I never really thought about educational goals until I went to High School. Before that I wasn’t too worried about my grades or awards. Of course I would have liked to get good grades, and of course I would have liked to be recognized but it wasn’t my first priority, that is until I hit junior year. Junior year was an eye opener for me, I saw people getting awards for keeping 4.0 all year, I saw others getting scholarships, and suddenly I wanted to feel as important as they did. From that year on I pushed myself to keep a 3.5-4.0 all year and I worked I got multiple awards for my academic achievements and I was happy, I worked hard for that little paper that said “Congratulations on your academic achievement!” And when I didn’t get the award I wanted I felt terrible about it, I knew I could get any award if I tried but I was tried. So for a while I didn’t push myself as hard, I tried to enjoy high school even if I didn’t get as many awards as others. And even though I didn’t push myself as hard I still got awards and I was proud of myself because I learned that I didn’t have to push myself to the limit to succeed, I just needed to put in the work. I think one obstacle I faced and I’m still facing is not being able to speak Spanish. Here’s a little of my background, my mother is African American, and my dad is Dominican. My father never taught us Spanish and he never told us why, I like to think it was because he was busy with the 3 jobs he had at the time. But for a long time is had been a little angry at him for it, whenever I saw Latinos at my school speaking Spanish to one another I would always want to talk to them in Spanish I always thought speaking another language was cool but I often forgot I didn’t know much Spanish and with the words and sentences I knew, I knew it wasn’t enough to befriend them. Every time I heard someone speaking Spanish or another language I always got sad and I blamed my dad. It wasn’t until a conversation i had with my dad in Spanish over the phone that made me realize I knew more than I thought and I had the ability to learn more. So me and another friend started our quest to learn Spanish or another language. We studied together, we did Duolingo together, we were even in the same Spanish class until I couldn’t take Spanish anymore, but that didn’t stop me from coming in when I had a free period. And in that month my accent had improved, I knew more sentences and words, and I felt confident about my Spanish skill. From both of these experiences I learned that I have the power to achieve whatever I want as long as I put in the work. And that’s what I intend to do, the entertainment field is very hard to be successful in, you have to know someone who knows someone who’s knows someone, but how did all those people get there? The answer is hard work, and I feel that you are more likely to have those connections and experiences in college, college is all about learning and getting involved.

Breathe. That’s always the first step to calming yourself down, breathe. It always helped me anyways. Freshman year “I was never like this before”. I thought as I looked at my trembling hands, no one else’s ninth grade was like this, but mine was. One of my favorite hobbies now turned into an embarrassment for me. Music class was never like this before. “Why am I not good enough?” I screamed in my head after replaying the moment in my mind. My teacher getting angrier and angrier, because we weren’t good enough. I always tried to do my best, but it wasn’t enough this time. I think back to him saying something about passion for music, it was hard to hear him because I was listening to my heart pounding harder, and harder. I felt it in my throat too, I felt sick instantly. I tried to breathe but something was wrong, this time, I couldn’t breathe. Short breaths in and out but that wasn’t breathing, no..breathing took time, it relaxed me, it hid the growing anxiety within me. “I need to lose the one thing I love”. I thought in my brain. The same brain that let me down, that couldn’t let me, breathe. Sophomore year I had let myself down on multiple occasions before, but this was different, I was overwhelmed , unmotivated, and was depressed. I needed to breathe. I felt I had let myself down and I knew I needed to get better so I need to.. “Quit” I said to my friends listening in the phone, I was expecting no’s and don’t’s but I was met with agreement. So I quit And when I quit, I went numb and couldn’t think. I had no passion, no dream, and no future. Until… “Avatar The Last Airbender?” I looked at the Netflix selection and saw a kids show that aired on Nickelodeon in the early 2000’s, when I finished it my life had changed, suddenly I was disciplined again, I wanted to workout, I wanted to be passionate for something, I wanted to breathe. Junior year “Dear diary, I found out how to breathe again” Avatar The Last Airbender had taught me to look into myself, to find myself and just like Zuko i had found a piece of myself. Writing, it helped me breathe. I rewatched it and studied it and it inspired me to try to do the same. I studied myself until I found a piece of myself. Just as the avatar reconnected with his past lives, writing helped me reconnect with myself. Avatar taught me how to change, to forgive, to have courage, to be happy. And when I watched those characters find themselves, then I found myself. So why is this important to me? Shows like Avatar helped me grow, it shaped me, and most importantly it helped me find myself and one day I want to be able to make someone feel that same feeling I felt when I watched Avatar but with the shows I make. Pursuing a degree in English with a minor in film would allow me to build and strengthen skills so that one day someone will write about how my show helped them, Breathe.

