Alex's Winning Essay for our 2023 Scholarship

Alex Pfeifer is a high school student from South Florida who has been personally impacted by gun violence in school. Read below for the essay she wrote that made her a recipient of our 2023 scholarship:

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I have an absurd fear of ambulances. Not only because I'm a brand-new driver who is afraid of not being agile enough to move out of the way the minute I see flashing lights and sirens, but because of February 14th, 2018: The date that I would no longer be seen as a regular girl, but a school shooting survivor. My sixth period’s laughter would be interrupted forever when the announcements blared through the school stating that we were going into a code red lockdown, and it was not a drill. I may have been wholly shielded and unaware of my situation, but the outside world continued around me. One ambulance turned into multiple, and I knew whatever had happened, it was not good. We were escorted one by one to the bathroom by a decorated

police officer. I vividly recall seeing children from other classrooms holding buckets of urine from students who could not hold it. Vulnerable in my classroom, the sirens from ambulances haunted me as they were my only indication of nearby danger. I finally heard the news, that a school shooter had killed 17 students through an intricate plan. The public will never understand why my stomach drops as soon as I see an ambulance, or why I nervously look around for sirens while I'm driving, but I do, and I've given myself time to accept that.