Hello, my name is Belema Josiah and I am a junior at Florida Memorial University. Before I got to college I attended North Miami Beach High school and there I met Ms. Keisha Smith. This queen inspires me to this day, and I greatly attribute my successful high school and college career to her. Ms. Smith is the Drama and Theatre teacher at North Miami Beach Sr. High. When I first met her, it was at my brother's High school Open House. Though I was still in middle school at the time, I marched right up to her- and said, "I am going to be the president of your club." She looked at me, then at my brother and proceeded to call me adorable. She thought I was the cutest thing in the world, but she did take me seriously. A couple years later when I graduated middle school, I became her student and she took me under her wing. I always wanted a career in entertainment, however I did not think I could actually pull it off. However, she taught me, counselled me and was a role model to me. Even though she had hundreds of students to take care of- she always had the time to teach me how to be a leader- even if it was only through her actions. I expressed to her my financial issues and how college seemed so far away for me. She encouraged and invited me into a world of possibilities. She helped me get funding for State Thespian Competitions, and encouraged me to perform for college auditions. This is where I noticed that people would actually pay me to do what I love at their school. Through her I won scholarship programs for poetry and music. She truly encouraged me to forge ahead in my academic career. Even now, she is only a phone call away. I am utterly grateful for her and if I win this scholarship- she will definitely benefit from it. It's one of my dreams to show her how grateful I am, as well as pour back into her what she has poured into the lives of several students.

My name is Belema Josiah, and I am a playwright, poet, singer-song writer, and spoken word artist. For as long as I could read and write, I have been creating. I remember the feedback I received when I performed my first poem in the fourth grade. My poem about earth day and littering, though at the time seemed so elementary, it really sparked the beginning of a passion for me. As I grew older, I started venturing out into theatre and playwrighting. I wrote my very first play entitled, "How to Kill a Cactus." A autobiographical play about a teenage Nigerian student's journey through Highschool while losing her home. The play included original poetry and received a Superior rating from the Florida Thespian Conference in 2019. Overall my goals and aspirations are to inspire generations of people through my art and build a legacy where people see themselves in my words. Growing up I felt like my voice did not matter- but I realized people listened when words rhymed, and when cadences changed. I learned that people listened when you expressed yourself artfully. I want to empower people to find their own voice and shamelessly express themselves.

My name is Belema Josiah and I am a Music major from Miami, Florida. I currently attend Florida Memorial University, where I study music and the performing arts. I have a passion for performance and love being on stage- whether it is for my singing, poetry, acting or spoken word. I hope to inspire those who feel as though they have no voice with my art and Christian lifestyle. I recently, started a social media ministry (@Captainbel) on Instagram and Tiktok, where I post Christian advice and take a deeper look at God's word. I always knew of God, but I never took him seriously, until I lost most of what I had. I lost my friends, some family members and my peace of mind. My life shifted and I was no longer the center of my life, Jesus was. I found a church home and started being more active in church. I was actually saved, I went from being broken and seeking everyone's validation to being saved and knowing God loves me. So what excites me most about this world is the God that created it. I plan to give back to my community through my ministry and getting those who are seeking God on my campus Bibles. I want to help my community by being an active member in the body of Christ, not a Pharisee. I hope my application inspires you to choose me, and if not, still check out my ministry on IG and Tiktok. Thanks for the opportunity.

My name is Belema Josiah, I am a Nigerian-American who grew up in Miami Florida, and my experience as a black woman has everything to do with my mother, and aunts. Growing up, I witnessed my mother make the daunting decision to raise us while my father worked to support us in another country. Raising children was hard enough, but being an immigrant and raising two black kids in America really proved tough for my mother, but she fearlessly faced the challenge. My mother is the strongest woman I know, she served in the Nigerian military and came to America in 1997 for a better life. I watched my mother provide for my older brother and I, while being separated from her husband for over 15 years. She really sparked inspiration in us by telling us to never give up, pushing us to realize the people who have the things we want do not have an advantage over us, but rather it is us that need to be fearless and work hard. Along side my cousins who grew up in the same house as their father, I saw where I differed. My work ethic was different, my ambitions were heavier- why, because all I've seen is a hard-working woman in my life. Around the age of eight, my mother's sister moved in with us after fleeing an abusive relationship, and though I was young I witnessed many of my aunts and female family members confine in my mom. Together, we lived, cried, ate, laughed and grew. I saw how strong and resilient women are, especially when we band together. I am who I am today because of all the strong women who have poured into me. I know before I depend on anyone I depend on God and find strength from within. I intend on using this scholarship to uplift my sisters in my community and on campus. Because it's so easy to be influenced by the media who tears black women apart, I would love to extend a sense of community by having meetings where we can relate as sisters and fight as a body against the injustice that affects black women. I would also love to spread reconciliation from the brokenness we have used to separate ourselves, like colorism. By hosting conversations, and using my social platforms as well as my outlets of art, poetry, singing- I want to bring a group of black women together as children of God, to grow and become more whole.

My name is Belema Josiah, I am a Nigerian American from Miami Florida, and you can already tell by name I stood out. My whole name is Orabelematei, meaning "God's love is the Greatest" in Okrika, but in school 'Belema' was hard enough for everyone to pronounce. My Nigerian parents came to this country for a better life, and raised my brother and I to appreciate and pursue that better life. Growing up, I never felt African enough or African American enough, it made me feel like an anomaly. For the longest I wanted to be like everyone else. I was looking for validation from everyone else, so I could fit in and mixed that void with my love of art. I found myself diving into different cultures, to extend my actors pallet, but really to fit in anywhere- to be accepted. I hung around a lot of the Haitian and Hispanic kids trying to find where I was liked best. Growing up dressing differently at cultural events, eating different foods at thanksgiving and having to lie about what I ate in elementary school when the teacher asked us to share was tough. However, as I began to mature I realized being Nigerian made me different. And different was good! After struggling with this lust for validation, time and time again people in my life would remind me; "God's love is the Greatest." Even if I received all the validation in the world, nobody can out-compete God. The way I used to look at life was centered about how broken I was, but once I centered life around how my wholeness was not void of my ethnic background, I started to see where I was needed to fill in that gap for other people. I believe through are brokenness we are sent to help those who are broken just like us. To not only be who we are, but to spread God's love to those who need help being who they are.