My major in college is Sociology, but at Pittsburg State University, this is under the hat of Criminal Justice studies. I am studying Sociology because I love studying Social Science. The study of communities and peoples is very interesting because growing up, I have traveled a lot and I have learned that there is a whole world out there, that is not limited to the one you live in. Because of this, I have learned and loved to learn about the different ways that people live and how they function and the aspects of life that they make a priority. With this, I have learned to love studying languages, as I am studying French and Spanish as well as Sociology. I grew up speaking French because I come from an immigrant family and I have learned Spanish in school, so I decided to continue with these languages so that I can be opened to more of the world and of more people. I am currently President of the Black Student Association at my school and I am currently working on bridging the gap between the community and the college. Because I am at a predominantly white institution, African American students have not always been accepted on campus. But now that we are, I am working on bridging the community resources for African American citizens and the resources that we have on campus. This could really be good for those in the community because we want support from those around us. Once I graduate, I would love to work in the United Nations and advocate for those that live in third-world countries. To function as a human being, it is important to have clean water, enough food, and a place to lay your head every night. There are too many people out there that are not able to have their thoughts shine because they are dying prematurely. I really want to advocate for these people because it is unacceptable that we, in the United States, are able to throw away so much money, resources, and food and not look at our neighbors for those who need help. If philanthropy and charity could be at the top of all societies, I think that we could really change the world. Having excess is one thing, but abusing it is another and I think that we need to spread the love and remember those who do not have much.

As a non-U.S. citizen, the challenges that I have had to face are not being able to apply to all of the scholarships that I want to and certain opportunities in college that require applicants to be citizens. The way that I have to overcome these challenges is to just keep moving forward. Because the process to become a citizen is strenuous, all that I have left to do is move forward and look for opportunities that I am eligible for. On my college campus, there are a lot of resources for all sorts of people. There are resources for international students, transfer students, and more. I have gotten in contact with the Senior Diversity chair because she has been working on my college campus for more than ten years and she knows the resources to help African American students find scholarships. Another challenge that I face is that I have to constantly keep track of my papers and my permanent residency card and just keep tabs on my status. This makes me not have 100% focus on my studies. I am right around the corner to be eligible to apply for citizenship. My career aspiration is to work in the United Nations. This is because my parents are from Cameroon and in the media, a lot of African countries are portrayed as impoverished, unruly and just poor. I think that this is very detrimental because society does not see them as people, but as things that just need help. Because living in the United States means we are a first-world country, I think this has desensitized us to those who do not even have food, water and safe shelter to lay their head in every night. This is something that I want to fight for every day. Everyone must get a chance to grow up and show their potential. It is not fair. I think that those who play sports make an atrocious amount of money and live in huge houses and have expensive cars. I think that it is a little bit of excess and wasting money when it could be used in a more useful way. I think that charity and philanthropy should be more of a priority starting from the top. By those in the United Nations setting an example, everyone will follow suite. But it has to start from the top and I want to be part of that change.

Coming to college let me rediscover my self apart from my parents. Growing up was not easy at all. My family and I are immigrants and this caused a life of living in two different worlds. It was hard to be one person at school but then try to be the person your parents hopped you wanted to be at the same time. This caused me to have a lot of interpersonal conflicts and a lot of hatred towards my situation and my life. Coming to college has helped rediscover a lot of activities and events that had caused so much trauma in the past. One being going to the gym. Growing up, I had a lot of body dysmorphia, struggled with eating disorders and had a lot of pressure from my parents to be the best, at the top, and never to show any sign of failure at all times. This caused me to grow a hatred towards working out and working on my body because it always brought on pain. It took a lot of time to rewire the way that I thought about myself. College is a huge change and step that I personally can help a lot of people because I came from a super restricted, super strict household where everything was monitored and watched to a place where you get to do whatever you want that makes you happy. I decided that this was my time to make my body the shape I wanted to be in a healthy way. I began researching and learning about the different types of ways that people workout and the way to do it the right way. I started to really enjoy sweating and the work that it had to take in order to look a certain way, and I began to fall in love a little bit with my body. I am a perfectionist, so there are some days that are harder than others, where it seems like I had not done any work and I have not changed at all. But my goal was to never lose weight, as I was never big, but to rewire my brain and have healthy thoughts about how I saw myself. I began to change the harmful things I said about myself and began to accept the body that I was given. There are still times that i am super self-critical because of the environment that I grew up in and it can still be hard to look at myself in the mirror, but I know that my love for the gym drives me to be the best person that I can be. I have learned a lot about myself through my gym journey. I can push my self in healthy ways without feeling such shame and guilt when I do not get something right away. I can run again without making it a punishment for myself. I am able to celebrate the little victories and be proud of how strong I am. College has really helped me become the healthy and happier person that I am today.

