While preparing for my professional future, I researched career paths, which included looking into representation statistics in my fields of interest. In neuroscience and psychology, I was shocked to see how low the representation was for someone of my demographic. As I began my neuroscience education, I considered what social challenges I might face and how best to prepare myself for success as a future scientist. Choosing an undergraduate university I knew emphasized ethical leadership and compassion was essential, as it would best develop me to make a difference in my community. Similarly, I searched for research programs, undergraduate organizations, and scholarships that prioritized these same goals of diversity, inclusion, open-mindedness, and compassion. Promoting diversity in the workplace can pave the way for new perspectives, creativity, and an increased ability for empathy, which many, especially I as a rising researcher, could benefit from. Caring for others comes naturally to me, and my curiosity about different people, cultures, and mental health has led to my interest in psychology. Taking college science courses in high school helped me realize my interest in the biological sciences early on, guiding me toward neuroscience, which provided the best of both worlds. My research experiences in psychology, behavioral and neurodegenerative neuroscience, and neurobiology have all guided my interests in neuropharmacology. I am a rising senior, and will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and complete a pre-medical post-baccalaureate program, as well as a research gap year. I aim for the MD-PhD route, which will enable me to have a research-intensive career that utilizes clinical medicine training to conduct high-quality, patient-oriented research. I will utilize my clinical exposure to inform a research career in neuropharmacology and identify strategies to enhance treatment development for neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric illnesses. With an emphasis on practical medical needs, I will work to translate the results of preclinical models into therapies that address the complexities of human health. While I am very passionate about this career path, it will not be easy financially for me to get there. This scholarship would not only help ease my student debt but also support me in my pre-med post-baccalaureate fees as I prepare for medical school. A passion that has only been strengthened by my research projects, I intend for a career involving supporting underrepresented and/or disadvantaged groups. The projects I have worked on include goals of furthering understanding of nicotine addiction, finding a treatment for Huntington’s disease, helping low-income families better understand their children’s actions, unpacking the neurobiology of mental health, and addressing the connection between obesity and retinal health. As for student organizations at my university, I serve as the Service Coordinator and President for Students of Color in STEM, Chairperson for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group, President of Women in STEM, and a member of the Equitable Inclusion Society and the Black Student Union. The most crucial thing I have learned from these groups is that if I am concerned about the lack of diversity in my desired academic programs and research field, I must continue to dedicate my current and future professional pursuits to promoting it. Working closely with the Center for Student Diversity has been an amazing experience. It has only confirmed that giving back to my community will be at the forefront of my mind at every step of my academic and scientific journey. I was fortunate to have many people who supported me through the numerous challenges I faced, and I would love to offer the same level of support to others as I progress throughout my career.

As a member of the Black Student Union and Women in STEM clubs at my university, as well as an elected executive board member of Students of Color in STEM, I truly prioritize emphasizing diversity and supporting people of color in fields where they severely lack representation. My top personal goals for my future are to embrace diversity and inclusion and find a career that will allow me to contribute meaningfully to the world via my academic and intercultural communication skills. I am confident that whatever I do will involve helping others, primarily through research, teaching, and solution implementation in the cognitive science field. It is important to me that I am an ethical and compassionate leader and researcher, which is why I chose to attend a university with these exact values in its mission statement. Similarly, I searched for a scholarship that prioritized these same goals of diversity, inclusion, and support for African American/Black college students in STEM. I am very passionate about fixing the underrepresentation of minorities in science fields. It was shocking to see how low the representation of someone of my demographic (a black female) in the areas of neuroscience and psychology is. In addition to acknowledging the limited diversity regarding professionals in these fields, it is crucial to realize the need for diversity in data collection, research, and analysis for the sake of clients, patients, and other individuals impacted by the work in these fields. The Lift As We Climb Scholarship is of personal and professional significance to me because promoting diversity in the workplace can pave the way for new perspectives, creativity, and an increased ability for empathy, which many, especially me as a rising researcher, could benefit from. I am pursuing a STEM, specifically neuroscience, degree because I want to conduct meaningful research in the field of cognitive science with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion in mind. Since we live in a diverse world, the importance of diversity in research, especially in a time of such rapidly developing technology and information, cannot be understated. Studying cognitive science will allow me to look for answers to how the rise in technology has affected the new generations. My specific area of interest is how the internet (and modern technology in general) has impacted mental health, attention span, youth development, online vs. in-person behaviors and decisions, and its various biological impacts. This topic, in particular, has just as many sociocultural factors as biological or behavioral, which is why it requires someone open-minded who can empathize and connect with communities outside of their own. With the high value I place on diversity, scientific knowledge, and service to my community, I believe I fit that description, and I would love to support my African American/Black community by making sure we are heard and understood in neuroscience and psychology research. This scholarship would significantly contribute to my reaching this goal by supporting me financially in my mission to uplift students of color in STEM.

