The legacy that I want to leave behind is a more developed speech pathology system in public schools. When I was five years old, my family moved to China. We lived there for nine years before rising political tensions in our region forced us to evacuate before the start of my freshman year. I was thrust into an American public school for my freshman year of high school as a girl who was utterly broken, haunted by unforgotten faces, and struggling with the weight of incredible loss. Because of my trauma, I’m able to empathize with others that have gone through loss and understand the struggle of fitting into new places. After emerging from a childhood engulfed in tragedy, I realize that my determination in persevering through trials has helped me to love others better, define my values, and given me perspective for my future. Over the past year and a half, these experiences have been the driving force in choosing my career path. I want to be a speech pathologist to help children that may slip beneath the surface in public schools because of speaking difficulties. As I help develop better strategies to treat these communication issues, I hope to create connections with these students so that I can support them in areas outside of speech pathology as well. The legacy that I want to leave behind is a speech pathology system that is more impactful on the lives of children struggling to express themselves in verbal communication.

True friendship means staying with people even when they're having their darkest moments and choosing to love them until the end. When my family moved back to America, I felt completely alienated because of the difference in my cultural background. My family had lived in China up until the start of my freshman year, and I had no idea how to function in an American public school. I began my high school career as a girl who was utterly broken, haunted by unforgotten faces, and struggling with the weight of incredible loss. Pushing through the culture shock and heartache of leaving everything I loved behind was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I struggled for months to find myself after losing so much of my identity. I truly believe that I wouldn't have gotten through that period of my life if it weren't for my new friends. Although I had just met them that year, they quickly became my lifeline through all of the stress. Every time I got pulled under the surface, they helped me push through and challenged me to not give up. For a few months, I struggled with suicidal thoughts and nearly gave in to the anxiety and depression that was crushing me. No matter how terrible my mental health became, they were always there to form a shield around me and help however they could. My friends drastically changed my definition of friendship through of there selfless acts. Their love and support for me is the reason that I'm here today.

When I was five years old, my family moved to China. The next nine years changed the course of my life forever, shaping me into the person that I am today. We were forced to unexpectedly evacuate the country because of rising political tensions before the start of my freshman year. I was thrust into the chaos of ninth grade without any connections or people to rely on. Because I know how easy it is to slip beneath the surface in public school, one of my core values since then has been creating more ways for people to get involved and form connections with others. Through student government and various district committees, I have worked with other students to make our district a more inclusive and supportive community by organizing toy drives for underprivileged children, creating ways for students to evaluate their teachers to the school, and putting together club fairs to help get people connected. My career plan is to major in Communication Disorders and to go to grad school for Speech Pathology. I am only 17 at the moment, but I will be 18 by the time I go to college. I want to work in a public school after I graduate because I would love to continue my passion for fighting to help kids in public schools. This scholarship would help me achieve these goals by providing me with the funds to pursue my dream of becoming a resource to children who have also had difficulty fitting into American society. One book that has had a profound impact on my life is "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I started reading "The Idiot" during a time in my life when I was surrounded by uncertainty. Prince Myshkin challenged my worldview and pushed me to reevaluate the consequences of having an idealized view of the world. Because I came into American society as a naive teenager that hadn’t been exposed to its downfalls, I can relate to the experience of feeling like “the idiot” because people did not understand my background or beliefs. The way that Myshkin completely refused to conform to the culture of Russian aristocracy encouraged me to question how important it is to fit in with the rest of society, and what the benefits are of standing out. Even though Myshkin’s innocence was his downfall, it also allowed him to be free of others’ expectations and help the people around him in unexpected ways. Another book that has strongly impacted my perspective is "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. While its language was significantly less sophisticated than other novels that I have read, "The Book Thief" made a huge impact on me as it forced me to reevaluate what I considered to be the qualifications of a good novel. One part that strongly influenced me was the way that Liesel’s entire life was stolen from her, but she went on to write her own story by becoming a mother and grandmother. This inspired me to move on from the tragedy in my own life and not be defined by my past. Through these works of literature, I was encouraged to reevaluate my perspective on the importance of maintaining innocence in the face of a corrupted society and what it looks like to move on from trauma. These lessons have shaped my goals by encouraging me to help others heal from their past while maintaining the qualities that are important to them.

