I have had a single mother since before I was born. My mom raised my sister first and then I was born. She worked two jobs while raising my sister and I. No matter the circumstance we always had what we needed and most of what we wanted. As I grew up, I didn't know my mom struggled, I just knew I was happy and well taken care of. Once my sister moved out it was just my mom and I. I played soccer, competitively cheered, and played AAU basketball. All my fees and expenses for sports my mom paid for by herself. Playing three sports, taking care of a dog, and paying rent aren't cheap. My mom is a teacher and a teacher's salary alone doesn't cover all of that, she taught classes at a community college, took classes for people, and she even tutored students. After my mom had my brother and it was just us two times were still great. Having a newborn and an elementary school kid is a full-time job within itself. My brother just came to all my practices with us, he was our role dog. My brother and I only had my mom to depend on, our mom is our world. My mom is the epitome of a strong black woman, she took care of everything alone. My mom is one of the strongest women I know. Growing up with her taught me that faith without work is dead. Never depend on anyone but yourself, if my mom depended on people my family would have never been taken care of. Having a single mother demonstrates independence and how hard you have to work. My mom has two degrees and she made sure to instill in me that having an education is important. Also that asking for help is okay, my family and some of her friends were my support system. A support system is important because it does take a village to raise a child. Since I have grown up and went to college I have been working to take care of some of my expenses. Taking care of my daily expenses and the things I want allows my mom to just focus on my brother and the bills. I don't depend on anyone and I try not to ask my mom for help because I know she has stress of her own. With my mom as my role model, I have wanted to be successful and have the ability to help my mom with my brother. Going to school is going to allow me to follow my dreams and make money. Education is freedom in this world. My mom is always my biggest supporter and my biggest role model. I would never take having a single mother for granted, probably one of the best things that happened to me.

My career aspiration is to be a speech therapist and to own my own speech therapy clinic. Speech Therapy is something I knew I wanted to do since my junior year of high school. I want to be a speech therapist for the geriatric community. Sometimes the geriatric community is treated like less than or like they don’t matter. Being a speech therapist for the geriatric community means that I could be a part of the change that is very well needed. My major is biology and being a biology major allows me to learn about the body systems and how they work. Learning how the body works will allow me to be a better speech therapist. It also teaches us how the many species of the world function and interact with each other. Biology gives me an extra push towards being exceptional, it is my steppingstone towards speech therapy. Biology teaches me how to interact with other people, which is a skill that you need when you are working with people. After I receive my bachelor’s in biology, it will be time to get my masters. I want to get my masters in speech therapy, at Texas Women’s University. My Masters will officially be the start of my career. I can start working as a speech therapist even if it is in the form of internship. Learning from someone else would be one of the best things ever. I can use what they teach me and make it into my own, I could develop myself as a person and as a speech therapist. In ten years, I plan on working as a full-time speech therapist. I want to have at least five years of working under my belt. I see myself at a rehabilitation center working with in patient and outpatients. I want to have traveled across the world and helped the less fortunate, with my speech therapy, I have been fortunate enough to have the essentials and then some. Giving back has always been something that I have been proud to do, and something that gives me a sense of happiness. Even though I have done it in my community, I want to do it throughout the world. I will use speech therapy to teach people with speaking problems how to speak. Teaching them how to speak will allow people to communicate and when you can communicate you can get more jobs.

