Holden William Bettis Memorial Scholarship

My name is Serenity Stamm. I was born in Palmer, Alaska, and currently live in Kenai, Alaska. Throughout my elementary school years, I was bullied mercilessly. Most of it was because I smelled bad, wore dirty clothes, and my hair was matted because it was never washed or brushed. I come from a very low-income household and now I am a single-person household as my parents have both abandoned me. I've had 4 jobs and am currently working at a grocery store as a produce clerk. Recently, I was accepted into college as a Pre-undeclared intended bachelor's student because my GPA isn't high enough to go straight into elementary education. My freshman year of high school was rough. Both of my grandpas had died, my friend died in an ATV crash, and both of my dogs were shot and killed. All of that on top of the pandemic made me lose almost all motivation to do anything. I would sit in my room in the dark on my phone for hours every day and talk to nobody. I told myself that there was no point in life if it was going to be this cruel. Then, in my sophomore year of high school, when everything started to get better, I had a sudden burst of motivation. I told myself I wasn't going to let myself fail the same way my parents did. Neither of my parents has a job and haven’t had a job for as long as I can remember. I want to make something of myself and give myself a chance at a better future. My grades still weren't as good as I was trying to pick up the slack on top of doing 4 credit recovery classes from the year before, but they were improving immensely. It was all thanks to my teachers and the way they treated me and motivated me to be the best version of myself. The one thing that has kept me going throughout my life is my teachers and the way they treated me like everyone else despite the obvious differences. They always knew I had potential and never doubted me even when I was failing. I believe that GPAs should not reflect the way we view people's intelligence. I know that I have the drive to make my dreams a reality. I want to change the lives of kids the same way my teachers changed mine.