From a very young age, I have always felt a strong calling to help others. Growing up, I became aware of how quickly life can change due to illness, aging, or unexpected circumstances. I witnessed people struggle not only physically, but emotionally, often feeling unheard or unsupported during difficult moments. Seeing others in pain deeply affected me, especially when there was little I could do at the time to help. Those experiences stayed with me and shaped the person I wanted to become. I knew that as I got older, I wanted a career where I could show up for people during their most vulnerable moments and make a meaningful difference in their lives. That desire ultimately led me to pursue a career in nursing. Nursing speaks to me because it is a profession rooted in compassion, strength, and advocacy. Nurses are often the first and last point of contact for patients, providing not only medical care but reassurance, education, and emotional support. Through my nursing career, I hope to gain strong clinical skills, confidence in high pressure situations, and the ability to advocate effectively for my patients. I want to be someone patients trust, someone who listens carefully, responds with empathy, and treats every individual with dignity and respect. I am particularly drawn to Labor and Delivery nursing because of my deep love and admiration for women and all that we are capable of. Childbirth is one of the most powerful and transformative experiences in a woman’s life, yet it can also be a time of vulnerability and uncertainty. I want to be present for women during this moment, offering support, reassurance, and advocacy as they bring new life into the world. As a Black woman, I am especially aware of the disparities Black women face in maternal healthcare. Black women are more likely to experience complications during pregnancy and childbirth and are often not listened to or believed when expressing pain or concerns. This reality has strengthened my desire to become a Labor and Delivery nurse who ensures that women, especially Black women, feel heard, respected, and safe throughout their birthing experience. If I had the opportunity to create something fun to make the world a better place, I would create a community centered childbirth and women’s wellness program designed specifically for young women and women of color. This program would combine education with creativity and connection, offering workshops on reproductive health, pregnancy, self advocacy, and postpartum care in an engaging and approachable way. By incorporating storytelling, group discussions, and community events, the program would create a supportive space where women can learn, ask questions, and share experiences without fear or judgment. The purpose of this program would be to empower women with knowledge and confidence long before they ever step into a hospital. I believe that when women understand their bodies and their rights in healthcare settings, they are better equipped to advocate for themselves and make informed decisions. Making education fun, accessible, and community driven can help reduce fear, improve outcomes, and strengthen trust in healthcare. This vision aligns closely with the generosity and passion for education that Mighty embodied. His belief in supporting others dreams reflects the same values that motivate me to pursue nursing. I carry that spirit of generosity with me as I work toward becoming a nurse who gives back to her community in meaningful and lasting ways.

Since I was a child, I have always had a passion for helping others. At a young age, I was able to see the pain and misfortune that a lot of people had when it came to old age, not taking care of themselves or out right when unforeseen circumstances had gotten to them. Seeing others in pain deeply affected me, especially when there was nothing I could do to help at the time. That feeling stayed with me and motivated me to choose a career where I could truly make a difference, which ultimately led me to nursing. I am passionate about nursing because it allows me to combine compassion, strength, and knowledge to support people during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Nursing is more than providing medical care, it is about advocacy, trust, and being there when someone is need. I hope to gain strong clinical skills, confidence, and the ability to support patients physically as well as emotionally throughout my career. The area of nursing I will enter is Labor and Delivery. I am deeply passionate about women and the incredible strength we possess, and I want to be present for us during one of the most impactful and transformative moments of our lives. Childbirth is both powerful and vulnerable, and having a nurse who provides reassurance, education, and empathy can make a lasting difference in a woman’s experience. I would also like to add, as a Black woman, I am especially passionate about Labor and Delivery because I am aware of the disparities Black women face in maternal healthcare. Black women are more likely to experience complications during pregnancy and childbirth and are often not listened to or taken seriously when expressing pain or concerns. Too often, our voices are dismissed, leading to preventable outcomes. This reality has deeply influenced my desire to work in Labor and Delivery, where advocacy and attentiveness can be life altering and saving. I want to be a nurse who actively listens, believes my patients, and ensures that all women feel seen, respected, and supported throughout their birthing experience. I hope to help create a safe and empowering environment where women feel confident in their care and their voices are valued. By providing culturally competent, compassionate, and informed care, I aim to help improve birth outcomes and contribute to a more equitable and positive birthing experience for women and their families.