My college career has served as a learning experience and activity-filled experience in service and honors. I have been active as a volunteer with Teen Writers Project. This is a non-profit organization that aims to help teens learn to write and become published writers. I have also been a volunteer for the Hyrox Fitness Competition. I have donated books to local groups. I donate yearly to a local homeless shelter. Each year I support a local soccer team and help in various capacities (paperwork, drills, audio/visual, etc.). I was inducted into the Earl Lester Cole Honors College at Grambling State University in 2022. I am a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success. In 2022, I became a member of the GSU Biological & pre doctoral society. I am also a member of Grow Grambling Gardening club. In addition, I am a member of the VAW Global Grambling Medical Chapter. I was inducted in the President’s Student Leadership Initiative in Spring 2023. I serve as a Thrive Intern, where I worked with a team to ensure students applied to HBCUs. These experiences have help me learn and grow. It is these experiences that inspire me to give more and show others how important it is to serve. My future goals will help me to bring attention to an important group of people who have helped shape the community. The elderly is a group of people who have done so much, but they so often do not receive the quality of goods and services that they deserve. I will create a brighter future by creating a program for other Speech Therapists to intern and work with the geriatric community. The program would be designed for local Speech Therapy programs to partner with facilities that house the elderly to provide services to this group of trailblazers. It is my belief that the future can only be bright when we make life more enjoyable for those who paved the way for us to have a great life. I would also like to work with local high schools to encourage more community service to the nursing homes and serve as a mentor to help provide leadership for those who would like to serve in the independent living facilities and nursing homes. Being able to create a program for high school students to serve in various capacities to support the elderly and provide them visitors is the goal. I want to make a positive impact on the lives of others in my community by serving others and being a leader in the geriatric community. There are many programs in various communities, but there are not as many programs that focus on the health and well-being of the elderly. Because I have been impacted by this community, and I know that this is a road that everyone must travel one day, I feel that it is important to make a positive impact and pass on a service that can be continued for generations. When people grow older, it is important for them to have people to care for them as they have done throughout their lives. And although many people have busy lives, I think that others can help provide a meaningful service to those who need it. While I know that if feels good to help others, and I think my generation is far too selfish, I would like to change the narrative of how people in my generation think about giving back to others. I would like to serve as a liaison for others to not forget the VIPs who have made such an important impact on the world as we know it. My career aspiration is to be a speech therapist and to own my own speech therapy clinic. Speech Therapy is something I knew I wanted to do since my junior year of high school. I want to be a speech therapist for the geriatric community. Sometimes the geriatric community is treated like less than or like they don’t matter. Being a speech therapist for the geriatric community means that I could be a part of the change that is very well needed. After I receive my bachelor’s in biology, it will be time to get my masters. I want to get my masters in speech therapy, at Texas Women’s University. My Masters will officially be the start of my career. I can start working as a speech therapist even if it is in the form of internship. Learning from someone else would be one of the best things ever. I can use what they teach me and make it into my own, I could develop myself as a person and as a speech therapist.

My college career has served as a learning experience and activity-filled experience in service and honors. I have been active as a volunteer with Teen Writers Project. This is a non-profit organization that aims to help teens learn to write and become published writers. I have also been a volunteer for the Hyrox Fitness Competition. I have donated books to local groups. I donate yearly to a local homeless shelter. Each year I support a local soccer team and help in various capacities (paperwork, drills, audio/visual, etc.). All my life it has been my plight to help others. I have volunteered, planned and worked to help others in different capacities. My career choice is one that will help me to achieve my goal to help others. I would love to help the elderly. This group of VIPs are often overlooked and forgotten about, and I deem it necessary to be able to help them via my career as a Speech Therapist. Being a Speech Therapist for the elderly will ensure that they are not forgotten about, and they are able to receive quality services to help them to be their best selves. Receiving this scholarship will help me to complete the degree that I have started, and it will help me to ensure that I am able to enroll in school this semester. This scholarship will greatly impact my ability to achieve my goals by ensuring that I am not only able to complete my degree, but also allow me to complete pre leveling classes to begin my graduate degree plan. My Master’s degree in Speech Therapy will be the goal to be able to be able to make an impact on the geriatric community. I have interned and worked in an independent living facility, and I have been able to see first-hand how completing my degree along with my master’s degree will ensure that I am able to make a difference for the VIPs in the geriatric world. This group of amazing people deserve the best I have to offer. In addition to completing my degree and going to graduate school to support those who have worked their entire lives and supported others, I would like to create a program to help bring more attention to the elderly and support their needs. Although many of the elderly have families, it has been my experience that many of them are left alone or are not visited often. I would like to begin a program to bring more attention to Speech Therapy students and interns to this area of need. I would like to work with the local graduate school to help start a program for students to work with those in the geriatric community. I would like to see these VIPs receive more exposure, and hopefully this will guarantee that they are not forgotten about if even in service. This scholarship will begin my service to others.

