I love the aspect of the game being for you to be creative in creative mode and make anything you want. It resonates deeply with me because as an artist I love Minecraft way of being able to express yourself as you make things in creative mode. I sometimes wish it was like that in the real world but I love that I can escape if my art isn't working in the real world. I love the variety of materials you can use to make anything. My favourite part is sitting down and crafting my village with my imagination. I'd spend hours making my village with friends who also are letting their creativity fly as well. I love seeing what they make in our shared world and sharing what I made the day before. It's also so much fun to see my ideas come to life with the creative mode inside the game. It is also fun to see what you can make in Hard mode but it's not the same as creative mode and how you don't have to struggle to find materials to replace things that you wanted to use in your mind but either cant find or cant make at all.

To explain a little about myself I'm an honors student who wants to be an artist. I love animals and I have one dog of my own named Potato! I also love to read and I play the trombone in band. I also really love to watch movies and I am transgender and gay. While many people like these things I will say I love to do art to spread messages about different issues in the world such as the pollution in the water harming the sea life there and the ocean towns. I am also attending the University of California- Santa Cruz, my dream college. Just like my puppy Potato, I love the beach and when there I spend time cleaning it up and playing with Potato as we go along it. I likewise also like photography. I mainly do animal photography. Along with art, I plan on double majoring with my second major being Marine Biology. My love for sea animals drives me also to get a degree in Marine Biology to help them out with art and if I can a Marine biologist standpoint. As to why I need the scholarship I have a single father. With a single father comes the challenges of not being able to afford different things. I grew up with him helping encourage me to go to college and do some art. This scholarship will benefit my artist and marine biology career path by making me able to go to college. As it stands now being in college I don't have enough to go and if I get a full-time job instead of focusing on just my studies and a part-time job it will stress me out a lot. I also want to make my dad proud on my journey to college and if I have a father stressing on how to pay for my college it may make me throw away it all to make him less stressed which wouldn't be what he wants which is frustrating to him. I'm going to college to make my dad's life easier in the future and this scholarship will help my journey to be able to do that with him. If I get this scholarship it will help me out a lot in my career path to be an artist and marine biologist and my journey to help my dad live a comfortable life instead of working every single day of his life.

I've learned a lot from the books I've read growing up. But the main thing I learned is to never let my creativity get crushed down by anyone. Many of the books I read never would've happened without the author's creativity. Books for this reason have shaped my major into one of creativity. Which is why I want to be an artist because of the books I've read. Books taught me never to give up creativity for the sake of fitting in as the majority of my favourite authors were ridiculed growing up for their creativity. Sometimes the main characters I could relate to which I wanted to make within my art for other people to relate to. Because of books, I spent time in my room away from other people reading and drawing myself as the main character wishing to be them. At one point when I was reading a book I realized what a hero my single dad was for raising me by himself while trying to provide me with everything I needed, painting him in a different light inside my head as I read. I've read more books about single parents and I've come to realize my dad was forced into this by an irresponsible parent just like some of the parents of the main character making me understand how my dad could be frustrated when I talk about money like how the main character would. But mine was more of a concern unlike that of the main character. From that books have shaped my life even my goals as I looked at what my favourite authors could do with just their words and I looked at what I could do with art I looked into it. I'd draw and paint things from one of my favourite books "The Great Gatsby" as the words were able to paint a picture of it. Words on paper helped me to grow up with a huge imagination compared to my peers which I thank books for. Without books, I wouldn't be trying to be an artist at this point. With a single father, I was able to show him these worlds I'd create from books which he supported and pushed me to do more. So I'd sit in my chair creating books and art for said books all thanks to the books I've read now and the ones I've read to this day. With this scholarship, I will be able to inspire people around me like my favourite books once did to me.

I'd love to do art to spread awareness of issues that plague today's society and help minority groups have a voice. Being a part of a minority makes me want to help spread awareness and help others alongside my minority group (LGBTQIA+) have a voice because I've seen first-hand what it's like to not have a voice in issues about them. I love to draw and art historically has been to help people gain a voice. Art being my passion I'd love to start my business selling and doing art for people. My dream is to do a mural for minorities and after college, it is the first thing I'm going to strive to do while building my business. Colours are the main thing I'd use to help catch people's eyes. As well as that, colours are linked to emotion to me, so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject, it shows how I felt when drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. For if I was happy, the main colour of the object would be yellow, or if I was dysphoric, the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend, and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it, I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it, and just as easily, I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art mean to me and how I use them to make me happier, even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think, “Huh, nice art”, I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me. This is why in my business of art, if I were able to make a mural, I would use many colours to help capture the feelings of where it was at, what the group is feeling, and how they'd want to feel. To me, art is a way to help people gain a voice who normally wouldn't have a voice and wouldn't be able to share how they feel. I also have a passion for using art to speak up for the marine animals being killed by human actions. I spent last September doing endangered animal drawings which I plan on doing every year until they aren't on said endangered species list while it may not be big the small things matter and it always helps no matter the size of your audience While my art style maybe slightly cartoonish it doesn't mean I can't still use it to help others out and bring awareness to this issues and more. My art is a passion that I plan to use to help others in life because why would I spend hours on a piece of art not to use it / share it with others or to help others?

I think the person who has supported me the most in my educational goals is my father. While we may disagree sometimes he has been the one always there to help guide me to do what I want. I've seen him up late at night trying to figure out how to pay for things such as my AP tests and how to get me to and from band events. I've seen him get upset at me for offering to not do things I want to do because of money. He's always found a way for me to do what I want to do to help my education to be better than his. He has been the one in my life that even though he may not agree with my choices he still supports my dreams and will do anything to let me be able to do it. He helped me to be able to be an artist by supporting me in drawing and while he sometimes in a tired and upset mood would accidently insult it he always would follow it up with how to fix it. Being the only parent I understood that him giving me the chance to take the SAT, and AP tests and go do things at school was huge and showed he truly cared and supported me. He pushes me to do my best and while he may get upset over certain grades he also sees that I try my hardest and push myself more so he tries to make sure I learn lessons along the way. Like doing scholarships he pushes me to do them but he also sees that I'm stressed over it so he helps encourage me to take breaks from them. He's always been ready to give me what I need for classes but I can see in his eyes he's worried college is something he won't be able to give me. He also has always been there for me since I was two and a half years old and my mother walked out on us. He tries every day to make sure I have a better education than him and my mother. While it may be difficult for us sometimes he always makes sure to put me first which is why he inspires and supports me so much in reaching my educational goals. Without my father being as supportive of my educational goals I wouldn't be half as far as I am to this day.

This scholarship would help me out in the long run because my family can not afford very much in the aspect of college. Coming from a single father it can be hard to afford certain things like college. Having one income can make a whole difference and I know he is worried about me being able to afford college. The one thousand dollars would help out our family a lot with affording my higher education and help even just a little ease my father's mind about me being able to go. As a low-income household, it is hard to be able to afford an admirable college and the scholarship will help us be able to afford an admirable college. So this scholarship would help my single father a lot in the long run of things. Ever since I was little and had a pencil placed in my hand I was drawing. Even when I found it frustrating I could be found drawing. I drew when it wasn't a good time and when it wouldn’t be appropriate with anything I was doing. Even when I was feeling upset you could find me with a pencil in hand drawing my feelings out. Drawing is my greatest skill, always will be. As I grew older and became depressed it was drawing that got me out of it. I fell into this pit of despair and even when I looked at my art and saw something I didn’t like I kept going knowing the future I would look back on the art and smile. I’d spend time carefully drawing lines and colouring which gave me a sense of ease as I saw my imagination come to life on paper with my hand (like when Spongebob made doodlebob). I drew my feelings out showing more emotion and used colours to my advantage. Colours are linked to an emotion so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me.

