I am currently pursuing a degree in business with the long-term goal of entering law school, because I want to build something that not only creates income, but also creates impact. My education is not just about getting a degreeit is about learning how to navigate systems, advocate for others, and build a foundation strong enough to support both my family and my future business endeavors. I chose business because I have always been naturally driven to create opportunities instead of waiting for them. Throughout my life, I have had to learn how to problem-solve in real time whether that meant managing finances, organizing responsibilities for my family, or finding ways to generate income under pressure. Business gives me the structure and knowledge to take what I already do out of necessity and turn it into something sustainable and scalable. Combined with a future legal education, I plan to use these skills to build an advocacy-based organization that helps individuals navigate difficult systems, especially those who feel overlooked or unheard. My decision to pursue an entrepreneurial career comes from lived experience. I have seen firsthand what it feels like to struggle without guidance or resources, and I refuse to let that cycle continue for myself or for others. Entrepreneurship, to me, represents independence, resilience, and the ability to create solutions where none seem to exist. I am not motivated by the idea of quick success, but by the ability to build something meaningful that can grow over time and support not only my children, but my community as well. What will make me successful, when so many others struggle, is my mindset. I do not give up easily. I have learned how to keep moving forward even when circumstances are overwhelming. I understand that failure is part of the process, not the end of it. I am also willing to adapt, learn, and put in the work behind the scenes something that often goes unseen but makes all the difference. I am already actively working on multiple income streams, organizing my finances, and building systems in my daily life that reflect discipline and long-term thinking. To me, a successful life is not defined by money alone. Success means stability for my children, the ability to wake up knowing I built something of my own, and the opportunity to help others find their way forward. It means breaking cycles, creating security, and having the freedom to make decisions based on purpose instead of survival. I am not just planning for a career I am building a future. With the support of higher education and opportunities like this scholarship, I will continue turning that vision into reality.

One of the most urgent social issues I am working to address is the lack of accessible support and advocacy for individuals and families navigating complex systems during crisis. Many people facing incarceration, reentry, mental health challenges, or financial instability are left to navigate bureaucratic systems alone, often without clear information or guidance. I have experienced firsthand how overwhelming and isolating this can be, which has driven my commitment to advocacy, education, and service-oriented work. As a woman and a parent, I have taken on an active role supporting others through informal advocacy and volunteer efforts. This includes helping individuals understand policies, prepare documentation, communicate effectively with institutions, and advocate for themselves when they feel unheard. I regularly assist with organizing information, drafting letters, and explaining procedural steps so people can make informed decisions rather than feeling powerless within systems that are often confusing or intimidating. While much of this work happens outside of formal nonprofit employment, it is rooted in service, equity, and community care. Education has strengthened my ability to do this work responsibly. I am pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Strayer University because effective advocacy requires more than good intentions—it requires structure, accountability, and sustainable systems. Business education equips me with skills in organization, ethics, management, and strategic planning, all of which are essential for public service and nonprofit work. These skills allow me to think beyond short-term solutions and focus on long-term impact. My ambition is to expand my advocacy into structured, community-based service. I want to help build or support programs that provide clear guidance and resources to individuals who are often overlooked, particularly women and families affected by incarceration, mental health barriers, or financial hardship. By combining lived experience with formal education, I aim to help bridge the gap between institutions and the people they are meant to serve. This work matters because access to information is access to power. When people understand their options and rights, they are better equipped to advocate for themselves and their families. I believe public service begins at the community level, where trust, consistency, and empathy create meaningful change. This scholarship would support my education and allow me to continue developing the skills necessary to turn advocacy into sustainable public service. I am committed to using my education not only to advance professionally, but to contribute to systems that are more transparent, humane, and accessible. My goal is lasting impact helping others move from survival to stability through knowledge, advocacy, and support.

