Bold Community Activist Scholarship

I take pride in being able to say that helping in my city has been a large portion of my upbringing and always will be. While in high school, I had the privilege to be frontline giving out food and toiletries to families in my town. It is very difficult for myself and others to afford healthy food in our area, so I help to give out quality food. Giving back to my community has allowed me to be the change I want to see. It has also provided my family with opportunities to go beyond volunteering at food distribution sites, to planting a community garden! Additionally, I volunteer to provide food and health-related education to equip my neighbors with the knowledge required to grow produce and make better food choices. I spoke at an event with the Earth Tomorrow Program informing my community about food deserts in our area and overall sustainability in Atlanta and gave potential solutions to the dilemma. I spent my summer showing the children in my city how to plant fruits, vegetables, and herbs and educating them about their nutritional values. Giving back is my livelihood. I believe we can only elevate as a whole if we operate as a whole by helping one another and educating our communities. We have people who have nothing and people who have everything and many of us aren't aware of just how extreme the divide is and some are apathetic to it. Community service has allowed me to have stronger empathy toward people in my city and people everywhere. I believe volunteering can encourage us to interact with one another in a way that is passionate and generous, especially to those of us with nothing. Community service truly brings together the community. Truthfully, we absolutely need each other.

I have always been a proud Texan as the culture in the city I live in, Houston, is extremely diverse; however, I have not been proud of the system and stigmas in Texas, particularly around Mental Health. Throughout my life, I watched the people around me be affected negatively by Mental Health and mental illnesses. According to MHA's The State of Mental Health in America 2020 report, 3,309,000 adults in Texas are living with a mental illness and 61% of adults in Texas who needed mental health treatment in the last year, did not receive any. The first thought I had when I came across this information was 'why'? Why is this happening in America, particularly in Texas? As I dug deeper, I found that there was a lack of affordable, accessible, and known Mental Health resources and treatments in Texas. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I decided to make the move to confront the mental health decline and start change within my community. The following are answered questions motivated me during the process: If not now, then when? If not me, then who? I planned for months and months on end and by 2021, I was finally ready to show the world; in May 2021, I founded a Giup, a non-profit Mental Health advocacy organization based in Houston, Texas. Giup's aim is to help students access and learn more about mental health awareness, resources, treatments, and more. Within the last few months with Covid-19 in mind, I have spread awareness, helped others learn more about and gain access to affordable resources such as free online apps and websites for friendships, a variety of online Mental Health resources such as Psychology Today, Betterhelp, etc. and helped destigmatize Mental Health overall within my local community and beyond.