BYU Scholarship

So I'm transfering to the Y and I'm hoping to get the scholarship that I was rewarded last year back, or even more hopefully (me go college to) get an even better one. Katie who is basically my best friend ever is going to read these essays and let me know what she thinks. If you are not katie, do not feel obligated to read these. if you are katie, you don't need to either , but you are amazing so you will and I love you!

Brigham Young University Scholarship Committee,
If you would have told me a year ago that I would be going to the University of Utah my freshman year of college – or ever – I probably would have laughed at you. Now after going against my “true blue” family and running with the Utes, I’ve learned that everything has its good qualities.
The circumstances of why I ended up at the University of Utah are complicated, but put simply – the Lord is a better planner than me so it’s better to follow him in the light instead of trying to find my way through the dark. I know that I was to stay at home to be a missionary, to help my mom, and to ultimately make me a better person and prepare me for life.
As my friends are getting called to exotic places to speak a Babel of different languages, I am teaching the same gospel of Jesus Christ here at home. I have been teaching everyone around me the gospel of Jesus Christ – non-member, inactive-member, and member alike. I am being the best missionary I can be first through being an example. I am living up to the name I accepted as I was baptized. I’ve grown to know that Matthew 6:21 is true when it says “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” My heart it devoted to Christ, his teachings, and his church. It is something that comes up with my peers on a daily basis because I’ve learned that it is what has made me who I am. I tell others about the Church when I tell them about my weekend. I tell others about Christ’s teaching when they ask me my opinion. I share my testimony about the Book of Mormon when I set my Book of Mormon on the seat next to me on Trax to hopefully start up a conversation. I do the Lord’s work as I go to the temple for baptisms every Friday. Even if I don’t end up baptizing any of my new friends this year or bring others back into the church (which hopefully will happen!), I am being the best missionary I can be by being an example.
I know a huge reason why I was to stay at home this year was for my mom. There are intimate details which I won’t get into, but with all of her kids now married and her only other daughter moving to Washington D.C. this year, I just know she would’ve had a hard time without me staying at home. I’ve grown closer to my parents than I’ve ever been and have learned to show my appreciation through a trick I learned in one of John Bytheway’s talks – I write them thank you notes and stick them on their bedroom door at night. This is just one of the many ways I’ve grown closer to my parents, especially my mom, and I am blessed to have been able to spend another year with them.
The University of Utah has made me a better person and I have tried to make it a better place. I have learned a lot of patience and understanding being surrounded by vocal students who don’t agree with my beliefs. Many times during class (where I know I wasn’t the only LDS student) I have had to stand up for my beliefs and clarify different ideas others have about the church. This has been a huge growing experience for me and I’m grateful I was able to have it. Because I am being made a stronger person at the U, I’m trying to help the U become a better place too. Most of this is being done through the institute – my home away from home. I am enrolled in 5 classes (Book of Mormon 2, New Testament 1, Choir, Freshman Committee, and Fireside Committee) and am also in a sorority so I basically live there. I have learned so much through my teachers and leaders there, that even though I’m trying to give back all that I can I will never be able to repay them all.
As you’re awarding scholarships this year, I felt I should mention I am putting myself through school.
I’m so grateful for my experience at the University of Utah, but I’m ready to trade in my feathers for some fur.
See you next year!
Stacey Marie Hansen

Please write a brief biographical sketch about yourself.

If someone else was writing my biography, they could write of the awards I’ve won, the leaderships positions I’ve held, and the hours of service I’ve given to everyone around me.
This is not a biography, but an autobiography.
My mom used to call me a “walking resume” because I’d accomplished a lot of things and if you knew me, you knew about those accomplishments; however, now I’ve finally learned something I’ve always known, but never truly understood – no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
Starting the first day of the Junior Miss State Scholarship Program, I dedicated my life to others. I wasn’t in it to win it – I was in it to help others a long the way. I wrote thank you cards and notes of encouragement to everyone in the program; I listened to how amazing the other girls were instead of telling them about my accomplishments; I congratulated them on their achievements and thanked them for being an example to me, being proud of them instead of making myself look better than them. I learned what it was like to really love others.
I think the other girls could tell how much I truly loved them and they showed their appreciation when they voted me the “Miss Congeniality” – the first of three times I won that award that year.
This one week set the precedent for the rest of my life. I’m never in anything for myself; I’m always there to help others along the way, especially in our most important journey - the journey back to our Heavenly Father
Now my whole goal is to help others along the way, and it helps me too because it’s impossible to help others become closer to God without getting closer to Him yourself.


Please describe your educational, professional, and other goals. Describe how BYU
will help you achieve them.