What has changed my life at home and school with communicating is the fact that I'm a Transman. Yes, I know that sounds like I'm making it my personality but it's helped me learn to grow as a person and Santa Cruz has made me see that. From middle school up to now, I’ve been bullied and picked on because of it. While this is common almost everywhere it's helped me grow as a person because I’ve learned to ignore people and live my life like everyone else does. My home life isn't the best I will admit after I told my dad. My dad doesn't like the fact that I am Trans and gay but, a friend helped me see that his words don't matter and that if he truly loves me then he will put aside his hurtful words and support me. When I visited Santa Cruz I instantly fell in love with the people around there. I was treated like a normal human being and I even got told University of California- Santa Cruz is very open-minded and won't do what teachers and students at my school do which made me almost cry because I’ve never been in a place that didn't have a majority of the population hate my guts for daring to be myself which isn't the case here. They treat me like a human being, I wouldn't have to walk around on eggshells anymore. Granted being Transgender does make me open to hate but the challenges with it have made me grow as a person and have made me open-minded to new ideas or things. While I was open-minded before this opened a whole new world to me. One that was kept hidden for quite some time. I threw myself into LGBTQIA+ problems within the school and tried to change a few things with no success. I tried to help people to be open-minded, and I answered their questions about being trans to no avail. All the things I've been through as a transgender gay man have changed me as a person and helped me to be who I am. What sets me apart from others is the fact I want to use my degree to help the LGBTQIA+ to fight for rights. While an art degree may seem like it won't help in the extended run trust that art is the one way that can help fight for rights because art speaks louder than anything. Art will help and I plan on using my art degree to do so. While I can make art normally without a degree with a degree I will be seen as a credible person who knows what I'm talking about. Also, it will help me to get featured in other places such as galleries to spread the message of how we just want to live our lives and not be forced to conform. In all, I want to use this money to get a degree to help fight for rights and others to notice the LGBTQIA+ struggle and help us gain our rights back and to help fight for the transgender kids who are at risk of dying due to rights being stripped away from the rest of us.

I am passionate about art. Always have been and will be. I spent hours when I was little drawing and I still do. In my head as long as I help others I can't go wrong and one day it will help lead me to making a mural and having my art in a gallery like I want. But for now, I will complete my goal of making sure I help spread messages about issues people face like the LGBTQ+ and how transgender people are being discriminated against. I want to use my art to stand up for people like My Chemical Romance and many others did with their music. All I want to do with my art at the end of the day is help others out and help change people's minds on who is in the wrong and how everyone can get along if we try to understand each other especially the minorities in society. I will use my medium to help and make people feel seen because I know first-hand what it's like to feel unseen. I would love to use this art degree to help and make people see that everyone is human despite what others may say. I also would love to use art to help protect wildlife. While in Santa Cruz I plan on completing art compositions about assisting the Sea Lions there which is one of my favorite sea animals. I do desire if I can to get businesses to allow me to do a mural for the sea life that is in danger because of boats to convey understanding to it but even if I can't I will still make art to encourage the preservation of them and how people can aid the sea life. I would love to assist the animals in any way possible and I feel with art I can help carry to light to charities and ways to help the marine animals. I love to make art about animals and when I post the artwork anywhere I always add links to let people who are interested in healing the wildlife that lives by the ocean. While there are many things I'd like to fix in this world these are a few of the main ones I will be aiming to help in the next 10 years of my life as I go through and finish college. While it may not seem like a lot to many people these issues are huge and taking them on by myself will be tough but I know with my art skills and a little help from friends I can and will succeed in making an impact on the world around me.

The topic I picked was transgender people and the misconceptions around them. The reason why I picked this topic is because many people get the wrong idea about transgender people and the fact I am transgender got me into this topic. Transgender people are portrayed by the media as a bad group of people who prey on children. Transgender people are more likely to have hate crimes against them due to the stigma around them and people not understanding them so they do what most people do which is hurt them from what they've heard. I’d like to bring awareness to the misconceptions of transgender people. As a trans man, I feel if I'm going to make a difference I might as well start with this now and spread awareness even if it's starting with just one person or a small group. At least I'm educating people on how the media is wrongfully portraying us as transgenders. If I'm going to spread awareness about this topic then I figured I’d do it here (thank you for making his project to help me find a start to being an activist like I want to be). Due to recent events in the USA transgender people have been marked as a threat I figured I’d do a essay on how this is harmful and why transgender people aren't a danger to anyone. I don’t like how the media shows us these harmful people who are trying to attack their children. I've had many transgender kids or nonbinary kids look up to me and I’ve tried my best to shield them from the harm that is caused by the people harming us. I created this essay because 37% of Transgender kids have thought of suicide and 19% have done it. This raises many concerns but the reasons are all vaguely the same we are being targeted so we try to do it ourselves before they can because if we did it it would be painless and we are told we shouldn’t exist. While the numbers are lower for the straight cis-kids (14% thought of suicide and 6% attempted) it's because they are forced to fit into the hetero cis normative life that others are because they already fit into that perfect reflection of society. Because we aren't Cisgender people assume we aren’t human which makes no sense. We are all humans no matter what the press tries to say about us. This essay is important to help get rid of the stigma around being trans since there is one (for some silly reason). Another reason why this essay is the one I'm making is because of Nex Benedict (they/them) a nonbinary person who was beaten by three girls when they wanted to use the bathroom. They were beaten for being under the trans umbrella (nonbinary) and the school did nothing about it (In the work cited I’ll put the story in there if you want to read it). The murder of them sparked in me the need to make something to help people understand that we aren’t the threat the uninformed are threatening us for existing. For my poster, I did the trans flag in the background and then the words “Trans rights are human rights” in the pink in the flag because it's the most common saying and it drives home the point that we are human. I put the Trevor Project numbers on the top so have people in need be able to contact them if they need to talk to someone. I also put a few lil people to show Transmen Transwomen Nonbinary and trans men before top surgery to show being trans can come in many forms. Plus I don’t see many trans men in binders on PSAs like this. But I figured since we are in High School this would be perfect since not many Transmen can get surgery while being in High school. I also made another poster that is labelled “Trans people aren’t a danger in the bathroom. Cis-people are” since people say trans people (mainly transwomen) are seen as people who are going in there to sexually assault or do worse to the cis people. When in reality they are the ones peeping on us. That's why there is a drawing of a stall and someone looking under it which is a story I’ve heard from other trans women that ciswomen look under the stall at them while they just want to use the restroom.

I'd love to do art to spread awareness of issues that plague today's society and help minority groups have a voice. Being a part of a minority makes me want to help spread awareness and help others alongside my minority group (LGBTQIA+) have a voice because I've seen first-hand what it's like to not have a voice in issues about them. I love to draw and art historically has been to help people gain a voice. Art being my passion I'd love to start my business selling and doing art for people. My dream is to do a mural for minorities and after college, it is the first thing I'm going to strive to do while building my business. Colours are the main thing used to help catch people's eyes. As well as that colours are linked to an emotion to me so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. If happy, the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric, the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me. This is why in art if I was able to make a mural I would use many colours to help capture the feelings of how they feel and how they'd want to feel. To me, art is a way to help people gain a voice who normally wouldn't have a voice and wouldn't be able to share how they feel. My art is a passion that I plan to use to help others in life because why would I spend hours on a piece of art and not share it with others to help others?

My mental and physical health is important to me because as a transman I'd like to be able to be in good shape so I can transition without any problems. Also as a human being, I'd like to keep up good mental and physical health so I can be in the right mind state for myself so I can make friends and for my friends I have now. I've learned over the years if you want to keep people in your life you need to be in the right mind space for it so I started to change my mental health and with that my physical health so I can battle my eating disorder and a few other body image issues that I have. While not all of them are fixed because I can't medically transition to help my dysphoria I still exercise so I can hopefully get the body I want to have and hopefully help pleasingly with my results when it does come time to transition medically. As a student trying to maintain mental health and physical health, there are a bunch of challenges. I face my physical health the most as being drained from the day before and not even wanting to exercise leads to skipping exercising a lot due to that. Another one is that school isn't made for a student to balance mental health and school which is messed up because many students walk around with mental health issues but can't fix them because school doesn't help to give them a long enough break to work on it. I know both of these experiences from this year and past years. Every time it seems a student tries to better themselves the school either puts a stop to it without knowing by pilling a bunch of work on the student or the student gets overly stressed when a teacher repeats things like "25 more days til graduation guys make sure those grades are as high as you can get them" making the student feel as though they are being told they need to be better or they won't be able to go to college and survive which isn't the case and it causes more stress and anxiety to the student which in turn causes horrible mental health. I've learned from all this how to balance it all by making a schedule on when to take breaks and when to go full work mode. I exercise when I want to mainly so I do have negative connotations around it for when I can start to work out fully. While this may not help me next year for college as of right now it works for me in high school.