I want to go into the screen/play writing part of it all. My name is Rochelle Rosario and I want to major in English with a minor in Film. You must be thinking "Wow she is very confident, she was probably in theater, Newspaper club, and in this and that!" And I would say you're dead wrong, I actually find it hilarious that I didn't do any of that. I have anxiety and I've had it since 9th grade, now I'm not trying to get you to pity whatsoever but I'm just trying to help you understand why I didn't do those things. In the 5th grade I picked up the violin just out of fun, in the 8th grade I would ask myself if I could see myself doing this as a career, in the 9th grade I would drop the instrument entirely for the sake of myself. When music didn't work out, I would search for the next 2 years for something to do with my life. Closer to the end of my junior year we made our schedule for next year, out last year. The words "last year" slow down in my mind going into senior year is insane but I was ready to get out of that hell we call "school". I sit with my English teacher expecting to take English 4, but I flat out say "English is too easy for me" so she recommends something else, college com 1 so I agree, BEST DECISION EVER #1. Before the start of that year, I was trying to explore what I liked to do and I found that I love to write. I didn’t realize it before because I didn’t think it would lead to anything so Ignored it. Whenever I watched movies, I found myself always thinking of a way to improve the plot, “Oh she could’ve done this” or “They could’ve written this in” I started thinking those things when I started to write more, and now I can’t stop. Some would say that it’s not a good thing, but I say that it’s a blessing. It tells me how big of an imagination I have, and I can use that to my best ability. At the beginning of senior year I started writing a little story, it was kind of inspired by Avatar: The last Airbender, the best part about writing it was the fun I had, I would think of different things to include into my story, get inspired by other people’s stories, and I overall had a lot of fun with my brain. When I got writer's block, I realized how much I missed it, writing about the clothes my characters would wear, the detail I would write in when a scene changed, the emotion I wanted my characters to feel, I missed it. I realized that this is what I wanted to do. I've seen so many talented writers write amazing shows and movies and I just wondered if I was capable of that. I get excited about the thought of me working and writing with different people who have the same passion as me. And so here I am trying to get scholarships to fund my education because I feel that I am capable of doing something truly amazing with my big imagination, and I will work my butt off because I never did in High school. Thank you!

Zendaya, Zendaya, Zendaya. A name that was MENT to be famous, seriously that's a celebrity name right there, I don't know what her mother was thinking when she saw her for the first time but she's a genius. Anyways my favorite part of her career is when she was on Disney channel, specifically when she was on KC Undercover. I consider that show the last good show on Disney channel. I think her acting career is the most I admire because it's the things she's most well known for. Don't get me wrong she great at singing, and activism, and what not but her acting skills are out of this world. When I was watching Zendaya growing up I always thought the characters she played were real, sometimes on Disney I would know if someone was a real character or not, don't ask me why I didn't stop to think maybe all of them weren't real, I was a stupid kid, and i was easy to fool so if I thought a character was real, then you were a good actor/actress. One of the things that I respect about Zendaya most is how she markets herself, she started with Disney and when she grew out of that she went to the Marvel franchise, and so on. But I think why I chose Acting (specifically Disney) is because it's nostalgic for me. I still remember the place were sat and watched KC Undercover, and I remember the smell of the room at the point, and I remember seeing her on screen taking it away, and those memories are so beautiful to me. It's like I also grew up with her seeing her go from show to show, movie to movie, seeing her model, sing, speak up, but we have to remember that It all started with acting. Anyways that's my essay, to be noticed my Zendaya is only a dream, but not impossible.

