I connect a lot with Pam. I loved her character throughout the show. She was a relaxed, easy person to be around and yet still wanted to make sure she got her job done. She was fun but disciplined. She had a good connection with everyone in the office and was willing to go above and beyond to try and help out her coworkers. Even when it got frustrating dealing with Micheal or Dwight, she stayed calm and did her best. One thing I admired was her ambitions. She followed her passion and took a bit of time to go to an art school. Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember that I can explore new things and experience my hopes for the future. Seeing Pam take a risk in art school even if it didn’t work out in the end was refreshing and gave me more motivation to follow my passions no matter what may try to block me from doing them. The show taught me that my coworkers don’t just have to be coworkers. They can be friends too, and stronger relationships will make a job so much more enjoyable. It’ll be like getting paid to hang out with your friends. Despite the fun and silly exterior of the show, there are plenty of good lessons in it as well.

College has been a dream of mine for years. My goal is to major in history and pursue a career based on what my degree can do. I hope to start small and then work my way up to a larger, more influential position. Unfortunately, being a historian may be a hard career path due to there only being a small number of jobs that offer positions for a basic degree. People always say to chase your dreams, but that’s hard to do when your dreams may not be enough to hold up a sustainable lifestyle. After speaking with the head professor of my major, I learned that along with the basic studies at school, we would be doing a lot of different ways of learning. We intern through places like museums, we get involved in archeological investigations and do some teaching in school, and we do a lot of traveling. Overseas studies and study-abroad opportunities are highly encouraged at the school and during those trips, students are given research projects and encouraged to learn more about the countries visited. What we’d be doing for school projects is something I’d want to do as a career. I believe history is far more important than what people understand. History is a key part of the world. It is the foundation of our countries, the reason we have treaties and unions, and the reason America is a free country. It’s important to have a better understanding of other countries for future reference too. Without history, there would be generations that would know nothing about the times before us. We make new history every day, big events or small, and there needs to be people who preserve that. Hieroglyphics will fade, and buildings will wear away with erosion, but knowledge is permanent. We will need historians through time to uncover information from the past, to understand and explain things that may not make sense to the everyday person. Since history tends to repeat itself, there needs to be people who know how to direct others away from negative situations that may reoccur. With this scholarship, I would be one more person capable of following their dream. Not only would my education benefit me, but I would gain knowledge and understanding of events and artifacts to pass down to upcoming generations. I could be in a position where I could help the community, the country, and possibly the state, continue to move forward and achieve our highest goals, and better ourselves together.

High school was never easy for me. So when I met my support teacher, she became one of my biggest supporters and inspiration to do my best. I met my support teacher in freshman year. Her name was Mrs. Pich, and she was a secondary teacher in a class for students who needed a little more help learning math…a class I was put in by accident. She always said I stood out to her from the very beginning. While other students were finishing worksheets, goofing off, and chatting around me, I’d be stuck on one question for hours trying to figure it out. Mrs. Pich did everything she could to help me, from reducing homework to giving me cheat sheets and modified tests. Eventually, she suggested I get tested for learning disabilities. Sure enough, I had a learning disability in math and sciences, so Mrs. Pich was assigned as my direct support teacher. She was always very patient with me, and thanks to her continuous help, math has gotten a little easier to get through. In the following years, I dealt with some severe bullying and the death of my grandfather. Mrs. Pich was my main support in school. She would correspond with my teachers when I couldn’t, let me talk through my problems with her, and would pull me out of class for hours at a time just to sit in her room if she knew I was feeling overwhelmed with life. She took care of me in school. Throughout the years, I got to form a closer bond with her. She told me about her life, and her kids, gave me advice and a bunch of other things. One thing that always amazed me was her hope in students. Mrs. Pich has a hard job and wants to push her students to be the best they can be and achieve their goals. That could mean a positive or a negative outcome. She would get frustrated at times but would move past it and continue to help and encourage as many students as she could. I respected her a lot for it and appreciated somebody having that much hope in me. Now she’s been offered a higher, better position in our school, and I’m so happy for her. I want to support her as much as she supports me. Mrs. Pich inspired me to push myself, to see what I’m truly capable of doing, and the result was amazing. I’ve begun college courses a year early and have already committed to the top college of my choice for next fall. I truly wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for her support and guidance. I hope I’ll make her proud.

