New Heights Scholarship

Congratulations to our Scholarship Winners!

The Bussey Law Firm, P.C. would like to congratulate our New Heights Scholarship winners. We read many wonderful essays from college-bound students, but these were a step above the rest. We know how expensive an education can be, and we hope this scholarship prize helped defray the costs of secondary expenses, such as books, supplies, and housing.

The Bussey Law Firm, P.C. would like to thank everyone who applied to our New Heights Scholarship. Please check our blog and Facebook page for announcements and other opportunities.

2022 Winning Entry

“After taking an active part in Aki’s speech therapy sessions, I began to pay attention to the importance of language.”

- Arisa C., 2022 Scholarship Winner

Short Essay

My grandmother’s house stands on a narrow one-way street in Japan. For as long as I can remember, every summer and winter break, I opened the wooden windows of Aki’s house to the sound of cicadas or snowfall. I also set a warm bowl of rice and water for my grandpa’s altar in the morning. Of course, there were many days I did this routine unwillingly, but eventually as the years passed, the habit began to take over. Before I realized it, I had started to open the windows and set the bowl down unconsciously, without even thinking about it. This routine was what represented the time I spent with my grandma.

The last two summers, however, I spent all of summer and winter in just one place: a long-term rehabilitation home. My Aki had suffered a stroke, and I spent entire days taking care of her. It was not a typical idea of a holiday, yet I never gave it a single thought. I’m sure that Aki never thought of anything when she had her grandchildren come and intrude in her household all summer when I was young. The days were spent as a mirror of roles reversed. When I was young, Aki delighted in teaching me all the things I know now. Aki’s stroke left her half-paralyzed on one side, which made speech difficult. Now I was teaching her how to speak again. And that’s exactly how I wanted to spend my summer.

“During summer research at George Mason University, I created an American Sign Language (ASL) recognition device with graduate student mentors.”
- Arisa C.

Her difficulty with speech and recovery inspires my current academic interest. Human communication comprises gestures, postures, and facial expressions that all complement one another to deliver a message. After taking an active part in Aki’s speech therapy sessions, I began to pay attention to the importance of language. That’s how I got attracted to natural language processing (NLP): connecting humans, machines, and languages through computational methods. This perfectly combined my academic pursuit of computer science (CS) and my newfound interest in linguistics.

During summer research at George Mason University, I created an American Sign Language (ASL) recognition device with graduate student mentors. I spent that summer captivated by NLP, transforming my visual dances of ASL to acceleration and gyroscopic measurements. I then used this data to mold training sets for my Decision Tree machine learning algorithms. Each flick of our signers’ wrists traveled down the branches of our decision trees, separated by if-else conditions based on numerical measurements from our sensors. I even noticed that everyone signs ASL a little differently, discovering a universe of non-verbal accents that I hadn’t known was possible.

"As I learn more about CS and linguistics, I hope to one day join the cycle of humans improving machines and machines, in turn, enhancing our quality of life."
- Arisa C.

As our project progressed, our training sets needed deeper (the same person signing the same sign multiple times) and more varied (multiple people signing the same sign) sets of data. We expanded our pool of ASL signers, improving our training sets so our algorithms could translate ASL signs into written text with 97.9% accuracy.

This made me wonder: if our physical ASL movements could be reshaped into the machine language of ones and zeros and then transposed into English text, what further possibilities did interconnecting the humanities and STEM hold? Could it also be applied to speech therapy for stroke patients, like my Aki, to provide real-time automated feedback to motivate and monitor the patients’ efforts?

How can a machine better comprehend context, slang, emotion, and sarcasm—traits that aren’t so clear-cut like the if-else statements in my algorithms? More specifically, how do we as programmers improve these machines to increase their capabilities?

Studying new algorithms has opened my eyes to NLP’s boundary-breaking power. I’m excited that my code can bring us closer to machines that think, reason, and communicate. If I learn enough about algorithms that can analyze human language, I can work on the Alexas and the Google Searches of tomorrow — applying the entirety of my knowledge, experience, and passion to building computers that can better interpret and understand us. As I learn more about CS and linguistics, I hope to one day join the cycle of humans improving machines and machines, in turn, enhancing our quality of life.

