, but I am confident in my path to university. I picked a school where being gay is accepted openly. For the first time in my life, I will live with a group of peers who have similar interests. It sounds like heaven. I plan to join the LGBTQ club the second I land on campus, and I really hope I can take on a leadership role in some traditionally heterosexual spaces like Esports to represent the community and make my mark as I enter the adult world for the first time. The charity aspect of my future goals is rolled into my dream to create an immersive technical model for public schools. My model would include free public education for all children to help them understand and fit into our increasingly technical world. Our mission will be to provide kids with an opportunity not just to learn about computers and technology, but to immerse themselves in haptics and virtual reality. We need modern education opportunities, and I would like to help bring them to life. We could call on volunteers from the communities to lend their skills and perspectives to make it a United States endeavor rather than just one man's idea or a contract for sale. I believe that free education for all kids is a low bar, and we can do one better.

I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge city that is extremely diverse. I met every culture and type of person when I lived there, which helped me to develop an open mind. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially throughout my childhood. She was trying to be the first in our family to complete college while raising a son on her own with no family support. She may not have had family support, but she always had mine, and watching her struggle helped make me the man I am today, with a clear vision and a dream to make the world better for the kids that come next. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and Dad's death changed all of our lives forever. Without him, the finances were stretched. Mom and I had to live in rundown housing that was dangerously out of code because it was all we could afford, and we relied on food assistance. She and I often brainstormed together and found creative ways to pay the rent, like bake sales and online graphic design jobs. We even had to take on titans sometimes in battles that lasted years, like when we had to sue our landlord over unsafe housing and get a lawyer to represent us pro bono. Despite our struggle, Mom made sure I always had access to a device and a library. It was a peaceful place in the noise and chaos of the big city. I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I always wanted to go to the library after school to use the computers in elementary and middle school. She would take me as often as she could. I would eagerly sign up and wait for my 30-minute turn ot one of the kids' computers, and sometimes, if Mom got her homework done early, she would let me use the adult computer until her time ran out. Mom's library idea filled a lot of the gaps left behind by Dad's death. We couldn't afford things like Netflix, so we borrowed DVDs from the library. We couldn't afford home internet service, so we used the internet at the library. That is where my initial love of computer science took root. Now that I have been accepted to Portland State University's Honors program for Computer Science in Fall '26, I can see that my dream is truly possible, and I am almost there. My experience growing up without many resources and my Dad has shaped my worldview and desire to create better opportunities for kids like me. When I succeed, the Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, leading them to advanced educational experiences and positive core memories.

I grew up in Oakland, California, a huge city that is extremely diverse. I met every culture and type of person when I lived there, which helped me to develop an open mind. In Oakland, my mom and I struggled a lot financially throughout my childhood. She was trying to be the first in our family to complete college while raising a son on her own with no family support. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and Dad's death changed all of our lives forever. Without him, the finances were stretched. We lived in a rundown housing that was dangerously out of code and relied on food assistance. We found creative ways to pay the rent, like bake sales and homemade candy. We even had to sue our landlord over unsafe housing at one point. Despite our struggle, Mom made sure I always had access to a device and a library. It was a peaceful place in the noise and chaos of the big city. I have had a library card in every city we have ever lived in. I always wanted to go to the library after school to use the computers in elementary and middle school. She would take me as often as she could. I would eagerly sign up and wait for my 30-minute turn ot one of the kids' computers, and sometimes, if Mom got her homework done early, she would let me use the adult computer until her time ran out. The library filled a lot of the gaps left behind by Dad's death. We couldn't afford things like Netflix, so we borrowed DVDs from the library. We couldn't afford home internet service, so we used the internet at the library. That is where my initial love of computer science took root. Now that I have been accepted to Portland State University's Honors program for Computer Science in Fall '26, I can see that my dream is truly possible, and I am almost there. My experience growing up without many resources and my Dad has shaped my worldview and desire to create better opportunities for kids like me. When I succeed, the Shaffer trademark will be virtual reality improvements to public education for the children of the United States. My dream is to leave behind a legacy that changes the pipeline to no longer take kids from high school to the army or prison; instead, leading them to advanced educational experiences and positive core memories.