When I was five years old, my family moved to China. The next nine years changed the course of my life forever, shaping me into the person that I am today. We were forced to unexpectedly evacuate the country because of rising political tensions before the start of my freshman year. I was thrust into the chaos of ninth grade without any connections or people to rely on. Because I know how easy it is to slip beneath the surface in public school, one of my core values since then has been creating more ways for people to get involved and form connections with others. Through student government and various district committees, I have worked with other students to make our district a more inclusive and supportive community by organizing toy drives for underprivileged children, creating ways for students to evaluate their teachers to the school, and putting together club fairs to help get people connected. My career plan is to major in Communication Disorders and to go to grad school for Speech Pathology. I want to work in a public school after I graduate because I would love to continue my passion for fighting to help kids in public schools. This scholarship would help me achieve these goals by providing me with the funds to pursue my dream of becoming a resource to children who have also had difficulty fitting into American society.

I was thirteen when I boarded the plane that would evacuate my family from Urumqi, China, launching me on a journey into the unknown world of American culture. We had lived in the southern part of a city torn apart by racial tension and marked by total chaos. Power and water outages were frequent, military parades took place daily, and slums were randomly assigned to be demolished through the mark of a single spray-painted character. As the situation gradually worsened throughout China, we knew that it was only a matter of time until the police through our own door. We evacuated China a few weeks later and found ourselves in America, without possessions, friends, or a home. I was immediately thrust into public school for my freshman year of high school as a girl who was utterly broken, haunted by unforgotten faces, and struggling with the weight of incredible loss. After the past three and a half years of heartache, I’ve come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t exchange my past for the world and that those painful memories had helped to shape me into the person I am today. The suffering and brokenness that I witnessed entirely changed my perspective on life and the scars that those memories left helped me grow as a person. Over the past year and a half, this has been the driving force in choosing how I spend my time, resulting in starting a club that reaches out to new students on my campus and sitting on numerous committees with administrators of my district to speak into issues that impact my fellow classmates. After emerging from a childhood engulfed by tragedy, I realize that my story has helped me to love others better, define my values, and given me perspective for my future.

COVID-19 came during a season when I was struggling to find reliable friends and was becoming burnt out because of the high academic pressure that I put on myself. I would often cry when I got home from school because I felt so isolated from my friends or disappointed in myself over a bad test grade. When the pandemic began, all of the problems that I was working through got much worse. All of the people that I considered to be my closest friends communicated through group chats that I wasn't in and I felt completely alone. While COVID-19 may have separated me from people that I used to be close to, it also brought the opportunity for me to create relationships with those in my community. I painted thirty cards with words of encouragement and placed them in my neighbors' mailboxes in order to help others feel less alone. I turned away from the toxic friendships that had characterized my first two years of high school and challenged myself to invest in other people. Since then, I've become much more connected in my community and have made other friends that continue to inspire me to become the best that I can be. When COVID brought the fragile world that I had built crashing down, it brought opportunities to step away from being the shy girl who sat at the back of the classroom and embrace becoming a leader to those around me. Since then, I have become a better listener, a more confident individual, and someone who is more equipped to face life outside of high school. I am an SOS Lifeguard, which means that I help guide 24 freshmen through the chaos of their first year at J J Pearce. I am the founder of a club that helps provide students who are new to the district with connections and relationships. I am the Vice President of Student Government and spend a lot of my time organizing school wide events in order to bring people together. Because COVID-19 caused me to reevaluate my life, I became a better leader and someone who is always fighting to improve the world around them. I've also learned to be careful with the academic standards that I hold myself to. I'm going to be graduating with an unweighted GPA of 102.3, an ACT score of 35, a class rank of 16, and a healthy mental state. I've had less anxiety this year than any other year in high school and have learned to balance academic goals with mental health. Although COVID-19 brought so much hurt and heartache with it, it also brought an opportunity to push through the challenges of high school and being a teenager. That struggle ultimately shaped me into the person I am today.