I want to contribute to the next evolutionary step of language, where we maximize the potential of communication using machines. Through NLP, we can accomplish more than what we can achieve as just humans or just devices. The future is technology, and I’m excited to be a bridge between humans and machines through my twin passions of linguistics and CS.

- Arisa C.


2021 Winning Entry

“I intend to use my role to uplift my friend and other immigrants, fighting for inclusivity and the cultivation of diversity throughout the United States.”

- Ariella W., 2021 Scholarship Winner

Short Essay

“Obtaining these resources and degrees of International Relations and Political Science in college will enable me to respond to the global issue of poverty, positively impacting other matters, such as immigration, allowing me to enact change for the world.”
- Ariella W.

Growing up as an Afro-Latina, my community was always diverse. My parents’ contrasting life experiences, bringing together both Puerto Rican and African American traditions, encouraged me to appreciate different life paths and cultures. Now, I find comfort immersed in environments with people with contrasting ideas from around the world, challenging the boundaries of my understanding and broadening my perspective. Cultural awareness will enable me to gain insight, create a connection with the people I meet, and celebrate our unique differences. My desire to have a well-rounded and interdisciplinary perspective led me to have a friendship that opened my eyes to the immigration system’s injustices.

A friend of mine is under the DACA program, and the restrictive immigration policies of the previous administration threatened to upend the only life he had known. It upset me to hear how this made his future aspirations and dreams uncertain. He was a model student who, under any other circumstances, would have been able to attend any school. Because of his immigration status, he encountered significant roadblocks to secure a better future. For a while, he was at risk of leaving, returning to his home country. Thankfully, my friend gained access to higher education. While he continues to be a DACA recipient, I am hopeful he will continue navigating the roadblocks he encounters and gain access to citizenship. For many months, he never alluded to his situation, always radiating positive energy. When he finally shared his situation, it saddened me, and I admired his resilience despite an unideal circumstance. His friendship was my call to action, inspiring me to pursue an education in International Relations and Political Science majors to gain the knowledge necessary to fight for people experiencing a similar predicament as an immigration lawyer.

Being an immigration lawyer will give me access to the inside working to improve America's immigration system so that immigrants can retain their human dignity and cease to endure trauma from their experiences. I hope to give immigrants a voice, providing a degree of empathy for them as they navigate the immigration process. Although many are experiencing hardships in their home countries that force them to leave, rhetoric that demonizes their experiences is dangerous to all immigrants regardless of their status. An immigrant's plight should not be burdened alone. I intend to use my role to uplift my friend and other immigrants, fighting for inclusivity and the cultivation of diversity throughout the United States.

My next steps for future advocacy beyond becoming an immigration attorney are to become a world traveler with the Peace Corps and a foreign diplomat, playing a critical role in U.S. relations with other countries and their response to global poverty.

"Cultural awareness will enable me to gain insight, create a connection with the people I meet, and celebrate our unique differences."
- Ariella W.

In preparation for my career and life journey, I have pondered over an extensive college path and plan to maximize all the resources available to me while attending university. I plan to pursue internships that will give me further insight into immigration law and international relations. Also, I plan to become a part of organizations that prioritize the issues I hope to solve with my career. I also plan to forge connections with professionals and alumni from the university to establish a positive relationship with those that can be of great assistance to me in the future. Lastly, I plan to study abroad in Central America. Central America has a high percentage of immigration to the United States due to poverty, social and economic instability, violence, and other factors that force their citizens to flee. Studying in Central America provides an immersive cultural experience. It will require me to adapt and improve my understanding of the conditions many citizens who flee their home countries face—preparing me to enter the Peace Corps. Obtaining these resources and degrees of International Relations and Political Science in college will enable me to respond to the global issue of poverty, positively impacting other matters, such as immigration, allowing me to enact change for the world.

- Ariella W.


