Scholarship, leadership, character, and personal image. 4 characteristics I have learned throughout my 4 high school years can help someone become a better person throughout their career. I am blessed to uphold all these characteristics because of my opportunities within the Aspire Nursing Scholars program Cohort 6. Throughout my senior and junior year meetings, I have realized how important it is to be a leader and the unforetold hard work it takes to uphold this role. A leader means to take on a task that sometimes nobody else would want to do, or be the voice to speak up about a problem that nobody seems to address. While attending Aspire I also realize that not everyone has to be an outspoken leader, and some are the underdogs with no official role. After 18 years I had to learn that it is okay to step out of my comfort zone and do something different. I had to learn to be a leader for myself because everyone is different and I didn't see anyone who could become a leader for me. Every person that I saw that was going into the field that I wanted to be in had none of my interests or looked like me. During a session during my junior year, I met and saw people who looked like me and had similar career paths which I wanted to follow. I knew it was possible but I was never allowed to see people from my county thrive in success. I understood the importance of maintaining a safe space within hospital settings, understanding taking breaks for yourself and p; putting yourself before anyone else, and learning about when to ask for help all while in ASPIRE. I can never explain how joyous it was to be a part of this cohort and gained every bit of insight about what it means not only to be a good leader, but a good nurse. There was 1 very small issue remaining. I still felt like nobody fit what I needed, so I became everything I needed and more. I am now a scholar student with the ambition of being something great. I have learned through pain, sadness, joy, and anger that I am someone who other people look up to because somewhere there might be someone who looks like me, thinks like me, or even has been through the same experiences. So let me give you some insight into how much I've taken initiative on how much I want to be the light for someone else. I hold 2 student body leadership positions, I'm in 4 student leadership clubs, an active volunteer holding over 100 community service hours just in highschools and am to continue this course after high school. And for the age-old question “ What are you going to do after graduation?” my answer won't be so short and sweet. I, Arielle Watson, will continue to be a leader, an older sister, a high achieving student, a volunteer, black and beautiful, and plan to attend the #1 ranked nursing school in georgia, Georgia southwestern state university, in the fall of 2023 where I will major in nursing, specializing in labor and delivery, where I will graduate debt free being a first-generation college student, coming from a single and a deceased parent household, being biracial, having locs, having tattoos, overcoming mental illness and will be something great.

For the last 2 years of high school, I have taken the initiative to become a nurse. After some self-finding on what I wanted to do in life, I decided I wanted to become a nurse, specifically in labor and delivery. Since I was young I always fond of going to the hospital and being excited every time my mom said I had an appointment, which now it's coincidental that I want to work in the same environment. Of course, my mother knew this would turn into something more. My mother actually wanted to work with kids as well and was going to college to pursue a degree until she found out she was pregnant with me which resulted in her dropping out of college to take care of me full-time. As of today, she is my only source of support since my father's death in 2017. Since my father's death, after a long time of grieving, I realized how much I wanted to be something else than working a regular job at Walmart or working somewhere that anyone can qualify. I'm not going to lie and say that my entire life has changed since my father died, but what I will say is that I didn't know what I was doing until 2 years ago. I was diagnosed with depression, and anxiety and struggled with an eating disorder. I was barely sleeping and struggled to keep up with my grades in school this resulted in me being on the brink of not being able to do anything after high school, which can also be a result of the pandemic. Once school was back almost to normal, there was a meeting one day for this program through Cleveland called Aspire nursing scholars. The program instructor, Mrs.Daria, explained how the program worked and how it wasn't a commitment for 2 years but instead an interest program where students come once a week for 12 weeks to gain insight into whether or not they wanted to enter the field of nursing and to broaden the diversity of minorities working in healthcare. Once the program started we learned about the expectations of a nurse, work safety of yourself and the patient, debriefing after certain situations, and self-care. Every time I was in the program I got more and more intrigued every day and continued to make connections with my peers within the cohort. Ultimately I decided based upon the informativeness of the program that I wanted to continue my senior year and that I for sure wanted to be a nurse. As of the current time of my senior year, I attend the program twice a month and I am working on skills to become a PCNA. Unfortunately, because I am going out of state for school I can not work at Cleveland Clinic during the summer, but what I am doing instead of giving up hope on obtaining work experience before college is applying for an internship for only the summer through Cleveland Clinic. I can work at Cleveland Clinic Main Campus and gain experience alongside RNs to further my interest. And if there's one thing my instructors told me is that you have to have strong personal branding to make you stand out so let me introduce myself. Hello, my name is Arielle Watson. I am a leader and honors student planning to obtain her Honors Stem Diploma, who will also become an RN with a BSN diploma, come out of college almost debt free, and be the first college graduate of 2 generations. I am going to be something great.

