Please allow me to introduce myself as Alaura Kimes and I currently attend Woodward Academy as a Highschool Senior. In the near future, I plan on attending Spelman College as a Health Sciences major. I aspire to center my career around Cosmetic Dentistry and Luxury Real Estate. In addition, my academic focus is to use my Health Sciences degree as a tool to assist in molding my ideal career and future in entrepreneurship and mentorship. Because I have a passion for making others look and feel beautiful, I believe that my career choice will fall along the lines of uplifting and amplifying the entrepreneurial and creative voices of the black community, and strengthening organizations and groups in efforts to build their structures, systems, and skills. In the future, I plan on seeking internships in Teen Leadership, Real Estate, and Dentistry to help guide my plans for post-graduation. After completing my four years of highschool, I’ve established that having Health Sciences with a minor in Business as my academic interest supports my passion and enables me to be devoted to a career that correlates with my goals.
Additionally, I believe that Dentistry and Real Estate will be catalysts in helping me achieve my passionate goal of creating positive social change. Because Health Science is a key component in the foundation for solving many problems today, I believe that I will eventually obtain the necessary skills to make a significant impact in the future. As a business minor, I am very passionate about innovation and establishing a problem that requires solutions. Not only will my intended fields of study have a positive impact on social change, but it will also have a global impact on community development & identified target populations.
During my first two years of highschool, I dove into the world of entrepreneurship with the opening of my black-owned beauty supply franchise alongside my mother. This passion for black beauty ignited as a little girl, when I began to notice the fact that so many businesses and majorities were profiting off of black beauty, but never taking a second thought of funneling into us. In fact, Black individuals own and run less than 5% of the nation's beauty supply shops, and even lower in percentage are the businesses that sell beauty items in large quantities. This beauty supply store has and continues to mold me into the business mogul that I am becoming, and allows me to give back to my community through events such as giveaways, fundraisers, and classes. I was amplified in these efforts when I received my first magazine cover story, thanks to Hype Hair Magazine. Hype Hair Magazine, established in 1992 stands as one of the longest running beauty publications that highlights african american beauty, style and hair. To be awarded as the first Teen-Edition Covergirl was beyond epic for me, and as an entrepreneur and philanthropist, my goal will continue to be uplifting my community.
A huge lesson learned from this experience is understanding the fact that not only is giving back to the community a very vital mindset to demonstrate, but it also provides life-saving awareness and creates a positive feeling knowing that I have developed a social change in a way that also falls in line of my passions. After becoming better aware and analyzing how my passion for how black beauty is appreciated in my atmosphere, I now plan to scale my project to other communities with the same criteria.