2020 Winning Entry

“The well-loved pages of books I have collected are what drew me to consider careers encompassing the art of storytelling. Growing up, I tried to learn and create with anything I could get my hands on. My mind was always building and forming new stories and adventures.”

- Anne F., 2020 Scholarship Winner

Short Essay

“After I work and develop my skills within the industry, I want to come back to my community in Oregon and teach what I’ve learned to students here.”
- Anne F.

Ever since I was young, I was drawn to the arts and storytelling. English and Social Studies were my favorite classes as I analyzed each story, finding inspiration through figures from Jefferson to Tolkien. My mind was always drawn to tales of the extraordinary. The well-loved pages of books I have collected are what drew me to consider careers encompassing the art of storytelling. Growing up, I tried to learn and create with anything I could get my hands on. My mind was always building and forming new stories and adventures. From a very young age, I explored several different professional careers. I jumped between becoming an author, an actor, and an illustrator through the course of a few years. Soon, my books led me to movies, and I was enchanted by the life that visual stories could bring to the world. I worked to improve my drawing and looked closer into career opportunities that would bring my stories to life.

Because of my inspiration through books and movies, my intended area of focus for my future career is animation and visual effects. During high school, I have taken multiple classes at the Career Technical Education Center of Salem (CTEC), which has allowed me to explore and expand my technical skills in Cinematography and explore my options within the industry. Currently, I am also working as a pre-production intern, creating concept art for a Soma Games in Newberg, Oregon. Due to the specificity of my major and the perpetually adapting industry, there are very few schools in Oregon that have animation and visual effects as an academic program. Because of that, my top choice is Azusa Pacific University, a private school in Southern California.

Through my studies at CTEC, taking classes focused on aspects of the production pipeline, I’ve learned that I want to focus on pre-production for cinema and game design. Along with my college experience, building connections with industry members and networking will be just as important to my career as the academics will be. Hotspots like Los Angeles and Burbank will be key to interacting with the workers within the industry while I still am in school. Internship opportunities are also a part of both curriculums, so I would have a better opportunity to get practical work based on the theoretical skills I learn in class.

Going into the industry after college, I want to work my way up to becoming an art director. This will take time and I will likely start with jobs like storyboarding and concept art, building on the skills that I learned and gaining industry experience. With connections within the industry, taking on jobs as an independent contractor (like most animators in today’s field) would be much easier. Eventually, I can refine my skills and take bigger jobs until art direction is an option.

"CTEC made a huge impact on my life, and I would love to give back to the institute that helped me solidify my goals and make my dreams possible"
- Anne F.

After I work and develop my skills within the industry, I want to come back to my community in Oregon and teach what I’ve learned to students here. CTEC made a huge impact on my life, and I would love to give back to the institute that helped me solidify my goals and make my dreams possible. Teaching has always been a passion of mine. I even mentor art at my old elementary school, teaching struggling students basic techniques I know. I want to show them that their dreams are just as achievable as mine.

Financially, I plan to work diligently to earn as many scholarships as possible. My family has had a difficult financial year. My dad was diagnosed with diabetes, and my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. With the amount of medical bills for surgery and treatments coming in, most of the financial responsibility is on my shoulders. I also want to make sure that my family has enough to help my younger brother go to college in a few years as well. To offset costs, I expect to work during the years I'm in college. The money I earn through scholarships and employment will be used to pay for my tuition and expenses. Despite my limited finances, I still want a high-quality education and this scholarship would mean the world to me.

- Anne F.


2019 Winning Entry

"I felt the highs of hard work and sacrifice paying off along with the lows of falling short of achieving my dreams. In the end, it was worth everything I gave it."

- Sugar T., 2019 Scholarship Winner

Introduction

"I want to empower others with the resources and knowledge I gain so we may improve our collective quality of life; and I want to influence and build agricultural infrastructure that will ensure the long-term health of our planet."
- Sugar T.

