Xavier Holton Explain why you think it's important that we work to better understand the nature of our universe, and what ideas and concepts you hope to employ in order to do so. As humans, it's imperative that we keep exploring and testing for a better understanding of our universe. This is because we're still searching for the unknown, new concepts and ideas are found daily. The unknown is largely based on a mix of what we haven't found yet and what we have yet to create. Studies show, that only 5% of the ocean has been explored and this is the place where the scariest creatures on Earth are found. Just imagine what we can learn about the history of the earth and how everything came to be with a little bit more exploration. On the flip side, we're in a whole new tech age with new developments happening all around us. It's up to us to choose what we utilize and that's the tricky thing because you never know what's going to be useful when it comes to certain tech. I'm a student at North Carolina Central University majoring in I.T. concentrating in cybersecurity, so my career will lead toward the technological aspect of things. I hope to create internal security systems for businesses that implement keeping A.I. secure. With new understanding comes new concepts, which lead to innovations such as generative AI and augmented reality, which then of course lead to regulations. Cybersecurity specialists want to see things in order and systems to be run smoothly so we can minimize complications. Moving to more philosophical concepts, I think it's important to challenge paradoxes so we can see how the universe responds to the unusual. The most interesting paradoxes to me would be the ones that involve time travel. But there's only one problem, guess what it is. But just imagine the immense amount of knowledge that is stored in that one concept that is deemed to be impossible. Are there alternate universes, if so then how many? Could you be in two places at once? Could you change your future or is it fixed? These are all questions and concepts that stay on my and I hope to be alive long enough to see them play out. But aside from the future, it's important because we as humans need to work together more forthrightly. If we all could have a shared goal due to the increased understanding, world problems such as hunger and wars would decline as a result. When thinking about the "big picture", world peace is often the means of the solution when thinking as a whole. In today's day and age, it's paramount to replace the word peace with respect. I only say this because we may not be able to understand everyone but we can treat people with respect and that'll always be free. Learning the nature of the universe is mostly about human psychology which a lot of people don't understand. It's about how we perceive things and process our feelings when we decide upon what actions. So to get a good understanding we need a good grasp on what's going on in our own minds. We have to look out for our future generations and to do this we need to think in abstract ways and develop in ways we thought were possible. Thank You!

Xavier Holton - Thoughts on "Ode To Millennials-Gen Z" When I first started reading "Ode To Millennials-Gen Z", I thought it would be a nice piece of advice and information to have. Wow was that an understatement, what a prolific and descriptive piece of text this was. I thoroughly enjoyed the unbiased and comparative nature of the text itself. When talking about the older and newer generations, the writer sees both sides and explains it well in such a brief way. I enjoyed the positive nature of the text, it wasn't bashing but encouraging, at least that's how I took it. It also mentioned the differences within Gen Z ourselves, we (Gen-Z) have both the "polite" types as well as the "resentment" types. But they have one thing in common, they want a change. Being Gen Z myself, I do see where it's coming from, yet I think there are more undefined grey areas they probably just didn't have the space and time to get into. But overall they get the gist of how we feel, it's just difficult to categorize. Another thing that stood out for me was the historical significance and the mention of global phenomenons and how they BOTH affected the older generation as well as Gen Z just in different ways. Whenever they mentioned a major event such as the World War the older generation had to go through, they also mentioned the insurance and loan complications our current generation is dealing with. They're fair to both sides and it's clear to see. To wrap things up, I truly do think this was an informative and quite eye-opening read. Mainly because I often think about the effects the previous and following generations had/will have on the world. I hope to make a change in the world after reading pieces like this, it's quite inspiring as well as a bit scary knowing that our current generation has total control of what our world will look like in the future.

Xavier Holton - Pettable Mental Health Importance Scholarship First and foremost, mental health defines and characterizes you and how you perceive your reality since your body is just your shell. Mental health is your driving force through life, it allows your body and brain to tell you what you're doing wrong or right. Though there are many more factors, in this paper I'll be mentioning the three most distinctive ways mental health is important and how it affects your life. (Spoiler, it's more important than most people realize.) The first reason is the effects it has on your physical health which I touched on a little bit, but has a greater impact than you may realize. Being in a bad mental state may lead to health problems and bad habits such as, overeating, not eating enough, lack of exercise and motivation to leave the house, etc. In my personal experience, simply going to the gym a couple of days a week has the single greatest impact you could have on your mental. When your body wants to work, sometimes your brain doesn't, and vice versa. The goal is to get to a point where your body and brain works in sync. Secondly would be your productivity and function. I know personally how mental health can affect your life, my sister, who I am very close with has dealt with a plethora of challenges on her own and it inevitably affected me and my other sister's life. It took a big burden but we both learned a lot about ourselves. I've seen firsthand how it could just eat up your will to do just about anything if your mental health is at a low. It may be hard for people who have never experienced it to realize how much your mental health could alter your motivation but it truly does. The want or need to do something is overcome by the emptiness and nothingness in your mind which is depression. I may never have considered myself or have been diagnosed depressed on my own but when it's right in front of you it's difficult to just brush over. The third reason is the social aspect of the effect of mental health. This time I'll start out with the positives of having good mental health and how friendships can be affected by this. When your mental health is good and you're looking to implant positive people and vibes it becomes a lot easier to weed out the people you want to stay away from, from the people you may not want to keep in contact with. Having good social relations and mental health go hand in hand. You inevitably attract what you reap, it's a mental thing. To wrap things up, your mental health can affect you and the people around you, and this will ultimately hinder or lift up your ability to chase and achieve your goals. If your mental health is grim then your said goals may be altered and that could change the decisions you make today. Though your goals are meant to evolve over time, an unmotivated goal could even change your thought process. You never want to get too comfortable and being in a bad mental state is an easy way to be very contemptuous with your situation. It's important to really check in with yourself and friends here and there to see how you all are doing. It will be worth it, care now so you don't suffer tomorrow. Thank you, Pettable The awareness this scholarship brings is amazing.

Xavier Holton, Freshman I.T. major: William A. Lewis Scholarship Over the past few years, I've had many obstacles that have challenged me but one personal obstacle was my stubbornness that never allowed me to reach out to someone if I was dealing with something or needed help. My self-reliance got in the way many times, and quite frankly I probably missed out on opportunities because of it. My independent mindset was setting me back and the older I got, the more it became clear to me. Unnecessary struggles are a good way of putting my situation in words. I have very smart and willing parents and grandparents who are always there whenever I need advice or am going through something so I couldn't say I have too much of an excuse either. It took me some time to realize that my elders and people above me have gone through the same stuff I have and often do have very insightful things to say to me. Another reason not asking many things hindered me was I didn't always get the chance to hear multiple opinions about things because I would never ask. I quickly picked up this one of the worst things I could do for myself. So by the time I was in 12th grade, I had decided to speak up about anything I needed help with or anything I wanted to have more knowledge about. It wasn't a fast transition, I steadily had to prompt myself but over my senior year, the confidence just slowly built up and by the time the year was over I never looked back on conversations and wished they had gone differently. So now here I am in college proud of myself for putting in the hard work and thankful for having such a great support system around me which I can give all the credit to. Especially my grandad who was a professor for many year and helped kids from many walks of life. He always told me to simply "open my mouth more and speak", and I have lived by that. Another thing that has greatly helped my communication was football and more importantly my teammates and coaches. I have always been very vocal on the field and as a linebacker, I had to be the main one speaking up and giving orders. So during the football year, all I was thinking was "If I can speak up, ask questions, and be communicative on the football team then I can do that everywhere else. I adopted that mindset and it changed my life. Thank you for this opportunity!