My name is Yulena Jasper. I am a freshman Mathematics Education major at Carroll College in Helena, MT and I coach and compete as a figure skater. It took me a while to find the sport that I loved. In my "Hall of Rejected Sports," as my aunt puts it, are basketball, soccer, softball, and volleyball. I guess you could say that I never did well in team sports. I knew I found what I loved the first time I went skating when I was eight years old. My dad recalls that I fell every three feet, but got back up every time with a huge smile on my face. I started with Learn to Skate about a month later and fell in love with the sport. What I found especially rewarding about skating was the direct correlation between how much I worked and how easy each of the moves were. I liked being the only one responsible for my performance and the sport taught me accountability and realistic self-expectations. It was also through skating that I learned how important mentorship was to me. I had been helping with the Learn to Skate program through my skating club since I was in the 5th grade. When our club had a shortage of coaches my junior year of high school, my coach approached me asking if I would be willing to take over a few of the preschool classes so she could focus on the higher level skaters, I happily agreed. I loved mentoring the younger skaters, and I understood how important it is to have a good mentor, especially when just trying something new. It was not until I had begun coaching with the Learn to Skate program in Helena that I realized that mentorship was something I was willing to devote my life to doing. As an all honors/AP student in high school, I understand how important it is to have good educators who care about your success. I had been blessed with incredible mentors, both in school and in my sports, and I want to devote my life to being like them. In addition, my family has been deeply involved in education. My mom works as a secretary at a middle school, and three of my four grandparents worked as teachers. I chose mathematics as my concentration because I had always excelled at math, mostly due to the help from my incredible high school math teachers. I also want to help other young skaters like me succeed in the sport just as my coaches helped me to do. During college, I hope to continue pursuing the things I love. I want to be able to succeed at my skating and continue to be a mentor for those skaters who look up to me. It is my goal to pass my three remaining moves in the field tests by the time I graduate. I want to use my time here to gain the skills to set the next generation up for success, and this scholarship can help me do that. Thank you for your consideration.

Until I was in 7th grade, I thought math was boring. When I was in elementary school, math came very easily to me and I would draw pictures during math lessons because I already understood it. In middle school, I was placed two grades ahead in math and I suddenly thought it was incredibly difficult. By the time I was a junior in high school, I felt as though my hard work had paid off when I got my first 5 on an AP exam: AP Calculus. What did I do that year that was different from all the previous years? I worked hard. It was at that moment, I realized that if I really wanted to, I could do anything. I translated that attitude to my other activities. I can now play clarinet at a near professional level, compete as one of the highest-level skaters at competitions, graduated 4th in my class– the highest ranked girl– and have passed every AP exam I have taken with a 4 or 5. Perhaps I should have realized that I was supposed to do something in the field of mathematics sooner. I started my college experience as a nursing major. After six weeks, my delusions of being in healthcare had vanished. I remembered being in math class in high school, and how I could work hard and succeed. Because I had felt confident in math, making the switch to be in math was not difficult. Deciding to be in education was harder. Since I have been in middle school, I have been involved with children. I began volunteering with Learn to Skate in 6th grade, and I loved it so much, I showed up to every session, even though I was only supposed to go to two. In 8th grade, my Girl Scout troop decided to plan and host our own overnight camp because we wanted to make camp affordable for everyone. My freshman year, I started volunteering with summer functions, including Vacation Bible School and summer camp, with my church. My senior year, I volunteered with regular Sunday School and was put in charge of my own class with Learn to Skate. When I realized how much I love mentoring and teaching kids, I knew I had to be in education. I found that I am just as passionate about being a teacher as I was about being a coach or camp counselor. I love being able to help kids just like me feel like they are able to succeed and there is someone always there and always cheering them on. I was incredibly blessed to have amazing math teachers through middle and high school, and I hope to be for other kids what they were for me. They cheered me on every step of the way, answered my silly questions, and found me resources to help me get all those 5s on AP exams. I never believed in myself until someone else believed in me. I want to be a teacher like my 7th grade math teacher, Ms. Hale, who saw what no other teacher had seen before that and believed in me. When I felt like there was someone who believed in me, I was able to succeed and be where I am today. If I can be that for just one other person, I will not have lived for nothing. This scholarship will help me be for someone else what Ms. Hale was for me. Thank you for your consideration.

When I was in the second grade, my teacher gave the class an assignment that was meant to boost our self-esteem. Every person in the class had to ask several people who knew us to describe us in one word. I don’t remember what most people wrote, but I vividly remember the word my father chose for me when he heard about the exercise: “pigheaded.” I’ve always been a stubborn person. When I was young, it was often a hurdle that I struggled to overcome, but as I’ve learned how to harness this trait, it has turned from stubbornness to perseverance. This allows me to be able to stick with my goals even when others might quit. Once I start something, I am determined to finish it, and college will be no different. However, there are some financial obstacles that stand in the way of my dream of going to college to become a doctor. I have a twin brother who is also planning on going to college. This means that my parents will have to pay for two college students at the same time. This becomes even harder for them with our ambitious goals to graduate without student loans, which can be a great obstacle to future success. Scholarships are the best way to go about getting the money to pay for college. In college, I plan to major in Nursing so that I can become a surgical nurse. My goal in that field will be to help people with honesty and integrity. Honest medical professionals seem to be a rare thing, as has been demonstrated these past few years by doctors selling out to pharmaceutical companies and harming their patients while doing so. It has become evident that the medical system, like so many other aspects of our society, has become politicized, as it should not be. Going into this field will allow me to pursue the best possible treatment for those who come to me for help without any large corporation holding me hostage. I was inspired by Candace Owens's short series, "A Shot in the Dark," which exposes media lies about childhood vaccinations, like the cover-ups surrounding vaccine side effects and the way that large pharmaceutical companies buy out doctors to put their vaccines on the childhood vaccine schedule. I want to stand for the truth and doing what is best for people, even if I lose money or opportunities by doing it. My pigheadedness has turned to steadfastness in my beliefs and morals, which can be best utilized by helping those who are in the most need of it. As you can see, I have ambitious goals for my future that can be best fulfilled by this scholarship. Thank you for your consideration.