I started liking history from a young age, around 5th grade. The first time I understood and appreciated history was at an art museum. There was a specific piece my class was looking at, just a man and woman, seemingly nothing special. Our tour guide told us why exactly the piece was so influential; it showed the changing times. The woman was the focal point of the piece, looking out confidently, with the man sitting behind the woman being in awe of her. Other smaller details were pointed out to bring more attention to the woman and the meaning behind the piece. As a young 5th grader, I found the story about the American Revolution behind the piece amazing. Without historical understanding, the meaning would be lost. I’ve never forgotten about it. From then on, my interest in history has only continued to grow. History is a key piece to every part of the world. It’s the structure of our countries and history continues to repeat itself. By pursuing an education in history, I hope to be part of big findings and be allowed to study and research historical monuments and landmarks. I believe history is influential, and I hope to pass down my knowledge to younger generations, like I had done to me. I believe it gives them a better understanding and appreciation for older works. History can benefit future generations and help them in making decisions, thus avoiding possible conflicts that we might have already seen happen. History gives us a lot of insight into other cultures as well. I’ve always loved to learn about the places we’ve traveled and the history behind the destinations. There are still new artifacts and tombs being found from Ancient Egyptian times. We will never stop learning about history because we will continue to discover more. We are making history every day. There would be generations that would know nothing about the times that came before us. But our study of history does the opposite of that and keeps those memories alive. Everything preserved will come undone over time. Hieroglyphics will continue to fade, buildings will wear away with erosion until there’s nothing left but the foundations that started them. Behind the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando, Florida, there is a piece of the Berlin Wall. The wall itself isn’t a big deal, but the history connected to it is part of such an important story. Knowledge can be preserved forever, through stories with detailed explanations. For political and civil futures, we can use historical precedent from the past to help us keep peace with each other.

I have never been much of a troublemaker. Even from a young age, I was a pretty serious, no-nonsense kid. So it was pretty out of the ordinary whenever I played pranks or acted out in certain situations. My father was a pharmacist and often worked long hours. I would go days without seeing him, so I would love the times he was home since we would usually do fun activities together. At the age of three years old, I was enrolled in my first year of preschool. I got along well with the other kids, was a good enough student, and did my best not to cause problems. One morning, my dad was home later than usual. He decided he would drop me off at school, which bummed me out since I wanted to spend time with him. I was fine getting into school and did not cause any problems. Soon after my dad left, I walked right down to the nurse. I informed her I wasn't feeling well, so she called my dad to come get me. “She’s fine, she’s just fooling you,” my dad told the nurse. He knew I was faking it since I was fine throughout the morning. “No, you need to come get her. Kids this age don’t voice when they don’t feel well, so she must be sick,” the nurse insisted. Not wanting to sound like an idiot, my dad agreed to come get me. He knew I was fooling everyone, despite what the nurse was saying. When he came to get me from school, he found me curled up in the nurse's lap bright red and crying. He picked me up and we headed out to the car. He got me strapped down into my car seat, and as we pulled away, he heard me pipe up from the back, “I just kidding, let’s go to Dunkin Donuts!” My dad paused and turned to look at me. I had played sick at the age of three to skip school and spend the day with him. He considered bringing me back into the school and leaving me there for the day since I was fine. He refrained from punishing me and chose to bring me to my mom's office instead since he still had to work. When we got there, he handed me off to her saying he couldn’t speak to me and had to leave for work. My mom called the preschool and informed them that I had fessed up to skipping school so I could spend time with my dad. The preschool had a good laugh as they were faked out by a three-year-old. Needless to say, I learned my lesson about faking sick. The next time I faked sick, I made sure to make it a convincing act.

Starting from elementary school until now, I have always struggled with math. Whether it was basic addition and subtraction or algebra, it never seemed to click with me. I was the kid who would be last to finish assignments or tests in class, would spend hours working on homework only to get every question wrong, and would get major headaches simply from seeing a hard question. Unfortunately, this killed my motivation to do well in school. I was good at everything else, why not math? My freshman year of high school began during COVID-19. During the first few months, I alternated in and out of an in-person class to an online class. During this time, I had my first algebra course. And doing math online was extremely hard for me. It wasn’t until I was in the class full-time that I started to receive the help I needed. I had accidentally been placed in a support class, so there was more than one teacher in the room. That’s when I met my support teacher, Mrs. Pichler. She would hang around my desk and guide me through what we were working on. Eventually, she suggested that I should be tested for learning disabilities in math. When I finished my evaluation, she was appointed as my IEP teacher. She immediately did what she could to help me. I was given modified tests and extended time, I was allowed a notecard full of information, and my homework was lessened. We began to form a close connection. She didn’t mind working with me for hours until I understood a concept and would advocate for me when I needed it. She was amazed at my perseverance and always told me I could achieve big things. As I continued through high school, she was always there for me. She was my support teacher again in my sophomore year, and at that point, I was struggling with some very big personal issues. At that point, she was no longer just my teacher, but my “school mom”. She wrote me passes out of classes if I needed to take breaks and sit in her room, she worked to help find me a therapist, made sure I was taking care of myself, and did everything to make school less of a stressful environment for me. Throughout my junior and senior years, she continued to challenge my academic skills and push me toward goals I never expected myself to reach. I’m truly so grateful that I ended up meeting her, and I don’t think I’d be graduating if it wasn’t for her help. She’s taught me that no matter how hard things may get, persevering and asking for help will only bring a good result. This goes for my academic goals and my life moving forward. I hope we’ll keep in touch after I graduate since I’ll miss her. She knew how much going to college meant to me, and I hope I’ll be able to make her proud. If I end up following a career path similar to hers, she’ll be my mentor. I will forever appreciate what she's done to help me reach my goals.