The nursing field is a challenging branch to get into. There are a lot of hardships and it can be very demanding, especially if you're in it for the wrong reasons. It's a career that provides meaningful work, career growth opportunities, diverse specialty options, high earning potential, job stability, schedule flexibility, and more. My main inspiration to become a nurse comes from an inborn desire to care for people in times of need. I feel that helping people overcome the burden of different health conditions, as well as supporting their families through such difficult times is satisfactory. My mother told me in my past life I was a helper of Mother Teresa, and that makes sense (For those of you who believe in past lives etc..) There’s no greater joy. Seeing individuals suffer deeply affects me. It always had since when I was a child but it also acted as a drive. It allows me to enable myself to help others in a more positive light. I want to alleviate part of their pain physically and mentally if possible. Furthermore, helping people has a positive impact on not only their lives but the lives of the people around them who truly care for them. It is equally rewarding. There are new experiences to be faced every single day and I thrive in a fast-paced environment that makes you want to think because it’s fun for me to be challenged. The changing of the environment brings me a certain thrill that you really can’t find anywhere else but in what you want and love to do. Being a person who can grow vigorously in addressing challenges and my keenness on new knowledge and willing to always be open to learning and trying new things, I believe that nursing will allow me an effective environment to utilize my strengths and explore the opportunities and diversities in the career. Seeing nurses work has always been a big inspiration to me. The thought that there are people in other parts of the world who don’t have health benefits or no healthcare at all prompts me to be the person who can provide them with the help that they might need, both physically and spiritually. I believe that caring for people who have very little privilege and not expecting anything back is very rewarding. I have been fortunate enough to meet different healthcare specialists because of my grandmother's health problems and now my own. My grandmother is currently on dialysis and I have PCOS. It has affected us both greatly but our nurses are a big help. As a way of preventing future pandemics, I would have to learn about the past ones. Study them and ensure that we do better next time. I believe that waste has a big effect on making people sick. We can start by taking care of global warming so that our plants can grow better, paying farmers what they deserve so they can make an honest living off of providing us with fruit and vegetables. If our oceans are dirty and surrounded with trash that affects the sea life, and us because a lot of people eat sea animals. As well as animals on land. If they are in a dirty environment they can eat something that is not good and if we eat them whatever they eat is in us. We have to take care of the world as if it were us. In conclusion, I feel that as a nurse we can make our voices heard and join together to face these problems head on.

Drinking and driving increases the risk of accidents due to impaired motor skills, less concentration, slow reaction times, decreased vision, and poor judgment. These side effects put the driver, potential passengers, other vehicles, and pedestrians at risk. Accidents involving drunk drivers are often fatal. There can be many ways to prevent DUI’s. The first and most important is to not drink! DUI convictions have major ramifications and some can linger for years. Most of us are aware of the short-term consequences, including temporary driver’s license suspension, fees and fines, high insurance premiums, court mandated community service, participation in drunk driving education programs, and even jail time. Worst of all the long-term shock waves from a DUI can cause the greatest pain. Even after you pay your fines and fulfill your legal obligations, your DUI conviction can still undermine your future opportunities and haunt your life for years. Learning the dangers of DUI can prevent a lot of pain for yourself, and your family members. A DUI will not only affect you but the person that might have been involved. When drunk driving you are not only a danger to yourself but others and personally nothing can be worse than driving and unexpectedly losing your life due to someone else neglectance. If someone drives drunk and survives a crash that injures or kills other people, they must live with the consequences. That emotional burden can be worse than any bodily harm. The physical perils of drunk driving are immense too. Impaired driving can cause accidents that lead to paralysis, disfigurement, brain damage, and even death. DUI’s can also cause PTSD for both parties and that’s not easy to recover from. As someone who has only had their license for a year it has truly been a trying experience. I learned that I’m not just driving for myself but for others. I may know what I am doing but others do not. I had to take that into consideration that some people are terrible drivers, don’t have licenses or just plain horrible road companions. I’ve been in two car accidents that were not my fault, and because of that I have super bad anxiety when driving, and the people who hit me weren’t even drunk so that says a lot. I can only imagine losing a family member or friend due to a drunk driving accident when it’s already hard enough driving when you're not under the influence. The best I advice I can give is to always pray before getting in the car, even if you're making a small trip. If you don't belive in a higher power do whatver you do to proect yourself before going on the road. The petty arguments you had with someone, apologize and tell them you love them because you truly never know what will happen everytime you start the engine of your car.

