My name is Casey Payton, and I graduated high school in 2013. My high school career was extremely challenging as I struggled for many years with drugs and alcohol. In the midst of everything, I met a guy in 2012 and we fell in love. My senior year we found out that I was pregnant. We were scared, but excited for the future and we were married on April 13, 2013, a few months before graduation. My son, Terrence Jr was born October 27, 2013 so I quit my high school job to become a stay-at-home mom to our son and my husband provided for us. Soon after my son was born, my life took a dark turn and I fell into the grips of drugs and alcohol again. My husband, who was also in recovery, fell as well. My family was falling apart, and we were on the verge of a divorce just a year after being married. We were evicted from our first apartment, bills were past due, and we didn’t know what would come next. But by the grace of God and our amazing support system, I got clean and sober from all mind-altering chemicals on July 23, 2014, and I have been since. My husband was right behind me, and his sobriety date is August 17, 2014. Our marriage was healing, and our family restored. Fast forward a few years, my daughter daughter Anita Rose was born in 2015 and my son Elijah Kai was born 2018. Our expanding family sent us into an overdrive to be successful. My husband worked a variety of different jobs while I raised our children. We moved in with my parents so we could save to buy our first home. After only 6 months, we saved enough and bought our first home in January of 2020. All these years, I was a stay-at-home mom and my husband worked his tail off to accomplish all these things for us. I wanted to finally get back in the working world to help contribute, but I didn’t want to make minimum wage and be miserable. So, I decided to start college for the first time to find what I was passionate about. I started college in the Fall of 2020 at Lone Star College Kingwood, right in the midst of Covid. It was beyond challenging raising my little one’s while being a full-time college student, but we made it work. I worked extremely hard at school and made it to the President’s list every semester. I graduated May 2023, Summa Cum Laude, with an Associate of Business Administration, a 3.9 GPA. From there, I transferred to the University of Houston and got into the Bauer College of Business and am now majoring in Management Information Systems. My success at school has truly been my biggest accomplishments. I try my hardest at every single thing I do, and it has paid off tremendously. My life might have taken a lot of twists and turns, but I’m blessed with the way it all worked out. I was able to raise my children and be there for all their first words, first steps, first days of school and not miss a beat. Now, they get to see their mommy work hard, love school and not let society’s timelines define me. This scholarship will be extremely helpful to offset the debt we've accrued from me going to college. It will help give us a fresh start and an easier transition into the next stages of our life. I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity. Thank you.

Growing up I always knew that I felt the same love and affection towards girls that I did boys. Growing up in a very Christian household, however, made these feelings very difficult to explore and accept. Fast forward a few years and I met the most amazing man and fell in love. When we were dating I shared my sexuality with him and he was and always has been so accepting of my identity. We got married and we now have 3 beautiful children together. Over the years, I felt like there was a part of me that I had tucked down so far. When I tried telling some of my friends that I was bi-sexual, they told me, "It's too late for you, you chose a man." That was probably the most invalidating thing I have ever heard and it crushed me. I did choose a man because he just happened to come into my life at the perfect time and swept me off my feet. But that doesn't change the way I feel about women and doesn't change who I am. I stopped sharing my identity with people for a few years because of that statement and because of the fear that it would be taken as a joke. I stayed up many nights crying because I felt like I had a secret and no one would let me share it. That wasn't the reality of it though. That was the opinion of one person. So on June 1, the first day of Pride month 2021, I shared with my world through social media that I was bisexual. I was extremely regretful at first and contemplated taking my post down. But I was surprised with all the love and acceptance I was met with. No one made me feel less than or that I didn't belong on the spectrum because I married a man. I was showered with support and I knew I made the right decision. I felt so much peace inside of me like I wasn't hiding anything anymore. I was fully ready to love myself, my true self, the way I deserved. When I told my husband that I came out to everyone, he told me he was so proud of me. I can't explain how much it meant to me that the most important person in my life supported my decision in coming out. There was no talk about how that would make him look or anything about that. He was just so happy that I a load was lifted off of me. This experience has given me an opportunity to help other people in my situation and to validate their identity. Being bisexual comes with a lot of accusations of attention seeking and that's just not okay at all. If someone feels a certain way, that's how they feel and no matter their situation, we should support them unconditionally and make them feel safe in their identity. Be unapologetically you always.