What has changed my life at home and school is the fact that I'm a Transman. Yes, I know that sounds like I'm making it my personality but it's helped me learn to grow as a person and Santa Cruz has made me see that. From middle school up to now, I’ve been bullied and picked on because of it. While this is common almost everywhere it's helped me grow as a person because I’ve learned to ignore people and live my life like everyone else does. My home life isn't the best I will admit after I told my dad. My dad doesn't like the fact that I am Trans and gay but, a friend helped me see that his words don't matter and that if he truly loves me then he will put aside his hurtful words and support me. When I visited Santa Cruz I instantly fell in love with the people around there. I was treated like a normal human being and I even got told UCSC is very open-minded and won't do what teachers and students at my school do which made me almost cry because I’ve never been in a place that didn't have a majority of the population hate my guts for daring to be myself which isn't the case here. They treat me like a human being, I wouldn't have to walk around on eggshells anymore. Granted being Transgender does make me open to hate but the challenges with it have made me grow as a person and have made me open-minded to new ideas or things. While I was open-minded before this opened a whole new world to me. One that was kept hidden for quite some time. I threw myself into LGBTQIA+ problems within the school and tried to change a few things with no success. I tried to help people to be open-minded, and I answered their questions about being trans to no avail. All the things I've been through as a transgender gay man have changed me as a person and helped me to be who I am. I used to stay up at night watching interviews of Gerard Way talking about his band and his artwork. Determining he was a yellow (happy) mixed with a blue (sad) I drew him for a high school project. I put my all into it being extra careful. I took careful note of the colours I assigned him and it made my art with emotions. I watched more and more band interviews and watched people's behaviour assigning everyone a colour in my mind, when strangers would come over I’d assign them grey (unknown). Grey is a dangerous shade I’ve come to learn. In the past when I had people assault me in multiple ways I gave the situation and them the colour grey and due to that, I avoided them. I used my colours to help outside of school, like not bringing up certain topics around my dad as it made him angry (red). All this creativity relates to my major because I want to be an artist and artists use colours a lot. Colours are a main thing used in art and art is something that I've always loved doing. I loved drawing from a young age and wanted to inspire people the way others inspired me. Reading a bunch of comic books in my free time realising I could do it as a job. I took my talent and passion and ran with it. I knew I found my self-expression in art and that I could help people see they're not alone with my artwork. A quote that got me thinking about an art career is “Anything can be art. Anything can be self-expression. Now you take the weapon and run with it.” ― Gerard Way. I plan on making this a career by trying to help others out. In my head as long as I help others I can't go wrong and one day it will help lead me to making a mural and having my art in a gallery like I want. But for now, I will complete my goal of making sure I help spread messages about issues people face like in the LGBTQ+ how transgender people are being discriminated against. I want to use my art to stand up for people like My Chemical ROmanace and many others did with their music. All I want to do with my art at the end of the day is help others out and help change people's minds on who is in the wrong and how everyone can get along if we try to understand each other especially the minorities in society.

I have impacted the LGBTQ+ community in a small way but in my eyes, it is significant. I have been drawing and painting out issues and using art as a way to help express how we feel about the rights being taken from us. Also doing art to bring light on this issue is big because it makes many people (including myself) feel seen and heard by others, others who care about their well-being. I also use my platforms to spread awareness on issues that happened when Nex Benedict was killed, I used my Instagram to share their story and how it all happened. I also share when it is an important day in the LGBTQ+ community such as National Asexual Day or Transgender Day of Visibility. I also use my platform (while there are not very many followers) to help educate people and show them their bullying and hate will not erase transgender or LGBTQ+ people from the world. With all this, I hope to make a difference for the kids younger than me who look up to me and are inspired to be like me (mainly freshman friends and my siblings) and help them stand up for the people who are being oppressed despite how hard it gets some days whether they are apart of the community or not. While this may not seem like a lot but has changed me into being more comfortable speaking out about when the LGBTQ+ is being mistreated or when it's time to speak out about things. I also learned from this to take the hate as it is thrown at me because there is no way to get rid of it the best I can do is take it and push it aside even if it hurts It is important to know and learn that they are trolling. This is one of the things I learned from advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. I also learned from a friend with advocated that you don't always have to do things to be advocating you can simply exist to be standing up for rights. It is easy to get caught up in thinking you have to be actively doing things to be standing up against the people taking away rights when you don't. Sometimes existing is a way to show them you aren't going anywhere. I have learned a lot from my time advocating and I do hope as I leave this small town for another I can help educate people who need it in both and my art and videos will reach many people and help them to understand LGBTQ+ people and the laws against us.

My education as a lead artist will help me spread the message about the issues we have. I'd love to do art to spread awareness of issues that plague today's society and help minority groups have a voice. Being a part of a minority makes me want to help spread awareness and help others alongside my minority group (LGBTQIA+) have a voice because I've seen first-hand what it's like to not have a voice in issues about them. I love to draw and art historically has been to help people gain a voice. Art being my passion I'd love to start my business selling and doing art for people. My dream is to do a mural for minorities and after college, it is the first thing I'm going to strive to do while building my business. Colours are the main thing I'd use to help catch people's eyes. As well as that colours are linked to an emotion to me so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me. This is why in my business of art if I was able to make a mural I would use many colours to help capture the feelings of where it was at what the group is feeling and how they'd want to feel. To me, art is a way to help people gain a voice who normally wouldn't have a voice and wouldn't be able to share how they feel. My art is a passion that I plan to use to help others in life because why would I spend hours on a piece of art not to use it / share it with others or to help others? Changing how society looks upon certain issues will make a positive impact on life around us and everyone who is affected by the hatred that we have and hopefully, create a better society like many others have done before me. I feel that using art as a way to help spread awareness of the issues and how they can affect anyone regardless of background, Ethnicity, religion, etc. With art, I feel I can help others and spread awareness of things that are going on in society such as the Transgender debate going on and the BLM movement. I try to shed light on transgender people like me who are persecuted daily due to it and how we aren't the enemy and change society with it it doesn't happen over time but the more I can do it the more I can change society. Helping people is the main thing on my mind when I make most of my art and I try to change society with it.

Growing up I’ve always wanted to be like the artist I saw in comic books. I was inspired by Gerard Way’s The Umbrella Academy and that's when I realised that people are paid to do art for a living. I could take the 2 drawing classes my school had to offer. I took drawing and painting and then, in my senior year I took advanced art which just drove my passion even further. While yes this may be a lot of money to spend on doing art, I feel the degree will help me see that this isn't just a silly little dream I’ve had since middle school. At college, I can learn to be a professional unlike with other art groups and such. Being a professional artist has been my dream since middle school. I’ll be surrounded by other artists who can help me step outside my main media and try new ones and I can get tips from other students learning. Well, growing up music has been a big part of my life. It helped me grow and be shaped into the person I am today. I’d spend my elementary school days excited for the High School band to walk in and play for us. I’d spend many sleepless nights wanting to do what they did. Play an instrument for others to listen to and be inspired like I was at that age. By middle school, I joined the band and fell in love with it. I dug deep into many music genres and spent most of my hours staring at my ceiling listening to music. Music in a way helped save my life. Without it, my life wouldn’t have a purpose. I kept going because of a band, All Time Low, that I rediscovered. I spent a lot of time listening to music and diving deep into the world of music. Music means the world to me while many people say that it's the truth for me. I can confidently say that music has saved my life. Without music, I wouldn’t be here at all. I would most definitely be dead. I use music as a therapy like I do with art. I use it to help me with my mood. So when asked what music means to me I simply say everything because that's what it means to me. I pick up my instrument or my CD’s to calm me down or help improve my mood. I know playing music can be frustrating at times but to me learning a new skill on my trombone or just playing it helps me feel proud of myself. Even when I don’t feel like playing I play music and watch the band play which helps me to forget about my problems and just feel the music. It's the same thing in band class. I sit there and I feel the music. Sometimes I get so lost in the music that I forget to play. I do the same thing in the car while driving which is funny to see my friends stare at me weirdly as I sing along. At one point a friend told me I had too many songs memorized to which I replied with “Maybe”. Truth is I remember them because they helped me. Singing them to myself when stressed helps me calm down. I honestly love music and it means my life to me. A life without music to me would be painful and one I wouldn’t want to live in. Music is my everything and I couldn’t help my creativity without it.

Video games have impacted my life by me being able to work in a team better. I normally would play games with my friends like Leathal Company, Minecraft, Xbox party games, etc. These games have taught me to be able to work as a team and find ways to build things without getting upset at others when they jokingly break them. I could spend hours collaborating with a friend to make this huge building and I used to be upset when someone would break it so I'd leave and not join until they fixed it. But as I got older and more and more mature the video games helped me to realise that just because someone breaks something doesn't mean that you should leave and not come back when they want you to play with them. Video games helped me to learn not everything needs to be taken seriously and not to get angry over small things such as a block being broken in your Minecraft house. Another thing that video games have taught me is how to express my creativity and plan out how I'll go about making something. This led to me being a better artist in my eyes and for me to plan more instead of impulsively jumping into things without thinking and having no plan of how to fix it when it goes wrong. I instead learned how to draw out and plan how I would approach things which helped me study for tests and things that needed a plan to be done. I would spend hours planning how I was going to approach doing things that needed to be done (like this scholarship!) and video games helped me be able to plan how to get them all done). Plus video helped me make friends and helped me to find people who I could play with. It even let me find friends who want to make video games and for me to do the art for them! With video games, I made friends with plenty of people like me who enjoy them and want to make their own too and asked for me to help them with it by making art for it. which is why I am going to college so I can help them with their dream of making a video game. Without video games, I most likely would've never gotten these skills on my own.