When I read this question I immediately though of Pam. Don't worry I also considered the others, the second person I thought of was Angela, why? Because I can be very mean, however I'm not a cat mom, I'm allergic to cats. Then I thought of Kevin, why? because I like to eat and sometimes, I feel like I'm........challenged at times. And lastly, I thought of Stanley because let be for real, we all feel like Stanley at times, but not all of us is him all the time including me. So, I went back to my first thought, Pam. Then I asked myself why Pam? Well, let's look at the qualities of Pam Beasly-Halpert; She's Friendly, Shy, Artistic. Now personally I would say I have 2/3 of these qualities, I can't draw for the life of me. Now those aren't the only things I'm going to compare. Let's see how her personality changes in the later seasons, Pam is more assertive, bold, doesn't care what people think of her, and she stands up for herself, Follow her dreams. She really knows what she wants and works hard to get what she wants, and while people may judge her, she doesn't care what they think because she's happy with herself. I think I can relate to this a lot because recently I've been really trying to follow my dreams of being a writer, after being undecided for many many years, I didn't even think I wanted to go to college when I was younger, but now that I really looked down deep and found something that I would like to explore and see where it takes me, I am really trying to purse this little dream of mine. I don't care if people think my major (English) is useless, because it's not, I want to do what makes me happiest because we only have one life, and that's exactly what Pam did, she went to college despite the fact that she was away from her boyfriend, and was failing classes, she was trying. And even if she didn't purse something further with art she did try, and I think that's better than nothing. And hey I might be a writer forever, but I can say at least I tried and found something that made me happy at that time, I think that's so precious. So yes, I do think I resonate with Pam, because of what we want, and how we try to get those things. Also we have the same MBTI, well according to one source.

Okay so when I was younger, I loved, loved, LOVED! Austin and Ally. Another show that I absolutely loved was Lab Rats, I also loved K.C. Undercover I think that was my last Disney channel show. I absolutely loved Austin and Ally because it was always on for me, every time I turned on Disney channel I would always see "Don't go now, Austin and Ally, up next" with the cool dude's voice narration. Because this show was always conveniently on, I would always watch it and end up wanting more. My favorite character on the show was Dez because he was really funny, I think I liked side characters back then, I also liked Austin because I had a crush on him, yes it did help with the plot. I liked all the crazy things they did back then, they brainwashed me into thinking High School was going to be like that, (I was so wrong). I loved the love connection between Austin and Ally, and the theme song. Disney was ahead of its time with this show, this show radiates perfect Disney Channel show. I loved Lab rats because once again, of humor, and hot guys. I absolutely loved how funny this show was, it should've been nominated for "Funniest Disney Show." My favorite character on the show was Leo (Funny guy), and Chase (Hot guy), looking back I realized that I actually liked Adam too, I didn't like Bree for some reason though. I fell in love with the plot, of bionic superheroes who were also teens (even though I was a mere child) I always felt like they looked to old to be teens, but I was a child, WHAT DID I KNOW, all In knew was Chase Davenport was hot, and I'm still not wrong. Now if these two shows had a cross over, I think that Leo discovers something like a bionic ring that gives the bionics even more strength. While cleaning up the stage for a music contest later on he accidentally drops it and leaves it on the stage. When the concert day comes Austin and Ally would be at the school getting ready to preform while Ally notices something on the stage- a ring, she looks at it for a while admiring its beauty, then she quickly put it on her finger as it is their time to go up on stage. While preforming the lab rats come to the High school because guilty and told them all he lost it, thankfully they have a tracker in it. When Bree spots the ring she tells the others and waits till their done preforming to approach her, she goes into the dressing room and starts asking for the ring back. Frightened at the sudden demand for the ring, Ally, hides it in her bag. Bree tries to take Ally home so she can investigate but Austin intervenes, and tries to fight Bree, however Adam is standing right behind him. Now back at the lab Austin and Ally are tied up while the rats are begging for the ring back, Ally simply explains that the ring is in her bag, and that she had no ill intentions with it. They get the ring back but just as they are about to let them go a portal appears and takes the ring. They all jump into the portal, and they fight the bad guy off and get the ring back, they get out of the other dimension and Austin and Ally return home, not before becoming friends. Hoped you like it, Thanks!

YESS I AM SO GLAD THERE IS A SCHOLARSHIP FOR THIS….no one will listen to me yap about this 🥲. Anyways the show that had me begging for more is called Alice in Borderland it’s based off a manga and they made it into a show. The premise of the show is that the main character Arisu (Alice) is stuck in the Borderlands (the borders between life and death) and he has to play games to survive while also losing his loved ones along the way BUT DONT WORRY IT HAS A HAPPY ENDING. I won’t spoil to much but this is my absolute favorite show because of all the twists and turns and suspense, I mean they made me wait TWO YEARS for season two, also most of the actors are attractive so that helps— but anyways I also like all the revenge and the gory because it adds something to it (I swear I’m not a psychopath). And I’m so happy because they are finally going to release part 3 FINALLY. I found this show just by scrolling on Netflix wanting to watch anything because I was super bored, I found Alice in Borderland and 3 episodes in a day, then the next day I watched the rest of it and I’m not one of those people who finds anything on Netflix good (no offense) I’m picky with my selection which is why I’ve only had like 2 or 3 favorite shows on Netflix. Two years later when season 2 came out I binge watched all of it in a day, all in my room in the dark alone, that really made my experience with watching it a lot more realistic so I would recommend you watch it with the lights off, sound up, and snacks (that is if you want to watch it). I also love the community because after I watched all the seasons I went on TikTok and watched edits of the characters (I feel you judging me, I’m a teenager leave me alone) I went in the comments and saw things that I missed that had a big part, I went on YouTube because some games were rather confusing. I would really recommend this show to anyone who likes mysteries and plot twists and someone who doesn’t mind gory shows because this show might change your life like it did with mine (not in a major ways tho) but thank you for reading my rant and I hope you get the time to watch it.