I grew up in Oakland, California, which has been facing a terrible epidemic of fentanyl overdoses for a decade. In my freshman year, one of my first high school projects was the creation of a Narcan box to help my inner-city neighborhood fight the common occurrences of Fentanyl overdoses in our streets. My home was right next to the BART station at Macarthur, the biggest station in Oakland, a place that is always buzzing with activity. A place where unhoused folks go to find a bit of warmth and community. The station is in the heart of the historical jazz district, and music still plays there sometimes. I lived in Oakland for most of my childhood and watched as the Fentanyl crisis grew and eventually landed right on my doorstep. I wanted a way of taking some control over an uncontrollable problem. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and it seemed like the problem was following me. Dad's death changed all of our lives forever and sent me down a path where I feel very strongly about harm reduction and making Narcan free and available. Now that I am a licensed driver with my own car, I keep it on me and in my car at all times and take frequent refresher courses on how to administer Narcan to someone who is overdosing. I wish I could say that it was all an abundance of caution, but I have had to use my skills. I was only CPR trained at the time. I was walking home from the post office when I came upon a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again. Have you seen those book boxes that some people have out front of their houses? I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I painted it blue and white like the packages of Narcan I had been collecting. I filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box above the little door. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well, and the box is still doing its work in West Oakland today.

I grew up in Oakland, California, which has been facing a terrible epidemic of fentanyl overdoses for a decade. In my freshman year, one of my first high school projects was the creation of a Narcan box to help my inner-city neighborhood fight the common occurrences of Fentanyl overdoses in our streets. My home was right next to the BART station at Macarthur, the biggest station in Oakland, a place that is always buzzing with activity. A place where unhoused folks go to find a bit of warmth and community. The station is in the heart of the historical jazz district, and music still plays there sometimes. I lived in Oakland for most of my childhood and watched as the Fentanyl crisis grew and eventually landed right on my doorstep. I wanted a way of taking some control over an uncontrollable problem. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and it seemed like the problem was following me. Dad's death changed all of our lives forever and sent me down a path where I feel very strongly about harm reduction and making Narcan free and available. Now that I am a licensed driver with my own car, I keep it on me and in my car at all times and take frequent refresher courses on how to administer Narcan to someone who is overdosing. I wish I could say that it was all an abundance of caution, but I have had to use my skills. I was only CPR trained at the time. I was walking home from the post office when I came upon a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again. Have you seen those book boxes that some people have out front of their houses? I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I painted it blue and white like the packages of Narcan I had been collecting. I filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box above the little door. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well, and the box is still doing its work in West Oakland today.

I have always been enthusiastic about video games. Gaming began for me as a hobby when I was a kid, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. I used to play video games at random. Slowly, as I got older, that changed to strategy and team building. I am so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I would like to create a new type of school. In my school, each day will be an adventure of immersion. It's an idea I have had for a long time; I first had this idea at age 14, when I joined an online school during the 2020 Pandemic. I plan to utilize hepatics and develop virtual reality to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. This school could create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools; in-person education did not work for my timelines or interests. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for, so I ended up going off to YouTube to create my own. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I grew up in Oakland, California, and started high school there. It was a large, inner-city environment with tall buildings. I remember it as being sunny all the time, with sparse trees, and massive six-lane highways near my house. After my first year in highschool my family moved to Oregon. It was a much smaller town, with no tall buildings, vastly larger trees, and somehow perpetually cloudy. The major difference between the two areas blew my mind, and it is my understanding that this experience is rare. Maybe it should not be, the culture shift broadened my worldview, and it would probably do the same for other young adults. I have personally lived in rural and urban environments, and I have seen the major differences between schools. I imagine a future where all kids get firsthand experiences before they leave high school. Opportunities such as walking through historical landscapes, hearing languages that few people still speak, and seeing cultures that once thrived can change how a young person sees their future. Experiences like these can also open doors to higher education in new ways. Advancements in educational technology could create a whole new pathway for touring college campuses, exemplified by the new virtual reality dorm tours available at the University of Oregon. I hope I can be a leader of an enthusiasm renaissance in academia.