I had the best job in the world. I worked in a salon for girls 14 and younger called “Sweet and Sassy.” During the Summer, if you asked me what I was doing that day I would reply “I have work today!” and not in that bored or dreaded tone, but an enthusiastic one. Every day I got to do girl’s nails, make up, and my favorite – hair. Sweet and Sassy was my dream job.
Then on September 13, 2008 my dream business became nightmarishly bankrupt. I never received a call, text, or even an e-mail from my boss. A text from my coworker telling me the business had been shut down and she would miss me was the only indication I received of the failure. I was crushed.
I feel like the business was closed down because of poor management. Those running the salon were nice girls, but they weren’t educated as well as they should have been to run a serious business. This is why when I open my own Sweet and Sassy, I will do it with the knowledge, background, and degree in business at Brigham Young University.
Even though I’ll be working with hair and nails, I must learn how to work with numbers and balance sheets too.


Please list and/or describe your participation and leadership in extracurricular activities, including performance groups, athletics, cultural

Service
• Make a Wish Foundation, 2005-2008
• Big Brother Big Sister, 2006-2007
• Volunteer Taught at Clayton Productions, Summer 2006
• Raised $600 for a Sub-for-Santa, Christmas 2004
• Locks of Love, 2005
• Interact Club, 2006-2008
• Key Club, 2006-2008
• Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, 2007-2008
• Renaissance Club, 2006-2008
• Art With Heart, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
• Capitol Ambassador, 2008
• Helped with Church Meetings at Murray Care Center, 2002-2008
• Service through my Young Women group in my ward, 2002-2008

Leadership
• Institute Freshman Committee, 2009
• Institute Fireside Committee, 2009
• Student Body President of Hillcrest Jr. High, 2005-2006
• Senior Class Vice President, 2007-2008
• Head Captain of Drill Team, 2007-2008
• Captain of Drill Team, 2006-2007
• Drill Team Member, 2005-2006
• Captain of dance team at The Winner School, 2004-2005
• Building Coordinator for my ward house, 2009
• Beehive President 2003-2004,
• Mia Maid Counselor, 2005-2006,
• Laurel Counselor, 2007-2008
• Kiwanis Freedom Leadership Award, 2005
• Senior Representative for Renaissance Club
• Interact Club Historian, 2006-2007; Secretary, 2007-2008
• Homecoming Royalty, 2007
• Senior Ball Princess, 2008
• Seventh Grade Vice President, 2002-2003

Academic Achievements
• 4.0 at University of Utah, 2008
• Dean’s List, University of Utah, 2008
• 4.0 Cumulative GPA, 7th - 12th grades
• 29 Composite ACT score, September 2007
• Top Ten Student at Murray High, 2008
• All Region Academic Award, 2006, 2007
• All State Academic Award, 2008
• National Honors Society, 2007-2008
• Honor Roll, 7th - 12th grades
• 1st in Class Ranking, 7th -12th grades
• Recognition Award, 2005
• President's Education Award, 2005


Honors and Awards
• Young Womanhood Recognition Award, 2004
• Top Outstanding Service Award, 2009
• Above and Beyond Award, Make A Wish Foundation, 2008
• Miss Congeniality, Miss Murray, 2008
• Miss Congeniality, Miss Castle Valley, 2008
• Utah’s Spirit of Junior Miss, 2008
• Junior Miss “has been” Motivational Speaker, 2008-2009
• Junior Miss Northern Utah, 2008
• 1st attendant, Miss Murray, 2008
• Miss Photogenic, Miss Murray, 2008
• All-State Drill Team, 2008
• Soroptimist International Violet Richardson - Volunteer Community Service Award, 2008
• President’s Volunteer Service Award, 2008
• Top 25 Corps Basic Dance Training Drill Camp, 2006, 2007
• Choreographed 1st Place Captains Routine, 2006-2007
• National Hip Hop Champion, 2008
• National Military Champion, 2007
• Dancer of the Year at The Winner School, 2005
• Hardest Worker of Drill Team, 2006
• Hip Hop Scholarship at NUVO Dance Convention, 2008
• Jazz Scholarship at Jump Dance Convention, 2005
• Most Excited Award, 2005

Athletic and Other Involvement
• Institute Choir, 2009
• Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert Dancer, 2008
• Day of Celebration Dancer, 2005
• Sweet and Sassy “Glittery Glam Girl” and Receptionist, 2008
• Wasatch Revolution Dance Team, 2009
• Teaching Dance, Clayton Productions, 2008-2009
• Dream Company, Clayton Productions, 2009
• Drill Team, Member 2006, Captain 2007, Head Captain 2008
• The Winner School, Company Prep 2005 Senior Elite 2006, 2007, Senior Company 2008, Taking classes 2009
• Utah’s Junior Miss Scholarship State Program, 2008
• A Capella Choir, 2007-2008
• War and Stake Choir, 2004-2009
• Miss Murray Scholarship Program. 2007, 2008
• Hunt's Gymnastics, 2006-2008
• Clayton Productions, 1995-2005