I think this is a very tricky question because it is subjective and it’s not a definite answer. Success looks different in everyone’s eyes whether it’s having a lot of money, having a lot of fame, or doing what you love. Personally I think success looks like doing what you love and supporting yourself when everyone may not. But even if you’re not doing what you love but you have a lot of wealth are you still successful? Well I think yes and no, you would be successful in the sense that you can financially support yourself but it would also mean that you wouldn’t be following your dreams so is it really worth it? But I also would like to state that not everyone has the ability to be successful, maybe because of the country they grew up in, maybe because they don’t have the same opportunities as me, or maybe because they have to do anything to survive. If someone grew up in a different country then me then their way of life might be very different from mine because maybe they view success as having as many children as they want, getting/keeping their girl or boy friend, maybe it’s having enough food to provide for their family, maybe it’s making people happy when they themselves may not be so happy. I want my success to be a reflection of my personality, I don’t want to be filthy filthy rich I wouldn’t know what to do with it all, but I also don’t wanna be down on my knees poor, I want to have just enough money for people to look at me and say “Woo Rochelle works really hard to have everything she has now” but it shouldn’t be all about the money I want to enjoy my work because happy job=happy life. I want to mentally be okay with myself and never give up. I want my parents to look at me and be even more proud of me. I want people to look at me for advice because my success shows how much work I put in to something. Lastly I want to be okay with seeing how far I’ve come, my past should show how much I had to suffer or lose to be the woman I am, and I want to be proud of it and not have any regrets, I think that would be my greatest success just being okay with my past.

Spider-Man has been a part of my life as early as I can remember, I loved seeing Spider-Man swing from buildings, defeat bad guys, and have teenage problems. As a teenager now I feel like I can relate to him a lot more, well maybe not the fighting bad guys part. I think all the actors of Spider-Man are iconic, however, I can only choose one, so I chose Tom Holland Spider-Man. I choose Tom Holland because he was the spider-man I grew up with, don't get me wrong Tobey Migure's and Andrew Garfield's Spider-mans are awesome too but I feel like Tom Holland just makes Spider-man more teenage-like, even though he is grown man and doesn't look like a teenager. It's the way he says his lines, the way he acts, and even the way he swings on the buildings it makes me feel like he truly understands how teenagers act. Marvel has always had the comedic factor in all of their movies and I feel like that just makes his Spider-Man more teen-like, especially in "Captain America: Civil War." I love the way he says "You have a metal arm, that's AWSOME dude!" and the proceeds to destroy Bucky. Also, I feel like because his Spider-Man is a part of the Avengers team it makes him more child-like because he's surrounded by a bunch of adults and he's just trying to fit in with them. The recent "Spider-Man No Way Home" movie made me love Spiderman even more (SPOILERS.... I hope you saw the movie already anyway). It showed how this immature Spider-Man turns into a "With great power, comes great responsibility" type of Spider-Man. Not that he hasn't been that in past movies, I just feel like it was intensified in this one, especially when Aunt May died (I'm still mad about that). I love it when he meets the different versions of himself it shows how he is different from...himself.

Minecraft holds a special place in my heart because It was one of the many games that brought me and my brothers together, I cherish those times when we would hunt together build our houses together, or even try to survive the night it was always fun and precious to me. My favorite aspect of the game is being able to build as much as you can, and I know that's the point but being able to build whatever you want just seems so satisfying to me. I think I resonate with it so deeply because you can put all your ideas/creativity and see what it would look like in front of you. I also believe that this can help your imagination expand by also seeing what other people built and inspiring you to do the same. Minecraft also provides us with challenges such as trying to survive the night, find caves, find diamonds, and defeat the underdragon, those have always been the challenges I enjoyed the most because they never gets old. Minecraft gives you a sense of accomplishment that makes you feel like you can do anything, Personally, Minecraft has made my imagination bigger, given me challenges, and has made me a part of a community that is unforgettable. I hope in the future they will make games as good as Minecraft.