I never knew growing up just how bad our finances were. But once I hit fifth grade I learned how bad they were because we became homeless. I went to live with my grandma while my father's house hopped just so he could save money and get us a real place to live. I overcame this by helping my dad save up money knowing he'd never take it from me but when he did ask to borrow money I openly and eagerly gave it because it made me feel like I was helping. When my dad found a house he quickly jumped to rent it but in the process I learned I'd be going to a new school. While this hardship may seem like it's more of my father's it affected me too just he didn't let me get the worse of it. So to overcome this I accepted going to a new school while I was reluctant I accepted it to make him happy and for us to be stable in a home. How I show agape love is the fact that because of this hardship I try to make sure everyone is okay and doesn't need anything. If a friend wants something and can't afford it I buy them it. Or when I see a homeless person in need of money I give them some of mine. I've done this ever since I overcame the hardship and I always make sure others come first before myself because I want everyone to not have to face hardship and I want them all to be able to have what they need or want. If I can do it some days I go and volunteer to play my trombone for the old people's home in the community so they have something to listen to and look forward to since most people put in those homes have no one else to talk to besides the caregivers and the people there. Other times when I can afford it I will buy people food so they aren't hungry. Like if I see a homeless person with a sign asking for food I normally go and give them some food if I can afford to purchase some for them. I try my very best to give up on my community in any way I can because of the hardship I've faced in life. I truly hope and wish for more people to show agape love in the world and help each other out more.

Ever since I was little and had a pencil placed in my hand I was drawing. Even when I found it frustrating I could be found drawing. I drew when it wasn't a good time and when it wouldn’t be appropriate with anything I was doing. Even when I was feeling upset you could find me with a pencil in hand drawing my feelings out. Drawing is my greatest skill, always will be. As I grew older and became depressed it was drawing that got me out of it. I fell into this pit of despair and even when I looked at my art and saw something I didn’t like I kept going knowing the future I would look back on the art and smile. I’d spend time carefully drawing lines and colouring which gave me a sense of ease as I saw my imagination come to life on paper with my hand (like when Spongebob made doodlebob). I drew my feelings out showing more emotion and used colours to my advantage. Colours are linked to an emotion so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me. I have many weaknesses such as being too much of a perfectionist with my artwork and tending to try and over-help people with issues. A strength I would say is that I want to help anyone and everyone I can with anything they need to be done. This is why I want to use my art as a way to help spread messages to others about groups that are being treated like trash by our society. his scholarship will help with that by being put towards my college and help me be able to afford to get a degree in art so I can make my goals a reality. Without this scholarship, I have a high likelihood of not being able to afford college and I would like to not worry my father about my student loan debt being high. So this scholarship will help me to lower the cost of my FASFA and to give him a huge piece of mind. As he tells me "doesn't matter the amount it will help us in the long run" which this scholarship will. With the cost of college and having only one parent for everyone who has two parents this scholarship will go a long way in helping me complete my dream of being an artist and my goals of being in art galleries and being able to make a mural on the side of a building. With the degree I can get with his scholarship as well it can help me to spread messages about issues and bring to light topics that have a stigma to them like bearing mental health problems or being food/money insecure. I could help change the world as an artist after college but the only thing stopping me is the cost of a satisfactory college with amazing art programs that aren't liberal arts. Once again this scholarship would help out my family a lot and could go a long way. In all, this scholarship will benefit my single father to not worry as much or work his body overboard at work to help me pay for college.

An adversity I've faced in life is self-doubting myself when I do just about anything. Overcoming this was difficult but I did it to get to my dream job decision. I have been drawing since I was little but it wasn't until Middle school I started to self-doubt everything about my drawing. I would see everyone else drawing things better than me so I figured I'd give up. While this may not seem major it was to me because drawing was a small way I'd cope with stress and issues I had going on at the time. I would spend hours drawing to help myself release the emotions I would keep in. I overcame my self-doubt when a good friend of mine saw me not drawing like I always would do and when I explained to him my problem he told me "Mikey you're just as good as them! Maybe in your eyes, you are not but in everyone else's you are. With time you'll get better trust me and by then you'll have people wanting to pay you for your art. Trust me." I believed him and if I didn't then I never would've thought about what career I wanted but in the end, I did find out thanks to him Those words that my friend said to me that day helped me to figure out the career I wanted to go on which was an artist. I would spend hours drawing and taking pieces/ideas from other artists I like to form the art style I had which helped me significantly overpower my self-doubt. While to this day I still have self-doubt it's not like it was before where I can't draw it is now to where I just have to walk away to get rid of it. While being an artisan composer I learned that self-doubt is normal and that to take on that career you have to overcome your self-doubt and push through it because, in the end, it will all be all right. As an artisan you can only get better as you go there is no limit to how pleasingly you can compose a composition of craftwork. If I had given up on my art and myself as an artist I never would've been able to figure out I wanted to be an artist. In the end, the adversity I faced helped me out and without it, I never would've been to the point I am today.

I think the person who has supported me the most in my educational goals is my father. While we may disagree sometimes he has been the one always there to help guide me to do what I want. I've seen him up late at night trying to figure out how to pay for things such as my AP tests and how to get me to and from band events. I've seen him get upset at me for offering to not do things I want to do because of money. He's always found a way for me to do what I want to do to help my education to be better than his. He has been the one in my life that even though he may not agree with my choices he still supports my dreams and will do anything to let me be able to do it. He helped me to be able to be an artist by supporting me in drawing and while he sometimes in a tired and upset mood would accidently insult it he always would follow it up with how to fix it. Being the only parent I understood that him giving me the chance to take the SAT, and AP tests and go do things at school was huge and showed he truly cared and supported me. He pushes me to do my best and while he may get upset over certain grades he also sees that I try my hardest and push myself more so he tries to make sure I learn lessons along the way. Like doing scholarships he pushes me to do them but he also sees that I'm stressed over it so he helps encourage me to take breaks from them. He's always been ready to give me what I need for classes but I can see in his eyes he's worried college is something he won't be able to give me. He also has always been there for me since I was two and a half years old and my mother walked out on us. He tries every day to make sure I have a better education than him and my mother. While it may be difficult for us sometimes he always makes sure to put me first which is why he inspires and supports me so much in reaching my educational goals. Without my father being as supportive of my educational goals I wouldn't be half as far as I am to this day.

One movie that greatly impacts me would have to be "The Fox and the Hound". This is because it taught me anything can be overcome when you love someone (whether platonically or romanticly). I would watch it almost every day when I was younger. I always would get scared that Todd and Copper would never be friends again but each time I would rejoice once they became friends again. I took the message of the movie everywhere I went. It helped me to become a better friend as I grew up which is how it impacted me. It taught me when you love someone anything can be overcome as long as you try to fix it. It also showed me accidents happen to everyone and while Todd's was huge he also tried to fix it. The movie also showed me that even if you and your friend as opposites that people see as not going together doesn't mean you can't try to be friends and that sometimes opposites make the best of friends at the end of the day. Just because people don't think your friendship will last long doesn't mean you should decline it because if you do you miss out on something amazing. "The Fox and the Hound" also taught me that giving someone or something up may be hard but in the end, it will be for the best. In the case of the movie, the lady has to give Todd up because he was going to end up being killed by the hunter so she gave him up because it was what was best for his wellbeing. These lessons the movie has taught me have helped me to be a better friend to everyone. I've left a few people with much sorrow as she did leaving Todd but it was for the best of both of us like it was in her case. I've made friends with people who said it would never work and while people were true to say that I don't regret any of it because I've learned a lot from being friends with them. I also learned from a few friendships that you can overcome anything like Copper and Todd did. We overcame many things but had to do it together because like Todd and Copper, we tried to fix it on our own and it didn't work so we teamed up like they did and got over it as a team. In the end, "The Fox and the Hound" has greatly impacted me as a person growing to even now.

