2017 Customized Girl Statement Maker Scholarship Winners

Another year has come and gone and that can only mean one thing – it’s time to announce the 2017 Customized Girl statement maker scholarship winners!

Customized Girl is all about statement makers and celebrating those who have an important message to share with the world. Statements are what we love and that’s why our scholarship is centered on not only making them but helping spread their awareness. Customized Girl has offered a statement maker scholarship to help students accomplish their collegiate goals for the last five years. We have selected five influential candidates who would each receive $500 towards their education costs.

We are not only honored to announce these powerful young adults but also ecstatic to share their lives with all of you. Customized Girl asked all winners three questions:

1.) Describe yourself in three words?

2.) What is your ideal career path?

3.) Why is this statement important to you?

We are beyond excited to announce our the 2017 Customized Girl statement maker scholarship winners!

Ora Damelin

Statement: Weird is the new wonderful

1.) Passionate. Imaginative. Talkative.

2.) I have always wanted to spend my life telling stories, and hope to tell those stories through the medium of film. My dream is one day write and direct my own movies, or work as a show-runner on a television series. I want to introduce the world to stories that might seem unusual or difficult to digest, but are fueled by raw real emotions that people can relate to. (Also, I want to make a movie with unicorns. And zombies. And possibly tap dancing. Just to clarify- these are all different movies. Unicorns and zombies would never go together.)

3.) I honestly believe that weird is the new wonderful. I know that it is often tempting to tone down the elements of our personalities, backgrounds, and interests that may be strange or difficult to understand. But I also know, that it is these things, our individual weirdness, that make us special. I am not content to just say that weird is the new normal; I believe that weird is the new wonderful.

Claire R. Walker

Statement: Make each day your greatest adventure.

1.) Preserving, sympathetic, and enthusiastic.

2.) I am currently achieving a degree in nursing so I can soon become a Registered Nurse! I always knew I wanted a career where I could give back to my community and help those in need. However, it took some time to fully realize that nursing was the perfect job for me. I spent years exploring different careers in healthcare and social work until I had a medical emergency that required me to stay in the hospital. My nurse truly changed my life with her dedicated and scrupulous care and I realized I wanted to make the same impact on others as she did with me.

3.) This statement is so important to me because I often struggle with going out of my comfort zone although every time I do, I never regret it. I’ve traveled on a student exchange program to China, I’ve gone zip lining (while overcoming my fear of heights), tried crazy foods, taken out-of-the box classes, joined a running team, and so on. While these things may not seem like grand adventures, making an effort to do adventurous activities from time to time have made me grown so much as a person. I’ve also learned that adventure exists everywhere, whether it’s something big or small, but life is so much more vibrant when you seek these opportunities. I make it a point to have a small adventure each day so I go to bed knowing I made the most of my time and have something to look forward to the next morning!

Kristen Adaway

**Statement: Every failure is a second chance at success**

1.) Passionate, determined, strong-willed

2.) My ideal career path involves being a journalist and telling the stories of women of color like me so that they their voices are just as loud as the majority. In the political climate that we are in today, I feel it is necessary for the stories of marginalized groups in society to be told . One of my long-term professional goals is to create my own media outlet that has a sole purpose in narrating the lives of women across the globe who have faced hardships and to explain how they’ve overcome them or the challenges that have kept them from being able to overcome them. Similar to Humans of New York, my media outlet would include “everyday” people and use their raw stories to give a glimpse into their lives. However, in the meantime my “smaller” dream is to work for a major media company as a features writer covering social justice and culture.

3.) This statement is important to me because like many others, I have had my share of failures and disappointments. However, the silver lining in failing is the journey to get back to success. I truly believe that failures should be viewed as a lesson on what not to do or what to do better next time. For some, this lesson could even mean a complete change in direction from what their original plan was. No matter how you view failure, one things remains true: you will have another chance to improve even if the only person who sees the improvement is you.

Rebecca Stephens

**Statement: Great things have never come from comfort zones**

1.) Motivated, open-minded, and kind.

2.) My ideal career is to be a doctor. Ever since I was a little girl, I have dreamed of becoming a doctor. I would watch all the television programs on the Discovery Health channel and imagine what it would be like to catch a subtle sign or symptom and make a lifesaving diagnosis like the doctors did on TV. This dream turned into a goal when I was twelve; I became very sick and needed a doctor’s help. My doctor saved my life by quickly diagnosing my illness and providing immediate treatment. I want to make a difference in people’s lives, like my doctor made a difference in mine. I was very young when I was sick, and I was very scared. But having a calm, educated person like my doctor take care of me was more comfort to me than he’ll ever know. I want to be that doctor for other children, and I hope to inspire them like my doctor inspired me.

3.) This statement has been my mantra for some years now. I sometimes struggle to put myself out there and try new things that are outside of my comfort zone. But when I hesitate to try something, I just remind myself of that mantra and do it. Yes, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way I hoped; however, there is always a lesson to be learned from that. But most of the time, it goes well and great things happen!

Megan Stoddard

Statement: Never let the things you want, make you forget the things you have

1.) Loyal, organized, and logical.

2.)My ideal career path would be nursing because I love to help people!

3.) This statement is important to me because it’s a great reminder to be grateful. It is easy to lose sight of what you have when you are so focused on everything you may want at that moment in time. Nothing lasts forever! Live life one day at a time and enjoy the moment.

We are inspired by all these wonderful statement and hope they will inspire more young adults to be statement makers. Thanks again to everyone who entered our scholarship contest! Continue to rock out your statements and share some of them below in the comments!