I have always been enthusiastic about video games. Gaming began for me as a hobby when I was a kid, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. I used to play video games at random. Slowly, as I got older, that changed to strategy and team building. I am so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I would like to create a new type of school. In my school, each day will be an adventure of immersion. It's an idea I have had for a long time; I first had this idea at age 14, when I joined an online school during the 2020 Pandemic. I plan to utilize hepatics and develop virtual reality to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. This school could create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools; in-person education did not work for my timelines or interests. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for, so I ended up going off to YouTube to create my own. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I grew up in Oakland, California, and started high school there. It was a large, inner-city environment with tall buildings. I remember it as being sunny all the time, with sparse trees, and massive six-lane highways near my house. After my first year in highschool my family moved to Oregon. It was a much smaller town, with no tall buildings, vastly larger trees, and somehow perpetually cloudy. The major difference between the two areas blew my mind, and it is my understanding that this experience is rare. Maybe it should not be, the culture shift broadened my worldview, and it would probably do the same for other young adults. I have personally lived in rural and urban environments, and I have seen the major differences between schools. I imagine a future where all kids get firsthand experiences before they leave high school. Opportunities such as walking through historical landscapes, hearing languages that few people still speak, and seeing cultures that once thrived can change how a young person sees their future. Experiences like these can also open doors to higher education in new ways. Advancements in educational technology could create a whole new pathway for touring college campuses, exemplified by the new virtual reality dorm tours available at the University of Oregon. I hope I can be a leader of an enthusiasm renaissance in academia.

I have always been enthusiastic about video games. Gaming began for me as a hobby when I was a kid, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. I used to play video games at random. Slowly, as I got older, that changed to strategy and team building. I am so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I would like to create a new type of school. In my school, each day will be an adventure of immersion. It's an idea I have had for a long time; I first had this idea at age 14, when I joined an online school during the 2020 Pandemic. I plan to utilize hepatics and develop virtual reality to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. This school could create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools; in-person education did not work for my timelines or interests. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for, so I ended up going off to YouTube to create my own. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I grew up in Oakland, California, and started high school there. It was a large, inner-city environment with tall buildings. I remember it as being sunny all the time, with sparse trees, and massive six-lane highways near my house. After my first year in highschool my family moved to Oregon. It was a much smaller town, with no tall buildings, vastly larger trees, and somehow perpetually cloudy. The major difference between the two areas blew my mind, and it is my understanding that this experience is rare. Maybe it should not be, the culture shift broadened my worldview, and it would probably do the same for other young adults. I have personally lived in rural and urban environments, and I have seen the major differences between schools. I imagine a future where all kids get firsthand experiences before they leave high school. Opportunities such as walking through historical landscapes, hearing languages that few people still speak, and seeing cultures that once thrived can change how a young person sees their future. Experiences like these can also open doors to higher education in new ways. Advancements in educational technology could create a whole new pathway for touring college campuses, exemplified by the new virtual reality dorm tours available at the University of Oregon. I hope I can be a leader of an enthusiasm renaissance in academia.

I have always been enthusiastic about video games. Gaming began for me as a hobby when I was a kid, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. I used to play video games at random. Slowly, as I got older, that changed to strategy and team building. I am so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I would like to create a new type of school. In my school, each day will be an adventure of immersion. It's an idea I have had for a long time; I first had this idea at age 14, when I joined an online school during the 2020 Pandemic. I plan to utilize hepatics and develop virtual reality to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. This school could create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools; in-person education did not work for my timelines or interests. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for, so I ended up going off to YouTube to create my own. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I grew up in Oakland, California, and started high school there. It was a large, inner-city environment with tall buildings. I remember it as being sunny all the time, with sparse trees, and massive six-lane highways near my house. After my first year in highschool my family moved to Oregon. It was a much smaller town, with no tall buildings, vastly larger trees, and somehow perpetually cloudy. The major difference between the two areas blew my mind, and it is my understanding that this experience is rare. Maybe it should not be, the culture shift broadened my worldview, and it would probably do the same for other young adults. I have personally lived in rural and urban environments, and I have seen the major differences between schools. I imagine a future where all kids get firsthand experiences before they leave high school. Opportunities such as walking through historical landscapes, hearing languages that few people still speak, and seeing cultures that once thrived can change how a young person sees their future. Experiences like these can also open doors to higher education in new ways. Advancements in educational technology could create a whole new pathway for touring college campuses, exemplified by the new virtual reality dorm tours available at the University of Oregon. I hope I can be a leader of an enthusiasm renaissance in academia.