Hello! My name is Coleen Ndedi Ntepe. I currently attend Pittsburg State University. I am on my second year of college and majoring in Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Sociology, French, and Spanish. I have chosen to pursue my education and further it because growing up, education was stressed in my household. Both my parents went to school and have told us that getting a college degree can open more opportunities for us. Personally, however, I love to learn. For me, learning causes me to look out and research more about the world around me and be able to interact with the people in it. This is especially the case with the majors that I have chosen. I grew up speaking French and was taught English and Spanish in school, so I felt that getting a degree in the latin languages would not only increase my fluency, but would open up my world to communicate with so many more people that have the same interests as me. With my sociology degree, I am hoping to learn more about people that are around the world and how communities and countries are built up. Because I live in the United States, society tends to follow a more western path. However, to make an impact, I believe that it is important to get to know the people and the societies that I will potentially be working with. The end goal that I have is to impact the United Nations and cause laws to be enforced about the poorer citizens of a country. I believe that it is completely inhumane and unjust that some countries have so much wealth, but we are still struggling to bring clean water, healthy food and medical attention to those in need. The value of money in first world countries is so high, yet priorities are misplaced. The levels of infant mortality and child starvation are way to high for the advanced society and world we now live in. In my community, at the moment, I am currently the vice president of the Black Student Association at PSU and I am hoping to learn more about how my organization can give more community impacts. I also volunteer with my church to do outreach services to the local elementary schools. For example, we did a Thanksgiving drive and a backpack drive this month. Events like these, I believe, should be regularized because from a young age, we are taught to share, so we should be able to share with countries that have less than others.

My dream and goal for life is to make a non profit organization that eliminates world hunger, poverty, and child starvation around the world. I would like to make an impact that causes big unions, like the Untied Nations, to make permanent changes to how all countries should treat their poorer citizens.

Hi! My name is Coleen Ndedi Ntepe. I am a freshman at Pittsburg State University studying Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Sociology, French and Spanish. My family and I are immigrants in the United States, but I did mot of my growing up in the States. I think that I would be a good candidate for this scholarship because of my hardwork and determination. With the continuation of my education, I would like to work in international law or just travel around the world to speak up about the ways that people in developing countries are living. I think that there should not be such a big divide in first world and third world countries. It is time that we help those in need. Many countries around the world hav so many riches that could enable them to help raise the quality of life, but they do not have the tools they need to tap into those riches. It is our duty to help them. Growing up, I have been given the opportunity to travel. I would love to use this scholarship to help with my studies so that I can continue to learn more about cultures so that I am able to be a voice for those who do not have one. I would love to be an advocate for developing countries so that they do not suffer from exploitation any longer.

My name is Coleen Ndedi Ntepe and I go to Pittsburg State University. I am currently studying Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Sociology, Spanish and French. I love to read and learn new language. I play the violin for the Pittsburg State University Southeastern Kansas Symphony. What I plan to do with my degree is to change the way that people live in third world and developing countries. I believe that with the amount of money that counties have, like the United States, for example, there should be no reason that there is so much poverty in the world. I would like to work in some sort of International Law so that there are drastic changes and third world countries do not have a huge population of people that suffer so much because neighboring countries or countries with wealth do not help them. I am interested in this field because growing up, I got the chance to do a lot of traveling. This opened my interest in wanting to learn more about different cultures and learn about different languages. I am an immigrant, so I have learned how some countries work and how it is hard for immigrants most of the time. I also see that there are some countries that struggle in terms of just having ways of tapping into the natural resources that they have. There are many countries that could be very wealthy, but they just do not have the wealth and resources to tap into the resources. This definitely also benefits exploitation. At the end of the day, every person should get the change to be able to have enough food, shelter and water to survive and I would like to help change this standard. I have learned so much from the books that I have read. I am an avid reader and am always trying to grow my book collection. Most of the books that I read are fiction novels, like Harry Potter, one of my favorite novels. However, I also really like biographies and mythology. Most thematic similarities that I have read about are teamwork, friendship, and the like. Mythology is very interesting because I like to read and learn about the belief system that a lot of ancient people had. I like the way it shaped their culture and that everyone had a common interest and common beliefs. The books that I read get me more interested in wanting to learn about more cultures. It is so interesting to be in a different country, research and read about different things.

I love to learn. I think that I have been given a great opportunity to learn and pursue education. Growing up, my parents taught me to love school and my education and helped me profound my love for math, english, languages, and reading. Now that I am in college, I get the chance to take the classes that I would like so that I am able to learn more about who I am and how I can impact the world. I speak three languages because I am an immigrant. At home, I speak French and I learned Spanish and English through going to school in the United States. Now that I am in college, I get to be more proficient in both languages and it is very exciting because this way, I am able to possibly study abroad and I can possibly help other people, learn from other cultures and be a stronger person. I am also studying Criminal Justice with an emphasis in Sociology. I really like learning about different cultures and different peoples. However, growing up, I got the chance to travel a lot and I loved meeting new people and learn about people. But I have noticed that there are a lot of people in third world countries who are suffering. For me, it is very weird and concerning when countries like the United States have so much money for entertainment and food, but there is still poverty around the world. We abuse so much water and resources, but we are unable to help our neighboring countries in little things like food, water and shelter. It is not a problem that we can't, but more that we won't. There are a lot of third world countries that are resource rich. They just need the means by which they are able to get into contact of those resources. So, why haven't we done anything to help others. With my education, I really hope to work my way up in International Law so that the standard that a lot of people have will change. I think that it is extremely unfair that some children are born in such horrendous situations and they are unable to get help. We need to do something and I believe that I can help push a change. It just takes one person, one voice, who will represent those in need and I will strive to help those who have less.