Bowl Blog

incredible shirt... it's a children's nightgown.. size 6... i added rhinestones.
never tell me i'm too old to be a princess
i am a daughter of a heavenly king and always will be!




what better to do during the bowl than blog?
This week was like the rest of my life. Incredible.
Tuesday I went to the U of U vs BYU game with the Sigma boys… I go to the U… My cousin plays on BYU’s team…
I wore purple
Wednesday I had institute choir (we’re singing in conference! Saturday afternoon!) and it was awesome! The Sigma boys are amazing and came and brought me a rose with a cute poem. I love them. They’re incredible. All the girls (like all 60 of em) did that whole AAAAwwwwWWW thing. Great. Incredible. Love it.
Thursday Me and Jessica Wathen went to the temple open house. Recently, we’ve both been a bit of cry babies. She is about to go on her mission and I’m just realizing how incredibly blessed I am and the spirit is just too much for my body and comes out through my eyes I guess? Haha! Anyways it was an awesome adventure – like all of the times me and Jess hang out. It was really interesting for me because I’ve never been able to see that much of the temple, I’ve always been cut off at the baptisms. It’s crazy how much of all of the temples I’ve been to I’ve never seen.
My favorite room was the sealing room. Everyone I’ve talked to says the Celestial room is their favorite and yes, it is SOOO gorgeous. And I love how the temple worker explained it – it keeps you looking up – reminding us of how we should always be focusing on higher things than ourselves. But back to the sealing room. They had this super cute old couple explaining what happens in the sealing room. How we believe that when we are sealed in the temple, we are sealed for eternity to our family – our spouses, our children, and all of our family before and after us that have/will have the same ordinances done. Holland said in the video before the temple something along the lines of “I can’t imagine heaven without my family. It wouldn’t be heaven without my wife and children. That theology of neither is the man without the woman or the woman without the man is not only our theology, it’s good sociology” I loved it. I love him. But as me and Jess sat in there I just thought about how she could’ve gotten married so soon, but she’s giving it up to go on a mission. I thought about how some day (a long loooong timne from now) I will kneel at that alter with some incredibly amazing, spiritual, (and beautiful )young man who has kept himself clean for me as I am doing for him now and it just struck me. Oh my gosh this is incredible. If this church had nothing else to offer, but to be with your family forever, it would all be worth it. Once again I just bawled as is common in my life and everything was grand.
I heard an interesting thing from a friend of mine. Her family used to be in the church, but has left and I think they have some pretty bitter feelings toward the church. Her grandma went to the temple and decided it was extravagant and that we were just trying to show off. That made me really sad. The open house of the temple is an opportunity for those who are interested in the church or have questions to come see what happens and what we believe in and stuff like that. Plus, the temple is the house of the Lord! Of course we’re going to make it beautiful! It just made me really really sad, but grateful that I understand the truth.
Thursday night I went to desert star house with my parents. It was super fun. I love my parents. I love singing and plays. I love laughing. The worst part was that I was ridiculously tired and like coulnd’t even laugh I was so tired. It was still fun though!
Friday day I went to the state drill competition. It sure made me grateful for all of my friends who came to my competitions! It took a lot of time out of my day, I hate driving far, and it cost money. So I gotta give mad props to everyone who’s come to my competitions!
Friday night was my sorority retreat. It was fun to play with the girls! We had good chats and I just love those girls.
Saturday I was fantastic! We had a prom for Jessica since it’s her last weekend here. She leaves on her mission Wednesday holy crap! But it was way fun! I took Michael sandberg. We went to Tuscany (the restaurant not the country;)) for dinner and then came back to my house to dance. Michael is an AMAZING photographer and took some amazing pictures which I am SO excited for!
Today in sacrament I realized how much I love watching the boys pass the sacrament (not because they’re cute or anything like that… I mean I go to the singles ward and sometimes they are but that’s not why!) I love watching them (especially when they finish and look up to the bishop so he can OK it) and realized how much power they have and that sometime soon they will be the ones OKing the sacrament prayer.
W have a new “member missionary” Sunday school class and I’m so excited about it! Adam Hathaway teaches it (Katie hathaway’s big bro) and it was awesome! I’ve had a lot of opportunities to share the gospel and this class just inspires me more. One of the guys in my class told his conversion story and it just made me so excited. (Once again the spirit was just shooting out through my eyes… it’s a good thing I really don’t wear make up anymore!) I just want the faith that the man from my class had for my friends who don’t have it. They may think they’re happy and they don’t need anything else in their life, but really. This church is incredible. It not only brings happiness to those in it, but it brings them purpose. This class inspired me to read Preach my Gospel a third time – this time I will read it in my own context and make it so it makes sense for me at home because I may never be a full time missionary although that still is the goal.
