My goals for the future are all wrapped in together. I am planning on starting this fall at Arizona State University for my Masters of Legal Studies with an emphasis in Indian Gaming and Indian Law. I currently work as a Surveillance Department Manager for an Indian owned casino in NC. I am hoping that this degree will help further my knowledge about gaming laws and compacts that govern casinos and help me to create laws in my state that help protect the casino better against those that might try to cheat or take advantage of it. For personal goals, as a survivor of domestic violence, I would like to utilize my MLS degree to help other victims of domestic violence, especially those on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian reservation that I work currently. Another personal goal is that I have been very active in the advocacy community, mainly as a street medic. With the MLS degree I can then use that to also help as a legal observer during events as needed and be there to support during events. I would continue to use my degree to help perpetuate a society that is both knowledgeable and embracing of the diversity that our community offers. Academic wise, I might eventually want to get my doctorate, but that is still up in the air at this point. I am just excited to go back to school and continue with learning something new and expanding my knowledge and abilities. Thank you for your time and consideration in this scholarship.

The past two years have showed a large spotlight on the failings as a nation. Sadly one that I was aware of, but not to the extent of the damage and the divide. I actively support equality and diversity with my street medic collective that I joined mid 2019. We train and supply our collective to ensure that we can offer free medicine to all who may need it, regardless of gender, nationality, drug status, or economical status. We work hard to ensure that radical consent and safety is our number one goal. Our street medic collective works during protests, community events, we support homeless, undocumented, those facing addiction, and community actions. Within this group it has given me the ability to work closely with other nationalities and learn more about what I can do to help support the causes that are important in creating equality across the board. It took a lot of self reflection as a white woman to realize my own faults in previous attempts to support equality and diversity. I learned that the best thing I could do is to first be quiet and listen. Then to utilize my privileges to elevate the voices of those that are being discriminated against. None of these communities that are being discriminated against need a white savior, they need the chance and the ability to have a fair shot to save themselves. As a member of the LGTBQ community, I understand the fight for equality and diversity is not over, and won't be anytime soon. I hope that more and more people will take the time to listen and learn what they can do to support and love those around them. I will continue to promote BIPOC and other LGBTQ+ experiences and give them the platform they deserve.

I've often written about my tumultuous and abusive marriage for some of these prompts. While it is a turn around that I am proud of, there are many other things in my life that have occurred and I'm proud of as well. My first marriage was to a man in the military. Being a military wife was never an easy task. When we decided to get married, it was a rush of a wedding (3 months) to hurry up before he deployed to the Middle East. We had about two weeks together after the wedding before he left. In our first year of marriage I had seen my husband for less than a month. As with any young and enthusiastic military wife, I was sending my then-husband care packages every week or two. They were filled with goodies, toiletries, candies, books, and decorated for random themes. With his birthday coming up during the deployment I reached out to a few of his fellow soldiers to discuss an idea. One that I would need there help to be able to accomplish. I wanted to plan a surprise birthday party for him. I gathered cards from friends, family, and community members and sent them to his fellow soldiers in box one. Box two contained decorations for his bunk. The last box, box three, contained enough homemade cakes, baked into jars for his entire unit. All three were sent to different soldiers in his unit so they could set it up while he was on patrol for his 12 hour shift. He didn't suspect a thing and was completely surprised. I took that as a major win in a crappy situation. While I couldn't celebrate with him in person, I made sure to try to give him the best birthday possible.

It's the basis of what we are taught in school, the very essence of our moral code. "Treat others how you wish to be treated" is not just the golden rule, but has become truly the way I function in life. I approach every situation looking at it from another person's point of view and then ask how I would want it to be handled. Love is something that is infinite and should be given freely. During my first marriage, my husband was National Guard. Every month they would do drill at his home armory, which we happened to live the closest too. So every drill weekend, we would open our apartment to any of the soldiers that didn't have a place to stay to come stay at our place, so they were sleeping on a cot at the armory. I would cook them a full course dinner on Saturday to make sure that they had a homecooked meal, and any one of them, regardless if they were staying at our house or not could come eat. It was my small way to show them that I loved and appreciated what they were doing. I still love cooking and hosting my friends over for little get togethers, even though I no longer am doing it for the soldiers. I constantly try to thank my friends for their impact in my life and do small acts for them when I can. I have lost a few different friends to tragic domestic violence circumstances and have truly been hit by losing someone without being able to tell them that you love them. So I tell my friends that I love them, every chance that I get, and I mean it. I love them unconditionally and would do anything for them.

My life has had it's fair shares of ups and downs. Motivation has changed through the years as things have happened, which is a normal process. When I was younger my main motivation was to make my mom proud of me, to see her smile and hug me over something. After she passed away my motivation was lost for a long while. I had to find what truly motivated me. My main motivation in life is that I want to be a better human today than I was yesterday. I want to make more of an impact this week than I did last week. I want to help more people to smile this month than last month. I strive to continuously improve myself, only compared to myself. All while doing that, I've been learning how to grant myself grace and love when I don't succeed at things. We are our biggest critics in life and our harshest critics. So, as long as I am constantly learning better ways to love and appreciate myself, then I am already winning. The motivation to continue to improve is solely to ensure that I can truly be the best person I can.

The simple answer to how I keep a growth mindset is I don't know any different. I was always taught to push myself through any situation and to always take what lessons you can learn as you go. As a young child my two favorite memories growing up were road trips and power outages. Both of these occurrences meant that it was time to play games and challenge myself. If we were on the road we would play word games, trivia quizzes, or practice observation skills by finding random things as we drove. If the power was out my family played Scrabble or another board game. Scrabble being the game most played, with following the actual rules. My parents always encouraged me to learn and never discouraged me in anyway. When I was in second or third grade, I wanted to learn more about math during the summer. So to challenge me, my parents taught me how to do long division and would give me math problems to work on. By the time I went back to school, I was a grade above everyone in math. Which ended up with me getting into trouble that next year for being ahead of the class and trying to do too much. As I got older, my parents continued to encourage me to learn at my pace and push myself to learn anything I wanted. I loved school and learning. Being in a professional atmosphere for the last 11 years I realized what I miss most is school. I am excited to go back and continuing to grow and learn something new. While in my job we are constantly learning and having new things to go over, I am excited to reach out about something beyond what I can learn at work.

I've always been an involved person and active in different groups, clubs, and the community. More often than not I usually am drawn to the more leadership roles within these groups and have learned a lot from them. I believe that my experiences have truly helped me to be where I am now in life. When I was in High School I was involved in several different clubs and activities: JROTC, Photography Club, Drill Team, and Skills USA. Through all of these organizations I held different leadership positions and what I learned through those positions helped me to succeed more in my involvement at Western Carolina University. At WCU I was involved in many programs, both leadership and non leadership related. The leadership related clubs gave me access to a large community and for conferences that improved my leadership skills. I started in Resident Student Association as a Vice President in my resident hall and then moved up to eventually being the President of RSA in less than two years. Being in charge of RSA, we oversaw the programing for all the students that lived on campus, over 3000. I had to work on professional development of myself and my board, as well as the leadership in each resident hall itself. During this time I was also the Vice President of the National Resident Hall Honorary, which is for the top 1% of leaders that live on campus. Luckily NRHH and RSA worked closely together and I was able to handle two leadership positions at the same time. The things I learned in these organizations helped to shape me into a great leader. Before college ended, I started working at the casino. I quickly moved up and ended up jumping over a position; from part time supervisor to department manager. In all this time I've learned the most important part of being a leader is to listen and be empathetic to the people you are leading. Always be open to new ideas and realize that no matter what, you have an opportunity to grow and learn yourself. I take the approach of trying to create my teams to be a family oriented team, were they can rely on each other and depend on each other, and at the same time, no matter how high up a position someone is they should be willing and able to do any task. I quite often join my team on the 'front line' of their job and with them. If I need my team to do overtime, I don't ask from them unless I'm willing to work extra hours myself. I feel like it's important to be a good leader and help teach the people under you so that they can grow and in turn learn. This allows them to be able to be good leaders themselves. Leaders should always be supportive and caring, passionate, and most of all able to be humble and continue to learn themselves.

