 Hello, my name is Iori Kokenaga. I use they, them, and she, her pronouns, and I'm one of the recipients of the Special Session Scholarship for New Students at San Jose State University. I want to take this time to say thank you to Dr. Linda May, Dr. Mary Ann Harlan, Dr. Mary Bolin, the Student Awards and Scholarship Committee, and the School of Information Faculty and Staff for awarding me this scholarship. I'm incredibly honored to be one of the recipients, as it not only assists me financially, but it also reassures me that I'm taking a step forward in the right direction to pursue my MLIS degree. While I currently work with folks in the South Bay region of LA County at both the Palisbury's Library District and the Harbor City Harbor Gateway Branch Library, I previously worked on various health-related research projects and art initiatives in the Davis Sacramento community. In particular, which I mentioned in my scholarship presentation, I had the privilege of working with Dr. Swati Rao at the UC Davis School of Medicine to create a transgender health medical school curriculum, which would not only address the specific healthcare needs of transgender and gender-expansive folks, but would also highlight the barriers that limit accessibility to resources in the community. I consider this experience to be a vital shifting point in my career towards an MLIS, as it helped me understand the ways that people access information. By conducting interviews and focus groups with folks in the community and the medical school, we then used grounded theory to qualitatively code the interview transcriptions so that the information could be easier to navigate and eventually disseminate. I love the experience because it allowed me to work directly with folks in the community while combining my passion for research, and I am certain that my passions will continue as I start the MLIS program at San Jose State University, providing me the academic challenges, support, and resources that are necessary to become a librarian, and prepare me for doctoral studies in librarian information science to become a professor. Thank you once again for your immense support, and I look forward to meeting you all!