Living with a single father has impacted me greatly. Learned to not take things for granted and not be afraid of getting dirty. I would spend hours with my dad. He was all I knew since I was 2.5 years old. I learned so much from him growing up. The best thing I learned from him growing up was how to keep going when things got hard. In school having one parent was rough because I never could join them on certain projects and it was difficult explaining to classmates when asked that I don't have a mum because she wasn't there. Because I was in a single-parent household I would be in and out of counselor due to either not being able to afford things or simply because I was upset over all the other kids teasing me for only having a dad. growing up I learned it's okay to have only one parent. in middle school, plenty of my friends only had one parent in their house. My dad taught me how to push through those times as well. I'd come home crying because I couldn't do an art project for Mother's Day that the teacher said we needed to do the next day. From him, I learned to go up and ask the teacher if I could do one for my father instead. Having just a father growing up did impact my learning sometimes for the better or worse he did his best with me and tried to give me a good education. In all, I've learned a lot of things that I wouldn't have without a single father. Maths has always been frustrating to me. I used to sit there and spend hours not getting it to the point where I would put my head down in class and sit there and cry. My teacher would come over and try to help me with what I struggled with in elementary school. Fast forward a few years to middle school, I still struggled with maths only this time I couldn’t just shut down and give up on the thing hoping the teacher would help me out. I had to find a way to help myself in maths which I did slowly. I first had to ask the teacher for extra help which was hard for me as I’m not used to it. This setback affected my academic achievement because it set me back with my maths skills as shown in half the tests I’ve done. Maybe my grades were always good in class, but outside during PSAT, SAT and SBAC tests, it showed how much I couldn’t figure out how to do maths and retain it. When it came to high school online classes helped me but I never retained the knowledge I learned. I still struggle with that but as I got into school in person I learned to slow down and do more practice problems at home which slowly helped me take in all the maths I was seeing before me. When we got back in person it was hard to start a “new” habit of asking for help. Slowly I went to homeroom to work on maths with my teacher. My ninth-grade teacher helped spark hope in me that I’d be able to be at the levels my peers were in maths. As the years went on I went to homeroom and even some days in class asking for extra help to ensure I understood the materials and was doing it correctly. Despite this setback, I'm proud of the maths skills that I've obtained.

My interest in art has influenced my choice of major because growing up I’ve always wanted to be like the artist I saw in comic books. I was inspired by Gerard Way’s The Umbrella Academy and that's when I realised that people are paid to do art for a living. I was able to take the 2 drawing classes my school had to offer. I took drawing and painting and then my senior year I took advanced art which just drove my passion even further. I do wish my school had more drawing classes so I could take this passion a lot further and I can work with others who are like me and not just there for a fine art credit. I'm inspired to take this passion forward at UCSC by taking the classes they have for art during my Freshman year at the college so I can move on to the next art classes they have to offer. While yes this may be a lot of money to spend on doing art, I feel the degree will help me see that this isn't just a silly little dream I’ve had since middle school. At college, I can learn to be a professional unlike with other art groups and such. Being a professional artist has been my dream since middle school. I’ll be surrounded by other artists who can help me step outside my main media and try new ones and I can get tips from other students learning. The environment in an art classroom is vastly different from an art club because art club people are there to just do art, in a classroom everyone is there to help everyone offering good criticism if asked to. One hardship I will face while in college is going to be being able to afford college as a whole. I'm used to financial struggle but we normally bounce back from it. This hardship will be a hundred times worse than all the others since college is more expensive than anything else we've had to go through financial trouble with. While I could get more than one job to try and help out with the debt ultimately it will get in the way of my schooling if I have more than one. I know many people go through financial stuggles when entering college but mine can go on for months and with my dad being a single father it makes it a lot harder for us to come back onto our feet right away. College would only make it worse but my dad for better judgement has encouraged me to go to college. In the end, the financial struggles I will face in college will be the same as they are now but multiplied by a thousand.

Living with a single father has impacted me greatly. Learning to not take for granted even the little things to me not being afraid to get dirty. I would spend hours with my dad and he was all I knew ever since I was two and a half years old. He was my world and I learned so much from him growing up. The best thing I learned from him growing up was how to keep going when things got hard. In school having one parent was rough because I never could join them on certain projects and I was difficult explaining to a class when asked that I don't have a mum because she wasn't there. But because I was in a single-parent household I would be in and out of counselor due to either not being able to afford things or simply because I was upset over all the other kids teasing me for only having a dad. But growing up I learned it's okay to have only one parent as in middle school plenty of my friends only had one parent in their house. My dad taught me how to push through those times as well. When I'd come home crying because I couldn't do an art project for Mother's Day that the teacher said we needed to do the next day. From him, I learned to go up and ask the teacher if I could do one for my father instead. While having just a father growing up did impact my learning sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse I can see he did his best with me and tried to give me a good education so I could go be something and show the world that single-parent kids can get a good education. My future goals are to be an artist get my art put in art galleries and paint murals for businesses. This scholarship will help with that by being put towards my college and help me be able to afford to get a degree in art so I can make my goals a reality. Without this scholarship, I have a high likelihood of not being able to afford college and I would like to not worry my father about my student loan debt being high. So this scholarship will help me to lower the cost of my FASFA and to give him a huge piece of mind. As he tells me "doesn't matter the amount it will help us in the long run" which this scholarship will. With the cost of college and having only one parent for everyone who has two parents this scholarship will go a long way in helping me complete my dream of being an artist and my goals of being in art galleries and being able to make a mural on the side of a building. With the degree I can get with his scholarship as well it can help me to spread messages about issues and bring to light topics that have a stigma to them like bearing mental health problems or being food/money insecure. I could help change the world as an artist after college but the only thing stopping me is the cost of a satisfactory college with amazing art programs that aren't liberal arts. Once again this scholarship would help out my family a lot and could go a long way. In all, this scholarship will benefit my single father to not worry as much or work his body overboard at work to help me pay for college.

My education as a lead artist will help me spread the message about the issues we have. I'd love to do art to spread awareness of issues that plague today's society and help minority groups have a voice. Being a part of a minority makes me want to help spread awareness and help others alongside my minority group (LGBTQIA+) have a voice because I've seen first-hand what it's like to not have a voice in issues about them. I love to draw and art historically has been to help people gain a voice. Art being my passion I'd love to start my business selling and doing art for people. My dream is to do a mural for minorities and after college, it is the first thing I'm going to strive to do while building my business. Colours are the main thing I'd use to help catch people's eyes. As well as that colours are linked to an emotion to me so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me. This is why in my business of art if I was able to make a mural I would use many colours to help capture the feelings of where it was at what the group is feeling and how they'd want to feel. To me, art is a way to help people gain a voice who normally wouldn't have a voice and wouldn't be able to share how they feel. My art is a passion that I plan to use to help others in life because why would I spend hours on a piece of art not to use it / share it with others or to help others? Changing how society looks upon certain issues will make a positive impact on life around us and everyone who is affected by the hatred that we have and hopefully, create a better society like many others have done before me. I feel that using art as a way to help spread awareness of the issues and how they can affect anyone regardless of background, Ethnicity, religion, etc. With art, I feel I can help others and spread awareness of things that are going on in society such as the Transgender debate going on and the BLM movement. I try to shed light on transgender people like me who are persecuted daily due to it and how we aren't the enemy and change society with it it doesn't happen over time but the more I can do it the more I can change society. Helping people is the main thing on my mind when I make most of my art and I try to change society with it.

This scholarship would help me out in the long run because my family can not afford very much in the aspect of college. Coming from a single father it can be hard to afford certain things like college. Having one income can make a whole difference and I know he is worried about me being able to afford college. The one thousand dollars would help out our family a lot with affording my higher education and help even just a little ease my father's mind about me being able to go. As a low-income household, it is hard to be able to afford an admirable college and the scholarship will help us be able to afford an admirable college. So this scholarship would help my single father a lot in the long run of things. Ever since I was little and had a pencil placed in my hand I was drawing. Even when I found it frustrating I could be found drawing. I drew when it wasn't a good time and when it wouldn’t be appropriate with anything I was doing. Even when I was feeling upset you could find me with a pencil in hand drawing my feelings out. Drawing is my greatest skill, always will be. As I grew older and became depressed it was drawing that got me out of it. I fell into this pit of despair and even when I looked at my art and saw something I didn’t like I kept going knowing the future I would look back on the art and smile. I’d spend time carefully drawing lines and colouring which gave me a sense of ease as I saw my imagination come to life on paper with my hand (like when Spongebob made doodlebob). I drew my feelings out showing more emotion and used colours to my advantage. Colours are linked to an emotion so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me.

