LikelyThis.xyz, LLC First Generation Scholarship

I am in my first year of community college and to be honest I am loving it. It was daunting deciding to go to a community college instead of a 4 year college like most people. It is sad that there is this shame attached to attending a community college. I am proud to say that going to a community college was one of my best decisions. My parents moved to the United States from Ghana when I was 6 years old. As immigrants, they had to fight and be able to provide for their family. My siblings and I lived with our Grandmother. At 14 years old, I was finally able to move to the United States and live with my family. Unfortunately, I had to deal with the bullying regarding my accent and my intelligence was questioned every step I took. Despite the struggles, I succeeded and graduated high school ranking at fifth in my graduating class. Seeing the pride in my parents’ face was everything. To them, all the difficulties was worth it on that moment. This is why I want to go to college and hoped provide for them in the future. As the first person to go to college, I hope to make them proud. At Ocean County College, I am able to really explore what I want to do with my life. I went to first year with my major being nursing. I went to college with the mindset of being a physician assistant through a nursing degree. I realized that the nursing program is complicated. Some people are placed on the waiting list for the nursing schools for many semesters before being admitted. Coming to hard decision of changing my major was scary. Then a professor told me about the major Business option with Health administration which calmed me down. He conveyed his disappointment of the college not talking much about this program. I did my own research and realized that this a growing field in health. I finally came to the decision and changed my major. I looked at the courses required for this major and saw that most of the business classes I had taken some in high school. I have registered for my classes for the spring semester and excited about my business classes. After my two years in Ocean County College, I hope to transfer to a 4 year college to earn my bachelor’s degree in health administration. Honestly, I am scared that transferring to another college will not go as smoothly as I want. My top school is Rutgers University as they have a great Health Administration program. Financially wise, I am scared as I want to go to college without worrying about tuition. Burdening my family with the debt worried me that is why I hope to win this scholarship. This scholarship will go a far way in making college journey a success. As the first person in my family to be going to college, I hope to make my family proud.