Patience is something that most people struggle with. In a job were patience is vital, I have to teach my employees to slow down and pay attention, especially when those around us are not. My team is responsible for observing and reporting incidents that occur at our job. It is very easy to get 'wrapped up' in the situation and want to hurry up and get answers. We often have other departments asking for the results of our investigations long before they are completed and ready to go. If my team was to hurry the results, there is a large chance that information could be misinterpreted or missed all together. That impacts the integrity of my team and our jobs in general. Patience is important while doing long investigations, as the longer the investigation is, the more anxious people usually are to get it done. As they drag on, they get tedious and can be very boring. But staying focused and calm with it, helps ensure that we are accurate and can help our company the best possible way. For me, it goes beyond just my job. Yes, I have to be patient at work, but the rest of my life as well. I have a young puppy at home who is rambunctious and still being trained. If I have a day were my patience is thinner, that isn't fair to her, as she is still learning her behavior and commands. I feel that dealing with other people, just like my puppy, they should be given grace and understanding, instead of trying to rush through situations. Patience helps to keep people calm, cool, and level headed. In high stress situations, if you are patient with the situation and those around you, it is more likely to end favorably for you.

I am a strong believer in that life is what you make it, in terms of your attitude and your involvement in your life. I feel like without people being involved, you don't have a community. That is the true essence of the word. My plans to help my community in the future are the same as how I am helping them now, I just hope to be more educated so that I can dedicate more time and skill in a few more areas. Currently I am involved in street medic coalition that serves my community for events, parades, protests, free medical services for homeless, working closely with harm reduction programs, and more. We do not discriminate against any community that requests help and are proud to support human rights campaigns across the area. I don't plan on changing my involvement with the street medic community other than hopefully helping more with free information from my education to be passed on through the other medics. Another community outreach that I currently am active in is called Barney's Bags. My friends and I buy supplies and put them in reflective waterproof bags and hand them out to those that need them. These bags help out anyone on a street corner asking for help. Currently we have filled over 40 bags and handed them out across 4 states. I hope to eventually be able to turn this into a non profit and continue the outreach involved. With more funds and people donating we would be able to add to an already great list of items included in each bag: washcloths, toiletries, water flavoring, instant coffee, socks, cold weather gear, poncho, chapsticks, feminine hygiene products, and we hope to eventually have blankets to give out in every bag. My last community outreach would be an addition in my future career. I truly hope with my Masters in Legal Studies that I can utilize that information and my past experiences to have an impact on those that are victims of domestic violence. All victims of DV should be able to have a voice, whether their abuse was physical or not. Mental and emotional abuse is valid and just as, if not more damaging to the psyche. All victims of DV should also be able to be validated for their experience and supported. There are so many victims that are not believed or are killed before they can successfully get away from their abuser. I have two friends who I have lost due to being killed by their abuser. No person deserves to be abused. With my concentration in Indian Law, I want to help my local Tribal Nation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, improve their laws protecting their women and children from domestic violence, especially from non-Indigenous. According to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Indigenous women are 10x likely to be murdered and 4/5 have experience violence in their lifetime. I feel that I can utilize education and history to help amplify the voices of MMIW and help to have them recognized as victims. Hopefully I can be apart of the community that can bring down these statistics by saving young Indigenous women and giving them their life back. I wouldn't be where I am today without my community. My community saved me and supported me through some of the hardest and toughest times in my life. I truly feel that being able to give that back to my community is not to be taken for granted and should be something that I strive to do at all possible times. It doesn't take much to support your community, it doesn't have to be monetary or even with items. It can easily be with time spent helping someone else. As communities continue to grow and expand all over, the more people do to help those communities and those around themselves, the more we can all grow together.

I've struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life, including struggling with suicidal thoughts and plans. I am lucky that I have survived through all of those thoughts and plans so far in my life. I don't take it for granted and I am aware how easily that security and safety can go away if I don't actively work on my mental health. My worst moment was at the failure of my second marriage. It was a highly volatile and abuse relationship, but there are no physical scars. All of it was mental and emotional abuse, tearing me down beyond the very threads of my being. I knew I was in that dark hole, the one where all you can imagine is the darkness being quiet so you can finally rest. I hadn't made a plan, but I definitely no longer had the will to try to survive. I knew the only way to save myself was to ask for help, but asking my spouse for any bit of help essentially lead me to being laughed at and being called emotional and a faker. I reached out to a therapist and I am so thankful for her. I was in a crisis and she held me together long enough to survive getting away from my spouse and helped me to understand what was going on. I was so worried that everything was my fault, that I was a bad person, and that I had created a world that was stopping my spouse and her child from thriving. I felt like I had failed at everything and that I was worthless beyond repair. Fast forward through a pandemic, two years of very heavy therapy sessions, continued harassment, court involvement, and health scare for myself, I am free of them. I am divorced and have not had any contact with them in almost a year. I feel like I can finally breathe again. While I still have moments of feeling like a failure in that relationship or that all the things that I was told were true, I am working on it every day. While I never wish someone to have to go through that experience, or to understand what I went through, it sadly happens a lot. I hope that I can take my Master of Legal Studies and help other victims of domestic violence. To be there to help others realize that what they are going through is true and their feelings are valid. To help them find safe footing and a support system to get them away from their abuser. I want to be able to help someone else the way I was supported and love through my ordeal. I had my best friends there constantly reminding me of what was true and helping me to work through my anxieties. Some people don't have those friends anymore. I was lucky that mine were stubborn enough that they weren't ran off by my spouse, and they continued to be there regardless of my spouse's behavior. I feel that everyone deserves to be heard and validated. People need to learn, especially as a young child, what healthy relationships look like and what healthy mental health is. I, like most people, know that physical abuse is abuse. What I didn't know was that manipulation, love bombing, discarding, controlling funds, and so much more were all abuse too. I'm still learning things that happened in that relationship that were abusive or controlling and I didn't notice it at the time. Abuse and manipulation can be subtle, but there are still red flags to be seen and observed. The boundaries that we place to protect ourselves are important, and we need to uphold them. I have been working a lot on figuring out what boundaries I need where, and which boundaries are ones that I have let others cross. Knowing that helps me to create healthy relationships going forward. I feel that others should have that ability to learn about boundaries too, how to create them, sustain them, and how to deal with people who try to break through them. My story isn't unusual and it isn't unique. What is unique is my passion to not let it jade me against others, instead utilizing it to help others through their story. To support them and love them through their experience and hold their hand when they need reassurance. I couldn't have survived if it wasn't for my friends and my therapist. Survival isn't guaranteed at this point, but I do truly hope that I have learned enough to make sure that survival is imminent and lasting. One day, I hope to no longer be in survival mode, and be able to thrive. I know I'm not there yet, but I know healing isn't linear. I have hope that I will continue to heal and be able to learn from this experience.

I'm a big believer that every experience you go through shapes you. It shapes how you think and act, how you feel and treat others, and most of all how you grow. I've gone through many difficult moments in my life, some were over quickly with little impact, others were life changing. One experience that sticks out in my head is that I almost passed up on a job interview that landed me where I am now. About six years ago the former department manger spot was vacated at both properties. I, at that time, worked at the bigger property and was a Dual Rate Supervisor (which is basically a part time supervisor). One of my best friends was going to apply for the department manager spot at our current property, and I was encouraged to apply at the other. I didn't think I was ready. I only had part time supervisor experience and was never a 'full suit.' I turned in an application at the property we worked for, to get the experience in interview, but not for the other property. I was called by our HR team asking if I wanted to apply to the other property and I said it was only for the main property. After the third phone call, basically giving me a last chance, I decided what would it hurt to interview? I interviewed and was hired on the spot. Two positions higher than what I was currently at. I was absolutely shocked that I had been offered it. I accepted it and began a brand new journey. I learned then and there, that the only boundaries I had against me at that time where my own. Also, that if I just tried, I would succeed. Here I am, loving my job.