I'm going to school to become a registered nurse in gynecology. As a gyno nurse, I will be helping women through some of the most important stages of their life. I love everything about womanhood, which is why I am going into that field. There are a lot of ways to define what a woman is. For some womanhood is tenderness and for others strength. Womanhood is not defined by relationships, jobs, body parts or anything else, it's not defined by anyone or anything. Knowing and believing all of this makes me an even bigger supporter of women. I want to help women to the best of my abilities. The job outlook for gynecology is excellent since there is always a demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women's health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. I like the fact that the field is one where you get to maintain health as opposed to managing sickness. There are so many things you can do as an ob-gyn I get to deliver babies and do surgery and talk to women about their life aspirations. I think it’s great to be involved with women and be able to help optimize their well-being. I want to do fertility, so I would pretty much help women who want to be able to have babies. Women evolve as they go through the life cycle. I like that you can take them through the life spectrum. To start my journey I know I have to maintain a positive headspace about everything that I do. With this job, there is not only life but death which is something you understand as you grow older and get into the medical field. That's something you have to train your mind for. With this job also comes despair in many different ways and forms and that may be difficult to handle at times, especially with everything that's going on in the world. I have to sit down and evaluate what is important because I'm not just doing this for money or status, I'm doing it because I want to help women and make meaningful connections with them. I think going into this line of work is no walk around the park. You have to be seriously dedicated to your craft if you want to make it into this business. Ob-gyns have a unique line of work. They spend their days looking at vaginas, doing screenings, delivering babies, and generally doing all they can to make sure you’re healthy below the belt. Combine that with long hours and overnight hospital shifts, and this job is no joke. I can't wait to start my journey and learn many things along the way.

Growing up, I was told by my father that I can't make it as an actor and that instead, I should become a doctor, lawyer or a person in that kind of field. It never sat right with me. I told him that everyone is meant for something, myself included and that no matter what I do, I will be successful. Not only was that a statement but it was a promise. I started acting as a freshman in high school. I was in love with theater. You couldn't tell me anything when it came to it. There was a time when I focused more on auditioning and making sure I knew my lines than working on schoolwork and studying. I grew up watching Disney channel and Nickelodeon. I knew as a little girl I wanted to be just like the people I saw on tv. To have the ability to make people happy, sad, laugh or even cry through your performance brings a certain joy and accomplishment feeling. It lets you know that you are meant to do exactly what you're doing. I know the emotions I have whenever I watch a show or movie that speaks to me. It's a whirlpool and that's exactly how I want to make people feel when watching my work. Collaboration in the theater field to me means that we are combining ideas. We are coming up with different designs and different propositions to make them into one. Everyone is participating and being involved to make our idea come to life. In a collaboration, the idea is to incorporate everyone's tools and ideas to make it into one for everyone's enjoyment. I have contributed to many school theater works and script writings and not all of my ideas have been used, that doesn't mean my ideas aren't useful or bad, it just wasn't needed at that time. I had to learn to not give up when that was the case. I've also had people critique my work and help me make it better. That's another thing about collaboration, you can find people who only want to watch you grow and make your work better. People who want to help you succeed. You can also make connections through collaborations and I have made many. Because of one of my collaborations, I had the chance to meet a wonderful photographer who took headshots for me. It was a great experience and it prepared me to get ready to go into a whole new world of acting. I can't wait to start this journey of acting and hopefully write my works in the future. I know it won't be easy, but I am prepared for the ride.

Being a black girl from South Central Las Angeles, there has been plenty of times when I have fought against prejudice and adversity. It never got easier, but I did come up with a way to be better than I was before. Growing up in a community that is mostly Black and Hispanic you would think that everyone would be getting along and understanding one another but it's the complete opposite of that. There was no respect or boundaries. People not of color felt the urgency to say the n-word to me all the time and at first, I let it go because I thought it was normal for them to say it. After all, they always have. I had to grow up a bit more and learn about my culture and what that word means to me and the significance behind it. I used to get offended and mad when people not of color would say it because I felt like it was disrespectful and I couldn’t be around people who would disrespect me and people who looked like me. As I grew up a bit more I also realized I can control the people who are around me. Meaning that I can choose who I want in my life outside of classes. I don't have to be friends with people who don't respect who I am as a person. And that's exactly what I did. I wouldn’t even waste my breath telling people that saying that word offended me, I would just simply walk away. It was getting to a point where I felt uncomfortable being around them so I separated myself. I never felt more empowered to keep my mouth shut and leave them without an explanation as to why we were no longer friends. I remember talking with a lot of my black friends because everyone was calling me fake for leaving so many friendships. I told them why I had done it and why they should do it too. A lot of them understood me and a lot didn't care because as I said, it's considered "normal". They were used to them doing it. I knew I couldn't show everyone how wrong it was, and although that was my intention it became more of a personal gain for myself. I learned that I don't have to put up with certain things just because I have become accustomed to them. No one does. I will always stand for what I believe is right with or without anyone's support.