I grew up in Oakland, California, which has been facing a terrible epidemic of fentanyl overdoses for a decade. In my freshman year, one of my first high school projects was the creation of a Narcan box to help my inner-city neighborhood fight the common occurrences of Fentanyl overdoses in our streets. My home was right next to the BART station at Macarthur, the biggest station in Oakland, a place that is always buzzing with activity. A place where unhoused folks go to find a bit of warmth and community. The station is in the heart of the historical jazz district, and music still plays there sometimes. I lived in Oakland for most of my childhood and watched as the Fentanyl crisis grew and eventually landed right on my doorstep. I wanted a way of taking some control over an uncontrollable problem. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and it seemed like the problem was following me. Dad's death changed all of our lives forever and sent me down a path where I feel very strongly about harm reduction and making Narcan free and available. Now that I am a licensed driver with my own car, I keep it on me and in my car at all times and take frequent refresher courses on how to administer Narcan to someone who is overdosing. I wish I could say that it was all an abundance of caution, but I have had to use my skills. I was only CPR trained at the time. I was walking home from the post office when I came upon a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again. Have you seen those book boxes that some people have out front of their houses? I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I painted it blue and white like the packages of Narcan I had been collecting. I filled it with the Narcan I obtained from free online classes and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box above the little door. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well, and the box is still doing its work in West Oakland today.

I grew up in Oakland, California, which has been facing a terrible epidemic of fentanyl overdoses for a decade. In my freshman year, one of my first high school projects was the creation of a Narcan box to help my inner-city neighborhood fight the common occurrences of Fentanyl overdoses in our streets. My home was right next to the BART station at Macarthur, the biggest station in Oakland, a place that is always buzzing with activity. A place where unhoused folks go to find a bit of warmth and community. The station is in the heart of the historical jazz district, and music still plays there sometimes. I lived in Oakland for most of my childhood and watched as the Fentanyl crisis grew and eventually landed right on my doorstep. I wanted a way of taking some control over an uncontrollable problem. My father passed away from a fentanyl overdose when I was three, and it seemed like the problem was following me. Dad's death changed all of our lives forever and sent me down a path where I feel very strongly about harm reduction and making Narcan free and available. Now that I am a licensed driver with my own car, I keep it on me and in my car at all times and take frequent refresher courses on how to administer Narcan to someone who is overdosing. I wish I could say that it was all an abundance of caution, but I have had to use my skills. I was only CPR trained at the time. I was walking home from the post office when I came upon a chaotic scene, a young man spread-eagled and turning blue. I did not have Narcan on me at the time, so I did what I could until the ambulance arrived. I made a promise to myself to never be in that position again. Have you seen those book boxes that some people have out front of their houses? I went on Etsy and found a blank, cheap wooden box and asked my mother to buy it. When she heard my plan, she was all-in. The box arrived a few weeks later. I painted it blue and white like the packages of Narcan I had been collecting. I filled it with the Narcan and nailed a small sign indicating the purpose of the box above the little door. It was only a week or two after I put the box up that others in the community started donating things as well, Plan B, fentanyl testing strips, and condoms! Their response was more than I had hoped for. The box united my community in a whole new way. I felt like they understood and agreed that we had to be the ones to do something. After my freshman year, my family decided to move away, and I had to ask a neighbor to make sure the box kept going. Though I moved away, my neighbor took over really well, and the box is still doing its work in West Oakland today.