My decision to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Strayer University is rooted in both ambition and necessity. I am a parent, a student, and someone who has learned through experience that stability is not given it is built deliberately, step by step. Returning to school was not the easy choice, but it was the right one. I chose business administration because I want the skills, structure, and knowledge to create long-term financial independence for myself and my children. My drive comes from responsibility. I am not pursuing this degree “someday” or “when things calm down” I am doing it now, while managing real-life demands. Balancing coursework with parenting has required discipline, sacrifice, and a strong sense of purpose. Every assignment completed represents hours taken from rest, comfort, or personal time, but I remain committed because this education directly shapes my future. I am not simply earning a degree; I am learning how to manage resources, make strategic decisions, and build systems that support growth and sustainability. This scholarship would make a direct and meaningful impact by helping cover tuition costs. Like many students, I am financing my education independently. Tuition is not just a bill it is a recurring pressure that influences how many classes I can take, how quickly I can progress, and how much stress I carry while doing so. Receiving this scholarship would allow me to focus more fully on my studies, maintain steady academic progress, and reduce financial strain without sacrificing the quality of my education or my responsibilities as a parent. My long-term goal is to apply my business education to build sustainable income streams and create stability not only for my household but also within my community. I want to model resilience, accountability, and self-sufficiency for my children by showing them that perseverance and education open doors. Business administration equips me with tools that are versatile and practical skills I can use in entrepreneurship, management, and leadership roles where thoughtful decision-making and ethical practices matter. I measure success not just by personal advancement, but by impact. Education gives me the ability to make informed choices, to advocate for myself, and to contribute meaningfully in professional spaces. This scholarship represents more than financial assistance it represents an investment in someone who is actively building a better future through consistent effort and determination. I am ambitious because I know what is possible. I am driven because I have people depending on me. And I am committed to making this opportunity count not just for today, but for the future I am creating.

Being a first-generation college student means I’ve had to figure things out the hard way. There was no one to explain how college works, how financial aid actually functions, or how to balance school with real-life responsibilities. Everything I’ve learned has come from experience, trial and error, and sheer determination. While that path has been difficult, it has given me something invaluable: the ability to understand people where they are, without judgment. My strongest skills are rooted in communication, advocacy, and problem-solving. I have spent years helping people navigate systems that feel confusing, intimidating, or stacked against them. Whether supporting individuals impacted by incarceration, helping families organize paperwork and resources, or simply being the person who listens when no one else will, I’ve learned that empathy is built through action, not just intention. Because of my background, I don’t approach people as problems to be fixed. I approach them as humans who need clarity, dignity, and someone willing to walk beside them. I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed by bureaucracy, limited by finances, and underestimated because of circumstances beyond your control. Those experiences drive my commitment to building systems and spaces that are more accessible and more compassionate. Through my education, I am strengthening my ability to turn lived experience into structured impact. I am developing skills in organization, business strategy, and ethical decision making so I can advocate effectively and responsibly. Education gives me credibility, but my life experience gives me perspective. Together, they allow me to translate complex information into language people actually understand and can use. As a parent, my motivation is deeply personal. My children are watching me pursue an education while managing work, responsibility, and hardship. I want them to see that perseverance does not require perfection, and that growth is possible even when the odds are not in your favor. By continuing my education, I am changing the narrative for my family and proving that resilience and compassion can coexist with ambition. Looking forward, I plan to use my skills to create platforms and resources that support marginalized individuals and families. Whether through advocacy work, educational outreach, or content creation, my goal is to normalize conversations around hardship, accountability, and healing. A more empathetic global community does not come from ignoring uncomfortable realities; it comes from addressing them with honesty and care. I am not pursuing higher education simply to advance myself. I am doing it to better serve others, to build understanding where there is division, and to be a steady voice in spaces where people often feel invisible. This scholarship would support more than my academic journey it would strengthen my ability to turn empathy into meaningful, lasting impact.

Finding My Voice When Silence Was Safer For most of my life, silence felt safer than speaking. I learned early that using my voice could lead to conflict, judgment, or consequences I wasn’t prepared to face. As a result, I became skilled at listening, adapting, and carrying the weight quietly. But one moment forced me to confront the cost of staying silent and it permanently changed how I see my voice and my responsibility to use it. That moment came when I began advocating for someone I love who was incarcerated. At first, I stayed quiet, assuming the system was too large and impersonal for one person to make a difference. I doubted myself constantly. I didn’t have a law degree, connections, or confidence. What I did have was documentation that didn’t add up, policies that were being misapplied, and a person whose future depended on someone speaking up. Every instinct told me to stay small, but staying silent felt worse. The first time I contacted officials, my hands shook. I rewrote emails repeatedly, afraid of saying the wrong thing or being dismissed. When responses were delayed or dismissive I questioned whether my voice mattered at all. But I kept going. I learned to read policy language carefully, to document conversations, and to advocate with clarity rather than emotion alone. I learned that confidence isn’t the absence of fear; it’s choosing to speak despite it. Using my voice didn’t just change the outcome of a situation it changed me. I realized that communication is power when paired with preparation and persistence. I discovered that my lived experience, my attention to detail, and my refusal to give up were strengths, not liabilities. Most importantly, I learned that silence often protects systems, not people. This experience reshaped how I show up in every area of my life. As a single mother, student, and advocate, I now understand that my voice sets an example not just for my children, but for others who feel unheard. I no longer wait for permission to speak or for confidence to magically appear. I build it by doing the work, asking questions, and standing firm when something isn’t right. In the future, I plan to continue using my voice to create impact through advocacy, education, and leadership. I am pursuing my degree to strengthen my ability to support individuals navigating complex systems especially those who lack resources or representation. I want to help others find their voice sooner than I did, and to remind them that speaking up is not about being loud it’s about being persistent, informed, and unapologetically present. I used to believe my voice was something to manage carefully. Now I know it is something to use intentionally. Silence kept me safe, but using my voice is what allows me to create change.