If I was a highly influential figure I don't think what I stand for would change from what it does now. I believe that all people deserve to be treated with respect, supported in their endeavors, and given a fair shake at becoming the best they can. This includes: BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Women, those battling addiction, and those battling homelessness. I believe if I was highly influential I would have more time and money to spend doing activism and donating to the causes that I already do. I would be more active with the street medic community, my bags that are donated out of mine and my friends' cars, and more active in protests. Being someone that others would look upon I would use that stature to make sure that I could amplify voices of those that need it. I would share the stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, the stories of Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans who deal with racism and discrimination, and I would promote the business that uplift those people and support them. I would continue to advocate for support for the homeless and addicted community. Harm reduction programs need support and advocacy just as much as the people who use them. Homeless people need to be able to have access to basic necessity without having to sacrifice other necessities. Building tiny home villages, food pantries, free supply networks, needle exchanges, and so much more can help, they just need to be funded and available. So being highly influential wouldn't change my heart or passion, just give me more access to funds and time and platforms to continue what I already do.

After High School, I went to college and lived in the Resident Halls. After I graduated my undergrad, I moved in with my then boyfriend that I was going to end up marrying. When my husband was deployed with the military, my best friend moved in with me, partly due to her housing situation, and partly because I dreaded being alone. Then my husband came home from deployment and my mom passed away. The next year my husband left and filed for divorce. I was on my own, for the first time, at 27. I was scared, unsure of how I was going to manage. I know that I already had the housekeeping, bill paying, and cooking skills, I used that as a wife. But, I've never before been comfortable alone for long periods and depended on others for validation. It's been almost 5 years from that moment and I have learned so much about being independent. I went through several more toxic relationships, including a second, abusive, marriage. I have stopped worrying about who to live for, who to make happy, and how others view me. I am me. Unapologetically. I am funky, silly, I dye my hair, I have tattoos and piercings, I love board games and card games, arts and crafts, and I am passionate. I stand up for what I believe in and I am strong. To me, those things of independence can't be taken away from me. While my health threatens to take away my physical independence, my spiritual, mental, and emotional can't be. That is the most important type of independence I could have learned to have and I am thankful for every trial and tribulation that gave me what I have now.

This is an interesting topic. I have always been one that put myself last in any situation, to the point that I was drained. Self-care to me a few years ago was just taking a nap in between commitments. After going through a very rough divorce from an abusive spouse and realizing my health, both mental and physical was at the worst it's ever been, I had to take a long hard look at how I was treating myself. My first thing I needed to learn was how to forgive myself and grant myself grace. I don't need to hold myself to a higher standard than others. Especially when I am dealing with chronic illness that affects my every day life and some days it's all I can do to get out of bed and get dressed. Self-care for me has turned into accepting when I need to rest and allowing myself that space, without guilt, to rest. To be able to cancel plans if I need to, and take time for me to be able to reset and be prepared for my daily life. If it is warm outside my favorite way to rest and reset is to sit by a stream or river with my feet in the cold water, and just be. Which I often do, in the mountains, in the summer and fall. I'm still learning how to practice self-care in the winter, it's a constant learning experience as I grow and heal from trauma.

I've always been a dreamer, one to use it to escape tough times and also to imagine how I can better myself and those around me. My dream life is still materializing, both in what I want and what I want to accomplish. My ultimate goal in life is to just be able to be unapologetically me, in a place where I am safe, loved, and happy. That's the basics of it. I don't need fancy cars or fancy houses. What I truly want to be able to do is be able to be healthier than I am now, dealing with chronic illness is hard and takes a lot out of me, and be able to spend more of my free time doing things for others and myself. I would love to foster and adopt children, to have that home that is always open for them to come back, especially older children that are often not adopted and kicked out of the system at age 18. To create a place full of love and healing for them. I would love to expand my side volunteer adventure, Barney's Bags, and turn it into a full non-profit. Barney's Bags is a group of myself and a few friends that currently collect new items from our own money to give out in bags for those that are facing homelessness or addiction. They contain items from drink alternatives and flavorings, toiletries, cold weather gear, and even some comfort items. At this point we have made over 40+ bags. I also want to volunteer the education that I am hoping to gain at ASU for victims of DV and be able to help guide and support them through the process of getting safely out of the situations that they may be in.

For most people, the scariest thing you can be told is that you have the big C, cancer. I don't even know that when I was told that it was positive for cancer that I registered it. I had left my abusive wife earlier in the year, to end up a month later in a global pandemic. The trauma of everything else had reached the max level of comprehension. My fall back plan? Laughter. In October of 2019, I was diagnosed with stage 0 Melanoma and a precancerous spot, both on my left ear. The plan was to have them both removed in a single surgery to remove all of skin off the outer edge of the ear and send it off to be tested. A few days later they would then take a skin graft from my collar bone and place it on my ear to cover what skin was removed, assuming all the cancer was removed with the first surgery. When I was going for my surgery, since the cancer was on the helix of the ear, I tried to see if I could get the surgeon to do an 'elf' ear and create a pointed tip to my ear. Granted, the cartilage didn't need to be removed from the helix, so it didn't happen naturally. I didn't get my elf ear. But, if the cancer does come back in that spot, I will try it again. Basically in my life, humor is coping mechanism that helps myself and others deal with the situation. I've never minded to be the butt, or rather ear, of a joke, if it helps bring smiles and eases tension. At the end of the day, the cancer was removed and I've been free of it for a year and a half!

I hope to make a lasting impact, that far outlives my personal life. I don't care particularly if my name is attached to said impact, I just want to know that I left the world in a better place, that people have a better chance to thrive. If I can make a lasting impact, on one person, even if anonymous, then I would be ecstatic. With my every day actions, I always carry bags to hand out to people on the sides of the roads, most of whom are homeless or are facing addiction. My bags that my friends and I created carry toiletries, washcloths, socks, flavoring for waters, instant coffee, feminine hygiene products, ponchos, cold weather gear, and hopefully soon to include blankets. With my degree I hope to be able to utilize it to help my local tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians with their gaming laws, we don't currently have many that protect our casino in a certain aspect. I want to help facilitate that change. The other part of my degree is I want to help victims of domestic violence, both on and off the Cherokee Reservation. As a victim myself, I feel like it is very important that there are services available for those victims in which someone understands what they went through and can help them navigate afterward. Having impacts in the world to me is important, because that meant my life meant something. Even if completely anonymous, an impact on someone else, affects you too, both good and bad. So why not ensure that any lasting impacts you have are as good and long lasting as possible?

Sometimes persevering through a situation, in hindsight, wasn't as hard as you made it out to be. Other times, it's literally life and death. Three years ago, I was sitting in my bedroom, sneaking around, researching abuse. I know that my wife had never hit me but something was still wrong. I couldn't place it. It had grown subtly over time. It had gotten so bad that my desire to fix everything was gone. I came across several different articles on narcissistic abuse and I felt like I was reading about myself. The only thing missing was the physical aspect, everything else was spot on. I started to slowly talk to a few close friends about it, letting them into my world, the one that was closed off and isolated from them. Unanimously they all agreed, something was wrong and I needed to be careful. Knowing that I was in a dark place mentally and emotionally I searched and finally reached out to a therapist to try to gain understanding of what was going on. The times I had tried to speak to my wife about how I was feeling, I was told that I was the problem, creating issues with my 'emotional' behavior. Overtime, I began to believe it. I started therapy and less than two weeks later my wife kicked me out of the house, with a false police report. My world that was already crashing around me, was then crushed. But I never gave up. I continued to go to therapy, cut off contact with my now-ex wife, got a lawyer to protect myself, and continued to relearn how to view the entire relationship. I learned that I was not at fault, that I am stronger now than before, and I am worthy of life and love.

As a department managers, I have mentored several of my employees throughout their career. I hope to continue to mentor the new employees that come into my department and give them the tools and inspiration to move up through their own careers. I believe the most important aspect of this is getting to know them individually and learn what their own personal goals are to begin with. Some employees are only doing this job for something to do and don't have any desire to move up in the company while other want to succeed and move up in my department. Other employees have goals that reside in other departments. I feel like it's my job as a mentor to help them figure out their goals and how to succeed at it. We work with one on one meetings, in which feedback is given on their performance and their mini goals to help them reach their main goal. We set mini goals each year that are individualized based on their needs as well as overall goals that our company needs. It's always hard to have someone that I mentored and help move up to move on to another department, but I see that also as a job well done. One of my employees that I closely mentored, moved up within our department before moving to another department. He still messages me and keeps me updated on his career, which I fully appreciate. While I hated to see him go, I love seeing him thrive. That to me is the most rewarding part. I hope that I can continue to achieve that with my other employees that are striving for other opportunities as well, for them to not only reach their goal, but to succeed beyond it.