Wednesday in institute, this girl spoke up in class about how she was trying to be a good example for her family, especially her little sister because they’re not active in the church. For some reason I felt prompted to tell her her Heavenly Father is proud of her for what she is doing and to stay on the path she’s on. It was the most incredible feeling and just reminded me of one of Holland’s talks. He spoke of how his wife always prayed for the spirit to help her help others, and I’ve decided I can be that person. I can be that answer to prayers! I have to stay in tune and act when I feel a prompting. The Lord can count on me to be a tool!
Yay for random thoughts. Here they are!
So basically my whole ward was released and put into new callings this week. It was really cool because my new relief society president stood up to speak in RS and it was like… oh ya she’s the president. The mantle really had been passed and I know that it’s not like priesthood-it’s a calling but I dunno it was just great to me.
I love my ward – if you’re not up right after the bishopbric member sits down, you don’t get to speak. It’s basically a race to the pulpit haha!
I hate cell phones in church. I know that sometimes I text in church and it really just makes me mad at myself. I’ve been a lot better about it lately and its incredible how much the spirit was being chased away when I was texting. Makes me think of Nate Ruben and how he wouldn’t get one in high school (something that was really annoying to me actually) but it really makes sense to me now.
This is some of the things that people spoke about in testimony meeting.
• He guides us in ways we don’t comprehend
• Adam Hathaway came up and said you can tell when it’s fast Sunday… sounds like a creeky old ship! I thought that was funny!
• Adam also told a story about how attitudes can be contagious. He said that in his work the staff had stopped working as hard as they had been. Their reasoning was that they weren’t being treated as they should. He had even stopped working at hard until he talked to someone else at his work. His friend was still working really hard and he explained why and it had to do with the company, but this story has more meaning than that to me. We can always “be a wall” as he said, to stop bad attitudes and the best way to do that is to be an example. I want to always be a wall and stop bad attitudes, or anything else that I feel that needs to be stopped!
• Tell those who inspire you what they do
• Without the spirit, there is no way to convince someone the church is true, we are just facilitators of the discussion, there to help them think and pray about it.
• I know it to be true, I do I do! I like this!
• The problem is not the negative thought – its your reaction to it
• A girl told a story in RS of how her mom met this homeless man and talked to him and it turns out he’s not like your regular homeless man. He lost everything because he had recently been in a divorce and was doing all he could to make it better. The lady wanted to help him, but only had 20s in her purse. She decided to give one to him anyway and felt like she should say “happy birthday” when she gave it to him. Turns out it was his birthday that week and he said “I knew my Heavenly Father loved me” and it just goes to show how we must always follow His promptings! You never know how much of a difference you can make in one’s life!
• I was just thinking about how cool the priesthood was and then I was thinking about myself, sure I don’t have it, but I have my own roles in this life. Number one would be to find someone that I will be able to have the priesthood in my home with, and then my job will be to take care of children and teach them the gospel, but until then I realized what I must do. I am here to help others and I’m going to be the best member missionary I can be, and its something I will be working on my whole life! Wow incredible!
• The greatest gift you can give a child (or anyone) is your testimony
• Obedience is not perfection, but constantly trying to walk as He walked
• Teach by example – I love this. Brother Wilcox talked about Alma the younger’s little talks to his sons in I think alma 25 through 27ish… basically it was do this “as I have done” I love that line. Be an example
Brother Wilcox told a story that I thought was so awesome. He had the question “Lord what would you have me do with my children” in his mind. He was sitting in sacrament and his daughter was a baby then and being really loud. He was told once that when his children weren’t being the best during sacrament, think of Jesus with children so you can still think of Christ. He was trying to think about it when he kind of was swept away by a vision. He was taken away to where Christ came to the Nephites and was blessing the children. He waited in line and then took his daughter to Christ. He felt like if he could just have Christ bless her, then she would grow up strong in the church and everything would be good – it would kind of take the responsibility or blame off of him. When it was finally his time, Christ took his daughter and when he blessed her, he said “I bless you that you will walk in the footsteps of your father and become like him” I love that. The Lord blessed her that she would follow her father. Making Brother Wilcox feel somewhat bad because that means he must be an example to her, to lead her to the kingdom. The whole “as I have done thing”. Incredible. He also talked about how it was like Christ asked him “do you understand your influence? Your ability to influence is greater than mine.” wow.
Isn’t it incredible that in our church, visions still happen? I’ve actually had one myself 2005 baby. Incredible. I love my church. I love that we have a living prophet today that talks to God. I love that we can each get our own revelation. I love my family. I love everything. I love my life.