Ever since I was young, I've been inspired by the idea of serving others. My parents have always made serving been a family priority. My dad works at a non-profit organization, and I have grown up helping him at their events as well as other organizations and church events. Servanthood is a value that was instilled in me at a young age. Some of my earliest memories of community service come from elementary school, where I would visit the local nursing home to read to patients who didn’t get many visitors. I didn't realize, at the time, how much it impacted me. They taught me that helping others, even in small ways, can be uplifting to the giver and the receiver. One-on-one connections are sometimes the most impacting. As I've grown older, serving in my community has shown me that everyone has a greater purpose in life. One experience that opened my eyes to my local community was when I was 12 years old. I volunteered at a food pantry, helping to stock supplies and ensure that families in need had access to food. This experience showed me the reality of hardships in my own community that so many families face and made me realize how fortunate I was. It also inspired me to do more for people in great need. Food pantries are not only about providing someone help but about showing them that they matter and that others care about them. When I turned 15, I had the privilege of traveling to Albania as part of a mission trip to help schools in rural villages and provide food to families struggling with poverty. The conditions in these remote villages were very different from anything I had ever seen or experienced. Many of the schools lacked even the most basic supplies, and many families were on food rations. On this trip, I learned the power of direct action—how simple efforts like delivering food or school supplies could have a lasting impact on someone’s life. What struck me most, though, was the gratitude and resilience of the people there. I enjoyed playing baseball with the school children and laughing with them. No matter what country we are in or how much we have, we are all people with the same basic desires in life: to be seen and to matter. They showed me that even in the face of hardship, there is always hope. I’ve continued my commitment to service in high school. I was honored to receive the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for contributing over 100 hours of community service during my freshman year. Serving others is not only about making a difference in someone else’s life—it’s also about the ways serving others changes us. Not everyone might have the opportunity for an international missions' trip as I did, but everyone can find an opportunity to serve in their local community. Whether it is through a church, local library, senior center, or local government, there are simple ways to serve. Even in our own neighborhoods, there are opportunities to help a single mom who needs her grass mowed or an elderly family who needs housework done. Opportunities to help are everywhere if we will only look for it. My experiences in community service have taught me that change is possible, and it often begins with one person who is willing to take action. I believe that by continuing to serve, I can help bring about the change I wish to see in the world—one person, one act, and one day at a time.

Like most young kids, I played my share of video games over the years. My favorite games were racing games, sports games, and Minecraft. My parents often remind me that when I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I said, “I want to ‘drive’ airplanes and 'make' video games.” Now I realize how unique it was that my goal wasn’t just to play video games but to make them too. My parents were careful with which video games I was allowed to play, but they also saw the value in certain games like Minecraft that helped develop an engineering sense for me at a young age. Knowing that I could come up with an idea for a building, object, or even an entire town and then build it was exciting. Video games also inspired me to dabble in computer coding. Playing video games encouraged creativity and problem-solving skills that have been useful in many aspects of my life. While I didn’t always love reading, my obsession with Minecraft had me reading every Minecraft inspired book I could find. After a while, I even started writing my own. I had quite the collection of a Minecraft book series that I had written. Even though Minecraft was “just” a video game, it became so much more to me and inspired me to do even more than only play the game. Minecraft sparked my imagination, pushing me to think outside the box and explore new ideas. The older I got, the more involved in sports I became. Playing sports video games helped teach me the rules to the various games that I was playing. I learned all of the different pitches in baseball with MLB: The Show. NBA 2K taught me the fouls in basketball and showed me a lot of unique shots that could be taken. Now that I’m in high school, I play Varsity basketball and baseball, and I am working toward playing baseball in college as well. While I would have learned these rules and pitches in real life, the video games I played definitely made them much easier to visualize and understand. I can credit my interest in video games to segueing into my interest in programming, music production and graphic design. My plan is to major in media production and graphic design in college, and maybe one day I will, in fact, make video games just like I wanted to when I was young. The skills and knowledge I have gained from video games will continue to shape my future, and I hope to use them to possibly create something that inspires others.