My future goals will help me to bring attention to an important group of people who have helped shape the community. The elderly is a group of people who have done so much, but they so often do not receive the quality of goods and services that they deserve. I will create a brighter future by creating a program for other Speech Therapists to intern and work with the geriatric community. The program would be designed for local Speech Therapy programs to partner with facilities that house the elderly to provide services to this group of trailblazers. It is my belief that the future can only be bright when we make life more enjoyable for those who paved the way for us to have a great life. I would also like to work with local high schools to encourage more community service to the nursing homes and serve as a mentor to help provide leadership for those who would like to serve in the independent living facilities and nursing homes. Being able to create a program for high school students to serve in various capacities to support the elderly and provide them visitors is the goal. I want to make a positive impact on the lives of others in my community by serving others and being a leader in the geriatric community. There are many programs in various communities, but there are not as many programs that focus on the health and well-being of the elderly. Because I have been impacted by this community, and I know that this is a road that everyone must travel one day, I feel that it is important to make a positive impact and pass on a service that can be continued for generations. When people grow older, it is important for them to have people to care for them as they have done throughout their lives. And although many people have busy lives, I think that others can help provide a meaningful service to those who need it. While I know that if feels good to help others, and I think my generation is far too selfish, I would like to change the narrative of how people in my generation think about giving back to others. I would like to serve as a liaison for others to not forget the VIPs who have made such an important impact on the world as we know it.

My career aspiration is to be a speech therapist and to own my own speech therapy clinic. Speech Therapy is something I knew I wanted to do since my junior year of high school. I want to be a speech therapist for the geriatric community. Sometimes the geriatric community is treated like less than or like they don’t matter. Being a speech therapist for the geriatric community means that I could be a part of the change that is very well needed. My major is biology and being a biology major allows me to learn about the body systems and how they work. Learning how the body works will allow me to be a better speech therapist. It also teaches us how the many species of the world function and interact with each other. Biology gives me an extra push towards being exceptional, it is my steppingstone towards speech therapy. Biology teaches me how to interact with other people, which is a skill that you need when you are working with people. After I receive my bachelor’s in biology, it will be time to get my masters. I want to get my masters in speech therapy, at Texas Women’s University. My Masters will officially be the start of my career. I can start working as a speech therapist even if it is in the form of internship. Learning from someone else would be one of the best things ever. I can use what they teach me and make it into my own, I could develop myself as a person and as a speech therapist. In ten years, I plan on working as a full-time speech therapist. I want to have at least five years of working under my belt. I see myself at a rehabilitation center working with in patient and outpatients. I want to have traveled across the world and helped the less fortunate, with my speech therapy, I have been fortunate enough to have the essentials and then some. Giving back has always been something that I have been proud to do, and something that gives me a sense of happiness. Even though I have done it in my community, I want to do it throughout the world. I will use speech therapy to teach people with speaking problems how to speak. Teaching them how to speak will allow people to communicate and when you can communicate you can get more jobs.

The dream vision for my future self is to be a audiologist with a beautiful family.

