My name is James and I'm from Arleta, California. I grew up around sports like basketball and tennis, and I'm pursuing the latter at a collegiate level. I have three other siblings and all of us compete in USTA(United States Tennis Association) national tournaments. We train daily in order to maximize our skill and our chances at going far in competition. I'm the oldest, so I always try to provide an excellent example of hard work and determination in the face of adversity. Sometimes, there are obstacles that present themselves specifically to me because I'm the first child attending college, working, and playing collegiate-level tennis. One of those challenges is finding funds to pay for equipment, tournament fees, and lessons. Tennis has been traditionally known as one of the two "sports of the rich", the other being golf. To play a single tournament can cost anywhere between $70-$120, and that's not even including other fees like gas and food. I need lessons and sometimes new equipment(like strings, which can break often), and those costs can add up quickly, especially when there's four kids who need those things. Despite these challenges, I've enjoyed working in order to make money, and then using that money to pay for tournaments or lessons. It's taught me perseverance and the importance of hard work. I chose Sport Management as my major because the ideals that I truly love(like competitiveness, greatness under pressure) are the focal points of sports. I also love the culture that surrounds sports like basketball and tennis. There's so much energy involved with professional teams/players, and that's something that I want to get involved with in the future. One of my goals is to play tennis professionally, and the other is to work for a professional sport organization, whether that be the ATP(Association of Tennis Professionals) or my dream team, the Los Angeles Clippers. I love coming together with other people to host a big event, or to rally behind a worthy cause. With this scholarship, I'm looking to get one step closer to achieving my goals. I thank you for your time.

Especially in recent years, the truth has been somewhat of a myth. We hear whispers and quick mentions of the word; some people say, "Well, my truth is...", while others deny its existence at all. In college, I've been frequently challenged on the definition of the truth. I'm Christian and have been raised by two loving Christian parents. For me, I've always understood that God is the standard of truth in a constantly changing world. Attending college classes like Religion and Ethics only confirmed what I thought. The things I was hearing were the "wisdom of the wise" spewed from "the debater of this age"(1 Cor. 1:19,20). I heard the existence and authority of God questioned; people would ask about the presence of evil and that things God had ordained (marriage, family, and purity) were old-fashioned. They would say, "Some random people centuries ago wrote these things!" At first, I did struggle with a God who allowed evil to exist. I turned to the book of Job in hopes of finding an answer. The Bible is always transparent; God has proclaimed His character clearly and in various ways. He's good, kind and merciful, but He's also just. In Job's life, the goodness of God was showcased by both materially and spiritually. That was tested when God gave Satan the permission to strip Job of his physical blessings. Job didn't know about this; he only knew he was innocent. His friends told him that he must be guilty. Then God appeared, and without revealing everything to his creation, established His character. He's omnipotent and omniscient, and despite Job and his friends thinking they were knowledgeable about God and the world’s workings, God was quick to remind Job how little he actually knew. What I'm amazed by is that God doesn't give an outright answer to the presence of evil. He knows it's there, and He knows its effect on His children. Yet, I feel like we aren't meant to know everything. There's many things in the world that we may never know. But we can remember the proven character of God. We can also be reminded of who we are. We’re flawed in every way, including morally. When God’s divine nature is compared to our fallen one, God’s superiority is shown and we can find rest in that. Also, I’ve heard many things about the “antiquity” of the Bible and the progressiveness of the world. Everyone is searching for a personalized version of the truth. Some people believe their true identity lies in a different gender; others believe in faulty policies as the cause of societal ills. Everyone believes that the culture has progressed too far to be “held back” by a God. Looking at things like advanced technology and our knowledge of the human body, we can be tempted to believe that. Yet, that’s just what the people in Genesis 11 thought. They wanted to reach God through “a tower whose top will reach into heaven”(Genesis 11:4a). They thought they could achieve equal status with God, and how wrong they were! Similarly, today’s society is wrong about everything they proclaim as right. Without truth given to us by a God who’s unaffected by time and the misguidance of sin, humanity is delusional. They believe they’re morally supreme when they’ve really degraded themselves. I’m grateful for the clarity of God’s Word, and that despite the world telling me otherwise, I can trust His Word. It transcends time, culture, and societal norms to set forth unchanging, objective, truth.