Silence. The word stands on its own, just like I did for so many years while holding my secret. Silence is how the secret manifested in my body, a barrier covering up all parts of me, and affecting every part of my life. Silence is what I tried to manifest in City at Peace. Fortunately for me, it didn’t work. My deepest, darkest secret ended up on an index card with my name on it by the second week. It would be the first time someone knew the words trapped behind my lips for eight years. I had been sexually abused by one of my peers when I was young. Sharing my story was scary at the time, but it was the catalyst for my personal evolution of which I share for the TrailHeads Blaze Your Own Trail Scholarship. City at Peace provides a safe space for youth in the D.C. Metropolitan area to explore the complexities of adolescence in 21st century America. We spend 20 hours a week examining what makes us diverse to effectively dismantle existing systems of oppression, and transform the negative forces in our lives into positive action through the performing arts. The end product is a full-length musical examining our lives. Silence was safe for me. It was the only thing I knew. I basked in the glory of keeping my truths, opinions, and feelings as my own. Equating silence with safety was the first thing that had to go. The realization came to me one day as I was called out in City at Peace as to why I am so silent, and why I continue to let something take over my whole persona. That spoke to me, and as soon as I was ready, City at Peace became the testing ground for my newfound voice during my eleventh-grade year. My degree of openness and the new vocal way in which I communicate first became visible to my peers during this transition and have altered my life path. My communication has opened up with my new vocabulary, and with an understanding I did not have before, where I can express myself calmly and effectively while retaining my passion. It opened up space for me to speak out against injustice and simultaneously speak up for my beliefs in my community. Through the help of therapy and the opportunity to help others, I am working through the pain of my childhood trauma. Sharing my secret has given me access to the voice that was trapped behind my trauma for eight long years. Thanks to the affirmation from my peers, I was able to tell my parents what happened and begin exploring my trauma with a professional who is helping me make sense of my past. The emotional support from my peers at City at Peace holding me up during this process was something I was not used to, and it took time to fully grasp its impact on my personality and overall way of living. I have never experienced this type of love, and when I felt it, I knew I had to come back and feel it again. My life goal is to work with Black women and trauma exploration. I am frustrated by the number of black women who ignore their trauma. It affects every aspect of our lives, yet we ignore it and pretend as if nothing can affect us. Healing from this experience affected me because I want to study the lingering effects of trauma on Black women today. My life’s path has been directed toward this place as a result of the trauma I experienced as a child, and for that, I am thankful.

Money and other financial topics have always been a secret in my household. From my parents, I learned not to speak about money with anyone, not even them. Thus, I did not know I was supposed to be saving money from the various jobs I have had since the beginning of high school. After learning some of the fundamentals of investing from the Bessemer Trust Financial Services Course, I plan to apply the concept of socially responsible investing, exemplified during a client meeting example, to my own life. Socially responsible investing on a personal level will involve finding opportunities in the social sector to invest for the dual benefit of the social investment and in myself. I want to impact communities positively, and this will involve monetary investment in them so that they can flourish. In addition to socially responsible investing, I also plan to invest in the company for which I work under their stock purchase plan to earn money that way.

A quote that speaks to me as a leader is “just remember, poor people know how to be poor…you do not need to help them be poor better, you need to help them find a path to not being poor.” This quote was recited to me by Morfar, my mother’s father. It was told to him by his father, the Chief. Morfar used to work in international relations. He and his father used to have conversations about USAID was trying to help. He told me this quote a couple of months ago on Facetime, as he and I were discussing my career as an activist and my next steps in college and in the rest of my career. The leadership lesson I learned from the quote is that as a leader, especially if I am coming into a community I am not part of, I have to remember that they have developed mechanisms that have been in place for a long time. These mechanisms are for survival. And I cannot bash these methods, as they have been working because the people are alive. It is not my place as a leader to adjust coping mechanisms, but rather to put new systems in place. The systems currently in place do not work for the vast majority. They are working for the very rich, who want to stay in these systems, and it is my job to dismantle them to help people get out of the oppressive states. I feel the subject of this quote, poor people, can be replaced with other adjectives and still work. Long-lasting change starts with structural change, not band-aid solutions. This quote has gone through three generations, and I hope to pass it on to more.