I graduated high school in 2013. I was married and pregnant with my first child my senior year and now have 3 children total with my husband. I wanted to be a stay at home mom and my husband was 100% supportive and did everything in his power to make that happen for me. He has been the sole provider for our family for about 7 years now and has done an amazing job. When I turned 25 last year I felt kind of lost, like I didn't have any direction in life. Being a stay at home mom has been amazing, but there's a season for everything. I wanted to be able to help my husband and contribute to our family but I didn't want to waste time at a job getting paid minimum wage and my check would go straight to daycare. So I decided to go to college for the first time. My first year was awesome and my school was completely paid for because we qualified for the Pell grant. But my husband's income the following year was slightly higher and this put us over the income bracket for FAFSA. We're in that awkward level of making too much to qualify for any kind of assistance like Medicaid, SNAP food benefits, and FAFSA, but too little to be able to afford college on one income. We have always been able to afford our bills and mortgage but going to school is stretching us thin now that we don't have that aid. My husband is in sales and his income has been pretty shaky since the Pandemic so this worries me even more. I am so in love with school and I am thriving in it. But I'm worried about how I will keep going without the financial means to do so and even more so worried about when I transfer to a 4 year university. I currently walk dogs and door dash when I'm not studying to try to save up for my next semester. I'm trying to find little gigs here and there that don't take up too much of my time that I can put towards school. I have such big goals for myself and my family that college is helping me move towards achieving and I would hate to put it on hold for any longer. I waited way longer than I should have to start school but now that I have, I want to hold onto this with everything I have. School has given me so much purpose and ambition and it's actually been a great way to set a good example for my children. They love bringing their school work into my office so they can work beside me while I do mine. I want to show them it's never too late to learn something and to follow your dreams.

I want to explore a career that I really feel like I would enjoy and thrive in, so I decided to go back to school to create a brighter future for my family. My husband has been the sole provider for our family since we were married in 2013 and has done a phenomenal job at keeping us happy, healthy and safe. But I still feel the need to help provide and to be able to make a secure future for our children. Sending me back to school has been a financial stretch for us especially since we fall between that awkward income level of making too much to qualify for aid and making too little to fully cover school out of pocket. So this is why I'm here applying for scholarships. I still run a small craft business from home to try to offset the costs of school and it also fills that creative aspect of my life. I love crochet, sewing, laser cutting, sublimation and pretty much anything I can create in my craft room. Before covid, I used to crochet dozens of little beanies to donate to hospitals in Colorado and during covid I used all the elastic I had and made masks for friends and family when no one could find any. In my free time, I walk dogs and door dash for a little extra income as well. I feel like I'm always trying to find ways to bring income into our home, and I think that's the business mentality in me. I formed a passion for business when I was a stay at home mom for about 7 years. I started multiple different small businesses at home and loved to learn about all the different aspects about it; communication, date, sales and marketing. One thing I loved the most and did pretty naturally was marketing. Many people told me that I am naturally an influential person and just sharing my experiences and products with people drew them in. I think marketing is the most interesting aspect of business and I'm dying to learn all the in's and out's of it and of course learn more about business in general. Other than my future career, I'm so extremely passionate about school itself. I talk anyone's ear off about it that will listen. I believe because I got such a late start in college, I'm really cherishing the experience. No one is forcing me to go, it's purely my desire to learn more that's fueling me. I spend many nights hours past my children's bedtime studying and soaking up all I can. I'm very adamant about my grades and I push myself to do the best I can on every single assignment. My very first semester I finished with a 3.77 GPA and my second semester I finished with a 4.00. I made the President's list for Lone Star College in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, and I honestly have not been more proud. I've formed some amazing relationships with my favorite teachers and that has honestly made my college experience even more enjoyable. I was nervous about starting college at 25 with 3 kids but it has honestly been the most exciting and rewarding experience I've had. I'm so excited to see what my next 3 years of college are like and maybe further!

