PROMPT: How will winning this scholarship help you attain your goals? Please answer in 250 words or less. During the upcoming spring semester, I will study at Sophia University in Tokyo. While in Japan, I want to strengthen my Japanese writing skills and understand Japanese economics. Most importantly, I plan to empower minority high-school and college students with interests in going abroad who, like me, come from financially challenged homes. Winning this scholarship would fully cover my airfare, which is fundamental in achieving these goals - their achievement requires my physical presence. Lack of immediate means to pay is a key reason students may decide to settle for lower cost study abroad programs that may not fully align with their goals and potential. In most cases, financial hardships lead students to completely opt out of studying abroad, seeing it as impossible. In my high-school, this was a common sentiment held by myself and other students. Realistically, afford