“If you let my baby live Lord, I promise to serve you with all of my heart.” My mom said those words when I was born weighing a pound and a half. I can remember my mom waking up early every Sunday to attend church no matter how tired she was, demonstrating the importance of persistent faith. My mom grew up in Jamaica, and always relied on him during tough times. She had eventually left the faith, and my birth was a huge turning point in her life. During my early years, my mom used Bible scriptures and storybooks to help me learn how to read and write better. Doctors warned of potential comprehension challenges, so my mom made it a daily priority. As a low-income student at an underfunded middle school, I pushed myself to accomplish as much as I could manage. My mom and I made a habit of praying every day for help, and I joined many writing competitions. I took advanced classes and volunteered at my church. As I got older and prayed more, things gradually got simpler. I realized I really enjoyed journalism in high school. I made parallels between the Bible and journalism, as they both teach spreading wisdom and being compassionate and aware of others' feelings. Growing up in a single parent, low-income household has enabled me to tell the stories of unheard voices. In the future, I aim to challenge different stereotypes by amplifying diverse voices so the world sees our truth. I want to tell the nuanced stories of people from communities like my own. I aim to become a content creator while pursuing a bachelor’s degree. My channel would be centered around the Christian perspective of things. I’d create documentary-style video essays, using storytelling and investigative techniques to spotlight communities often misrepresented by the media. In my journalism, I plan to focus on integrity, truth, and compassion–important core Christian values. I strongly believe these values will help restore truth to modern-day journalism, and spotlight those often ignored by the mainstream media. I've recently been accepted to Boston University as a journalism major. There, I plan to join their student newspaper to write about Christian students and their college experiences. As a first generation college student, I’m very interested in getting involved in every way possible and making the most of my college experience. I’m confident that God will help me in my career because he always has, along with the fact that I plan to center my work around Christian values as much as possible. I believe being a Christian will help me in stressful times, like when I have many exams and assignments due. I’ll remind myself that God is always there for me, and that all I have to do is honor and serve him, and he will direct my paths. With His guidance, I know I’ll navigate the obstacles and hurdles of college as long as I continue being steadfast in the faith. Thank you for your consideration, and have a blessed day.

It was nearly Thanksgiving, and my article’s fate hung on a single email. I stared at my inbox, refreshing it yet again. Had she read the email? Was she going to respond? The anticipation gnawed at me. An hour had passed since I’d sent the email. I opened my document where the interview questions were already prepared. I waited patiently for the email, and in a couple of minutes, it arrived. “Hi Roana, I’d love to! Feel free to send me the questions, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!” I sent her the questions, and in a few more weeks, I had the responses I needed. As I reflected on my final draft a few weeks later, I remembered how much thought I’d put into the article, researching her sport, and coming up with many drafts. I opted to spend extra time revising to polish my article. This is what I enjoyed the most about journalism: the revision process. Rearranging words to shape how readers interpret and feel a story is a unique power of journalism unmatched by any other field. Growing up in a single-parent household, I’ve always loved telling stories. In the future, I want to expand my love of storytelling to help others. I plan to pursue a bachelor’s degree in journalism in college, and use the skills I learn to later intern at different media outlets. After I graduate and land a job in the field, I aim to use my knowledge to become a content creator, reporting on different events and giving my takes on them. My main goal is to become an entrepreneur in the future. I want to create a virtual community for people of all backgrounds to showcase their skills. On this platform, emerging writers could post articles they’ve seen online and talk about them. It would be possible for emerging journalists to either post their work for feedback, or career advice to vetted professionals in the field. Having access to these professionals would enable them to get work referrals with various companies. I see the John Young Pursue Your Passion scholarship as my first step to turning my dreams into reality. This scholarship will provide me with the opportunity to pursue my goals and make an important contribution to the wonderful, evolving field of journalism. Thank you for your consideration.

