What excites me the most about college is being able to finally work on my craft in what I want to do for my career. I have always wanted to work in sports, so in college I not only got a chance to be a student-athletes and play on the women's basketball team, but I also got to play as a graduate student and study journalism, emerging media, sports management, and entertainment. I've always known that I wanted to study in the department of communications, and I haven't regretted it since. I played basketball at Kennesaw State for 3 years and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in journalism and emerging media. Physical and mental health has always been important to me because playing basketball since I was 10 years old has always impacted my mental health both positively and negatively. I wasn't aware of my metal health until my sophomore year in college. I couldn't relate to those who went to therapy or had mental breakdowns or even couldn't sleep until I was mentally abused by my coach in college. I would stay up worrying about practice the next morning and even in the summer, before the season started, I would eat less and over exercise trying to prepare to return for summer workouts. My teammates expressed they were worried about me. I started seeing a sports therapist and soon became an advocate for mental health in athletes. I became the Vice President of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the chair for the mental health committee. I started learning the importance of taking your mental and physical health seriously. As an athlete the physical health part was already hard, but the mental part was even harder. Seeing a sports therapist barely helped with the mental part, and finding a way to approach the physical part meant trying to enjoy basketball. In order to do this, I found joy in the sport by going to gym alone and just shooting for hours. I played my last year of basketball at Clark Atlanta University. It's a private HBCU. Not even basketball helped me pay for tuition, so I worked at the braves stadium and door dashed all while waking up at 5am to be on track for conditioning or to be the gym for practice. This was all my 1st year of my masters program, so on top working and being a student athlete, I am handling the work load of a full-time MBA student. This year, I am in my second year of my MBA program. I have found that while I am retired from basketball, exercising is one of my favorite things to do help me feel better from handling the loads of working and being a full time MBA student. Now that I'm no longer a student-athlete, I can plan my own workouts. I have started breathing exercises for when I feel myself becoming overwhelmed and wanting to cry. Becoming aware of my mental health my sophomore year of college, has changed my life for the best. Becoming aware of this side of me has allowed me to feel healthier, live healthier, and think clearer. Breathing exercises and prayer has helped me stay composed in situations where I just feel overwhelmed and want to cry. Feeling like I have some sort of control over my body and my mind has changed my life and I look forward to finding out more on how my body responds by trying new things.

My name is Alexis Mann, I am a proud daughter of two hard working black parents who are graduates of HBCUs. My mom, an educator who graduated from Central State University, and My dad, a business man who graduated from Paine College. I wanted to follow in their footsteps and graduate from an HBCU just like them. I let basketball take me where I could pay for school which was Kennesaw State, but although I graduated, I only played 3 years of basketball at Kennesaw State. I knew I wanted to use my last year of eligibility to attend an HBCU and also chase another degree. I remember my mom working as a teacher and being up all night to go to classes for her Master's Degree, so of course, wanting to be like my mom, I'll be graduating in the spring just like I watched her do when I eight years old. When I imagine myself living the life of my dreams, I imagine myself able to pour into every black athlete around the world. I would start professional sports leagues for HBCU and black students, build strength and conditioning facilities around the world with technology only the professionals have access to. This wouldn't only benefit athletes, because in the world of business, there's a job for everyone. This dream would have to involve coaches, mentors, therapists, psychologists, physical therapists, doctors, trainers, chefs, nutritionists, tutors, and much more where that comes from. As a former collegiate student athlete, I know I needed all of this. I needed a community, and not everyone has access to these things. Mental and physical health are two of the most important things for anyone, but especially for a young adult using their body every day to pay for school or take their talents to the next level. Going from a PWI to a HBCU, I know that resources start to run slim especially when it comes to athletics. At Clark Atlanta, I ran so much, that my shoes grew holes and I formed stress reactions in my metatarsals on my right foot. Meanwhile at Kennesaw State, we had a pair of shoes for practice, a pair for home games, a pair for away games, and a pair for breast cancer awareness month. Black students deserve better. Black athletes deserve to be reimbursed for their hard work the same way athletes at a PWI would. Providing an environment for black students and athletes to be surrounded by the proper love and care that they deserve would help them perform in the classroom. They would be surrounded by people that look like them and want to pour into them. They would be taught to become leaders by those who care about more than how they are performing on the field/court right now, but how they are performing in life after the ball stops. Black athletes are more than just what they do on the field, but some of us need help finding that out about ourselves. My dream is to provide an environment for black athletes to excel in their sports, classroom, life, and post-graduation while being surrounded by black leaders, mentors, friends, and family with similar goals. We have suffered, we have had our ideas and talents stripped from us. We deserve better, and it’s ok for us to do things for ourselves. This Dream is investing in our future, just like my parents did for me before I was even born. I'll find find a way to make this happen for us one way or another.

My favorite part about dreaming is that it's not as much pressure as settle goals. Don't get me wrong, I love working towards a goal, but when I dream, it's out of the box, and it relieves me of the pressures of my goals because dreams don't necessarily have to be realistic. When I imagine myself living the life of my dreams, I imagine myself wealthy and able to pour into every black athlete around the world. I would start professional sports leagues for HBCU and black students, build strength and conditioning facilities around the world with technology only the professionals have access to. This wouldn't only benefit athletes, because in the world of business, there's a job for everyone. This dream would have to involve coaches, mentors, therapists, psychologists, physical therapists, doctors, trainers, chefs, nutritionists, tutors, and much more where that comes from. As a former collegiate student athlete, I know I needed all of this. I needed a community, and not everyone has access to these things. Mental and physical health are two of the most important things for anyone, but especially for a young adult using their body every day to pay for school or take their talents to the next level. Going from a PWI to a HBCU, I know that resources start to run slim especially when it comes to athletics. At Clark Atlanta, I ran so much, that my shoes grew holes and I formed stress reactions in my metatarsals on my right foot. Meanwhile at Kennesaw State, we had a pair of shoes for practice, a pair for home games, a pair for away games, and a pair for breast cancer awareness month. Black students deserve better. Black athletes deserve to be reimbursed for their hard work the same way athletes at a PWI would. Providing an environment for black students and athletes to be surrounded by the proper love and care that they deserve would help them perform in the classroom. They would be surrounded by people that look like them and want to pour into them. They would be taught to become leaders by those who care about more than how they are performing on the field/court right now, but how they are performing in life after the ball stops. Black athletes are more than just what they do on the field, but some of us need help finding that out about ourselves. My dream is to provide an environment for black athletes to excel in their sports, classroom, life, and post-graduation while being surrounded by black leaders, mentors, friends, and family with similar goals. We have suffered, we have had our ideas and talents striped from us. We deserve better, and it’s ok for us to do things for ourselves. This Dream is investing in our future.