I really would like to be an artist after college. I'd love to do art to spread awareness of issues that plague today's society and help minority groups have a voice. Being a part of a minority makes me want to help spread awareness and help others alongside my minority group (LGBTQIA+) have a voice because I've seen first-hand what it's like to not have a voice in issues about them. I love to draw and art historically has been to help people gain a voice. Art being my passion I'd love to start my business selling and doing art for people. My dream is to do a mural for minorities and after college, it is the first thing I'm going to strive to do while building my business. Colours are the main thing I'd use to help catch people's eyes. As well as that colours are linked to an emotion to me so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me. This is why in my business of art if I was able to make a mural I would use many colours to help capture the feelings of where it was at what the group is feeling and how they'd want to feel. To me, art is a way to help people gain a voice who normally wouldn't have a voice and wouldn't be able to share how they feel. My art is a passion that I plan to use to help others in life because why would I spend hours on a piece of art not to use it / share it with others or to help others? This is why I want to get an art degree to help others like me so I can help others like me and hopefully, in the process help to create a better society like many others have done before me in the art scene. I feel that using art as a way to help spread awareness of the issues and how they can affect anyone regardless of background, Ethnicity, religion, etc. With art, I feel I can help others and spread awareness of things that are going on in society such as the Transgender debate going on and the BLM movement. I try to shed light on transgender people like me who are persecuted daily due to it and how we aren't the enemy and change society with it it doesn't happen over time but the more I can do it the more I can change society. Helping people is the main thing on my mind when I make most of my art and I try to change society with it.

What does it mean to be authentically me? Being authentic to me is being an artist who uses colours to bring things out. Being authentic to me is being a man. Many people may disagree with how I see being authentically me but I'm proud to say it. I'm proud to be an artist and a transman. Those two things are a part of me that I can never get rid of and I wouldn't want to get rid of even if offered a Million dollars because getting rid of those things would make me not me. Authentically me is loving and helping animals, skateboarding and being in band. I have a lot of things to me and are all a part of me that I feel set me apart from everyone else. Everyone has things that set them apart from being just a boring person and no one is truly the same. Another thing that is authentically me is being kind to everyone because you never know what they may feel and being kind to them may just stop them from committing suicide. Authentically me is being mean to my friends jokingly but also helping support them on their dreams and goals. I spend hours trying to help them achieve their goals just because I want exemplary things to transpire to them. I also try to do my best to help my dad with his finances and I feel that makes me authentically me because I like to help others with problems even if it's "Not my problem". I feel all of these things could apply to other people but they don't have the same relationship with them as I do and no one has the same reasoning or anything behind the same thing. But also another thing that is authentically me is my depression and Anxiety since they are huge things that are a part of me that I can't get rid of. I can tame them but I can't fully get rid of them. The scars from Self-harm also are authentically me because they are something that is a part of my story and what makes me genuine. Another thing I wouldn't be authentic if I didn't have it was my love for music. If I never got into music or found a passion I have now for music I never would've been how I am to this day. Music is a big part of me like being an artist is and without it, I wouldn't be me at all. I would be someone else. If I hadn't taken band I wouldn't be authentically me, being a band kid stems from being really into music and without it I wouldn't be me. Band became a huge part of my life and has taken up 7 years of my life Without things like this, I can be genuine to myself because if I lose the things all listed I wouldn't be me I would be someone else. Being genuinely you in my eyes is being proud of yourself no matter what you do and what you believe in because those things make you, well you! I wouldn't be authentically me without my art, being a transman, my love and kindness towards animals, my worry about my friends and family, my mental health issues, and my self-harm scars. I know I could get rid of a bunch of them but why would I? That goes against the whole premise of being unique and authentically you! So to me being authentically me is more than just small character traits it is more about who you are as a person and what you love or like to do and not repressing how you are and behave.

I've been affected by various LGBTQ+ experiences. One of which was started in 4th and 5th grade when puberty hit. Elementary school boys randomly would take off their shirts and I wanted to be like them. I wanted my body to change to they're body type so I could do that. I thought this was normal as my best friend would stare at them too so I assumed she thought the same thing. Well in an RP with a few friends, I'd use brother and he/him. Even changed my name to Georgie because we were really into IT at the time. But I would try and copy my male best friend, how he stood and walked. My friend noticed this and said hey you might be trans. I laughed it off and said maybe because I didn't know what it meant at the time. But I googled it and got confused because it was a weird definition, so I put it off. In 7th grade, I bought mainly boys' shirts, but my dad refused to buy me boy pants. But I made it work because my role Pete Wentz wore girls' clothes and I thought if he could do it I could do it. Then my friend came out and I asked one of them what exactly Trans means since Google sucks and will tell you you have cancer when you're sick. They said it means you want to be the opposite gender than what you're assigned at birth. Then I said oh and I did research and looked back on my past behaviour picking up little things I'd do that I'd do to avoid female things or how some stories I found sounded oddly kinda like mine. And then after I realized this stuff I came out to my friends. They all said they called it. I also listened to people change Georgie into a feminine name so I switched to Michael or Mikey because it made me uncomfortable when they'd do that and well you can't make Mikey feminine plus I felt like that name fit me and it was my grandpa's name and I feel like he would be happy I'm trying to be myself. I also got a haircut that year that made me feel happy at the time but it was Euphoria. Then in 8th grade, I was forced with females for the sexual harassment lecture I felt uncomfortable being there. Then in lockdown, I'd complain about my hair getting too long and I'd panic because I was starting to look more fem again but I kept researching and finding out more things. Then in 9th grade when we were all in person I went back to copying my male best friend. And lastly this year I tried to explain to my dad I didn't feel like a girl and he said he wanted a real reason. I also found out I was gay in 7th grade when I learned that wanting to kiss a male wasn't what every guy thinks of. I've struggled with my dad not understanding, people at school but this is me and I'm comfortable with that. All these things are my LGBTQ+ experiences many people have also had them but they are all unique to me and have impacted me to get to the point of me knowing what I want and figuring out who I am. Without these experiences, I wouldn't have found myself out and as I keep going on my transition I may find new experiences to me.

When asked who the most influential high school teacher in my life is I always without a doubt say my band teacher Dr.K. I've spent four years of my life with him and he's taught me a lot more than any of my other teachers. He's taught me how to be respectful of people whom I don't like, how being nervous about something means you care about it, how to step outside of my comfort zone and when to take the lead in a section. he has influenced me to do what I love no matter the odds. He's changed how I look at life. He's made me see my life as more exciting. He changed my approach to my life a lot. He's made me find a way to show creativity in my life. I've had many band teachers in my life but Dr.K has made an impact on my life. He taught me a lot in my 4 years of being in his class. From COVID to now we've been together as a band and with other band kids and others who loved to make music with me has changed my outlook on life. Dr. K helped inspire that by keeping me coming back to the band without hesitation each year when scheduling came around I would put band down and be happy with it. I would spend hours practising at home just to get things right just because Dr K kept me practising band. Even when burnt out band was on my mind and how if I didn't step back it would only make me sound bad. Dr K helped me know when to stop and when to keep going and push through. Last year when it came to my AP Research project without hesitation Dr K and his burnout in band came to mind and inspired me to do a research project on it. I spent all my energy on it to try and help other band teachers due to him inspiring me. I spent hours on end with him getting either stories or little facts from him to help inspire my research project. All in all, in my whole high school career I would have to say my Band teacher Dr Rich Kuntzleman inspired me to be a better person, to have a positive outlook on life to approach my life with optimism and to never overlook the small things in life.

What inspired me to make the Santa Cruz Boardwalk art is the fact that Santa Cruz is the first place I've been to that is accepting. I found a home there and I vowed to come back for college after seeing how beautiful the college was. I spent hours staring at the people who didn't judge me as I walked by. I love the Wharf there and that is one of the many views you can see from there so I aimed to try and capture how beautiful it was in person. I spent hours while down there trying to craft a way to paint the beautiful scene that lay before me but I was afraid of ruining how I pictured it in my head. Once the pencil hit the canvas I was off and I made what you now see before you. I do hope I was able to capture the welcoming atmosphere of the small city of Santa Cruz, CA. I knew once I saw the sky from the wharf the second night I was there I had to paint it the colours almost spoke to me as I watched the sunset. Even as I left the boardwalk it was as if I couldn't shake the feeling that the Boardwalk had over me. I spent months painting this piece trying to get everything right just like how I saw it in my mind on the Wharf. My Friends all encouraged me to do it and so I did it as my "personal study" project in my advanced art class this year. The teacher asked me this same question as a matter of fact and I told her the same as I'm telling you; I wanted to paint an accepting city that I fell in love with. While I could've painted the Sea Lions from the wharf I decided on the boardwalk as it gripped me. The sea lions also gripped me but not in the way the boardwalk did from the wharf. Which is odd since normally animals catch my attention more than a sunset. But in my mind, this wasn't just a sunset in a town it was a sunset in my new home. Even as I went back to my actual home state I couldn't shake the feeling the city had over me which led to this painting that is my all-time favorite that I've made. Not only is it my very first scenery painting but it was also the first place I fell in love with.