Giving back has never been something I wait to do “one day.” It is something I do now, in the middle of my own struggles, because I know what it feels like to need someone and not have anyone show up. As a Native woman, single mother, and first-generation college student, I have spent much of my life navigating systems that were never designed for people like me. When someone I love became incarcerated, I learned firsthand how broken and overwhelming the justice system can be. Instead of giving up, I taught myself how to read policy, file appeals, contact agencies, and advocate for fairness. What started as helping one person quickly grew into helping other, explaining paperwork, connecting families to resources, and encouraging people not to give up on themselves or their loved ones. That advocacy work is not theoretical for me. I sit with families who are scared. I help people write letters. I research policies and fight when someone is being treated unfairly. Even when I am exhausted, I keep going because I know that silence is how people get forgotten. Giving back, for me, means standing between people and systems that try to erase them. I also give back through creativity and community building. I use photography, writing, and digital art to help people tell their stories especially those who feel unseen. I believe storytelling is a form of service. When someone sees themselves reflected with dignity and strength, it changes how they believe in their future. In the future, my goal is to build a nonprofit focused on advocacy, reentry support, and family stabilization for justice-impacted and Native communities. I want to create programs that help people transition out of incarceration with housing support, job training, and mentorship. I also want to provide families with tools to navigate the system without being overwhelmed or taken advantage of. Education is how I plan to scale the work I am already doing. By earning my business degree, I will be able to run programs responsibly, secure funding, and build sustainable systems that serve people long after I am gone. I do not want to just help one person at a time I want to build structures that help thousands. Positively impacting the world does not always look like big headlines. Sometimes it looks like answering a late-night call, writing one more letter, or reminding someone they are worth fighting for. That is how I shine my light: by being consistent, compassionate, and unwilling to look away when someone needs help. This scholarship would allow me to keep showing up not just for myself, but for the communities that have been overlooked for far too long.

Storytelling has always been a way my people pass down strength, survival, and truth. I didn’t grow up hearing formal stories around a fire, but I grew up living one a story of resilience, displacement, and finding my way back to who I am. I am Choctaw and Creek by blood, raised in a world that often tried to erase that part of me. For a long time, I didn’t fully understand what it meant to belong to a Native lineage. I just knew that something inside me was deeply rooted in survival, in watching, in remembering. My grandparents and elders carried histories of hardship that were never written down, but they were passed through quiet strength, through the way they endured and protected their families. That strength lives in me now. One experience that shaped me deeply was navigating the justice system while advocating for someone I love. I had to learn how to read policies, understand bureaucratic language, and speak up in rooms that were never designed for people like us. In that process, I realized something powerful: I was not just fighting one case I was fighting a system that has historically silenced Native and low-income voices. Every letter I wrote, every form I filled out, every barrier I pushed against became part of my own story of reclaiming power. Being a Native woman and a single mother has taught me what it means to carry generations on your shoulders. I want my children to grow up knowing where they come from and believing they have the right to take up space in the world. I am going to school not only for myself, but to change the story they inherit from one of survival to one of leadership and opportunity. My heritage has taught me that community matters. We are not meant to walk alone. That belief is what drives my passion for advocacy, justice reform, and nonprofit leadership. I want to use my education to build programs that help justice-impacted individuals, Native families, and others who have been pushed aside find their way forward. I don’t want people to just survive I want them to thrive. Storytelling is powerful because it reminds us that our lives are not accidents. We are the continuation of everyone who came before us. My ancestors survived removal, erasure, and hardship so that I could be here today, learning, building, and dreaming of a better future. I carry them with me in everything I do. This scholarship would help me continue writing that story not just for myself, but for my family and my community. My goal is to honor my heritage by turning resilience into leadership, and pain into purpose. That is the legacy I want to leave.

