There are many songs I've come to love while playing orchestra in highschool. In fact, it is my typical preference to listen to strings over bands or choirs. During that time of my life, I learned the composers, instruments, and tempos that I love and the composers, instruments, and tempos that I hate. More specifically, I found that while I love playing and listening to the violin, I detest piano. I took piano lessons for five years and developed a good ear for the small mistakes that define a good or poor pianist. As a result, the only time I can enjoy listening to piano, is when it comes to the best of the best. The song that most inspires me is a song from the movie: The Pianist. Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor (1830) by Chopin, performed by Janusz Olejniczak, to be specific. It is played in the beginning and in the end of the movie. By the end, Wladyslaw Szpilman (the pianist that the movie is about) has evaded death countless times and has returned to play piano on the radio. I love to listen to the soundtrack of the movie but this song in particular is truly indescribable. It's passionate, emotional, and with it's soft tones symbolizes the hope and beauty of life that we often overlook. With the history and the emotion, it's a song that is simply: moving. It serves as a reminder to just take a step back, soak everything in, the good and the bad, embrace it all, and never lose faith. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, just take a moment to breathe, let it touch your heart as it has mine.

There are three things we can do to ensure a long and healthy life. The first, is to consume the proper nutrition. This tends to be the first thing people change and therefore is the easiest change. However, there is a misconception about what a healthy diet looks like. Fad diets are not sustainable long term due to their restriction on certain foods or groups. Healthy diets are non-restrictive and never exclude any specific food group. They fully nourish the body by providing adequate amounts of all nutrients to meet its needs. This also includes a healthy relationship with food, being willing to indulge every now and then. Next, paired with the first, is to take care of your body by keeping it in shape. Being in shape means having the ability to easily perform your daily tasks, making your body accommodate your needs. About five years ago, before I started wrestling, I was about 79 pounds standing at 5 feet tall. I used to be out of breath from walking up the stairs in my home. It turned out I was doing the wrong activities for my daily demands. While running 5 miles was no problem, picking up even light weights was difficult. Due to this experience, I decided to join wrestling, begin, and continue weightlifting to ensure my body can keep up with my activity levels. The third thing to live a long, healthy life is to choose to be happy. When we wake up in the morning, it's a conscious choice to either have a good, great, or bad day. Instead of holding onto grudges, dreaming about all the things you could be doing, or constantly looking up to others, you could be choosing to be more! Never let anything stop you from your potential greatness.

I'm most excited about the future of virtual reality. Augmented reality and virtual reality are truly the future of business as well as social interactions. Only recently has virtual reality begun to take off. This is largely due to the pandemic which showed us that we can conduct regular procedures such as meetings, classes, and work online. This kick started the virtual reality's market share as the expected growth of VR is now predicted at 18% annually between now and 2028, and for good reason. Most industries can benefit from VR, but the majority of current users include: -Car manufacturers who use it to build prototypes, -Health care workers use it to simulate the human body to train workers to feel patients' pain and be more empathetic to them, -Real estate agents with 3-D walkthroughs and tours, -Architects who use it to build homes, -The Air Force is currently testing and using VR to train pilots, -Law enforcement is using it to train as well​, and lastly, -Developers and gamers who use VR goggles for entertainment, and in many cases therapy. VR provides an escape to reality, allowing users to and become part of a community outside of the regular world. VR is a breakthrough for businesses, charities, and the general public. Not only can it train public safety workers and improve our medical services, but we can use VR to raise funds for social welfare by hosting online events. This technology can also promote human positive behavior and better mental health as people come together on a network to achieve mutually beneficial goals. Going VR is cost effective for businesses as they can conduct meetings virtually and limit their traveling expenses, but it's also cost effective for students who can attend classes online and from the comfort of their own home. Needless to say, VR development is bringing a new and unique business environment that we have never seen. To conclude, virtual reality and augmented reality is the stepping stone to a new world of business and entertainment. VR has endless potential as an immersive experience with the ability to produce better leadership, worker, and student outcomes. Covid-19 showed us how we can use new technology efficiently, to become cost effective while remaining productive. As a woman going into information systems, I am thrilled to potentially work with and develop this software in the future.

