Minority Women in LAS Scholarship

My immigrant experience has affected my educational goals in ways that go far beyond academics. As the daughter of Cameroonian immigrants, there has always been pressure to succeed, especially as the oldest daughter in the household. My mother came to America to create a better life for me and my brothers, so from a young age I felt like failure was never an option. I always felt like I had to work harder, do better, and make every sacrifice worth it. On top of that, being a Black woman often feels like having to work ten times harder just to be taken seriously. A lot of African parents, especially mothers, grew up very differently than children raised in America. Many African women were forced to grow up young. By the time they were children themselves, they were already expected to cook, clean, care for siblings, and endure responsibilities most adults struggle with. Even though they were still kids, they were treated like adults long before they were ready. Because of that upbringing, many African mothers show love differently than what children raised in Western culture expect. Growing up, I sometimes struggled to understand my mother. Communication in many African households can be difficult because children are expected to listen without questioning authority. Respect is often seen as silence and obedience rather than mutual understanding. In many African homes, if you ask “why,” it can immediately become disrespectful. As a child growing up in America, that created tension because I wanted understanding and communication, while my mother believed she was raising me the same way she had been raised. For a long time, I misunderstood her strictness and expectations. I felt pressure constantly, especially as the oldest daughter. I was expected to help more, mature faster, and set the example for my younger brothers. At times it felt overwhelming trying to balance cultural expectations, academics, and my own identity while also adapting to life in America. As I got older, I started understanding my mother differently. I realized she was raising me the only way she knew how, based on survival, sacrifice, and resilience. Her love was not always expressed through words or softness, but through the opportunities she fought to give us. That realization changed the way I viewed both my family and my education. My immigrant experience pushed me to become more disciplined and determined. After high school, I joined the Minnesota Army National Guard to help take some of the financial burden off my mother while building a future for myself. Even though the military helps with school, it does not cover everything, so I still balance tuition costs, military responsibilities, and academics. I now attend North Dakota State University, where I earned a 4.0 GPA during my first semester. My experiences as the daughter of immigrants taught me resilience, adaptability, and perseverance. They taught me how to succeed in environments where I often feel pressure to prove myself. Most importantly, they taught me that education is bigger than me. It is about breaking cycles, creating opportunities, and honoring the sacrifices my mother made so I could have a future she never had.

"What does it mean to travel 11hrs 10minutes across the Atlantic Ocean with nothing but dreams in your heart and a suitcase filled with more African snacks than clothes.?" For me, it meant starting a journey fueled by uncertainty and hope, a journey that transformed a young immigrant girl into a passionate young lady. "Uririoghene!" as I am fervently called when I am in trouble with my parents, is my full name. I am called Uriri by Friends and Family from my Home, in Nigeria. I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and moved to Colorado, USA when I was 19, playing the role of an aspiring college student and primary caretaker to my grandma. Coming here, I aspire to be a Cybersecurity Lawyer, merging my passion for Law with the ever-expanding Cyber World. This is a field in which knowing the Law that protects people is necessary, the more the cyberworld expands, the more platforms for various crimes increase as well. As a female immigrant navigating the peculiar world of foreign higher education, I have encountered a spectrum of challenges that have shaped the whole essence of my journey. Through the process of attending classes and engaging in academic conversations, It became clearer that my voice as a female immigrant sometimes struggled to agree with the already existent narratives. Balancing the demands of academics with the need for cultural preservation has been very 'interesting' for sure, social stereotypes and biases have shadowed my capabilities, hence hindering my ability to prove my academic and intellectual strength. This had an impact on my approach to education, building the resilience in me to prove myself, especially in my field of Law. Pursuing Higher education as an immigrant has its fair share of challenges, ranging from the language barrier to financial issues, as the first child and daughter of my African parents, I had the responsibility of being a good leader to my siblings, hence I had to show perseverance and strength a lot of times when finances became a major source of worry, or the wave of loneliness is worse on some days, regardless of all this, I hope to be resilient and committed to overcoming this hurdles. My passion for Law began as a little girl, I knew what I wanted at a young age, and I stuck with it, I give credit to my mum for that, watching her in her element as one of the few female lawyers in the country gave me so much to dream about. In a country with a lot of corruption and a very peculiar legal system, I grew up seeing people getting away with more than they deserve just because they have the money, it made me furious, and that fury turned into fuel for my desire to pursue Law, particularly in the cyber world, with a lot of phishing, frauds, hacking and malware going on, the urgency grows. I did learn, however, that it cannot always go as planned, and the Law still has flaws that cannot be controlled. I have to admit, my immigrant status brings a diverse perspective to take on the legal field. having experienced two different legal worlds, I have no bias and can look at things more critically and objectively. To conclude, my Unique background, shaped by the trials and triumphs of being a female immigrant, is a source of resilience and cultural insight. As a future legal professional, my multicultural background will enable me to bridge gaps, which would foster a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to legal problem-solving in the cyber world.