I'm a high school senior who's done every creative hobby you could think of. I love writing, learning about random history facts, sewing, crocheting, drawing, and a million things in between, but my biggest passion is theater. I've been doing theater since third grade -- roughly a decade -- and that experience has allowed me to express myself in ways only available onstage. I'm also a third culture kid because of my dad's job; I've lived in three continents and four countries, and changing friend groups every two to three years was rough; the experience overseas was particularly trying during the pandemic. Being isolated from my extended family, especially those with health issues, has been one of the toughest moments of my life, and has significantly impacted the way I value my friends and family. I'm a hard-working student, responsible older sibling, and dependable person, all of which my community has had a role in strengthening. I'm planning on majoring in film, and while that may not seem like the world-changing industry that many other fields, like medical research, are, movies have always been a big part of my life. As someone who will inevitably be telling stories through movies, the stories I’m telling will be important. While it’s a given that it’ll be entertaining, they should also be stories that aren’t told enough. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, having only a handful of queer movies to watch has always irked me. Queer people exist in all different stages and walks of life, not just the awkward coming-out-in-high-school stage, and historically, not a lot of queer media has shown that. I want to include more queer characters in film without the need to turn it into yet another coming out movie, or for the sake of forced diversity, because we are so much more than that. We have taken leaps and bounds in terms of diversity in the media over the past decade or so, but it can always be improved, and part of my responsibility as a creative person is to tell stories that haven’t been told enough. Attending college makes these goals possible. College is the next step forward in my goals of working in the film industry. Getting a degree in filmmaking allows me to show employers what my talents are and how I gained my skills and experience. I can build on my skills that I already have and make my work more professional, in addition to working with people who share a common interest; all of these benefits allow me to work towards my goals of telling underrepresented stories to the world. Through my time living overseas, one of the biggest things I've learned is that no matter where you are, finding a community is absolutely possible. Finding people who will love and accept you for who you are is game changing; but being that person that seeks other people out to include them? That's one of the best feelings in the world to me. I could not have figured that out without having the wonderful community that I have now, through my theater experience. And that's what I intend to do through filmmaking, is to create art that fosters inclusion.

I'm a high school senior who's done every creative hobby you could think of. I love writing, learning about random history facts, sewing, crocheting, drawing, and a million things in between, but my biggest passion is theater. I've been doing theater since third grade -- roughly a decade -- and that experience has allowed me to express myself in ways only available onstage. I'm also a third culture kid because of my dad's job; I've lived in three continents and four countries, and changing friend groups every two to three years was rough, and the experience overseas was particularly trying during the pandemic. Being isolated from my extended family, especially those with health issues, has been one of the toughest moments of my life, and has significantly impacted the way I value my friends and family. I'm a hard-working student, responsible older sibling, and dependable person. My community involvement has been pretty varied. I've done things from being a member of the National Honor Society at my high school to volunteering at my local library, but my most rewarding experience giving back to the community has to be my experience as a camp counselor. My aunt, who teaches theater in public schools in a low income community, organizes a free summer camp every year for kids who want to participate, and I've been a camp counselor there for the past five years. The opportunity to introduce kids to an art that I've been in love with for a decade is one of the best experiences I've ever had, and it's been a great opportunity to gain leadership experience. My family has been very fortunate, but despite years of careful saving and hard work, college continues to be a huge expense. I will need student loans to afford my degree, in addition to the dozens of scholarship applications and merit awards I've applied for. Going to college will be a financial burden, but getting my degree allows me to follow my dreams in the film industry. Having a strong community has always been a big priority of mine because of my family's habit of moving around from place to place every two to three years. My biggest goal once I walked into a new school was establishing a friend group that I could sit with at lunch, and once I realized I was queer, that community was so much more important to maintain. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I’ve become hyper-aware of how inclusive I’m being. From feeling like a bit of an outcast during middle school and the pandemic to finally finding a place I can exist as myself in my theatre program in high school, I’ve had my fair share of experiences where I’ve felt excluded from a group. As someone who has experienced what it's like to feel excluded, both online and in-person, I intend to be that person who will always invite you to come sit at the table during lunch. Being inclusive is the best way to avoid cyberbullying and in-person bullying, and by including someone, you could potentially be saving their life.

I’ve always known I’d do something creative with my life; when I was five, it was a ballerina. When I was seven, it was as a studio artist. When I was eleven, it was an author. But taking a film class and seeing the processes and dedication that goes into creating the things we see on screen made me realize that film is my true path in life. I’m fascinated by the way all those moving parts come together to make something the audience can watch and enjoy. Unfortunately, the film industry has always struggled with inclusion; as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I’ve always been hyper-aware of how inclusive I’m being. From feeling like a bit of an outcast during middle school and the pandemic to finally finding a place I can exist as myself in my theatre program in high school, I’ve had my fair share of experiences where I’ve felt excluded from a group. As someone who has finally broken into a friend group that values me for who I am, I intend to be that person who will always invite you to come sit at the table during lunch. I intend to blend that inclusive nature into my creativity as well. Through my experience as a film major and my career past college, my goal is to include more diverse and queer characters in all of my work. The film industry needs to push past the old “awkward kid in high school comes out” stereotype and realize that queer people exist outside of high school, in the real world, and in every stage of life. By taking my inclusive nature into my creative works, I want to help show those worried kids in middle school that it’s not something out of the ordinary; it’s just a fact of life and should be treated as such. From inviting anyone to come sit at my table during lunch to changing the industry for the better, my inclusive nature shows up in most of the aspects in my life, and that’s what makes me so intent on joining an industry that affects how people see themselves. College is the next step forward in my goals of working in the film industry. Getting a degree in filmmaking allows me to show employers what my talents are and how I gained my skills and experience. I can build on my skills that I already have and make my work more professional, in addition to working with people who share a common interest.