Artificial Intelligence is a key building block for our society's future. The general definition of artificial intelligence is any technology that makes human tasks easier. This is everything from calculators, to computers, virtual reality and then how we typically think of the term, which is actually artificial superintelligence. Of these examples, only one in particular is in its early development, not expanding quite as fast as the rate of the others, but with the potential to be the most important of them all: virtual reality. Virtual reality devices are going to be a huge player in businesses of the future with an expected annual growth of 18% between 2021-2028. This is largely due to the pandemic as companies had to meet online. Covid-19 showed us how we can use technology efficiently, to be cost effective and productive. Most industries can benefit from VR, but current users include: car manufacturers who use it to build prototypes; health care workers use it to simulate the human body to train workers to feel patients' pain and be more empathetic to them; we see VR in real estate with 3-D walkthroughs and tours; architects use it to build homes; in gaming, developers and gamers can use goggles for entertainment; in the military, the Air Force is currently testing and using VR to train pilots; law enforcement is using it to train as well​; lastly, we see VR as being used as a type of therapy, providing an escape to reality and becoming part of a community outside of the regular world. This is an exciting technology to say the least. It can be used in so many ways such as: 1. Raising funds for social welfare​ 2. Training of the public safety team​ 3. Improving medical services​ 4. Promoting human positive behavior​ 5. Promoting human health​ 6. Student VR courses​ 7. Improving the business environment Virtual reality expands our ability to reach people on a global level. On a business level, it's cost effective, allows international communication, and produces desirable results. On a social level, VR can bring people together around the world, working together in game settings and producing a unique social network. To conclude, as a woman going into information systems, I am thrilled to potentially work with and develop this software in the future. Virtual reality and augmented reality is the stepping stone to a new world of business and entertainment.

Growing up in the Catholic church, weekly donations were just a regular part of life. Each Sunday, a basket comes around and you put in a check or cash, never to be seen again. As I got older, I realized the significance of this act. Each week a new cause, mission, or project. A small donation each week goes a long way. As I've become more involved in charities, I realized how significant each donation is. As much as there's a community that is ready and willing to give back, there's so many who aren't. Giving to me is sparing a small expense to benefit something greater than myself. Apart from being involved in local volunteer organizations such as Kiwanis Club, and simply picking up trash that I see on my walks on the streets, I have become a partner with Student Change Makers. This organization is a partner with Teach for Uganda where we raise money for schools in rural villages, equipping them with wifi, solar panels, charging stations, and tablets. We have established Uganda's first ever structured education system and have four villages left to reach our current mission goal of 10 villages. It's difficult right now to raise money since Covid has delayed shipping and is hitting Uganda hard, but nonetheless, I'm trying my best to reach out to potential opportunities such as greek life philanthropy projects at college. We aren't going to reach the timeline goal of getting all 10 done within the year, but we're still dedicated to providing children with a better education and basic information and communications technology skills. If you're interested, you can donate directly to our organization, I'll leave the website down below. Happy Holidays and thank you for your consideration! www.studentchangemakers.org

Man oh man, there's so many things to do with so little time to do them! My bucket list involves some random and painfully mundane things, along with all of the extraordinary possibilities. Within the US, I want to visit my dad's hometown in Minnesota, experience its dreadful winter and ice skate on a frozen lake. When I go to Florida to visit my best friend, I want to sleep outside on her trampoline, take her to Busch Gardens, and go to Weeki Wachee Springs to swim and kayak. Eventually, I would love to snowboard in Colorado, and dance in the rain of Paris. Just like many others, I dream of traveling the world, but if I had to choose one place, it would be St. Petersburg, Russia. My heritage is Indian and Scandinavian, however, many of my friends including my significant other are Slavic. I love immersing myself in other cultures as well as learning history. My dream is to see the Hermitage Museum and the Russian ballet. If I make it to the winter palace, my heart just might burst. All I've already achieved has been within these past four years. They're things close to but not exactly what is on my list. I've done a month-long study abroad trip to Finland where they took me to see Tallinn, Estonia as well as my first ever concert: Ed Sheeran in Helsinki. After that, I cruised the islands of Hawaii. My parents and I visited my mother's family in the Bronx, but I didn't get to really experience and tour New York. I've made it to state championships in my sport: wrestling, and have finally made a real best friend. In May, I will be going to Ireland for some school credits and shall continue to relish each moment.

To me, joy and happiness mean two entirely different things. Happiness is the infantile, fleeting feeling we tend to seek. Happiness is when we use outside forces to determine and measure our wellbeing while joy comes from within. We create our own joy. Joy is when you choose to be happy no matter the circumstance. It’s a mindset. Finding true joy takes much practice but can be done in a few ways. One way is through meditation, the act of connecting to the energy of the environment. I personally like to take a moment to escape the usual craziness we call life by simply sitting in the woods or in a tree to try to find my mood of zen. This helps me feel like I can really connect to God in a way. When it’s done right, when I get in the mood of total stillness within, a sense of overwhelming inner peace and an outpour of radiating love occurs. It’s truly indescribable. Another way I find joy is through simple reminders of how I control my emotions. I read personal development books regularly to keep myself in check. Whenever I start blaming others for how I feel, I take a step back to re-evaluate why I’m feeling so strongly, especially when I have many other things I could focus on and be glad for such as a car and a home. This guides me back to my base-line, bringing me closer to the inner peace we all should seek.