When I think about legacy, I don’t think about money or recognition I think about impact. My goal is to build something that outlives me by creating stability, opportunity, and hope for my children and for people who have been overlooked or marginalized. As a first-generation Native American student and single mother of three, I understand how powerful it is when someone believes in you enough to invest in your future. That belief is what I want to pass forward through my work. The business I hope to create is a nonprofit-driven social enterprise focused on advocacy, re-entry support, and financial empowerment for justice-impacted individuals and Native families. Through my personal experiences supporting loved ones through the criminal justice system, I’ve seen how difficult it is for people to rebuild their lives without resources, guidance, or community. My goal is to create programs that provide not only emotional support, but also practical tools education, financial literacy, job readiness, and entrepreneurial training so people can truly restart and thrive. Earning my business degree gives me the foundation to make this vision real. I want to learn how to manage organizations, write grants, build ethical businesses, and create sustainable funding models that allow my mission to grow long-term. Instead of relying only on donations, I plan to build businesses that support the nonprofit side of my work, creating jobs and opportunities within the community itself. This kind of structure allows impact to continue even when outside funding is limited. I also plan to use my creative skills digital design, photography, and storytelling to give people a voice. So often, justice-impacted individuals and Native communities are spoken about but rarely heard from. By helping people tell their own stories through media, branding, and advocacy, I want to shift how the world sees them and how they see themselves. The way I shine my light is through compassion, persistence, and service. I show up for people when systems fail them. I research policies, prepare documents, and advocate for fair treatment. I encourage others when they feel invisible. I create, I organize, and I lead even when it’s hard. These qualities are what drive me to keep going, even when the road is long. My legacy will be built on lifting others. I want my children to grow up seeing what it looks like to fight for justice, to build something from nothing, and to never give up on people including themselves. Through entrepreneurship, advocacy, and community-centered leadership, I plan to leave behind more than a career. I will leave behind pathways for others to succeed.

How Obtaining My Business Degree Will Impact My Life Earning my business degree is not just about improving my own future it is about creating stability, opportunity, and long-term change for my family and my community. As a first-generation Native American student and single mother of three, education represents more than a career path for me. It is a lifeline, a tool for empowerment, and a way to break cycles that have affected generations before me. For much of my life, I learned how to survive rather than how to build. I became resourceful, creative, and determined out of necessity. Those skills led me into entrepreneurship, digital design, and advocacy work, where I discovered that I had both the passion and the ability to create something meaningful. However, I also learned that raw talent and hard work are not always enough. Without formal education in business, finance, and organizational leadership, it is difficult to turn good ideas into sustainable ventures. A business degree gives me the structure and knowledge I need to turn my vision into something real. I want to build organizations and businesses that not only support my family but also serve people who are often overlooked especially Native families and justice-impacted communities. Through my advocacy work, I have seen how a lack of financial literacy, access to resources, and organizational support can trap people in cycles of instability. With a business education, I will be able to design programs, manage budgets, secure funding, and lead initiatives that provide real solutions rather than temporary fixes. This degree will also give me something incredibly important: security. As a single parent, I carry the weight of my children’s future every day. I want to show them that perseverance, education, and self-belief can change the direction of a life. By earning my business degree, I will be able to build multiple streams of income, grow ethical businesses, and create long-term stability that allows my children to grow up without constant financial stress. Beyond my family, my education will allow me to give back to my community in a meaningful way. I am deeply connected to my Native heritage and believe in using my success to uplift others. My long-term goal is to work in nonprofit advocacy and social justice leadership, helping to create programs that support reentry, financial independence, and community healing. A business degree equips me with the tools to make those goals sustainable teaching me how to manage organizations, write grant proposals, evaluate impact, and ensure that resources reach the people who truly need them. This scholarship would do more than help pay for school; it would help remove one of the biggest barriers standing in the way of my future. Like many first-generation students, I face the challenge of balancing education, family, and finances all at once. Receiving support would allow me to focus on my studies, maintain my academic excellence, and continue working toward a degree that will open doors for years to come. Ultimately, my business degree will allow me to move from survival to leadership. It will give me the tools to build a life rooted in stability, service, and impact. I am committed to using my education not only to change my own story, but to help write better futures for others as well.