My greatest achievement to date is being a big sister. I became a big sister when I was nine years old. In the beginning, I did not want a sibling and he was annoying and was going to take up all the time. Then when he came home we were inseparable. Of course, we argue like any other siblings but the love is monumental. Since becoming a big sister I have learned that my brother watches and listens to everything I do. He would do things I did, have an interest in things such as basketball, and say things I said. This taught me that I have to lead by example or he might think it is acceptable to act a certain way. I now had a shadow and needed to make sure he did the right thing. Responsibility became an important word in my vocabulary. A sibling makes you feel like you have someone else to be responsible for and that you have to take care of. I am a protective person, I live by the "nobody better bother my brother". Being a big sister means being the bank, the confidant, and the consoler. Seeing my brother sad or hurt is infuriating for me. I'm more caring and empathetic since gaining a sibling. Accomplishing my goals and graduating college is the main thing on my mind currently because I need to be successful, not only for me but for my brother. I never want to see my brother go without anything he wants or needs. I learned that I'm argumentative and stubborn, my brother and I argue at least once a day about anything. Because of my sibling, I am a better person, he gave me more drive and the need to take initiative. My relationship with my brother is like none other and is probably the most important at this time. I hope to be successful and accomplished in the future. Becoming an Audiologist is one of my main goals. It will allow me to be financially comfortable so I can help raise my brother and help my mom relax. I want to receive scholarships so my mom doesn't have to get any more loans or work any more jobs. I like to make money and spend it, so I hope to save more than I spend in the next year. I want to become a leader in the world and make a difference in my career.

I want to improve my community Because we are often forgotten about or an afterthought. Improving my community would make me happy you make me feel good, It would make me feel accomplished. It's important to give back to your community because they help make you the person you are today. My community gave me the strength and the faith to follow my dreams. The community gave me hope for our world as a whole. If it wasn't for my community and my family, would it be around today? I believe it takes a village to raise a child, and my village raised me very well. Giving me a black makes me a part of a larger community. When the black community comes together as a people, it is very hard to tear us down. Being black means that I have to lead by example and work 10 times harder to be the best. If it wasn't for people before me, I would not have the opportunities I have today. To have the ability to give back and provide help to the next generation is a dream. I will help my community by helping kids like me. I would first sponsor scholarships for kids who look like me. Giving scholarships to students to pursue higher education allows me to be a part of the next generation. It allows me to follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. Education is everything in this world, without education, you can't succeed. I also would help make my community look better, I will help grow gardens. Go, and Gardens allows us to be at peace, and at one with the Earth, it allows us to have fresh food to eat and allows us to become healthier as a people. Health is number one important because without being healthy, you can't live a long life. Physical health keeps your mental health in check. Helping my community in a variety of ways allows me to spread love and connect to many people on different paths. I also want to help kids and adults who fall through the cracks by becoming a speech therapist. By being a speech therapist, I can help kids and adults communicate in their way. The ability to communicate and talk to people is important because if you can't communicate you can't be a productive member of society. Communication is the way of life and so many problems can be fixed with communication.

Speech therapy is what I want to do in the future. Speech therapy helped my nephew with his autism but also helps the geriatric community. I want to have the ability to learn about the body and how to communicate with people. Also, becoming a speech therapist or an audiologist allows me to help people communicate and allow people to have their life back. Being black means overcoming trials and tribulations. It means turning the negative into the positive. Being black is one of the best things that could've ever happened to me, I'm unique and more powerful than ever before. As a black person, I'm strong because of what my ancestors did for the black community. I'm seen as dangerous because, with my education and my history, I'm more powerful than the average person. Going to an HBCU is so important to me because I'm surrounded by my people. I have my whole life being a minority, so at an HBCU I'm a part of the majority. HBCU life teaches me about my history and why we are so important to the world. It shows me that being black is good and I can create my future. I chose Grambling because it felt like a home away from home, it is a part of my family's legacy. HBCUs are my culture and the lineage of the black community.