As creatives, our responsibility to society has always been up in the air. Take lawyers, for example: their social responsibility is to ensure justice is preserved for everyone. For emergency responders, it’s to keep the public safe. But as someone who doesn’t have an established purpose in society, how do I define my responsibility, and the importance of creativity to society as a whole? The easiest answer is to create escapes from reality. With the occasionally crushing reality that we live in, everyone needs their escape, and as an aspiring filmmaker, I plan to do just that: create an escape from everyday life for everyone to enjoy. I plan on becoming a film editor, and while I might not be directing or writing these stories, editing can entirely change the outcome of the final message. Oftentimes the best movies aren’t the ones that win awards despite being obscure pieces that only a handful of people have seen; the best movies are the ones the audience enjoys watching. While yes, those underground movies have their place, I want to make movies that make people laugh, get excited, or become captivated. As someone who will inevitably be telling stories through movies, the stories I’m telling will be important. While it’s a given that it’ll be entertaining, they should also be stories that aren’t told enough. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, having only a handful of queer movies to watch has always irked me. Queer people exist in all different stages and walks of life, not just the awkward coming-out-in-high-school stage, and historically, not a lot of queer media has shown that. I want to include more queer characters in film without the need to turn it into yet another coming out movie, or for the sake of forced diversity, because we are so much more than that. We have taken leaps and bounds in terms of diversity in the media over the past decade or so, but it can always be improved, and part of my responsibility as a creative person is to tell stories that haven’t been told enough. I want to make movies and TV shows that leave an impact on the audience. My time working in a classroom production team showed me that that dream is possible, and my favorite media has shown me that even as an editor, you can be creative and make things that stay with the audience for long after they watch them.

We set the scene on Memorial Day Monday of 2024, the weather considerably rainy and our subject walking into a movie theater full of movies that missed the big Christmas push and are too early for the big summer release season. The subject crosses over to the most intriguing poster; this movie will change the subject’s life. Enter: Ian Lambert. This most recent Memorial Day, instead of holding a big barbecue, my family decided to go to the movies. There wasn’t anything we were particularly looking forward to seeing, but one of the flashiest posters in the theater was The Fall Guy, so that’s where we ended up, watching Ryan Gosling - you guessed it - fall. A lot. The movie’s premise consists of two entirely different movies, the movie you watch in the theater, and the one Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are “making” during the plot. The entire movie is framed as the behind-the-scenes of a stunt guy, falling and stage-fighting his way through an action movie, complete with an entire movie set within a movie set. From the moment I heard “camera rolling: speed,” I was hooked. This movie was what I realized I wanted my life to look like; the rush of adrenaline when I get on set, the loud clap of a slate before a take, the jitters when I realize the camera is rolling and I’m doing what I always wanted to do. I could’ve stayed in that theater and watched that movie a dozen times, and I’d still be imagining what life would look like in any one of those integral positions. Watching dozens of people run through what an average day on a set would look like, I wanted to be there on set with them - whether I was reading over my lines before I go on, or adjusting the camera’s white balance, or fixing a talent’s costume, I knew I wanted to be there. Seeing all the moving pieces that create all the things I see on screen is mystifying. Knowing how many people need to be on set, from directors, assistant directors, talent, camera operators, all the way down the chain of command to production assistants, makes me realize just how important every role is to making the production function. And I want to be there and make it happen. When I wanted to add visual effects to my work, I asked a friend who excels at it, practiced, and made it happen. When I run out of ideas or solutions to problems, I look to my colleagues for inspiration. If I’m ever stuck and I can’t get where I want to go on my own, my friends are always there to nudge me in the right direction. I know now, because of that movie, this is what I want to do. I want to make movies; movies that blow you away in the theater, that entertain the next hour after the theater with dozens of questions. I want to make movies that inspire other people to make movies. I want to be part of those moving pieces that create the movies we love to watch.

What do I want to do to leave a positive impact on the world? The easiest answer is simply to entertain people. With the occasionally crushing reality that we live in, everyone needs their escape, and as an aspiring filmmaker, I plan to do just that: create an escape from everyday life for everyone to enjoy. Oftentimes the best movies aren’t the ones that win awards despite being obscure pieces that only a handful of people have seen; the best movies are the ones the audience enjoys watching. While yes, those underground movies have their place, I want to make movies that make people laugh, get excited, or become captivated. As someone who will inevitably be telling stories through movies, the stories I’m telling will be important. While it’s a given that it’ll be entertaining, they should also be stories that aren’t told enough. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, having only a handful of queer movies to watch has always irked me. Queer people exist in all different stages and walks of life, not just the awkward coming-out-in-high-school stage, and historically, not a lot of queer media has shown that. I want to include more queer characters in film without the need to turn it into yet another coming out movie, or for the sake of forced diversity, because we are so much more than that. We have taken leaps and bounds in terms of diversity in the media over the past decade or so, but it can always be improved, and part of my responsibility as a creative person is to tell stories that haven’t been told enough. By taking my inclusive nature into my creative works, I want to help show those worried kids in middle school that it’s not something out of the ordinary; it’s just a fact of life and should be treated as such. My goal is to work on narrative, fictional movies that really make the audience think. I want to make movies that people will talk about for hours after they leave the movie theater while including aspects that reflect everyday life, like more queer and diverse characters. I want to open the world up for other people the way my favorite movies did for me, even if I don’t inspire dozens of other filmmakers. Creating something the audience can enjoy while taking their minds off their daily lives is enough to tell me I’m exceeding my goals in leaving a positive impact on the world.