If I could have everyone in the world read just one book, it would be the Bible. I would want everyone to read that book because it has caused me to think differently about people and the world. Being a Christian has taught me a lot about how to respect others and the world accordingly. As most people know, the world is a great place full of awesome opportunities and adventures for anyone willing. However, there is another side to this world; a much more cruel and heartless side. Reading the Bible has not only made me cognizant of the world's awesome and cruel side but has taught me to be the light shining in the darkness. When I go to school and see someone laughing at someone else, I know that's the heartless side of the world showing. When I see someone including someone who isn't typically included in things, I recognize the good side of the world. Additionally, the Bible has some awesome and sad stories about martyrs and people who treated others kindly not receiving the same thing in turn. This has caused me to learn not to do good things merely for my merit, but because it is simply what God would want and the right thing to do. A story in the Bible that sticks out to me immensely is the story of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Jesus was not only a good person but claimed to be and proved that he was God. Despite his doing this, many people did not like him and in the end, he was crucified for men's sake. Even though the Bible story becomes a lot happier in the end, Jesus' story just goes to show how sad and cruel the world can be. To me, this story reminds me to be a good person no matter what the circumstances and to follow God's teachings and values. I would encourage anyone to read the Bible, both religious and not, because it truly means a lot to me, is very inspiring, and can be applied to anyone's life.

I believe the Ode to Millennials Gen Z text does appeal to me and is true in a myriad of ways. I do believe my current generation and myself alike have become very reliant on cellular devices and the internet. My personal experience with this started at the beginning of my freshman year of high school. When it was my first time taking the bus to school, I went on and saw almost all of the students on my bus using their phones. They weren't just using them either; they were completely engrossed in whatever their screens were displaying. This wasn't a very foreign thing to me, as that happened everywhere including my previous middle school. However, even when the bus stopped, many kids did not realize. Nor did they want to leave the bus to enter school, and I mostly believe this is because of their screen time usage. My high school doesn't have a viable Wi-Fi source, primarily because it was disabled. I presume the students were frustrated because of this; there was no time for them to mess around on their phones or enjoy themselves. This is why I can directly agree with the part of the text that claims incomes are very low, and many members of Generation Z are unemployed. I don't believe the unemployment rate and low incomes of Generation Z have a direct correlation, but there is causation here. My reasoning is, that most members of Generation Z have become so dependent on new and current technological advancements that they have abandoned the very origin of these things; their minds. Members of Generation Z rely on popular artificial intelligence applications like Chat GPT, Character AI, and a plethora of other online websites. The main issue isn't using these websites, but it is the stealing of this data and then implementing it into things as your own. This is called plagiarism, and it is and will continue to become much easier to plagiarize. This is because Chat GPT and AI in general will generate randomized responses. This can make it very difficult for future employers and bosses to prove whether a piece of text is fabricated or real; or if the evidence is credible and true. I additionally agree with the quote in the text that brings up student loans and how they possess a strong correlation with poverty. As a part of Generation Z, I can attest to this as well. From the minute I entered and left middle school, I was told that grades matter a lot because college is a must. While this may be very true, most of it was taught to me because the school curriculum demanded it must be, and so it was. The point is, that many students strive to go to college not for their dreams or goals; but to solely make money. This leads to students having to pay back loads of student loans to pursue occupations they were taught to. This also ties back to the aforementioned low income and employment rate of Generation Z. Many are forced by their parents, guardians, and teachers. That is not to say that those things are insignificant. However, students should go to college because they want to pursue an education in a field they are passionate about; not because their high school teacher told them they had to. In sum, I truly believe if our generation wants to make the world a better place it is very possible. However, it is also very difficult and will take a lot of compliance. If teachers instilled the idea that college is important but not necessarily required to be successful a lot would change. If teachers did a lot more hands-on projects as opposed to online ones, a lot would change too. This would take a lot of creative minds to come up with efficient and convenient alternatives, and there would have to be a lot of testing too. However, I believe it is very doable and would be very advantageous to our society as a whole. This would only be doable with the collective help of our society. It may sound impossible, but I believe it all starts with one idea and one leader.