Maya Angelou said, “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” This scholarship will not only help me pursue a career in filmmaking, empowering my future, but will prove to an entire generation of women, that we are the future. I’m a female filmmaker, currently working on an all female led documentary project. I am the director and producer, and alongside me are two other female producers. From the moment I entered the film industry I realized the significance of representation in the industry, and the capabilities of female filmmakers to inspire, collaborate and uplift fellow female artists and businesswomen. In High school, I was the cofounder of our first female empowerment club, named GLOW, an acronym for Girls Lead Our World. This was the first of many firsts for me, as I organized the first of my High-school’s field trip to the women’s March, led my first film project, and started my first year at NYU Tisch. Now I am in my second year of NYU, and I am working on my second all female led film project. Besides ambition and leadership abilities, the most valuable lesson my years as a feminist club founder instilled in me is my ability to foster community and help others. Many of the projects I organized in my feminist club in high school were centered around the gift of helping. These projects included crowdfunding money to send underprivileged young women to school, crowdfunding to purchase hygienic menstrual supplies to women of underdeveloped countries, and hosting meetings in our school and other schools to inspire women to pursue male dominated careers and change the future. As a High school upperclassman, I used my own interests in filmmaking to inspire female identifying lowerclassman to find their own empowerment and break illusionary ceilings alongside me. In university, I am following the same trend of being inspired by upperclassmen female filmmakers and also setting an example for freshman female filmmakers. I am incredibly excited to finish my dream of studying at NYU, and using my degree to continue to make my dreams of filmmaking come true. The future is female!