My greatest achievement so far is going back to school. I graduated high school in 2013 and immediately took on the mother role. I now have 3 young children, ages 7, 6 and 2. They're absolutely the best thing that has ever happened to me and I wanted to do more for them and our future. My husband is the sole provider in our family and has been since we were married in high school. So I decided to start college to try and get a career I enjoy and that would help support our family. I was terrified. How was my life, my schedule, my routine going to change? Can I even do it while tending to 3 little ones? I wasn't sure I could. But I have such an amazing support group of friends and family that pushed me to make that first step. A friend of mine came over and spent all night helping me apply for college and financial aid. I started my first classes in August of 2020 and I took off with it. The first few weeks felt like a tornado and everything changed so quickly. I was having trouble splitting my focus between my kids and my schooling. But after a little while, I got into the swing of a good routine. I organized my tasks and started managing my time more efficiently. There were ups and downs as I am managing depression, but my goals for the future have done a great job at pulling me out of my funks. During my first semester, my grandma, my parents, my brother, my sister, my brother in law and my niece all tested positive for covid-19. It was right before Christmas and our family was struggling to keep our spirits high. Unfortunately, my brother in law didn't make it and he passed a couple weeks before Christmas. This was right around the time of my finals for the Fall semester and I could feel myself pulling back because of all the fear with my family. But I held tight to my goals, and I pressed on, while allowing myself to grieve and be there for my sister in her grieving. I didn't know it was possible to go through school and deal with life at the same time. I thought I had to choose one or the other. But I learned that it is totally possible if I want it bad enough. I leaned heavily on my support system and I made it through my first semester of college ever with a 3.77 GPA. I got over that initial fear of school and I surprisingly thrived. I just finished my Spring semester with a 4.00 and I couldn't be more proud. I'm currently in my Summer semester and I'm extremely excited for my second year. I thought it was too late for school after being out of the education world for so long. I thought I would be so far behind and that it wouldn't flow as easily as it did for those right out of high school. But I proved myself wrong. I had several teachers tell me that I had some of the highest grades in their classes, and I made the President's list for Lone Star College in both the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters. I am so happy I started my college career. Not only for me and the financial benefit in the future for our family, but for my kids. I wanted them to see how hard mommy works to achieve her goals so that they can follow in my footsteps. I was never encouraged by my parents to go to college so it wasn't a huge deal when I didn't. But I will definitely be showing my kids how wonderful and amazing college is, no matter when they decide to go. It's scary, and so are many things in life, but once you get past that initial fear, you'll be wondering what the big fuss was about. I love that they tell their teachers mommy is in school and they bring their little worksheets home to do next to me while I'm doing my homework. It's a blessing to set a good example for my children and show them how to love education. I think I'm hitting multiple birds with one stone by going back to college and it's absolutely my biggest achievement today. Graduating with a Bachelor's in Marketing will be my next one.

This tattoo may not seem bold to everyone, but getting this symbol of perseverance on my body was bold. I've struggled with depression for most of my life and I remember not wanting to live past the age of 18. I see this tattoo as my older self talking to my younger self and telling me to "keep going, it's going to be beautiful! just keep going and you'll see". And it is, my life is absolutely amazing. I'm now 26, starting my college career with an amazing husband and 3 beautiful children. It's beautiful here.

My story is my everything. My life has completely transformed over the years and most days I can't believe where I'm at today. For years of my adolescent life, I struggled with mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction. I had no ambition and any dreams I had as a child were quickly overshadowed with my obsession of mind-altering chemicals. I put myself in the most dangerous situations and had absolutely no so self-worth. My parents spent thousands on rehab and counseling for me. There were one too many nights I had encounters with the police, and one too many times I broke my parents hearts. Throughout all of this, somehow I met the love of my life in my Junior year of high school. By my senior year in 2013, I was pregnant and married. I thought having a family would help me stay sober, but things got worse. I had a bad relapse and my marriage was falling apart. By the grace of my higher power, which I choose to call God, I got sober on 7/23/2014 and have been since. My life was saved and my marriage began to thrive again. While my first child was a baby, I decided to quit my job and be a stay at home mom and since then we have 2 more children. I've been a stay at home mom for about 8 years now. I began starting little craft businesses from home so I could tend to my children and make a little more money. When I turned 25 in 2019, I felt lost. I had, what I call, a "quarter life crisis". My husband had been carrying the financial load of our family for almost the entirety of our relationship and had never once pressured me to find a job. He always wanted me to do what made me happy, which was to be home with the children. But I still felt helpless. There were many years of struggling with bills and places to live, and we always made it through with my husbands hard work. Yes, I know, being a mother is such an important job, but I wanted to do more for our family. I decided it was time to go back to school. For what? I wasn't entirely sure yet. I just knew I needed to get an education to get the best job I could and so that my paycheck wouldn't go straight into daycare for my kids. I started to ponder on what I would study. I knew I had formed a passion for business and I absolutely loved all the different aspects of it; sales, data, communication, and MARKETING! That's what I loved the most. So that's what I'm studying. When I say my story is my everything, it's because I can't believe that crazy who was on the brink of death, finished her first year of college last Spring. If I can make it out of my past, I can do anything!