I believe mental health is important because your mind is what controls the body. If mentally you feel defeated or overwhelmed you won't be productive in your day-to-day life. Mental health is what gives you the ability to get out of bed every day. It allows you not to be stuck in a place or a job that makes you unhappy. Mental health causes changes in emotional and physical health. Some studies show bad mental health can cause problems with your physical health. Feeling good in the mind is what makes you, the bad and good mental days are still you. Having more good than bad days is important. I maintain my mental health by not always focusing on the negative. When something negative comes up on television or my phone, I try my best to change it or to only watch some of it. Negativity is always going to happen in life and when something negative is starting to take over my spirits I pray. I learned early that God only puts you through battles that he knows you can handle. I usually maintain my mental health by exercising, sleeping, venting to friends or family, listening to music, and journaling. Exercise makes me feel good physically and mentally, my body feels good and my mind is at ease because I'm not thinking. Stretching makes me feel good within my body, it relaxes the muscles in my body and mind. Sleeping is when I am most at peace, I'm not thinking and I usually have good dreams. Venting allows me to get my feelings out and not have them dwelling in my mind and my heart. Music is an escape from my real life and feelings, I just get to sing about what other people wrote. Journaling helps me the most, it allows me to write down everything I'm feeling or makeup stories, or just have fun. I don't have to worry about anyone judging me or feeling bad for putting my problems on someone else. Self-care days are another form of maintaining my mental health. Self-care consists of me doing things for myself such as watching my favorite shows and face masks, online shopping, and even crying sometimes. Allowing myself to take days for just me, helps me be the best version of myself that I can be. Some people practice meditation to silence the mind, and I practice a form of meditation by controlling my breathing when I'm stressed or angry. Overall maintaining my mental health is important and one of my priorities.

I am nineteen years old and I am a Junior Biology major at Grambling State University. I come from a single-parent household and I have one younger sibling. My mom works two jobs to support my brother and me, and give us everything we need and most things we want. I work throughout the school year so I can support myself day to day. I work so it is one less thing my mother has to worry about. I'm not rich by any means, so scholarships allow my mom to worry less about my education. My first educational goal is to receive my bachelor's in biology. I should accomplish that goal by next year. The second educational goal is to receive my master's in speech pathology. I want to become a speech-language pathologist in the geriatric community. Audiology has been on my mind heavily as well. Becoming a doctor would be a great accomplishment and I would be able to help even more people. This past year I was kicked out of my house and betrayed by my own family. My mom, my brother, and I downsized from a six-bedroom house to a 3 bedroom apartment. I wasn't able to help my mom and brother move because I was away at college. I felt so bad and so stressed because my mom had to find our apartment and move without me. My grandmother had also passed so we were all still grieving her death. Then towards the end of the year, my car started acting up, so my mom had to take me to work and pick me up, which was costing her gas and the inability to have fun. After this event, I realized I needed to work harder so I would never have to depend on someone. I also learned that I have to be grateful for what I have because it could go in an instant. Over the past year, I have learned new study skills such as time management and different ways to study, so my grades continued to be stellar. Patience became the key once I came home because I wasn't used to living in a small space. We were always running into each other or I had to wait for the bathroom, also we didn't have the privacy at the apartment that we had at our house. Coming home I started working and learned to be appreciative of having a job and making my own money. I was able to buy gifts for my family and feed myself, so that was one less thing my mom had to worry about. My mentality also changed when it came to family, I realized that family isn't always blood but who is there for you no matter what. I became closer to my friends and they became the people I could count on.