My community service centers around my involvement in GapBuster Inc., a local nonprofit where I volunteer to serve under-represented youth from lower-income families in the next county over. GapBuster's goal is to "elevate, empower and educate young people so they can achieve their full potential." The time I've spent volunteering, which has been about 2000 hours over the span of five years, exposed me to the harsh realities that many of these kids faced with some relying on the program as a means to get free meals and support with their schoolwork. Besides working directly with kids in Prince George's County, activities I have organized with GapBuster include our annual "Feeding the Homeless" Thanksgiving event, annual Clothes Drive, planning and staffing the Gapbuster Summer Camp, organizing a statewide Teen Health Expo, tutoring elementary, middle, and high school students, organizing Community Cookouts, and reorganizing a new center for GapBuster. All of these problems that we address with our GapBuster events exist in a county I had understood as being relatively wealthy. This troubles me as it highlights the fact that the most vulnerable populations are often left unassisted. The abundance of food deserts, which are areas where fresh, quality food is inaccessible, is a serious problem in Prince George's county, where GapBuster operates. It is important to address the problem because the people in these communities cannot be forgotten about and deserve access to the same quality of life as everywhere else. The most significant take away from my community service experiences surrounds visibility. Montgomery County, the next county over (and where I live), can often feel like a bubble, making it easy to ignore the problems outside the lines since we rarely see them. This should not be the case. They exist, if we see them or not, and, even more so, are the communities that need the help more. What is so unique about the nonprofit sector is that it serves the population that both the government and market sector typically forget. This work is entirely necessary, and this is why I decided to pursue a degree in nonprofit management. I plan to change the world by impacting the communities that need help most and cannot get it from the other two major resources. Part of this work will include returning to GapBuster to advise the organization on how to run more efficiently and effectively with the learnings I will glean from my program free of charge. GapBuster does so much for the community, and the least I can do is give back to them in this way.

Money and other financial topics have always been a secret in my household. From my parents, I learned not to speak about money with anyone, not even them. Thus, I did not know I was supposed to be saving money from the various jobs I have had since the beginning of high school. I had never heard of a 401k, and I did not understand the concept of assets. My only lesson in money management was learning how to write a check in third grade, which of course, I do not remember. Sometimes I wondered how I would learn about finances when I started living on my own, and I settled that I was going to have to engage in trial and error with my money before I found something that worked well for me. To me, financial freedom means knowledge about finances. Everyone should have access to financial understanding. Part of impacting communities positively, especially marginalized communities, will involve monetary investment to teach them financial skills so that we can flourish. Fortunately, to gain this knowledge I was able to take some sessions at Spelman that were offered by Bessemer Trust. Those sessions came at precisely the right time, as I accepted an offer from a consulting firm. How I set up to use and save my money over the next few years will be instrumental for the rest of my life. I plan to be an influential leader in my lifetime, and if I do not have an adequate understanding of the financial system, I will be at a significant disadvantage. Back to the question of how I will achieve financial freedom, I have developed a plan. The first part of my plan includes operating on a budget. Before the course, I did know about budgeting. I heard from friends about their monthly budgets that they had to stick by to ensure they had enough money for each month. Despite knowing about budgets, I never developed one for myself because I thought I did not need to. My typical spending method was to look at my bank account before I made a purchase, see if I had enough money to buy it, and decide from there. Unfortunately, this did not mean I was always in the green; it was only a surface-level indication of money I made recently. I will start budgeting at the beginning of my new position so that I will get into the habit of tracking my spending and saving money from each paycheck. I will dedicate a certain amount of my salary to the savings and investment accounts that I will open before receiving the paychecks. Another thing included in my plan of achieving financial freedom is breaking the generational curse of silence around monetary issues. I will engage in family and next-generation education to support my beneficiaries and prepare them for the responsibilities they will eventually have to take on. I will openly talk about money and ask questions when I do not understand. I am thankful that I now have a launching point to turn my life around and become financially free in my future. I am excited to start the next chapter of my life with a newfound hunger to learn more about finances and give back to my community with what I have learned and earned.