The three extracurricular activities I am most passionate about are student government, my creative writing club, and my dual-enrollment club. In my dual-enrollment club – Ad Astra Per Aspera – I can help fellow dual-enrolled students by studying together and giving advice to them from the perspective of someone who has been doing it for four years. In this club, we can voice our hardships and both provide and receive tips for how to get through this challenging program. Our experiences are unique compared to regular high school students, and communicating these experiences is incredibly beneficial to me and those in this community. As a member of the Student Government Association (SGA), I have attended, helped set up, advertised, and assisted in hosting multiple community activities. These range from college events such as information sessions and club fairs to casual holiday parties. The main benefit, next to gaining information about the school, is having the opportunity to interact with fellow students. The SGA also hosts several service events which allow us to care for those in need through activities such as creating care packages or donating to children’s hospitals. Along with making our school a better place and caring for the communities around us, being in the SGA allows me to help my community by bringing them together, encouraging social interaction, promoting general student welfare, and increasing participation in school affairs. The extracurricular I am the most passionate about by far is my online creative writing club. A big reason why I care so much for this particular activity is that I am the founder of the group and have put over a year of work into this club. Its members are able to take ideas for different characters and plots and bring them together through a collaborative writing club every week. Between the members of the group, hundreds of pages worth of story material have been written, detailing 100+ characters. This community started off small, with only around ten people, and has now grown to over 70 members. These individuals come from places all around the world, including Mexico, North Africa, England, Chile, and India. Not everyone in this club has English as their first language, and this has served as an opportunity for them to improve their literary skills in a second language. I have brought people together from different countries and walks of life, which also allows for various expressions of creativity and a diverse set of stories to share, whether those of our original characters or our own life stories. These three extracurricular activities are so important to both me and my community because they allow us to support each other and learn more about those around us. Each and every one of the clubs I’m in has allowed me to strengthen both myself and others through social and service engagement.

After successfully making it through the pandemic, online school, and witnessing the country-wide teacher shortage, I realized education's true importance. I went on to do a research paper on inequalities in education and the demographics of teachers in the U.S. It is essential to have diversity when it comes to our teachers. Unfortunately, as an African-American woman in the LGBTQ+ community, I learned that my demographic is one of the lowest represented in the field of education, which only furthered my desire to become a teacher. I began working part-time at a Children’s Center to ensure this was what I wanted to do. I worked as a teacher’s aide for a little under a year, and it truly solidified my beliefs about what career I wanted to pursue. Working at the Children’s Center helped me strengthen several skills, including patience, effective communication, flexibility, and how to prepare for and react to unexpected situations. Interacting with kids for several hours is no easy task; anyone could argue that they are indeed a handful. Nevertheless, I found myself happy to be there, learning how to interact with the kids in a manner that was respectful yet allowed them to express their thoughts, share their interests, and have fun. To this day, I still babysit consistently and offer tutoring services to those students. Over the years, I have had many great teachers whom I do not see myself forgetting any time soon. Some were simply so good at their job that I felt myself learning the subject with ease, and others held plenty of meaningful conversations and connected with their students on a personal level. For both types of teachers I felt comfortable around them, and before long knew they would have a major impact on me. Finding a way to mix relevant conversations/current events with class topics is a skill that not every teacher possesses, and seeing how well some of my teachers balanced this made me want to do the same. I often think about what I would be like as a teacher, and a majority of these plans and ideas come from things I have seen some of my best teachers do. Two weeks ago, my Interpersonal Communications professor said that teaching is a calling that says deep down you are meant to positively impact the lives of others by sharing critical knowledge for them to develop and succeed. If this is the case, I can certainly hear the voice calling out to me that desperately points toward the path of becoming an educator. I plan to leave a lasting impact on students by taking notes from the teachers that had the most significant positive impact on me. I will work hard to help each student since their learning and comprehension speeds vary. I will get to know my students in a way that maintains professionalism yet makes them feel more comfortable. I will help them feel unafraid to ask questions and allow for as many class discussions as possible so that students can give feedback. Overall, class is not only supposed to be a place of learning but of growing, and I will make sure that, as a teacher, I assist them in their progress through life.