What I hope to do with my art is to bring attention to serious issues that need to be addressed. I hope to bring to light issues with my artwork as I've seen many others do with their art and I'd love to follow in their footsteps. One issue I'd like to address is the anti-transgender laws with my art (which I've already been doing) and spread information on how this can negatively affect others. Another thing I'd like to achieve with my art is inspiring others to draw as people have done to me. I'd love to be able to be someone else inspiration and to have them look at my art and say "Woah I wanna do that!" it's a huge dream of mine to have this happen and my art is the one way I can achieve this is through my art. I'd love to help bring to light issues not talked about with my art and to inspire people to do art and use it as Gerard Way says “Anything can be art. Anything can be self-expression. Now you take the weapon and run with it.” I'd like to see others use art as a "weapon" against hate and help others feel seen and included within the art community. I have lots of future goals for myself as an artist and while I hope to achieve them all I will have to take it one step at a time as I go along this crazy ride of being an artist. My future relationship with art I hope in the future will be getting closer to it and using it to help me remember memories and have (if I have one) my family remember me through the art I have lying around. As for my future relationship with my artwork an artist once told me "There will still be a day when you art your artwork but you learn to adapt to it" which I feel will happen in the future as it does now but I also feel I will find a way to help cope with it like walking away and being able to come back to it quicker than before or finding new ways to get over artist block which is a big problem for many artists. I feel with my artwork I will be able to build up the relationship with it and make it one thousand times better than it was before. I also feel that I will learn more and more to trust the process of doing my art and not get frustrated and give up on it when I could be onto something amazing. All in all, I feel with my art I will find a way in the future to love and accept all my art the failures and the successes I make along my art journey.

The everyday world helps inspire me as an artist due to the natural changes of the colours. My mind links things with colours so when I see like the colour of the Washington cherry blossom trees I take the colours from it and find ways to incorporate them into my artwork. Or when I see the colour of freshly grown grass I try to add every little colour I see into my art. Also as I draw I learn that much like the world around me my art style is improving and changing which helps me find inspiration in keeping going. When I look at the sunset I usually want to paint it but if I painted every sunset I would have plenty of paintings that would be low on money due to all the paint I've gone through. So instead I add the colours I see into my artwork and try to replicate how they made me feel. Without the everyday world, I wouldn't have as much inspiration with colours as I do now. Colours help me to draw and remember important things. The earth around me, a baby deer walking for the first time, the dew on a leaf, it all helps me to be a better artist and shows me when you pick up your pencil, pen, paintbrush or whatever it is like a new beginning and you can use any colours you see to help you on this journey.

What has changed my life at home and school is the fact that I'm a Transman. Yes, I know that sounds like I'm making it my personality but it's helped me learn to grow as a person and Santa Cruz has made me see that. From middle school up to now, I’ve been bullied and picked on because of it. While this is common almost everywhere it's helped me grow as a person because I’ve learned to ignore people and live my life like everyone else does. My home life isn't the best I will admit after I told my dad. My dad doesn't like the fact that I am Trans and gay but, a friend helped me see that his words don't matter and that if he truly loves me then he will put aside his hurtful words and support me. When I visited Santa Cruz I instantly fell in love with the people around there. I was treated like a normal human being and I even got told UCSC is very open-minded and won't do what teachers and students at my school do which made me almost cry because I’ve never been in a place that didn't have a majority of the population hate my guts for daring to be myself which isn't the case here. They treat me like a human being, I wouldn't have to walk around on eggshells anymore. Granted being Transgender does make me open to hate but the challenges with it have made me grow as a person and have made me open-minded to new ideas or things. While I was open-minded before this opened a whole new world to me. One that was kept hidden for quite some time. I threw myself into LGBTQIA+ problems within the school and tried to change a few things with no success. I tried to help people to be open-minded, and I answered their questions about being trans to no avail. All the things I've been through as a transgender gay man have changed me as a person and helped me to be who I am. I would use my degree in art to help do art to spread awareness of LGBTQIA+ issues like the anti-transgender laws in the U.S. and the ongoing debate of getting rid of LGBTQIA+ people. I would use my higher degree to help me be able to land jobs making art for people. I would love to do a mural of LGBTQIA+ issues and help educate people on what happening to us. Like the cycle of genocide, this may sound extreme but it is what happening and I'd like to use art to try and convince people to leave us alone as we are humans who deserve rights as well as they do. A degree in art would help me get jobs doing art of this type as most people trust a person with a degree to speak out about issues than one without a degree so a higher education would help. In my financial needs going to UCSC this money would help a considerable amount as we don't have the money to afford the tuition alone without help from others I would be drowning in debate and not be able to reach my goal of helping the LGBTQIA+ with issues as I'd have to focus on jobs that would help pay off the tuition and not ones I actual want to do. In conclusion, to wrap this up I feel if chosen for this scholarship I could make a huge impact on the LGBTQIA+ community over time of doing art.

I've struggled with depression and anxiety my whole life just about. I'd spend hours when I was little finding a way to get out of going to social events. As I got older I would have random mood swings to where I didn't want to do anything and everything felt hopeless. One coping strategy I used was self-harm. While it wasn't the best it kept me calm. Like I was punishing myself for what I deemed was wrong. But as I got older I used art as a coping strategy which is SO much healthier compared to self-harm. I would do art about how I felt and it soothed me and I almost forgot about self-harm. When I'd feel anxious or depressed I'd draw out how I'm feeling. While I did have the urge to self harm I would just go and draw and it would help me feel better. I love to draw things on how I feel I made a painting to depict how I felt about my body and how my dysphoria would morph that which is one of my best pieces yet in my eyes. As a middle schooler dealing with dysphoria, depression and anxiety was stressful, to say the least, so I chose my favorite thing to help me cope with all the stress. Which helped me a lot and still does to this day. Picking up the pencil and doodling out my feelings has helped me figure them out better and has made me put more emotions into my artwork as a whole My future goals are to be an artist. If we want to get more specific with it I'd like to be an artist, have my art featured in the LA art gallery and be able to paint a mural one day. I'd like to sit down and on the side of a building or a wall paint an issue I want to be aware too. One of which would be mental health issues. People thinking certain things are linked to mental health issues hurt the group of people and don't help the stigma around mental health within the U.S. I feel a mural of it would be one step closer to helping end the stigma and for others to know they aren't alone in their struggles. I would also like to do a billboard one day to help bring awareness to checking in on friends no matter what you think is going on in their lives. This one is a main concern of mine as if I didn't check on two of my friends I could've potentially lost two very important people to me. A simple check-in could save a life and I'd like to spread awareness of it and make it the norm for people to just check in on others no matter what they may think the other person is feeling as what you see isn't always what it seems. I know from personal experience that it's easy to mask things so others don't get worried or upset with you.

I really would like to be an artist after college. I'd love to do art to spread awareness of issues that plague today's society and help minority groups have a voice. Being a part of a minority makes me want to help spread awareness and help others alongside my minority group (LGBTQIA+) have a voice because I've seen first-hand what it's like to not have a voice in issues about them. I love to draw and art historically has been to help people gain a voice. Art being my passion I'd love to start my business selling and doing art for people. My dream is to do a mural for minorities and after college, it is the first thing I'm going to strive to do while building my business. Colours are the main thing I'd use to help catch people's eyes. As well as that colours are linked to an emotion to me so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me. This is why in my business of art if I was able to make a mural I would use many colours to help capture the feelings of where it was at what the group is feeling and how they'd want to feel. To me, art is a way to help people gain a voice who normally wouldn't have a voice and wouldn't be able to share how they feel. My art is a passion project that I plan to use to help others in life because why would I spend hours on a piece of art not to use it / share it with others or to help others? This is why I want to get an art degree to help others like me so I can help others like me and hopefully, in the process help to create a better society like many others have done before me in the art scene. I feel that using art as a way to help spread awareness of the issues and how they can affect anyone regardless of background, Ethnicity, religion, etc. With art, I feel I can help others and spread awareness of things that are going on in society such as the Transgender debate going on and the BLM movement. I try to shed light on transgender people like me who are persecuted daily due to it and how we aren't the enemy and change society with it it doesn't happen over time but the more I can do it the more I can change society. Helping people is the main thing on my mind when I make most of my art and I try to change society with it.