I am proud to be queer because we are not less qualified, we are not less capable, and we refuse to be brushed aside due to the antiquated ways of thinking under which people have been comfortable for the last century. A Luta Continua! The struggle continues. Instagram: @alix.swann

Silence. It stands on its own, just like I did for so many years while holding my secret. Silence is how the secret manifested in my body, a barrier covering up all parts of me, and affecting every part of my life. Silence is what I tried to manifest in City at Peace. Fortunately for me, it didn’t work. My deepest, darkest secret ended up on an index card with my name on it by the second week. It would be the first time someone knew the words trapped behind my lips for eight years. I had been sexually abused by one of my peers when I was young. Sharing my story was scary at the time, but it was the catalyst for my personal evolution. City at Peace provides a safe space for youth in the D.C. Metropolitan area to explore the complexities of adolescence in 21st century America. We spend 20 hours a week examining what makes us diverse to effectively dismantle existing systems of oppression, and transform the negative forces in our lives into positive action through the performing arts. The end product is a full-length musical examining our lives. Silence was safe for me. It was the only thing I knew. I basked in the glory of keeping my truths, opinions, and feelings as my own. Equating silence with safety was the first thing that had to go. The realization came to me one day as I was called out in City at Peace as to why I am so silent, and why I continue to let something take over my whole persona. That spoke to me, and as soon as I was ready, City at Peace became the testing ground for my newfound voice during my eleventh-grade year. My degree of openness and the new vocal way in which I communicate first became visible to my peers during this transition and have altered my life path. My communication has opened up with my new vocabulary, and with an understanding I did not have before, where I can express myself calmly and effectively while retaining my passion. It opened up space for me to speak out against injustice and simultaneously speak up for my beliefs in my community. Through the help of therapy and the opportunity to help others, I am working through the pain of my childhood trauma. Sharing my secret has given me access to the voice that was trapped for eight long years. Thanks to the affirmation from my peers, I was able to tell my parents what happened and begin exploring my trauma with a professional who is helping me make sense of my past. The emotional support from my peers at City at Peace holding me up during this process was something I was not used to, and it took time to fully grasp its impact on my personality and overall way of living. I have never experienced this type of love, and when I felt it, I knew I had to come back and feel it again. My life goal is to work with Black women and trauma exploration. I am frustrated by the number of black women who ignore their trauma. It affects every aspect of our lives, yet we ignore it and pretend as if nothing can affect us. I want to study the lingering effects of trauma on Black women today. My life’s path has been directed toward this place as a result of the trauma I experienced as a child, and for that, I am thankful.

In high school, I felt the hands of oppression over me for being Black in a primarily white space. In college, I believed I would be able to escape the hands of oppression, as I attended an all-women's historically Black college. When I arrived at Spelman and observed the culture, I was struck by aggressions such as "f*** gay people," received questions about why I choose to be attracted to women, and had to withhold disclosing my sexuality to my freshman year roommate for fear of conflict. So to my dismay, the hands of oppression returned, but this time, they lay over me for being queer. Spelman's culture, which is rooted in Black Southern Baptist traditions and respectability politics, does not outwardly support queer students. There were many instances where the institution condoned homophobia. And when I learned that in 2018, the Spring semester before I attended Spelman, a queer trans student was assaulted and multiple other hate crimes against the queer community occurred, I questioned if this was the right place for me. During this time, I struggled to love myself because I found that the one place I would be accepted did not accept me. But I soon realized that nowhere else was going to be safe for me. Black women regard Spelman as a utopia, and it was my duty to make this utopia a safe space for myself and others. I began having informal conversations with my peers about the collective experiences of oppression we were having through Afrekete, our queer student organization, and outside with my peers. These conversations stayed under the radar, as they have been for years after pushback from the college and Spelman community. These conversations turned into an extensive research project that ended with proposing solutions to Spelman. Through my research, I investigated the question, "how are the identities of queer individuals formed and regulated at an all-women's HBCU?" As part of my research, I conducted ten qualitative interviews with queer students at Spelman. I then evaluated Spelman with the Campus Pride Index Report Card to vet our services for queer students. I analyzed the interviews and score on the Pride Index to come up with thirteen suggestions, some of which are policy suggestions, to propose to Spelman for implementation. And although I am unsure if my policy suggestions will be implemented by Spelman, especially in the time of the pandemic, this experience has shown me what I can do with qualitative research to end up affecting those who need change the most.