The biggest problem facing the world is the inability to listen and be open minded. With the state of how things have been politically in America and other countries for the past several years, the ability for someone to listen and have empathy about the other side of the issue has gotten worse. People are becoming close minded and having a cult-like attitude that there is no other way than theirs and that their prospective is the only way to look at things. People are losing sight of what truly matters in all this, other humans are being affected by the decisions that are being made. By not listening to both sides, people can no longer make an informed decision when it comes to things as complicated as voting or as simple as their own health. Being in the middle of a pandemic, people are not listening and researching and being open minded. People are ignoring facts, research, and the people around them. Instead, people are following into a dangerous path of group think and dismissing anything that is contrary to their opinion. When people are open minded and listen, then discussions can be had and solutions are more likely to be found that are appeasing to both sides. Solutions that not only are appeasing, but more likely to be constructive and positive to all parties involved. To start, everyone needs to stop and take a breathe. Schools need to teach how to research and listen to both sides of an issue. People to need to take themselves out of the equation and have empathy for the other side and actually listen to each other. It's easy to get passionate and lose sight of things, but when that happens, you need to take a step back and breathe again.

My first answer was in my head was "Surface Pressure" from Encanto. I have a feeling that is going to be a popular answer to this prompt, and while that song is amazing, still stuck in my head, and I feel called out on it, I don't feel like it inspires me to do better and be better. So I decided to dig a little deeper into my song obsessions in the past. There is a song that I continuously have fallen back on once I heard it, once that seems to light a fire within me, making me feel like I can and will succeed at anything I am setting my mind to. The song originally was done by the HU, but it was redone with Lzzy Hale singing with them with English words along with their Mongolian Throat Singing, "Song of Women." Lzzy's words describe how the world drums to the beat of the women's song, the women's heart beat. That every single thing in the world rotates around the heart of women and how we are the power. The power inside us is enough for 'Kings fall to their knees' and 'The sunrise in the east', all of these different things sing the women's song. Every time I listen to this song I get chills that go up and down my spine, goose bumps across my arms, and I feel the beat of my heart in my chest. I feel like I can accomplish life's challenges and that I am strong. This song is so uplifting and empowering, like an earful of encouragement. It inspires me to never give up and keep on pushing and fighting. To believe that I, as a women, am worthy just as I am.

I believe this is one of the hardest writing prompts I have had in my scholarship applications. Not because I can't come up with an answer, but because I have too many. Reading was a gift from my mom, she taught me as a young child and I have embraced it ever since. I used it as an escape in my childhood, to enter other worlds. As I became older, I used it as a way to adventure into places I might not ever see or experience myself. While I can't say this is the most inspiring book I've ever read, or definitely will ever read, the book that has had the biggest impact on my life in the last two years was actually a two book set by Dana Morningstar called "What You Need to Know About Narcissistic Abuse." The reason I am picking this book is that it truly helped changed my life. I was a victim of narcissistic abuse in my last marriage and one of the things about it, is it's such a mental mind game that by the time you begin to understand it, your brain is so wrapped up in what they want you to think. Dana's book slowly helps you piece together the things you can experience and how it impacts your brain, body, and responses. She also has others bring their experiences which validated my own. This book truly helped me to see through the 'wool' that my ex had pulled over my eyes and allowed to me start thinking for myself. This book allowed me to begin to heal. Best of all, this book showed me, I wasn't alone and it was okay to admit I was a victim. I am now prepared to protect myself in the future as well.

Back in early 2000's, when I was in high school, we did a report on French impressionist painters. I had picked Pierre-Auguste Renoir and I instantly fell in love with his work. Learning more about his style and the way he viewed colors just blew me away. There was something about his paintings as a whole, the light and airy use of color, the way it practically moved with the wind and rain, that places you in the painting. He is one of the few artists that I can say has truly given me that sensation when I look at his work. I can imagine being on the country side, in a warm spring afternoon, with a cool breeze, just as if I was actually there. So a piece of art that I can pinpoint one specific one? I can't choose. But I do have a favorite artist, in a favorite time period, that's work has inspired me to paint and play with different techniques and mediums. Renoir was a genius before his time and if I could grant the ability to speak with any painter in the past, it would be him. While I know I could never own an original of his art, I will always find myself drawn to his unique style and color choices, dreaming of myself in the painting.

The best advice I ever got was don't ignore it, just ask for help. So, back in 2011, I had just graduated with my undergrad degree. I had my first real big girl job and was living with my boyfriend in my first place that wasn't my parent's house or college. Time came to start paying back my student loans and I just wasn't sure how to pay them and my bills. So I just ignored them. I continued to ignore them until they started to get wage garnishments. At that point in my life I decided that I really needed to get my life together and pay attention to what I was doing. I went to a credit counseling session that was hosted locally and figured out what I needed to do. I called and got my student loans situated and started a repayment plan to get them back in good standing. I opened my first ever full credit card, as a secured card that would stay secured for a year then become unsecured. Since then I have raised my credit over 300 points, bought a car, bought a house, and am doing well. While I still have lots of penalties off my original student loans that I will be paying for awhile, I learned a lot about programs that are out there if you ask for help. The worst thing you can do is ignore a problem, instead, reach out for help and you will find it somewhere. You can and will be able to get through, even in a financial crises.

So, back in 2011, I had just graduated with my undergrad degree. I had my first real big girl job and was living with my boyfriend in my first place that wasn't my parent's house or college. Time came to start paying back my student loans and I just wasn't sure how to pay them and my bills. So I just ignored them. I continued to ignore them until they started to get wage garnishments. At that point in my life I decided that I really needed to get my life together and pay attention to what I was doing. I went to a credit counseling session that was hosted locally and figured out what I needed to do. I called and got my student loans situated and started a repayment plan to get them back in good standing. I opened my first ever full credit card, as a secured card that would stay secured for a year then become unsecured. Since then I have raised my credit over 300 points, bought a car, bought a house, and doing well. While I still have lots of penalties off my original student loans that I will be paying for awhile, I learned a lot about programs that are out there if you ask for help. The worst thing you can do is ignore a problem, instead, reach out for help and you will find it somewhere. You can and will be able to get through, even in a financial crises.

In 2013, as I was preparing to marry my husband before he deployed to Afghanistan, literally two weeks before the wedding, my last remaining Grandma passed away unexpectedly. This sent shockwaves through my family in California and my immediate family. Through finding ways to memorialize my Grandma at my wedding, I proceeded to get married, and send my husband off to war. I know she was proud of my marrying someone who was in the Army like she was. The next year, in early 2014, my last remaining Grandpa (on the other side of the family) was battling cancer. He didn't make it very long once the cancer entered his blood system and he passed away. Grandpa and I were close and it was a hard loss. His house was always the perfect vacation place and to this day is the one place I could always go that was my haven from all the things plaguing me. My husband came home mid 2014 and dealing with a post war marriage was quite difficult. The end of 2014 the worst thing I could imagine happened. Two weeks before Christmas my mom collapsed and was rushed to the ER. Over the next four months, my mom fought a hard battle of heart failure, kidney failure, and while she had overcoming breast cancer several years prior, it had already taken a toll on her body. I lost my mom, my best friend, my mentor in April of 2015. My mom was the person that would protect me from my father's outbursts, the one who taught me my love of reading, and the person that I would go to when I had a problem. That next year, my husband and I were beyond repair of our relationship, the deployment had taken what cracks where in the marriage and turned them into large crevices that couldn't be fixed. My husband left that summer, of 2016, filling for divorce. Still reeling from the loss of my grandparents, my mom, and now my marriage, I knew that I had to figure out something. The one person that I wanted to talk to most, was gone. I couldn't cry to my mom, I couldn't ask her for advice, and worst of all, I couldn't get a hug. I heavily relied on the fact that I knew my mom and what she would say in our daily calls. I got myself sorted out, got myself my own car, and moved into my own place. Sometimes it's still hard without my mom, almost 7 years later. But I know that she loved me and she knew how much I loved her. I carry her story around and share it with people all the time, the good she did, the person she was, and the impact she had on my life. Same with my grandparents. Because I had lost my first two grandparents in 2001 and 2002, I had learned to treasure the moments I had with the two remaining grandparents. The stories and moments will live on through the rest of my family, my friends, and the photos. My Grandpa has actually made it into several of my scholarship essays because he was such a great man, full of love and compassion for others. My Grandma, while she could be scary in her own way, she left an imprint on my life. She was the one that taught me how to play Scrabble, the importance of learning and challenging yourself while having fun. She is probably the reason I have such a longing for lifetime learning. Learning has always been a passion of mine, both researching and reading for myself, and studying topics that can be useful in work. I graduated from my undergrad in 2011 and wanted to go to Graduate school, but wasn't ready for the adventure. Today, I am. I am ready to go back to school, continue my learning and stop just living to survive. I am ready to thrive and get back to my passion and excitement in life that I used to have. It's taken awhile to get here, but here I am. I am so excited to start my Masters of Legal Study this fall and hopefully be able to help others with what I learn.