I have always been enthusiastic about video games. Gaming began for me as a hobby when I was a kid, and later became a more serious, creative, and intellectual endeavor. I used to play video games at random. Slowly, as I got older, that changed to strategy and team building. I was slowly finding my place online. I am so committed to the gaming world that I even want to formalize it into an academic endeavor and eventually a career. I no longer want to be just a player; I want to be the guy who builds the game. I think incorporating gaming into education is the future, and I want to be part of it. After college, I would like to create a new type of school. In my school, each day will be an adventure of immersion. It's an idea I have had for a long time; I first had this idea at age 14, when I joined an online school during the 2020 Pandemic. I plan to utilize hepatics and develop virtual reality to create immersive learning experiences inspired by the environments of the video games I have grown up playing. For example, Assassin's Creed taught me the layout of the Roman Colosseum so well that I was able to describe it to my mother at age 14. I also read in the news about a school group that got lost in Rome, and the kids helped their teacher find her way back to the Colosseum with their knowledge from the same game. This school could create a more expressive experience for students, allowing them to generate avatars rather than worrying about their daily outfits. Teaching online skills, while pupils are also creating within a safe and inclusive community where anyone can be anything they can dream of. I have been to both online and brick-and-mortar schools; in-person education did not work for my timelines or interests. Online school allowed me to be more self-driven, but it lacked a lot of the community I was looking for, so I ended up going off to YouTube to create my own. The school milieu I propose would blend the best aspects of online and in-person school while eliminating the possibility of a school shooting. I grew up in Oakland, California, and started high school there. It was a large, inner-city environment with tall buildings. The move was a major culture shock. I remember my California childhood as being sunny all the time, with sparse trees, and massive six-lane highways near my house. After my first year in high school, my family moved to Oregon. It was a much smaller town, with less culture, vastly larger trees, and somehow perpetually cloudy. The difference between the two areas blew my mind, and it is my understanding that this experience is rare for teens. I imagine a future where all kids get firsthand experiences like mine before they leave high school. Opportunities such as walking through historical landscapes, hearing languages that few people still speak, and seeing cultures that once thrived can change how a young person sees their future. Experiences like these can also open doors to higher education in new ways.

I am an omnisexual guy who has just come out to family and friends. Being omnisexual means I am attracted to people of all genders. For me, gender matters to the attraction, but doesn't limit my attraction. I often say "hearts not parts," when talking about those I fall in love with. I am really excited about the welcoming community at Portland State University, where I have already been accepted. I'll be going for a degree in computer science. I've always been into tech, so this will be perfect for me. It will be my first time immersed in an inclusive culture as an adult. I have just begun to explore the world of adult relationships and responsibilities. I am also a part of the furry community. Being a furry is like cosplay. I like to wear a tail because I think it's fun, and I feel like it fits me. I hang out with other people who also like to be fluffy. Some furries have full fursuits and Fursonas (furry personas), others just wear a tail, or some ears! I have joined some furry groups, online and in virtual reality. Most often, we hang out in a game called VRChat, where I have my own house and room that has portals to other worlds. The portals lead to a bunch of hangout spots. I have avatars that I can customize. It is truly a world where I can be whatever I want to be and can hang out with people from all over the world. I've been learning to make and import new avatars so I can feel truly like myself in VR and so I can help my friends do the same. I recently made a skull wolf avatar for myself and a gator avatar for a friend! This level of expression and creativity is new to me, and I am looking forward to more of it in the college experience. I grew up in Oakland, California, where people of all kinds live together, and it created space in my mind for expression without limits. In California, I got to experience all sorts of fun cultures, music, and foods. When I moved to Oregon, I realized that there isn't as much diversity outside of certain cities. I was shocked by the lack of culture in Salem and relieved by Portland. I would use the scholarship to pay for a portion of my housing. It is required for freshmen to live on campus in the freshman year, and that will be the biggest financial burden for my family. My mother is the only breadwinner for our home, and she is currently finishing her Ph.D. She was the first in our family to attend higher education, and I plan to follow her. Housing will be about $14,000USD, and this scholarship would help ease that cost greatly.