As someone who grew up in America's outdated and antiquated education system, it is clear that more than just reform is necessary to undo the systemic disadvantages that still plague students. Simply reforming our broken system will only place a bandaid on it, which will eventually fall off. Instead, the education system needs a complete reform, which will be my contribution to society. My career aspirations include restructuring educational policy to be inclusive of all students and to prepare them for the real world. As an activist scholar and soon to be activist policymaker, I look forward to absorbing information that I will be able to use in practice. My undergraduate degree is in International Studies, providing me with an international public policy background. Within my policy studies, my cultural studies concentration is focused on the field of education by taking courses such as Multicultural Education to further increase my specialization. One of my qualifications in the field of public policy includes attending Harvard University’s Public Policy Leadership Conference, where I had the opportunity to experience studying public policy in a graduate school environment. Current graduate students of color led the conference and they demonstrated to me that I, too, belong in spaces that have been historically white, and that my presence is vital to changing these existing systems. This experience was life-changing for me because I did not think I was fit for graduate studies prior to the conference. I never saw anyone who looked like me in those spaces, so I did not associate myself with post-graduate education. It is now clear to me that I have the ability to take on graduate studies that will better allow me to advocate for marginalized communities through nonprofit work and public policy reform. In addition, I interned with House Representative Jamie Raskin and worked mainly on environmental and education policy for him. I also had the opportunity to intern with Planned Parenthood's Black Leadership & Engagement Department to see reproductive justice policy from the lens of the nonprofits who often work with representatives. These experiences have allowed me to absorb public policy from different aspects, including an academic lens, a non-profit lens, and a governmental lens. Finally, I have been an advocate on the opposite side of public policy as a constituent. In Georgia, we saw extreme voter suppression in the 2018 gubernatorial election. After experiencing disenfranchisement through that process, I realized the problems that activist policymakers such as Congressman Lewis were fighting fifty years ago are still present. As a result of this realization, my most recent initiative includes spearheading the creation and development of the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Votes Coalition, a group of civic engagement organizations in the AUC that successfully created a digital strategy to engage all eligible voters. Seeing Georgia turn blue for the first time since 1992 was a major accomplishment, and I am proud of our work in helping achieve this. This year, we achieved record AUC student voter turnout through our collective efforts and laid the foundation for an organization that will serve the AUC in advocating for civic engagement and public policy long after I graduate. My future professional work will benefit public policy, diversity, and equity because my existence in those spaces is radical. These places were not built for us, yet we find ways to prevail. And as someone who suffered through the system, I will be one of the ones to change it.

I have always been taught that Black people are not known to enjoy the great outdoors. Thankfully, I have been defying this stereotype for my whole life. My love for the outdoors began in second grade when I joined a Girl Scout troop, and I have been a Girl Scout for fourteen years. Girl Scouts encouraged me into many leadership positions that prepared me to lead in any aspect of my life. Being in an all-women’s environment also encouraged me to go to an all-women’s college, which I have enjoyed. When we were young, my troop started with glamping, which is a pseudo-version of camping. The first couple of times, we stayed in lodges at night and ate most of our meals in a cabin. We participated in actual camping and outdoor activities during the day, including archery, canoeing, and building campfires. As we got older, we advanced in our skills and were able to camp for real. We went through many trials and tribulations as we learned outdoor skills, including needing assistance from the fire department for one particularly unruly fire. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and we learned our lesson. Someone ALWAYS needs to be assigned to have an eye on the fire, regardless of how many people are enjoying it. Camping quickly became one of my favorite activities to do with my troop, and I look back at the photographs with fond memories. As I got older, I took this love of the outdoors to my friend group. After our high school graduation, I convinced a group of seven of my friends to go camping. They were very skeptical at first, and kept repeating phrases such as “Black people don’t camp,” or “camping is for white people,” but they begrudging agreed to try it. When we went, they had the time of their lives! I was so proud that I could share the gift of the outdoors with my group of first-generation African immigrant friends. Since that year, camping has been an annual tradition, and more and more folks have joined us each year. When I moved to Atlanta for school, I decided to find a Girl Scout community here. So on the weekends, when I am not doing my homework, I work at Girl Scout Camp Timber Ridge in Mableton, Georgia as an Outdoor Program Specialist. I plan and execute activities to assist the young scouts in earning badges and completing journeys. Through this job, I teach young people the lessons I have learned from the outdoors. Girl Scouts is why I was exposed to strong women leaders, and I hope to be that strong leader for other young girls. My wilderness experience affects my career goals because I plan to work with Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital in the future. Through Girl Scouts, I fell in love with the great outdoors, despite the stereotypes associated with Black women being outdoors. And because of this, I hope to teach other young Black girls that they, too, can love the great outdoors.