As a member of the LGBTQ community, a member of the chronically ill community with EDS-Hypermobility, and an employee of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, my life is full of inclusivity and allyship. For the communities that I don't belong myself, I have been a large advocate of. In 2019, after the pandemic started the world was thrown into the realization that the racial tension in America has never been solved, only swept under a rug. Protests erupted everywhere, including locally to me. I started to attend them and to help lend my voice and presence to the cause. I spread the word on my online profiles, I spread the word in person, and I stood for the marches. I ended up joining a group of street medics and began training and buying supplies to help our mission to make sure that all protestors have a safe space to protest and are given free medical care without prejudice or discrimination. The street medic group, while it has slowed down without the protests being constant, is still alive and working other events. Local BIPOC groups that want medics for community picnics call us and we will attend and be on stand by. We also help out with parades, lower income communities, and those dealing with addiction and homeless issues. I continue to support my local homeless community on a daily, regardless of their race, gender, or sexual orientation. To me, a person in need, is a person in need. I am so thankful for the opportunity and lessons I have learned from being a street medic and hope there are more opportunities in the future for us to work events, but events where we are on stand by and not active participants due to violence. As an employee of the EBCI, I have become an advocate of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, amplifying the information I find about that. I am going back to school for my Masters in Legal Studies with concentration in Indian Law and Indian Gaming to hopefully help support the local tribal community and their laws, especially where it concerns those experiencing domestic violence, as I myself have been a victim of. I know what it is like to have to go through that and nobody should ever have to face that type of situation alone. Outside of active advocacy at protests, sharing information, keeping the topic up in conversation, amplifying those discriminated voices, it also takes making sure you take a cognizant step in support those artists, shops, and owners. When I am shopping for items, I shop around and look for BIPOC and LGBTQ owned shops. I speak out against artists that are appropriating the art of other cultures, while making sure I support those that are from those cultures. Personally I had to learn that the most toxic thing I could fall into is white saviordom and believe that I could save other cultures. Other cultures have been doing just fine without me and my white counterparts for years, but what they need is our support. Our ability to raise their voices and share their history. Learn from them and our mistakes, be humble about the past problems and harm we have caused. There is a lot of broken trust and healing that needs to be taken place and that can only be done by showing that our society is more open, more loving, more appreciative of what others have to offer us. We can no longer survive as a society sweeping our past under a rug, we must change and grow.

My favorite scientific discovery so far is a tie between the ability to transplant pancreases for those that are diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes, of course, not in the US. It has been done successfully in Australia and other countries, which is amazing. This is one of my favorite discoveries because my older brother was diagnosed at age 13, when I was 6, and was a huge impact in his life. This is the closest we have to a cure and I hope one day will be available here in the US. My second favorite discovery is that the scientific community has found a lead on what might be the genes responsible for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome-Hypermobile (Formerly EDS Type III). This being the type of Ehlers Danlos that doesn't currently have a known gene mutation, it is one that is most often dismissed. The average time it takes for someone with EDS to be diagnosed is 10-12 years. I am a true believer that this specific classification of this disease isn't rare, but just rarely diagnosed, as most doctors don't look into it at all. By finding a gene associated with the mutation that would give a higher chance for the medical community to listen and believe those of us, like me, with EDS-H that are seeking answers, as there would be a test to see if we have it. This breakthrough was a huge relief and uplifting note for our "zebra" community and I hope to see research on it continue. Thank you for your time in reading my submission.

I grew up in a family where giving back was just part of the culture. My Grandpa would walk on the beach every day, about 4 miles, and while he was doing so, he would collect all the rubbish that was along the beach so that it could be recycled or thrown away. Grandpa would also spend his Saturdays at the local food pantry, helping them to unload trucks from the local farmers and grocery stores and sort through the food, putting it up in the pantry. Grandpa never made it seem like it was something he had to do or that it was a chore, but instead it was something he enjoyed doing. Likewise my parents always would find sales and buy things for donations when we had the money to do so, especially when clothing stores were going out of business, to donate warm clothes to shelters. Taking these examples as what I grew up with, I never questioned when it came to giving back, I just figured it was the right thing to do. If someone needed something I did it, without hesitation. Since joining the local street medic coalition I have learned a lot about the community of people that are faced with addiction and homeless. Helping that community, along with already helping the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community, has become a huge passion of mine. I started creating bags to carry in my car to make sure that I have toiletries, drinks, snacks, warm gear, and comfort items to hand out to anyone who needs one. That turned into several of my friends and I all carrying these bags. I think that if more people truly did it because they felt drawn to it, there would be less need in the world and less hardships.

If I was asked two years ago what I loved about myself I wouldn't have been able to answer. Deep in the throws of leaving an abusive marriage, living in my best friend's spare bedroom, I was in a dark place. I had no sense of self and no idea how to recover. Through loving those around me, accepting the love of those who cared about it, and lots of therapy I started to find myself again. There are two traits that I think are my biggest assets and I love most about myself. I am a very compassionate person and I am resilient. The resiliency to me is what helps make me who I am. It has gotten me through a childhood that wasn't all smiles, through relationships that were terrible, and helped me continue to push through life and keep surviving. The resiliency has saved me several times, and I wouldn't want to ever lose that part of myself. The other trait that I love most about myself is my compassion. Regardless of the things I seen or been through, I have always been a compassionate person. I still have a long way to go to remember to be compassionate toward myself, but I am trying daily to treat myself the way I treat others. I find it so easy to love others and I love helping them in every way I can, even if it's just a smile and a greeting to giving them a bag of supplies to make sure they have things they need. Through loving others I have found how to love myself again, and it has given me more drive than ever to continue to help others. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Most people try to fit in with their peers. I was definitely one of those growing up. So much so, that I was hesitant to allow myself to be me. As I became an adult I took those lessons and tried to minimalize myself everyway possible. Don't be loud, don't talk to much, don't dress eccentric, and to the point of don't be gay. After college and my first divorce I realized that I wasn't be true to myself and I was going to try to be the best me I could. I started to be more adventurous in things that interested me, but I still was hesitant to fully let myself be me. Every time I let me guard down with new people I was told that I was too much. Too compassionate, too loving, too talkative, too overwhelming. So I while exploring my interests I became withdrawn so that I was more manageable to others. That lead me into in a round a bout way to an abusive marriage. Escaping that marriage and having to relearn to love myself and truly find myself has been a challenge. I realized that I had lost myself so much previously that I was practically starting from scratch. Now I wear what I want (within reason, as I still have to dress professionally at work), I dye my hair to fit my personality, and I don't minimize myself. I present who I am, with what hobbies I love. People can take me or leave me. Those that accept me have been the truest and greatest friends I have ever had. Which showed me that all those years of hiding myself was for no good reason. I no longer try to fit society, I just fit my life and love it.