I have always seen the world in colours. My bubbly friend who is always smiling (yellow). My dad once a month tries to talk to me about being transgender (red). I used this in my art a lot knowing I could use the colours to make my art mean more to me and others, and put emotions into it. With that, I used to stay up at night watching interviews of Gerard Way talking about his band and his artwork. I determined he was a Yellow (happy) mixed with a blue (sad) and with that in mind I drew him for a high school project. I put my heart into it. I took careful note of the colours I assigned him and it made my art burst with emotions. I watched more and more band interviews and watched people's behaviour assigning everyone a colour, when strangers would come over I’d assign them grey (unknown). Grey is a dangerous shade I’ve come to learn. In history when learning about horrible things I’d assign it grey meaning it's a mystery to me and it's dangerous to talk about and unknown. I used my colours to help outside of school but made sure not to bring up certain topics around my dad as it made him angry (or red). This creativity relates to my major because I want to be an artist and artists use colours a lot. Colours are a main thing used in art and art is something that I've always loved doing. I loved drawing from a young age and wanted to inspire people the way others inspired me. I read a bunch of comic books in my free time realising I could do it as a job. I took my talent and passion and ran with it. I knew I found my self-expression in art and that I could help people see their not alone with it. A quote that got me thinking about an art career is "There's not a lot of art forms where you can control your presentation and your ideas.” ― Gerard Way. My community has impacted this because being a suburb Rural mixed area it is easy to get the feel of Seattle here and be able to show creativity like they do in Seattle without the big city competition of Seattle. But without the competition, it gets hard to tell if you're improving and as an artist for my future I need to adapt. The one good thing about being a suburb rural area mixed is that it is easier to work on completing things before the deadlines which I do admit I struggle with sometimes when it comes to art but my community has helped me get A LOT better at it during my time spent here with all the art contests the library puts on.

I have always seen the world in colours. My bubbly friend who is always smiling (yellow). My dad once a month tries to talk to me about being transgender (red). I used this in my art a lot knowing I could use the colours to make my art mean more to me and others, and put emotions into it. With that, I used to stay up at night watching interviews of Gerard Way talking about his band and his artwork. Determining he was a yellow (happy) mixed with a blue (sad) I drew him for a high school project. I put my all into it being extra careful. I took careful note of the colours I assigned him and it made my art with emotions. I watched more and more band interviews and watched people's behaviour assigning everyone a colour in my mind, when strangers would come over I’d assign them grey (unknown). Grey is a dangerous shade I’ve come to learn. In the past when I had people assault me in multiple ways I gave the situation and them the colour grey and due to that, I avoided them. I used my colours to help outside of school, like not bringing up certain topics around my dad as it made him angry (red). All this creativity relates to my major because I want to be an artist and artists use colours a lot. Colours are a main thing used in art and art is something that I've always loved doing. I loved drawing from a young age and wanted to inspire people the way others inspired me. Reading a bunch of comic books in my free time realising I could do it as a job. I took my talent and passion and ran with it. I knew I found my self-expression in art and that I could help people see they are not alone with my artwork. A quote that got me thinking about an art career is “Anything can be art. Anything can be self-expression. Now you take the weapon and run with it.” ― Gerard Way. Additionally, if I had a charity I would go around helping the homeless and their pets. I'd like to help to make them feel more comfortable and most people give up their pets after a while which is their only source of comfort it hurts me to hear that they had to give them up so they could have a better life. If I made a charity I would use my hobby of art to help raise money for homeless people and pets to have a better life because while people see homeless people and think they are drug addicts I see a person who had hopes and dreams and I would like to help them to a better life. It especially hurts me if they have a pet and they are trying to get rid of them so they can be taken care of when both of them deserve to be together and have a better life so my charity would focus on them and help them to have a better life. More than a better life a life they both deserve together as a family. So in short my charity would help homeless people and pets lives forever.

I really would like to be an artist after college. I'd love to do art to spread awareness of issues that plague today's society and help minority groups have a voice. Being a part of a minority makes me want to help spread awareness and help others alongside my minority group (LGBTQIA+) have a voice because I've seen first-hand what it's like to not have a voice in issues about them. I love to draw and art historically has been to help people gain a voice. Art being my passion I'd love to start my business selling and doing art for people. My dream is to do a mural for minorities and after college, it is the first thing I'm going to strive to do while building my business. Colours are the main thing I'd use to help catch people's eyes. As well as that colours are linked to an emotion to me so when I use certain colours as the primary eye-catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it work. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing more depressing pieces. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning and purpose to me. This is why in my business of art if I was able to make a mural I would use many colours to help capture the feelings of where it was at what the group is feeling and how they'd want to feel. To me, art is a way to help people gain a voice who normally wouldn't have a voice and wouldn't be able to share how they feel. My art is a passion project that I plan to use to help others in life because why would I spend hours on a piece of art not to use it / share it with others or to help others?

What has changed my life at home and school is the fact that I'm a Transman. Yes, I know that sounds like I'm making it my personality but it's helped me learn to grow as a person and Santa Cruz has made me see that. From middle school up to now, I’ve been bullied and picked on because of it. While this is common almost everywhere it's helped me grow as a person because I’ve learned to ignore people and live my life like everyone else does. My home life isn't the best I will admit after I told my dad. My dad doesn't like the fact that I am Trans and gay but, a friend helped me see that his words don't matter and that if he truly loves me then he will put aside his hurtful words and support me. When I visited Santa Cruz I instantly fell in love with the people around there. I was treated like a normal human being and I even got told UCSC is very open-minded and won't do what teachers and students at my school do which made me almost cry because I’ve never been in a place that didn't have a majority of the population hate my guts for daring to be myself which isn't the case here. They treat me like a human being, I wouldn't have to walk around on eggshells anymore. Granted being Transgender does make me open to hate but the challenges with it have made me grow as a person and have made me open-minded to new ideas or things. While I was open-minded before this opened a whole new world to me. One that was kept hidden for quite some time. I threw myself into LGBTQIA+ problems within the school and tried to change a few things with no success. I tried to help people to be open-minded, and I answered their questions about being trans to no avail. All the things I've been through as a transgender gay man have changed me as a person and helped me to be who I am. it impacts my daily life from doing normal tasks with dysphoria to how people see me. As I go about life being a transman is my greatest adversity at the moment as it is seen everywhere that I shouldn't be alive which impacts everything in my life. I wish it didn't but it does. it makes me more anxious and makes it hard to feel safe. In conclusion, I'd say my greatest adversity is being a transman and I do hope it gets better in time.

Ever since I was little and had a pencil placed in my hand I was drawing. Even when I found it frustrating I could be found drawing. I drew when it wasn't a good time and when it would be appropriate with anything I was doing. Even when I was feeling upset you could find me with a pencil in hand drawing my feelings out. Drawing is my greatest skill, always has always will be. As I grew older and became depressed it was drawing that got me out of it. I fell into this pit of despair and even when I looked at my art and saw something I didn’t like I kept going knowing future me would look back on the art and smile. I’d spend time carefully drawing lines and colouring which gave me a sense of ease as I saw my imagination come to life on paper by my own hand (like when spongebob made doodlebob). I drew my feelings out showing more emotion and used colours to my advantage. Colours are linked to an emotion to me so when I use certain colours as the primary eye catching subject it shows how I felt drawing that particular thing or how I imagine the person, animal or thing to feel in the scenario. Like if I was happy the main colour of the object would be yellow or if I was dysphoric the subject's main colour would be black. I took this skill I’ve been (and still) mastering to make it speak to me. I made it my best friend and no matter how many frustrating roadblocks I’d hit while getting to it I still kept it up. I’d spend hours mastering it and just as easily I could spend hours (which I have) ranting and raving about what colours and art means to me and how I use them to make me happier even when drawing pieces that are more depressing. While others may look at the piece and just think “Huh nice art” I look at it knowing the colours have meaning, and purpose. This creativity relates to my life because I want to be an artist and artists use colours a lot. Colours are a main thing used in art and art is something that I've always loved doing. I loved drawing from a young age and wanted to inspire people the way others inspired me. I read a bunch of comic books in my free time realising I could do it as a job. I took my talent and passion and ran with it. I knew I found my self-expression in art and that I can help people see their not alone with it. A quote that really got me thinking about an art career is "There's not a lot of art forms where you can control your presentation and your ideas.” ― Gerard Way.