When I arrived as a student at Spelman, an all-women’s historically Black college, I was berated by aggressions such as "f*** gay people," received questions about why I choose to be attracted to women, and had to withhold disclosing my sexuality to my freshman year roommate for fear of conflict. This was not how I expected to be greeted at my HBCU, a space that I thought would save me from the oppression and ignorance I faced at my primarily white high school. Instead, to my dismay, the oppression returned, but this time, I was targeted for being queer by the very community I sought refuge in. Spelman's culture, which is rooted in Black Southern Baptist traditions and respectability politics, does not outwardly support queer students. My time as a student at Spelman was marked with continual condoning of homophobia-- something I continue to struggle to make amends with. There were many instances where the institution condoned homophobia, one of which inspired me to take action. In one situation, I was shocked while reading the question, "would you be okay with your match being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community?" on a survey to match mentors and mentees for a program I am in. Sexuality does not correlate to a person's intellect, so there was no reason to include this question in a survey for an academic organization. The offense on my end came from the fact that this question, even if not intentionally, was allowing homophobic people to continue perpetuating violence against queer bodies, and that a campus organization was condoning this practice right in front of the entire general body's eyes by not catching the offense before and/or reprimanding and condemning the homophobia afterward. After inquiring about this question, I learned that in the past, students have complained to the executive board about their mentor/mentee match being queer, and there were reports of direct homophobia within these relationships. The question "would you be okay with your match being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community?" was included in the survey as an attempt at preventing potential incidents and as a form of damage control. This incident is just another one of the many occurrences where I felt targeted for being queer at Spelman. And when I learned that in 2018, the Spring semester before I attended Spelman, a queer trans student was assaulted and multiple other hate crimes against the queer community occurred, I questioned if this was the right place for me. This event is significant in my life because I soon realized that nowhere else was going to be safe for me. Black women regard Spelman as a utopia, and it was my duty to make this utopia a safe space for myself and others. I also realized that it is within my journey to create safe spaces for marginalized people in other aspects of my life. I began having informal conversations with my peers about the collective experiences of oppression we were having through Afrekete, our queer student organization, and outside with my peers. These conversations stayed under the radar, as they have been for years after pushback from the college and Spelman community. The conversations turned into an extensive research project that ended with proposing solutions to Spelman. Through my research, I investigated the question, "How are the identities of queer individuals formed and regulated at an all-women's HBCU?" As part of my research, I conducted ten qualitative interviews with queer students at Spelman. I then evaluated Spelman with the Campus Pride Index Report Card to vet our services for queer students. I analyzed the interviews and score on the Pride Index to come up with thirteen suggestions, some of which are policy suggestions, which I was able to propose to Spelman for implementation through meeting with our LGBTQIA Liaison. And although I am unsure if my policy suggestions will be implemented by Spelman, especially in the time of the pandemic, this experience has shown me what I can do with qualitative research to end up affecting those who need change the most. Through this event, I have become an advocate for myself and others, and I plan to continue this for the rest of my life.

As someone who grew up in America's outdated and antiquated education system, it is clear that more than just reform is necessary in order to undo the systemic disadvantages that still plague students. Simply reforming our broken system will only place a bandaid on it, which will eventually fall off. Instead, the education system needs a complete reform, which will be my contribution to society. As an activist scholar and soon to be activist policymaker, I look forward to absorbing information that I will use in practice. My undergraduate degree is in International Studies, providing me with an international public policy background. But, I know that my education spans much wider than my physical college classes. In addition to the public policy training through Spelman College, to become an effective leader within the educational system, I need to experience the many existing education models. I have been able to begin this learning process through my virtual internship in Chile that focuses on education and social change. In addition, Spelman allowed me to attend Harvard University's Public Policy Leadership Conference, where I had the opportunity to experience studying public policy in a graduate school environment. It was led by current graduate students of color who demonstrated to me that I, too, belong in spaces that have been historically white, and that my presence is vital to changing these existing systems. This experience was life-changing for me because prior to the conference, I did not think I was fit for graduate studies. I never saw anyone who looked like me in those spaces, so I did not associate myself with post-graduate education. It is now clear to me that I have the ability to take on graduate studies that will better allow me to advocate for marginalized communities through nonprofit work and public policy reform. Now that I have gained confidence, determination, and eloquence from my time and experiences through Spelman, I am ready to take those skills to the next level. I also interned with House Representative Jamie Raskin and worked mainly on environmental and education policy for him. Finally, I had the opportunity to intern with Planned Parenthood's Black Leadership & Engagement Department to see reproductive justice policy from the lens of the nonprofits who often work with representatives. These experiences have allowed me to absorb public policy from different aspects, including an academic lens, a nonprofit lens, and a governmental lens. I am looking forward to continuing my learning while keeping my goal of restructuring the education system at the forefront of my education. My career aspirations include restructuring educational policy to be inclusive of all students and to prepare them for the real world. To do this, I will have to hold positions such as school board member and secretary of education. My future professional work will benefit diversity and equity because my existence in those spaces is radical. These places were not built for us, yet we find ways to prevail. And as someone who suffered through the system, I will be one of the ones to change it.