Iwas sitting in a coffee shop with a friend who had just asked me about my decision to finally attend college. In my response, I attempted to recount information I had absorbed from a book I was reading about sustainable agriculture. You know when you read something, and you understand it in the moment, but when you try to relay that information later, it comes out a little bit right but also a little bit nonsense? That happened here.

I reached the end of my sketchy paraphrasing, feeling so impassioned with what I knew and frustrated with what I didn't and riled up over my ineptitude, that my words turned into a howl. I took a deep breath. I told her I couldn’t wait to go to school, because there were so many things I needed to learn.

This is why I am applying for your scholarship. I am a non-traditional/adult student who spent the first part of her life pursuing a dream to become an Olympic speedskater. Now, I am channeling all my energy and discipline into pursuing my first undergraduate degree.

Short Essay

I have spent the past year floating. I retired from the sport of speedskating after twenty years of dedication, processed what that meant to me, got a job with an active travel company, spent eleven months romping around the world while living out of a backpack, and said yes to all the things I couldn’t say yes to when I was training for skating. I felt overwhelmingly excited and empowered about my life, but ultimately, directionless. I crave purpose. I want to be working toward something tangible that I can be proud of. The Olympic/Paralympic movement and everything it stands for is something I was truly honored to dedicate my life to. Competing on that level gave me the chance to represent so much more than myself for a brief moment in time. I learned what true discipline and resilience mean on a stage that exists to recognize humans from every corner of the world coming together and celebrating our collective will. I felt the highs of hard work and sacrifice paying off along with the lows of falling short of achieving my dreams. In the end, it was worth everything I gave it.

Since retiring from competitive sport, I have given myself the space to learn what my goals are now that my primary identity is no longer “Olympic Athlete.” I’ve come to realize that everything I know about myself - how I want to spend my time and the things I am passionate about - are connected. I want to fully understand plants and grow food; I want to cook for and feed people to bring them joy and nutrition; I want to build communities around strong, ethical, and sustainable food systems; I want to empower others with the resources and knowledge I gain so we may improve our collective quality of life; and I want to influence and build agricultural infrastructure that will ensure the long-term health of our planet.

"I know I can be a force for good in this world. I also know, big dreams take time. Experience has taught me that if I am willing to work hard for something I believe in, I will succeed."
- Sugar T.

My decision to attend school came about after watching two parks rangers from Hawaii Volcano National Park talk about flora and fauna for three hours as part of a certification for my job. In researching my options, I discovered I could attend Oregon State University and combine all of my interests and passions into a course of study that would allow me to successfully pursue every one of my lofty goals. I clearly see my love for surrounding myself with plants in their botany degree. I see my self-taught hobby of baking naturally leavened breads in their fermentation course. I see my curiosity on dirt’s ability to combat climate change in their soil science department. I see my beliefs on the environment reflected in their sustainability double degree option. I see myself at this university.

I have been accepted to Oregon State University (OSU), but in deciding how to best manage my finances, I recently made the decision to attend Portland Community College (PCC) for two years before transferring to OSU. I will be able to take all the necessary general education courses and even some degree-specific electives at PCC for a much lower tuition cost, and then have those credits transfer and count towards my required OSU baccalaureate core. As soon as I made this decision, I knew it was the right one for me.

There are holes in my knowledge and experience that will be necessary to fill if I want to affect a greater good within the food systems of this country. I want to go to school to fill these holes. I need to build a foundation of personal experience that will help categorize and instill all the new knowledge I intend to gain.

I know I can be a force for good in this world. I also know, big dreams take time. Experience has taught me that if I am willing to work hard for something I believe in, I will succeed.

But it’s been over ten years since I was last in a classroom, so first I need to take a biology course.

- Sugar T.


About Us

Attorney Timothy R. Bussey

Timothy R. Bussey is the founder of The Bussey Law Firm, P.C. The only lawyer in Colorado with an ACS Forensic Lawyer-Scientist Designation, Tim brings cutting-edge scientific knowledge to his personal injury and criminal law practice. For over 25 years, our team has been fighting against the odds to assist people with the deck stacked against them. If you need help, just call.