Stephanie Staggers Curtis Memorial Scholarship

I am a single mother of a 6-month-old little boy, I am also a junior at Saint Augustine's University in North Carolina majoring in psychology. I am hard working and just trying to excel in life and become successful enough to put my son through school when it's his time. I want to be able to show him that if his mommy goes to school full time while being pregnant during the spring of 22 semester and pushed forward and graduated with him on my hip and show him that he wasn't a setback or a mistake. I want him to know he helped me get through the tough years of school. I have help from the village that I do have around me, and I am so very grateful for them. I do not think that I would have made it as far as I have from 2018 starting at a school that was in the middle of nowhere to transferring to a new school, changing majors a few times and then getting pregnant at 21 and still deciding to finish school without taking time off. Having a son is wonderful, but having a Black son is terrifying because of the world we live in. Young black boys aren't able to just walk around free and do as they please. They have a target on their backs just because of the color of their skin. As a mother I am terrified to send my son into the world that is so hateful towards people who have a little more pigmentation than the person to their right or left. These young men's cognitive state is never in question when the police pull guns on them or their peers. No one asks them are they okay and anything, the first comment from anyone even elders in the black community is " what did you do for them to target you" or " they must have been doing something" when in all actuality all they are guilty of is walking while black. So, I plan to give back to the community once I obtain my degree. Giving back to the community is a priority but giving back to the Black community is an even bigger priority. Giving back to the black community is important because there are not many things given to the black community especially the young men in the community. I am a psychology major, and I plan to use my degree to start programs for African American adolescent males to help them express their feelings and get an understanding of their mental health. They stereotype for a man in general is to be strong and not show emotions at all. It is a general idea in the male mind that crying or showing emotion makes them weak and not a man at all, sometimes they are told to "stop being a sissy and stop all that crying". After graduation I plan to start a non- profit organization that allows young black men to come and express how they feel with no judgement attached to them. This program will also allow them to learn about their mental health as well. We will teach them that mental health doesn't make you a sissy or weak, we will teach that their mental health is important, and they are also important. These will be the morals and mission statement of the program. These morals are also what I will instill into my son when he is old enough to understand his feelings and be able to express himself to myself or others.