Almost three years ago there was a huge outcry from the public and protests began popping up every where. I was passionate about the cause and decided to start joining in with the local protests. As I did, I met up with a group of locals that were starting a Street Medic collective in my area, and I quickly joined. Having had EMT basic certification in my undergrad, it wasn't very hard to get back in the swing of emergency medicine. We started training and working different events, not just protests. We learned about community medicine and how to support the local community in ways that they might not be able to get help, whether by fear of retaliation due to discrimination or based on drug history. We trained with local harm reduction teams on how best to handle those dealing with addiction and to help them in their journey. Throughout all this training and learning, I realized that I absolutely loved being a street medic and hope to be able to continue it as a side passion for years to come. It's not lucrative for pay, as street medicine is free. So everything we do is either from donations or our own pockets. Since I started with street medicine and learning more about the homeless population, I started creating homeless bags to carry in my car and my friends' cars to hand out to those on the sides of the road so that they can have things to help them. I am passionate about learning more about how to help the homeless community and being able to support them more in my endeavors. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Ever since I was a child, I have been passionate about making others smile and making people's day better. When I was younger I used to write notes of encouragement on slips of paper and leave them at restaurants and stores. Usually they just stated things like "I hope you have a great day", "Smile, you are loved", and "You are a beautiful human." As I got older I made sure to smile and compliment people every chance I got, being as sincere as possible. It never stopped there, as I have only grown to do more, but I also always had good influences to teach me that even little things matter. My parents were the type that if they found a good sale on kids clothes on a trip they would buy them, even though I was the youngest and far out grew kids clothes, and then we would donate them. My Grandpa was the type that spent every Saturday at the food pantry helping to sort the fresh fruits and vegetables they had delivered, so every time I visited I helped him. He was also the type to collect rubbish anytime he was on the beach and recycled it or threw it away. Growing up with these influences helped teach me to always do things for others, without believing it's a task. It's just part of life. So now I keep bags in my car for those that are on the side of the road with drinks, gloves, hats, toiletries, and more. I donate my time and effort for our local street medic collective and I truly just want to make others lives easier if at all possible. I believe that life is amazing and full of love and it's even better when shared with someone else.

My mom instilled in me a ravenous desire to enter worlds other than my own and visit places I could only imagine through reading. Asking a book lover to pick their favorite book is like asking a parent which child they prefer. While they may enjoy different ones at different times, there is a distinct amount of love for them, spread across the pages and through the words. So I will have to go against the prompt and pick a series of books. I can't classify a single series that I love more than another, as several different ones have gotten me through life at different points, so I will pick a new love, one that seared it's way into my heart and soul and will forever be on my list. 'The Bone Witch' Series by Rin Chupeco (They/Them). This series is about a Bone Witch, a dark magic necromancer named Tea, who is outcaste due to her powers and held on the edge of society. She is destined to fight these dragons that only bone witches can and then die and early death due to the power used to fight them. Tea's mentor, another bone witch, is dying and Tea is ready to fight the system and create a world safe for bone witches. Rin does an excellent job creating this sense of shared pain and passion with Tea. I wanted to hug the character and make it better while fighting along side her. The emotions that they gave me while reading were so intense that I cried when Tea's betrayer was figured out. The book paralleled society at the time I read it (mid pandemic, mid protests for rights) that I couldn't help but imagine the scenarios in real life. And that is what makes a good book.

My first thought on a historical figure that I admire was Maya Angelou for her poetry and life work and the impact that it had on me as a child hearing her poem 'Still I Rise.' But I realize that the impact is more about me than her and her accomplishments, which I don't think is fully fair if I'm admiring someone, it should be about them and their work. So I started thinking about large junctures in hsitory when women had an impact on society in some way. You have the beginning of Pride, segregation in the south, the Underground Railroad, the Holocaust, etc. That is where I found my historical admiration, the Holocaust. A few years ago I had started setting book reading goals and my goal for that year was to read 2-4 books a month. I had picked out several different genres, including one about the Holocaust called "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. Now I've read books about the Holocaust before and I am very interested in the Jewish faith, having worked at a Jewish Community Center for several years. This book was an entirely different level. Corrie and her family lived in a house that was attached with a watch shop, where her father worked. Her family and house was instrument in the Dutch Underground and saved around 800 Jews. They were eventually captured for their resistance and help in the underground and sent to concentration camps. Her story is one of perseverance, loyalty to true justice, and dedication to the people that are being marginalized. She is a true hero and someone to look up to, one that I have often thought of since I read her book. I do hope one day to have an impact like Corrie.

It all started with a bottle of Powerade. I used to carry around packs of Powerade and Gatorades in my car, depending what was on sale that week. I had stopped at a stoplight and saw there was a guy on the side of the road with a sign that read "anything helps". The sign was ragged, torn, and dirty. The guy looked hot from the day standing in the sun. I rolled down my window and handed him a Powerade, knowing that it should help replenish some of his electrolytes that he is losing in the heat. He thanked me as he took and said something that has stuck with me ever since. He said that he appreciated me giving him something with flavor. Most people give him water, which he happily accepts, but that water gets old after awhile. I told him my usual, it's no problem and I hope he stays safe as my light turned green, I drove away. I continued to think how many times I get tired of drinking water myself and want flavor. I couldn't imagine having to be a slave to only donations from other vehicles. That's how Barney's Bags started. I went online a few weeks later and bought supplies to start making bags for the people on the roadsides. At first they just contained flavor packets, body wipes, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, a poncho, and the reflective waterproof bag I put them in. Now, through help of others, they contain hats and gloves for the winter, instant coffee, wash cloths, feminine supplies, and hopefully soon to contain a blanket in each one. I carry several of these bags with me in my car at all times, as do several of my friends. We enjoy being able to help others.

"When you die, what is your impact going to be, where are you leaving your footprints?" This was a question that posed to me at a leadership conference at my undergrad over 11 years ago. It has stuck with me since. We discussed what we wanted our 'legacy' to be. As I have gotten older, and hopefully wiser, I realized that I don't want to leave a legacy, but I still want to leave footprints. I want to make a difference. Being a survivor of domestic violence I want to utilize my law school education at ASU (Masters of Legal Studies with a concentration in Indian Law and Indian Gaming) to help impact other survivors of DV and hopefully be able to create laws to better protect those victims. There are so many aspects of DV that are not recognized in the courts, leaving victims to be further brutalized by the system and the perpetrator. I believe that people overall are good, still after everything I've been through, and people deserve love and compassion. Victims of DV are often not believed, not supported, and not given help to escape their situations when they are finally ready to leave. This is also something that is very personal to me, not just because I'm a victim of it, but because I have lost two friends to domestic violence from their partners. One of them, Kelly, was still in the relationship with her boyfriend at the time of her murder. The other, Heather, was in the process of escaping her abuser and in the process of divorce when he tracked her down and murdered her. Neither of these incidents should have happened, and sadly, neither of these are one offs. Their stories are repeated over and over all the time. My career over the past 11 years at a tribal owned casino has lead me to find passion in helping the Tribal Nation that I work for. I want to use my Legal Studies degree concentrations to help the DV laws on tribal land to be stronger and more protective of the women and children. Indigenous women are 1.7 times more likely to experience violence and have a higher chance to be murdered. This needs to be changed, especially before we lose the culture and heritage of these nations. The other goal I have with my degree is to help create gaming laws that will protect the casino that I work for. I have spent the majority of my career in game protection and there is a lack of ability to prosecute those that try to wrong the casino (and therefore the Tribe). I would like to work on this and create better laws in our state that are conducive to game protection. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Imagine sitting outside, next to a small creek that feeds into the river that is about 100 feet from you. You are sitting on a flat rock at the edge of the creek, you feet are sitting in the cold icy mountain water. The temperature outside is warm, almost of the edge of being too warm, as it usually is at the end of summer. There is light cool breeze that smells of damp earth and warm rain off in the distance. The breeze moves the leaves that are starting to turn orange and red with a rustle sound. Besides the sounds of the leaves, the creek, you hear off in the distance a few birds chirping, and sounds of the rafters going down the river, laughing, enjoying themselves. You lean back, tilting your head back so that the sun that was shining on your back laps at the edge of your face. You take a deep breath in and let the Earth refresh your soul. You breathe out all the stress you've had over the work week, thankful for the peaceful moment in your life. Your favorite season is upon you, your favorite time of year. The only thing that could make it better would be a campfire with roasting marshmallows as the chill of the evening sets in after the rain moves through. Maybe tonight you will have that, but for now, you will enjoy the water trickling around your toes, the sun at your back. You smile, at peace.