For the last 2 years of high school, I have taken the initiative to become a nurse. After some self-finding on what I wanted to do in life, I decided I wanted to become a nurse, specifically in labor and delivery. Since I was young I always fond of going to the hospital and being excited every time my mom said I had an appointment, which now it's coincidental that I want to work in the same environment. Of course, my mother knew this would turn into something more. My mother actually wanted to work with kids as well and was going to college to pursue a degree until she found out she was pregnant with me which resulted in her dropping out of college to take care of me full-time. As of today, she is my only source of support since my father's death in 2017. Since my father's death, after a long time of grieving, I realized how much I wanted to be something else than working a regular job at Walmart or working somewhere that anyone can qualify. I'm not going to lie and say that my entire life has changed since my father died, but what I will say is that I didn't know what I was doing until 2 years ago. I was diagnosed with depression, and anxiety and struggled with an eating disorder. I was barely sleeping and struggled to keep up with my grades in school this resulted in me being on the brink of not being able to do anything after high school, which can also be a result of the pandemic. Once school was back almost to normal, there was a meeting one day for this program through Cleveland called Aspire nursing scholars. The program instructor, Mrs.Daria, explained how the program worked and how it wasn't a commitment for 2 years but instead an interest program where students come once a week for 12 weeks to gain insight into whether or not they wanted to enter the field of nursing and to broaden the diversity of minorities working in healthcare. Once the program started we learned about the expectations of a nurse, work safety of yourself and the patient, debriefing after certain situations, and self-care. Every time I was in the program I got more and more intrigued every day and continued to make connections with my peers within the cohort. Ultimately I decided based upon the informativeness of the program that I wanted to continue my senior year and that I for sure wanted to be a nurse. As of the current time of my senior year, I attend the program twice a month and I am working on skills to become a PCNA. Unfortunately, because I am going out of state for school I can not work at Cleveland Clinic during the summer, but what I am doing instead of giving up hope on obtaining work experience before college is applying for an internship for only the summer through Cleveland Clinic. I can work at Cleveland Clinic Main Campus and gain experience alongside RNs to further my interest. And if there's one thing my instructors told me is that you have to have strong personal branding to make you stand out so let me introduce myself. Hello, my name is Arielle Watson. I am a leader and honors student planning to obtain her Honors Stem Diploma, who will also become an RN with a BSN diploma, come out of college almost debt free, and be the first college graduate of 2 generations. I am going to be something great.

A plan is always a step-by-step process that you make, that you almost always have to have a backup plan for just in case things don't go right because life happens. Recently one of my friends decided that after years of not having any good academic standing that they wanted to get on the right page and go to college. They have a less than or equal to 2.0 GPA and now have to retake classes to be able to graduate high school themselves. Disregarding what I want to do for college I had to set time aside to help them figure out what they wanted to do which might involve different steps, approaches, and materials. My solution to help them was to have them do their research, have them make a plan, give them resources and almost make them do it themselves. I know that sounds a little bit harsh but there is the reasoning behind my madness. A plan that I make and construct would be based upon what I would want them to do but having them do it their selves would allow me to figure out what they want to do and then work around that to bring the best results I can. The first step would be doing your research and finding a college that offers the program you want. Once you find the program you want make sure that the school you looking at has what you want out of a college and then apply. Once excepted fill out your FAFSA for the school of choice and a least 2 other schools as a backup plan in case they are not offering you the most. When you finally decide on a college fill out around 3 scholarships a week. To gain enough experience on what it's like at your college, do a college tour where many opportunities will be offered to you about first-year experiences, scholarships, clubs, and organizations, and talk with a college counselor to make sure you are on the right path of getting into college. Now while doing this they would also have to maintain high school academics to guarantee that they graduate. Lastly, the final step is to ask for help. A lot of people who are first-generation college students fail to understand that because you are first-generation, your family will not always be able to help you understand what is like to go to college. The best people to talk to are people who have been to college experienced it and graduated. No teacher, counselor, or anyone with a degree that I have talked to has given me no help or advice when it came to college. Now if things were different and money wasn't a problem, the same step would pursue except for the scholarship part. College defiantly wouldn't be different if you have money because the process is still the same and everyone that wants to go has to take the same steps. The only difference would be the school you go to and how much the tuition you would have to pay. The steps I used to ensure that I got my boyfriend into college to make something better of himself deffintally inspired me to write this and at least say sometimes money can not solve every problem.

My entire family on both sides has a drug and or alcohol problem except for intermediate family. All my life I’ve seen family members high, acting strange, and doing things that they wouldn’t normally do, and it has effected me up until currently since I was this behavior on a regular basis when I was young when attending parties, outings or just random days they show up to my house . This caused me to not want to go to outings or family events just because of the possibility of they type of behavior I might see. While trying to dismiss these moments there was only one person in my family how had the biggest impact on me while struggling with addiction which was my father. I knew he was a alcoholic since I gained consciousness of the real world since every time I saw him he was different every time I was him. Some times he was sober, some times he was a little bit intoxicated but majority or the time he was heavily intoxicated. I never lived with my father so I didn’t see him to often, yet when I did it wasn’t the most enjoyable time, but I knew he was sick in some way, I just couldn’t tell how. Unfortunately because of his excessive drinking he had had 3 heart attacks by the time I was 12 and on October 25 2017 his 3rd one would be his last. My father never graduated high school or went to college, but my mom graduated and attended college yet unfortunately didn’t get a degree because she had me in college. Recently because it is my senior year I realize how important it is to me to have both of my parents in my life and support me with my career path in nursing. When I graduate I will be the first of 3 generation to graduate college with a degree. The major things that I feel that has given me anxiety when continuing to pressure my dreams after college is the influence I had at such a young age with drugs. Majority of the people in my family who started using drugs was after they had dropped out of college because it got to hard, and then when life got to hard they started using. I do not want to fall into a static of such a negative path. I want to be able to have faith in myself that will not end up like everyone els in my family and throw my future away. I feel that this scholarship will help me and my single mother fund me enough money to maintain a strong will to finish school and be apart of the percentage of black/ biracial nursing students who finish.