The main way I have grown over this year is mental. My mentality has changed from what it used to be, my patience has increased and I have become a more positive person. This past year I was kicked out of my house and betrayed by my own family. My mom, my brother, and I downsized from a six-bedroom house to a 3 bedroom apartment. I wasn't able to help my mom and brother move because I was away at college. I felt so bad and so stressed because my mom had to find our apartment and move without me. My grandmother had also passed so we were all still grieving her death. Then towards the end of the year, my car started acting up, so my mom had to take me to work and pick me up, which was costing her gas and the inability to have fun. After this event, I realized I needed to work harder so I would never have to depend on someone. I also learned that I have to be grateful for what I have because it could go in an instant. Over the past year, I have learned new study skills such as time management and different ways to study, so my grades continued to be stellar. Patience became the key once I came home because I wasn't used to living in a small space. We were always running into each other or I had to wait for the bathroom, also we didn't have the privacy at the apartment that we had at our house. Coming home I started working and learned to be appreciative of having a job and making my own money. I was able to buy gifts for my family and feed myself, so that was one less thing my mom had to worry about. My mentality also changed when it came to family, I realized that family isn't always blood but who is there for you no matter what. I became closer to my friends and they became the people I could count on. My determination and priorities were still the same. I am currently on track to graduate from college next year and I'm currently working to support myself. My main focus is helping my mom by not needing her help financially. I work and apply for scholarships so that school is paid for and I have money for everyday expenses. My faith in God wavered a little but I remembered that everything happens for a reason, and the light will come. Through this journey, I have learned that I'm not alone and that there is nothing wrong with asking for help. Being patient is the key to getting what you want, nothing is going to come immediately but if you have consistency and discipline it will come. The most important thing was to trust in God and remember that he will never put you in any situation that you can't handle.

My career aspiration is to be a speech therapist and to own my own speech therapy clinic. Speech Therapy is something I knew I wanted to do since my junior year of high school. I want to be a speech therapist for the geriatric community. Sometimes the geriatric community is treated like less than or like they don’t matter. Being a speech therapist for the geriatric community means that I could be a part of the change that is very well needed. My major is biology and being a biology major allows me to learn about the body systems and how they work. Learning how the body works will allow me to be a better speech therapist. It also teaches us how the many species of the world function and interact with each other. Biology gives me an extra push towards being exceptional, it is my steppingstone towards speech therapy. Biology teaches me how to interact with other people, which is a skill that you need when you are working with people. After I receive my bachelor’s in biology, it will be time to get my masters. I want to get my masters in speech therapy, at Texas Women’s University. My Masters will officially be the start of my career. I can start working as a speech therapist even if it is in the form of internship. Learning from someone else would be one of the best things ever. I can use what they teach me and make it into my own, I could develop myself as a person and as a speech therapist. In ten years, I plan on working as a full-time speech therapist. I want to have at least five years of working under my belt. I see myself at a rehabilitation center working with in patient and outpatients. I want to have traveled across the world and helped the less fortunate, with my speech therapy, I have been fortunate enough to have the essentials and then some. Giving back has always been something that I have been proud to do, and something that gives me a sense of happiness. Even though I have done it in my community, I want to do it throughout the world. I will use speech therapy to teach people with speaking problems how to speak. Teaching them how to speak will allow people to communicate and when you can communicate you can get more jobs.

One of my favorite hobbies is playing and watching sports. Sports have been a part of my life since before I could remember. My mom made me try multiple sports until I found my niche, tennis, cheer, golf, basketball, soccer, karate, and ballet. I found my niche in basketball and soccer. Those two sports are something I enjoy playing and watching. I enjoy sports because my family and friends enjoy sports. It is something we talk about all the time just for the sake of it. I also like arts because it is something that will always be a hot topic. Sports are very unpredictable which adds so much more exciting when watching them. Playing sports gave me a different variety of friends that I never would have met without our mutual love of sports. Sports gave me an outlet to be myself, to be great at something other than school. My mom was my coach, so my mom and I were able to form a real bond and connection. We are close now because of our love of sports. March madness is something my family and I enjoy. Watching march madness gives me some form of passion and excitement. The different basketball games that go on through the whole tournament give me something to do when I start feeling down. Even though I don't play sports anymore I still love the excitement and having a team to root for. Watching people be successful at the sport I love gives me so much joy. Soccer is another sport that is ultimately my favorite sport. Playing soccer is something that I pride myself on, it came naturally to me. Soccer is something I always excelled at, I always wanted to get better. I always tell people I am a soccer player that plays basketball. That feeling when you score and win a soccer game is like none other. Sports bring me peace, I can take out all my frustrations on the field or the court. Watching sports just enhances my peace and happiness. Sports help keep me in shape and healthy. I just love sports.