I remembered when I was a freshman in high, I just had moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from California Los Angeles. It was literally across the country so I was new to everything. The state, city area and people. Plus I was new to high school. It was my first year, which was scary. I didn't know anyone and I was shy. I wanted to try to be different though so I started putting myself out there. I started socializing more and meeting people and making friends. It was a cool experience. I was amazing when it came to dancing class because I've been dancing since I was a little girl so I had tons of experience. I quickly became an assistant coach in my dance group. The only thing was, I wanted to join cheerleading. The girls in my dance group said that I would be great on the team so they gave me extra motivation which helped me pursue the idea. I didn't know anyone from the cheer squad, but one of my friends from the dance team told me that one of the girls on the cheer squad has my homeroom. With that information, the next day I decided to talk to her and ask her a couple of questions and it was cool or so I thought. That same day I was told by a lot of girls from my dance team and my friends that, (we will call her "T") T was talking about me behind my back. And usually, I turn the other cheek to rumors, because I don't like to believe in everything that I hear but there were too many people telling me this statement. People that I didn't even know or talk to, so I started believing it. T told everyone that I was too fat to fit the uniform so I couldn’t make the team. I was offended at first because no one has ever fat-shamed me before. I was usually very confident with myself as a person to not listen to that type of disrespect, but for some reason, I was really sad and disappointed. I don't know if it was because of our talk that day, she was nice and genuine then for her to turn around the same day and say something like that was just off-putting. Everyone told me to confront her and I was going to, but something told me that there are more important things. I had the information to join and I tried out. I made the freshman cheerleading team and told the coaches what had happened. I then went up to T and told her that I forgive her for what she had said to me. I told her not everyone will be as kind or as shielded as me so to be careful of who she talks about because some people will take that and feel bad about themselves and might even do something horrible just because of those words. I didn't officially join because I didn't want to be on the team with her, my mental health was far more important. I never got an apology, she just brushed it off like it never happened and I did too because it wasn't important to me. I had friends who cared for me and a dance team that always backed me up. I felt great being the bigger person and solving my issue by just walking away and being myself. That brought me the best satisfaction. I can honestly say, I don't regret anything about that experience.

Hi my name is Zamyra, I'm 18 years old and currently a high school graduate on my way to college. My goal is to get my registered nurse credential which means I need a bachelor degree in science and health, which is what I am going to college for. If I further want to go to college it will be for a doctor's degree, but as for now just nursing. I hope to accomplish that goal so I can help others. Not only will it be beneficial to myself by becoming a first generation graduate and my family but I can also help those in need, and that is a benefit in itself. I am so excited to get started on my journey. I have faced many obstacles in my life, especially being a minority female. I know plenty of people have had negative thoughts of someone like me, never making it to their dreams, because even I have those thoughts just because of where I come from. It's not healthy to think that way which is why I had to change my mindset which is one of the hardest things to do. I had to learn how to turn negative thoughts into positive ones. I also had to surround myself with people who want to succeed as well. People who are like me when it comes to dream seeking and accomplishing goals, because it is true what they say. Watch the crowd you surround yourself with because it will actually make a really big impact on your life. I also had to learn myself and become a positive leader for myself to follow. No one will support you as much as you support yourself. I had to keep a strong mindset and not let words get to me. It's also a skill to be quiet and let your actions show. From all the negative things and words that people have said or done to me as well as myself doing those things I learned to be a stronger person. A person who works harder every time they fail. Someone who doesn't give up and wants to be the best they can be, based on their own standards. Not only do I want to make my family proud, I want to do it for myself because I know I am meant for something far greater. I would also like to be a steeping tool for other little girls and boys who don’t believe they can make it just because of their position, when it's the complete opposite. I can't wait to start my journey and this scholarship will only increase the chances of me getting further along in my education. Thank you for your time and consideration.