I think the U.S. gets a bad rep because of the media, sometimes I feel like it's hard to see the positive sides of things. Because I live in the U.S. it's hard to see what I have, sometimes I watch videos from people in other countries and I see that they may not have the same opportunities or responsibilities as me. My dad likes to tell me about his life in the Dominican Republic, now don't get me wrong he loves the DR but his life was also hard. He told me that since the age of seven, he had been working, selling things to people to get as much money as he could, I don't think he was unhappy he hasn't told me about his feelings back then but he has worked as soon as he was able to speak and walk. His family was poor and he had to drop out of school just to help with work. I think my dad's story is very inspirational because he is a very hardworking person. He has inspired me to one day work as hard as him and be as successful as I can, my dad and I have the same passion because he learned English so he could talk to the missionaries about God so he learned English with a few of his friends and it worked. He had me and my brothers in the U.S. because of all the opportunities here, ever since I could walk and speak I didn't have to work, I never had to drop out of school to help with work and my family is certainly not poor so I never had to worry about that because we made enough. I also like being American because of the laws we have, of course, the U.S. hasn't always had these laws but I feel inspired when I hear about how we even got these laws, the fight our ancestors fought is very eye-winding because I know that if I was born back then I know I wouldn't survive so I'm very grateful to my ancestors for fighting that fight so I can have women's rights, African American rights, Child labor laws, Freedom of Religion, etc. In some other countries there isn't much freedom, this is another thing that I am grateful for. Freedom is a thing I believe everyone should have, it's a natural human right and at times I do feel sad for people who don't have the type of freedom that I naturally have, such as going to different countries, the freedom to practice any religion you want, the freedom to chose what you want to do with your life. The freedom to love anyone you want. These are some things that I am very grateful for as an African American Woman, and no I do not believe that the U.S. is perfect there are a lot of things that need changing.

Kim Namjoon Kim Seokjin Min Yoongi Jung Hoseok Park Jimin Kim Taehuyng Jung Jungkook BTS. Now I know we've all heard about BTS, yes yes that BTS, that one boy band that won the biggest award in Korea the "Daesang Artist of the Year award". The one that has been nominated for a Grammy five times, the one that has twenty-three Guinness World Records. that same group whose fans made multiple companies sell out of a product including Downy Infusions Bliss Scent Liquid Fabric Conditioner, caused the company to have a shortage of the product. The Gentle Monster WOOGIE 02 P sunglasses in pink, sold out in fourteen different countries. Merlot Marche by Umani Ronchi Vigor Sangiovese sold out in Korea within twenty-four hours, and many more. that same group that won 117 out of 285 nominations and so much more. That group was consistently bullied by other groups but eventually became bigger than all of them. BTS has many achievements but none of those made me wanna become an Army. In 2021 I was in a very dark place, I was in the ninth grade and this is when COVID-19 was still very alive and roaring. In my school, you could choose to be virtual or hybrid (when you switch between going into the school and being virtual). I was hybrid not by choice, one day when I was home I was having a very intense panic attack about going to school tomorrow because I hated being hybrid, when I lost control of my breathing I realized I needed to find something to calm me down otherwise I would pass out. I pulled out my phone and went on YouTube and as I was scrolling I saw a James Cordon car-pull karaoke with BTS I had heard about BTS from one of my best friends and I remembered she told me when she was really sad BTS helped her out a lot so I said "Why not". I clicked on the video and started to watch it, honestly, my first impression was that they were hot, and had really good skin. As I watched the video I went to the comments and found people like me who were confused about why they were so compelling to watch, I still remember one of the comments saying "I don't know who that guy in the middle is but I like his energy". The comments I found were funny, cute, and very inspirational, I wanted to know more about them so I kept watching the video, I thought they were funny and hot and I was very attracted to their energy and charisma, especially with the guy in the middle. So naturally I looked them up and saw that they were very popular so I was impressed by them. I've never really been the type to be attracted to a boy band then I realized that they made me calm down better than anything I ever tried before. I didn't think I was going stick around but I at least wanted to know their names just for knowledge, you know? Boy was I wrong years after the panic attack I started watching videos being BTS and I got attached I told my friend who told me about her experience and we bonded over that, Because of BTS I have a great relationship with my best friend and we talk about BTS all the time and they have taught me that I should love myself and I have. Thanks to BTS i am here. (also I have better music to listen to now).