After the passing of a significant civil rights champion, Congressman John Lewis, it is up to people like myself to carry on his work. One of the most significant moments of my life was hearing Congressman Lewis speak at a protest against gun violence in D.C., where he told us that we are the leaders of the 21st century and that we are going to have a victory. I took his words to heart and have since dedicated my life to social justice causes. Now more than ever, an immense amount of power lies with those who have the privilege to access their right to vote, and because of that, there is an increasing attraction to suppress voters in this year's election. In Georgia, we saw first-hand voter suppression in the 2018 gubernatorial election. After experiencing disenfranchisement through that process, I realized the problems that activists such as Congressman Lewis were fighting fifty years ago are still present today. Witnessing that suppression was the catalyst to pivot my organizing and social justice work to focus on voting. My most recent initiative includes spearheading the creation and development of the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Votes Coalition, a group of civic engagement organizations in the AUC that created a digital strategy to engage all eligible voters. This ensured that we could pool our resources to have the most impact to garner civic engagement within the AUC. This year's work was trickier than it has been in past years when our students were centrally located. Instead of focusing solely on Georgia voting regulations and absentee ballots, our focus shifted to encompassing all states' regulations. One major challenge for students eligible to vote is a lack of accurate information on registering and casting their ballot. To combat this, we created and staffed a Voter Hotline that students can message and receive answers to their questions. We continued this work through the Georgia Runoff election and laid the foundation for an organization that will serve the AUC long after I graduate. Regarding my financial situation, I have $1,500 left on my balance for my upcoming final semester. I have successfully won one other $500 scholarship, bringing my balance from $2,000 down to $1,500. I am continually applying for scholarships to close out this final semester so that I will not need to take out any more private loans. Receiving this scholarship will bring me much closer to my goal. Upon graduation, I plan to attend graduate school. My future career goals and aspirations include restructuring educational policy to be inclusive of all students and to prepare them for the real world. To do this, I plan to hold positions such as school board member and secretary of education. As an activist scholar and soon to be activist policymaker, I look forward to absorbing information that I will use in practice.

This image shows me attending AfroPunk Atlanta in 2018! I won a ticket to attend but almost did not go because I did not have a friend to accompany me. Fortunately, I stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to go solo, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I learned that doing things on my own isn't so terrible, and I would have missed some essential self-growth if I had let fear stop me. I am much freer after this disovery.

My understanding of the education system comes from being oppressed within it and therefore creating systemic change. I established BlackCAP, a student-run movement that brought equity measures to students of color in magnet programs. While mobilizing my community through BlackCAP, I realized education advocacy was the path for me. After founding BlackCAP, later in college, I led the charge to improve situations for LGBTQIA students through a research project and proposed solutions to the school. These advocacy efforts have taught me a lot about the education system. The education system needs a complete restructuring, not just reform. The system was built during a time when students of color were not in the picture, so it does not work to serve us fundamentally. Simply reforming our extremely broken system will only place a bandaid on it, which will eventually fall off. We need to begin developing inclusive policies that allow children to be free and explore their interests. But completely restructuring the whole system is a radical idea. Until we are ready for restructuring, I am committed to doing reform work to help current students. My education has given me the knowledge and experiences to know that the system does not have to be like this. I have been able to attend some of the best schools, such as Spelman College, the number one historically Black college. Within these schools, I have seen inequity shine her light. As someone who can change things, I want to do my part. My formal and informal education has shown me that I have this ability, and for that, I am very thankful. So as for the role of education in my life, education has guided me to be an advocate.