Larry Darnell Green Scholarship

Leaving an abusive marriage with my special needs children was both a breaking point and a turning point in my life. It forced me to become not just a mother, but an advocate—navigating complex systems, learning to access resources, and rebuilding a life where both my children and I could thrive. Becoming a single parent to children with disabilities meant facing overwhelming challenges, but it also gave me firsthand insight into the gaps in support for families like mine. That experience fueled my decision to pursue a bachelor’s degree in social work, with the goal of helping other parents and caregivers of special needs children not just survive, but find the resources they need to build stability and a better future. My work will focus on providing holistic support for families, recognizing that a child’s well-being is deeply connected to their caregiver’s ability to access necessary services. Many parents struggle to find and coordinate medical care, therapy, and equipment for their children. I want to help families connect with doctors, specialists, and therapists while also assisting them in securing essential medical equipment, adaptive technology, and assistive devices through insurance or grant programs. Navigating special education services can also be confusing and frustrating, and I plan to guide parents through the IEP and 504 plan processes to ensure their children receive appropriate accommodations in school. More importantly, I want to teach parents how to advocate effectively for their child’s rights so they feel confident in securing the best possible education. Beyond medical and educational needs, I know that financial stability is a major challenge for many families raising children with disabilities, especially single parents. I plan to help families apply for basic needs assistance, such as food programs like SNAP and WIC, housing support through Section 8 or emergency shelters, and financial aid for utility bills. Many caregivers also put their own well-being last, and I want to ensure parents have access to mental health resources, including therapy and support groups, so they don’t have to navigate the emotional toll of caregiving alone. Additionally, I want to connect parents with employment and educational programs that offer job training, scholarships, and flexible schooling options, helping them regain financial independence while balancing their caregiving responsibilities. I know from experience that navigating these systems alone is exhausting, confusing, and discouraging. My goal is to not only provide resources but to empower parents to build strong, sustainable futures for both themselves and their children. No parent should have to struggle in isolation, and I hope to be the advocate I once needed, helping others find the hope and stability they deserve.

Nyla Garcia It is an early school morning, around 6 am to 6:30 am. I wake up from sleeping on my bed, the couch to the sound of my alarm, and then proceed to wake up my younger sister. I make sure she is dressed and ready for the day while I am also getting ready. My mother is not home because she cannot be late for her 2 am shift. I make my sister breakfast, walk her to school, then walk myself to school. After school, I go to my club meetings, after I pick up my sister from her school, walk her home and then proceed to go back to my school to make it to practice on time. After practice I do some chores, maybe cook dinner if my mother is not home from her work shift, but if. If my mother is home she is already sleeping by the time I come back home. Some chores are followed by hours of studying to maintain my high honor grades. I lay back down on the couch, go to sleep, and repeat this day over and over, in a repeated cycle. On weekends I volunteer, have a varsity game, or work my part-time job so my mom can have a little more financial help. Coming from a single-parent household has shaped my educational journey significantly. Many hardships have come with it and this has only been a block in the journey but also motivated me. I want to succeed in my academic journey to end this endless cycle of struggle for not just my mother but so my younger sister does not have to go through what I did. I am currently in college as a first-generation student and worry if I can continue this education because of my financial situation and no guidance in my college journey. I plan on giving back to my community by starting with the students that are just like me. I want to start a mentorship program to show struggling students that they are not alone and to give their parents a little helping hand. Whether it is by guiding them with school work and how to balance everything in their life or picking up their younger siblings from school, and dropping them off at home. I do not want students with a single parent to struggle and make just make things a little easier on them.

When I graduated from high school, I had no idea who I was or what I wanted to do with my life. My parents were very strict while I was growing up and did not teach me about the world. The expectations were high, but the support was low. I stumbled through life as an "adult" with no passion for living. Now I have two kids, and they have helped me find my passion for life again. I wish to set an example for my girls and show them that life only holds you back if you allow it to. Far too often, young people are told what they can and cannot do with their life. Failure is taught as a bad thing instead of something to learn from. How else did we learn to fly if not by falling many times first? I received very little help from their father over the last thirteen years and always put my children first. Now I have decided to take care of myself too. Part of taking care of myself has going back to school and getting a degree. I have begun nurturing my mind again and not only focusing on my children. A healthy mother can provide a healthy environment. It was not wise to only care for my children and let my own needs fall by the wayside. My children are proud and inspired. I have learned to be proud of myself and my efforts. I started my journey less than two years ago. I have officially earned my associate's degree in Health and Human Services. I am in the process of enrolling in another program to continue my studies, working towards a Bachelor's in Psychology. My focus will be on children and adolescents. My current degree has opened doors for me. I am hoping to work within my community as a registered behavior technician. As an RBT, I will be helping children and families with developmental delays or Autism. My ultimate goal is to work with foster children and their families, providing the counseling and support they need to get through the hardships that come with life. Some children have hope of being reunited with their parents. I wish to foster that hope and work with the parents to find the best way for everyone to do their part. Other children are simply in need of a family to love them. Foster children face many emotional struggles. For those children, I want to help them learn to love themselves and discover their strengths.

Igneous rocks are porous. They are made when magma cools and crystallizes. I was surrounded in a 2 parent household until I arrived in the United States at age 4 and ended up with one. This change in parental influence would change me forever. A life of dependency yet independence, with the sole fear of inconsistency and abandonment. A single mother with 3 children: two in grade school and me advancing toward the age of school. I watched her cry on the phone as my father announced his divorce from her on the phone from Ghana. At that moment I realized that my life was going to be different from other kids. I watched my brother and mother walk to work at late hours of the night, only for my brother to come home and make his way to school, sometimes missing the bus. From him, I learned relentlessness and perseverance. I watched my sister engross herself in so many school activities, to then walk home after all of these clubs. She taught me dedication and passion. And my mother, the lady that sang in the church choir, sewed, and also worked odd jobs taught me that regardless of your situation, the only way out is through. If there was not a way through, I was determined to make a way , even if it required a pickaxe. All these lessons were poured into me, and I soaked them up. Sedimentary rocks are formed by deposits of pre-existing rocks or pieces on once living organisms. Once a lively family, reality began to settle in. My brother would not be able to go to college after high school. And later, my sister took a gap year to go to the army so we could afford for her to go to college. I watched all this happen in front of my eyes. I would go to sleep covering my ears with pillows to drown out the arguments about rents and bills. I became anxious that I too would not be able to reach or accomplish the goals I had set for myself. That feeling of fear and instability began to creep its way towards me. It was crippling. I tried to ignore these feelings and distract myself, but that only ended in wet pillows and swollen eyes in the morning. When rocks are subjected to high heat, high pressure, and rich fluids, they become metamorphic rocks. They conform to their environment. My surroundings should have made me unmotivated and undetermined, but it rather made me want to be and do the opposite. I wanted my life to change. Not only for me but for my family and especially my community. I continuously had my family help me through school even though they needed help themselves, help I could not provide. Although struggle will not be absent from my life, I want to be able to provide help to others, the same way my village helped me. But despite all of this, I still saw the sun come up and it told me that there was still work to be done. It told me to live, to seize the day. When Lauryn Hill said, “Don’t be a hard rock when you really are a gem…” I understood her. Pressure creates diamonds, and I am just beginning to crystalize. I am like rocks in this way: eroded by debris, weathering, and heat. The only difference is that I can choose what I want these factors to do to me. And I have decided that I want them to build me.