'It's not about being the best, it's about being better than you were yesterday.' -Proverb I don't know who Proverb was, but he sure had a lot of great quotes. (Just Kidding) I'm a believer that every opportunity in your life is a chance to learn, change, and grow. I think my biggest recent life lesson comes down to two different situations, both of which impacted me differently, but both have changed my world beyond what I could have imagined. The first would be my divorce. Now it wasn't just a divorce because we didn't get along, in fact we weren't married long enough for it to truly be considered a marriage in the eyes of anyone but the law. In that short period of time though, my world was thrown down a rabbit hole of mental abuse, emotional abuse, manipulation, blame, and utter disarray. By the time we separated I had lost all sense of who I was and my place in the world. I felt worthless and at fault, and didn't see anyway out. Through lots of intense therapy, love of my friends and family, and effort, I am stronger than I have ever been. I am closer to being more unapologetically me than ever before. I allow myself to take up space and be heard. Best of all, I am learning to love myself again. My second huge life lesson came several months after the initial separation. When the world was thrown into a pandemic, there were protests and riots sprouting everywhere. I joined a group of street medics that helped out at protests, making sure that everyone was safe and had access to unbiased medical care. With a background in EMT work, and suffering my own chronic illness, I picked back up on the medical side easy. What I didn't expect though was that my open mind and heart was going to be questioned and that some of the things I was doing as a white woman, wasn't being productive for others, and wasn't enough. I had to go through some serious self reflection to realize that I needed to realize where my white privilege placed me in society and that my job to assist those in the protest was to amplify their voices, help them to be heard, and just to listen. I had to unlearn some of the things that I had been taught all my life. While meaning well, my parents always taught me to look past people's colors and love them for who they are. While the essence of what they wanted me to gain from that was to not be prejudice against people for the skin color, it erases a trait that is intrinsic. Society tends to white wash people to appease themselves, and make things easier to manage. If you don't see people as they are, you lose the value of them. You lose the things that make our society great. You turn a blind eye when you look at who is being undermined, because everyone is the same. You no longer see biases. That doesn't help anyone. So it was a big eye opener and took self reflection to see that I needed to change. I wouldn't change either of these events though, because now I can be a better advocate while I'm a better person. I can help people with my personal story and I can help support the communities that need support by uplifting them and their voices. Which I plan to do more with my master's program. Thank you for your time and consideration.

I believe that all people should have the ability to access education regardless of their monetary situation. A person should not have to go into debt to better themselves, their future, or just to scratch that knowledge itch. I personally have a large amount of student loans left from my undergrad from 11 years ago and am going to be practically doubling it to go back to school to get my masters. I am lucky that I have the support of my company for the time aspect, but I am just hoping and wishing I will figure out the monetary aspect as I go. Luckily I make enough at my job that I am secure in my housing and food that I can focus on trying to figure out my pay for school, but I know that is just it. I am lucky for that. There are so many smart and intelligent people that have the ability to solve the world's problems, but they never make it to college, trade school, or have the ability to even get certified in areas that would benefit them, due to cost. I know realistically that college can't be free, at least not without changing the entire structure of how our society views higher education as a privilege. I believe that the first step is the make the opportunities that are available from state to state be available across the board to all students. Some school systems and states offer free tuition based on grades, location, etc. Why can't that be the normal route for everyone: if you have good enough grades, good enough behavior, then why are you not, just in general, good enough for more education? Schooling doesn't just educate a person on their pathway, but it is shown to create a more compassionate and open minded person overall. Wouldn't that only improve our society, by investing time and skills in the people that turn around and invest back?

Two years ago I was at the end of a rope, actually I was in a dark void of room with no way out. My spouse, who was suppose to help me and stand next to me against the world was shoving me deeper into the void. She slammed the door and threw away the key, all while convincing me that the void was my failure in life and the void I had created was swallowing everyone else up. I felt like Alice in Wonderland, falling down the rabbit hole, when everything was floating around her and she had no sense of direction, no idea which end was up. Everyday I went through the motions of going to work taking care of my step son, my wife, and trying to take care of the house, while battling those demons telling me I was the reason it was all falling apart. I had gotten to the part where I couldn't even be around my family. Partly due to the isolation she put me through to "protect" my step son from my attitude and partly because I couldn't stand myself anymore. Crying I picked up my phone and searched out for therapist, believing that what I would find at the other end was that this truly was all my fault. I was so afraid that I was the problem, the reason, and a horrible human that was causing destruction. I started therapy with a therapist, who deemed me in crisis mode. I had no more energy left for myself, for others, for anything. I cried the entire intake session. I came home and felt as if my world had stopped spinning. I was in a holding pattern and I wasn't sure why. That weekend everything came to a head and my spouse filed a false police report on me and had me removed from the house, claiming I was suicidal and so she feared for her life as well. Some how she got the court to sign off on it and I had to leave. That was the worst and the best thing that could have ever happened to me. While it set off a chain of events that I am still working to overcome, it lead me to be a better person than I could ever have imagined happening. Since then I have learned what in my history allowed me to become a victim of a narcisstic abuser, I have learned how to cope with the trauma she put me through, I have learned that I am stronger than her harassments and trickery, I have learned that there are truly good people in the world who love me, and I most of all I am learning how to truly love myself. In this past two years I started a side business with my crafts, I bought a house, I am successful at my job, I applied to grad school, and I am still in therapy. I am more aware of red flag behavior and manipulative people, but I know that there are people out there that have a heart of gold and truly love others. I wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for my therapist, my friends, and my family. All of who made sure I was safe physically while I worked on healing those mental and emotional scars. I am currently in the most rewarding relationship I have ever been in, with a wonderful person that is so understanding and loving. It didn't have any of the intensity and crazy that I was used to, so it was vastly different, but it's been the most amazing thing that I could have ever imagined to come out of this whole thing. The best part is, I learned to not lose myself in a relationship. That I am worthy as I am, with or without someone else. I am loved, I am beautiful, and I am a survivor. I hope that with my graduate degree that I can use it to help with outreach in my spare time to help victims of domestic violence so that they too can learn what I learned and learn that they can survive and love themselves. Thank you for your time and consideration.

I think the first thing that needs to happen is to make awareness of how common mental health issues are and to reduce the stigma around mental health care. Once the stigma around mental health care is reduce we can work on making it more easily accessed to everyone, because at the end of the day, everyone needs therapy. Therapy isn't just mentally ill, and I think that stigma in of itself makes it harder for those that are mentally ill to seek help. I personally didn't want to seek help for my depression and anxiety. I had tried once and felt like I wasn't being heard by my therapist. So I decided I never wanted to do it again. I didn't know you could shop around for therapist. Nobody ever taught me how to go about makings sure my mental health was taken care of and how to approach it. Nobody taught me how common mental health issues are and how I wasn't alone. Around the time I was getting ready to leave an abusive marriage I reached out for help to a therapist in desperation to help me figure out what was happening. I don't regret it at all, it saved my life. But overcoming that stigma to go and realize that it was okay was one of the hardest things I had to convince myself.

In 2011, right before I graduated from Western Carolina University with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering Degree, I started working for Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Resort. After I graduated from WCU, I continued to work at Harrrah's and grew within the corporation from a Security Officer to Surveillance Officer, all the way to Surveillance Manager, where I currently am working. My favorite part about my job is the constant learning that I have had to do and that there is always something changing. I used to tell my dad that I was going to go to school forever, luckily I found a job where I was able to learn often. I have loved the experience I have gained working for the Casino and the Tribe, and I have become very passionate with the politics and the legalities that surround my job. As a manager, and being more exposed to the regulations and laws that directly impact my job, I have decided that I want to go back to school and learn what I can about Indian Gaming and Indian Laws at Arizona State University, by doing the Masters of Legal Studies . By doing this program I hope that it can help lead me to be able to do several things for the Tribe that has done so much for me. I want to help create laws in this state that protect the Casino from cheaters and advantage players. As of right now, we don't have laws in my current state that do those functions, like the other states that have gambling in them. I also would like to help to work with my local Tribal Nation on gaming matters, with the National Indian Gaming Commission, and improve the work place as much as possible. Beyond the impact of the casino, I would love to help with the legal 'grey' area that has come up on Tribal Lands where if a non tribal member commits acts against the Tribe or a Tribal member, they can't be tried or detained on Tribal land. They have to take out charges against the non tribal member in the next county. I want to know the ins and outs and the reasons behind this to see if there is room for improvement to help protect the Tribe more. They deserve to be able to prosecute those that commit acts against the Tribe in an easier fashion that what it is now. I also would love use my education to continue my community outreach, advocacy, and work with not just the Tribe, but the community I live in, Western North Carolina. I have spent the last two and a half years learning and dedicating my spare time to be a Street Medic for the community. This would open the doors to be able to help in other aspects with Street Medics, not just as a medic on the ground. To be honest, I have a lot of anxiety about going back to school 11 years after I graduated my undergrad, especially while working full time, but I am passionate about helping my community and helping to make changes. I have always been a passionate student, and learning has always been something that I love to do for myself. I also love to then be able to share what I learn with others. Thank you for your time and the ability to apply for this scholarship.

As a professional in the workforce, that is going back to school, a lot of my active listening has to occur in meetings. These meetings range from group meetings, zoom meetings, to one on one meetings with my subordinates. In the large meetings and zoom meetings as long as I retain the information that is presented, that is all that is requested. The meetings with my employees on the other hand, require much more attention and focus. Being a person that has been dealing with overcoming a traumatic domestic violence relationship and having ADHD, my ability to focus sometimes is not something that I can easily control, no matter how much I want to provide that for my team. So, I have taken it upon myself to encourage my team, in my office, or in their own workspace, to utilize fidget toys. I have a broad range of them on my desk anytime anyone needs one. I often use them while in discussions with employees and find that it helps me to be able to focus on them and give them the attention that they deserve and that they need. As a manager, my employees often need a safe space to vent or ask questions. To provide that environment that takes me making sure that I am attentive to the conversation, that I provide accurate feedback, ensure that they have been heard, and make sure that I form questions back to them as needed. This helps my team members to feel like I 'see' them and that I really am there for them, which I do and I am. By creating a space that is adaptive to neuro-divergent minds, I have found that several of my employees have responded positively and have been able to thrive.

My mom once told me, before she passed, that when something mattered enough to me, I would care about it. At first glance that sounds kind of an obvious statement, but what it started with was talking about elections and ended up in a world of activism. I never had interest in voting when I turned 18. I didn't care to research who the candidates were, what they stood for, in my young naïve mind, they were all old white men that were on either side of a coin. Nothing they did would influence what little ol' me did. I brought to my mom my concerns that I just couldn't focus on it and didn't seem to find passion in it. Granted, now I know part of that is the ADHD. Mom comforted me and told me that when it was important enough to me that I would research it and pay attention. She couldn't have been more correct, about that and everything else. The more passionate I found myself about human rights and found myself in the middle of activism for my fellow LGBTQ community, I became determined to make the best decisions I could in political matters. She was right, when I realized that politics had an effect on me, I cared, and I paid attention. Not only to the politics that affected me, but those that affected my friends and my community. In the movie 'Enola Holmes,' there is a part that is discussed about politics not being interesting to those who are satisfied with the way the world is, people have no interest in changing a world that suits them. I have realized as the years have gone by, that I am not satisfied with the world the way it is, so I must do something.

Most people assume generosity is about money, and most people wrongly assume it's about how much money you donate. As someone who hasn't always had money to donate, I found that there is many more ways to be generous and have an important impact on others. My philosophy on life has always been if I can make someone smile throughout my day, then I've done a good job. While that tends to label me as a goofball around my friends, I feel that it is important to bring life and laughter to those around me. Part of that may be because I know what it is like when you don't have those things. Beyond just making people smile, it's important to offer your time and attention. Time is the most precious thing you can offer someone. Once you've given it to someone, you can never have it back. Hold on to it too tight, and you'll miss out things. Blink your eyes, and it was like it was never there. But to give your time, truly give your time, and be present with someone can mean the world to them. It can make them feel as if they matter. That above all, is what most people crave. Whether it is your neighbor, an elder, the homeless guy down the road, or your best friend, they should all be treated with the same respect, love, and attention. Who knows, it might just save one of their lives. When I was younger I used to write on slips of paper little notes like "Smile, you are beautiful" or "You are loved no matter what" and would leave them around everywhere I went. I hope those messages got to the people that needed them the most. I know I needed them myself.

Equality and diversity is a huge part of my life. I spent half of 2019, all of 2020, and continue to this day, studying and training with a group of Street Medics that support protests, community actions, and radical consent to healthcare. Healthcare in of itself is a place that there is a huge lack of equality and diversity, even in the basics of Man vs Woman. Today's healthcare system was designed around the health of a white man. When women started having issues that weren't the same as the men, women were treated for having Hysteria. Basically, we don't know what is wrong with you, so you must be over reacting and it's all in your head. Then the health world slowly came to the conclusion that the difference is menses and that is the cause of all the issues. This started the bias against women and their menses being dirty and causing illness. In hundreds of years, it's not improved very much, as women as still easily dismissed and labeled as hypochondriacs. As a street medic we aim to offer medical services to all: male, female, and non-binary without prejudice. Street medics don't charge for their services and are seen in areas of natural disasters, protests, and community need. After Hurricane Katrina, street medics were the ones that set up the first Urgent Care style clinic. They got healthcare back up and running in that area when there was nobody else around yet. I feel that a lot can be taught back to the world through the lessons of street medicine. All have a voice, a place, and access to necessities.

In 2012, there was an incident in which a 17 year old high school student by the name of Trayvon Martin was shot and killed. My naïve self, tired of all of the arguing and upset over it, wrote a long post that I then published on my social media page. While I disagreed with the death of Trayvon, I missed a very important fact, to fit the incident into my whitewashed world of comfort, I was erasing the color. I was erasing that the incident was a WHITE man shooting yet another BLACK child. I had stated something that was engrained all my life, 'I don't see color, I see the person.' At the time I thought I was being very open and very accepting of my peers, because I wasn't allowing things to color how I felt about them. But what it was doing was unfairly putting them at the same level as other when they haven't had the same opportunities and same abilities in life due to circumstances. After the protests started in 2019 I started to get active and I started to listen to my peers. What I heard was that I was wrong. At first that was hard, but the only way to learn is to be able to self reflect and grow from it. So I did. I listened to those who were oppressed and listened to what they wanted me to know. I realized that the biggest mistake I could have made was erasing someone's identity, instead it should be embraced and loved. Since realizing that, my world has gotten a lot more colorful and a lot more exciting. I wouldn't take it back, not at all.

I am a very passionate person, especially when it comes to those around me. I am a fierce protector of those in my circle and will stand up for them, as well as a fierce protector of those that are being mistreated. I am very passionate that all people deserve to be treated fairly and equally and we as country have failed at this point to be able to do that so far. My drive and motivation is that I hope that some day I can make a positive impact in someone's life and make their life better/easier/more enjoyable. This is why I help out at protests, work as a street medic, and work hard to make sure that I continuously am learning about the environment around me. Another big motivator in my life is my drive to prove people wrong. I was told when I started my undergrad that I wouldn't succeed because I was a female, and females are not engineers. I graduated with my engineering degree proudly. I have had several people in my life tell me that I am never going to amount to anything and never going to be anything important. Those people are already wrong, but I would like to continue to prove them wrong, over and over. This is an opportunity for me to improve my life even more, and then be able to turn that around with my passion for others and help my community.

I think the biggest impact a person can have in their life is how they treat others. People are so often overlooked or undermined based on their economical status, the color of their skin, or their sexual orientation. Most the time, what anyone wants, is to be treated as a human, as if their life matters to someone else. Personally I make sure to keep bags in my car for those battling homelessness, my street medic bags in my car for anyone requiring medical assistance (including Narcan for those struggling with addiction), and I am active in the activism community. The biggest thing I learned in the activism community is that it isn't about my voice, it's how my voice can amplify others' voices and help lift them up. My job is to show the people in the community that they are loved and cared for and that I will do what I can for them. Being apart of the LGBTQ community myself, I know that empathy isn't always easy to come by, but when it is freely given, and received, it can turn the world around for someone. That is all I want to do, is to help turn someone's world around and it make it a better place for them to not have to survive, but be able to thrive.