An unpopular opinion I have is that Black Excellence is not for "Black People". I have this opinion because after watching all elite groups in our community i have noticed they have a strange need to be separated from black people that they believe are below them such as "poor black people". When black people are able to lift themselves up they are supposed to go back to the communities they come from and lift those communities up as well or at least that's what my hbcu taught me. However, it seems as though lately most black people are only interested in lifting themselves up. They don't want to be seen as one of "those" black people or grouped in with them. They don't want to be grouped in with them because they rather be viewed as close to whiteness. This can be seen in the predominantly white intuition (PWi)vs Historically Black college and universities (HBCU) debate, the deion sanders debate, and even in organizations that are supposed to be for us. When people from pwi's make jokes on tiktok like at least we have housing they don't see how they are playing into classism and elitism. Well, the truth is for about 70 percent of pwis it's not true that they have adequate housing. They just have the access to money and resources that most black kids don't have to be able to go rent an apartment at a moment's notice. There is no way or form that a pwi is better than a hbcu. This is not me saying that hbcus are better than pwis either. I am saying that they are both schools that give degrees to people searching for them. However the only reason that a person would want to keep up the idea that pwis are better is to be in proximity to whiteness. Deion sanders needed hbcu's. He was unable to coach because he didn't have a degree. Jackson state university (Jsu ) helped set him up with a school to get him a fast-track degree so he can be a coach. After this deion sanders ran around saying things like "he is swac." However, the first chance he got he left this hbcu for a pwi. Yet he didn't just leave quietly, he and his family spent every second talking down on the hbcu that helped them get to where they are. His family has made wild claims saying that there were murders on the campus every day and that everything was unorganized. Yet when he got to his pwi his office wasn't ready, their football field wasn't ready, they have a higher crime rate than Jsu, and they didn't have the money to pay him. Yet he and his family have had nothing bad to say about them because of the proximity to whiteness. Lastly, the organizations that are supposed to be "For us". I will only use one example and this will be an hbcu to prove my unbias, Albany state university. Albany state university recently gave a scholarship to a white teenager who was caught using the n-word after his scholarship and offer was taken away from him by his pwi. An hbcu is supposed to be a place where minority students can come feel safe for four years while they learn their culture and prepare for the real world. However, they have decided to let a proven racist come into their safe space and offer him a scholarship to it. Black Excellence is only invested in the ability to be close to whiteness and removed from "those other blacks."

I am a twenty-three-year-old college graduate who plans on going to graduate school. However, with all the debt I've taken out for undergrad, it feels almost impossible to go to graduate school, despite the fact in today's society I need a master's degree to get a good-paying job. In my undergraduate years, I took out loans for all four years because I believed it would be the only way I could go to college. I didn't think of all the money piling up and how it would affect my future. Now I want to go to graduate school for a master's degree so I can have a higher chance of getting into my dream field. Yet, I don't want to be trying to pay for my student loans, and my current school and still trying to survive at the age of 23. I would not be able to survive in college that way. However, if I won this scholarship I would be able to pay down my student loans so I can attend graduate school without worrying about bills from a school I already graduated from. In graduate school, I plan to receive a master's degree in communications with a concentration in radio, television in film. This will give me the opportunity to get my foot inside the film industry. I plan on having my own television network that broadcasts shows that support showing the cultures of black and brown without their proximity to whiteness. I would like to have television shows like a different world, family matters, and George Lopez back on television. Not just pushed to the back where we only see ourselves at 4 o clock in the morning when everyone else is sleeping or on streaming services. I would like a television network that is available all day 24/7 that doesn't show us acting how other people perceive us. However, to do any of this I would have to have a foot in the door with the film industry. Right now I have no connection with the film industry and with no connection to the film industry, it's impossible for me to do any of these things. I believe that going back to school will give me the opportunity to make more connections and get more internships that will allow me the foot in the door to the film industry I need. This will give me the opportunity to have worked with and left an impression on the big names so I can become a big name myself. Then I will use that big name to give back to minority communities by putting us on the tv screens in a positive light without erasing our history. The social issue I am looking to address is how black and brown people are presented in the media which gives people who have never been around any of us to view us in a negative light. Every time something negative in our communities happens there is someone quick to jump online and spew a negative stereotype about us that isn't true that they have either gotten from their upbringing or television. I would like to change that. I would like people to see for who we are. I believe I can do that by changing the narrative that is put out there through television.

I am a twenty-three-year-old college graduate who plans on going to graduate school. However, with all the debt I've taken out for undergrad, it feels almost impossible to go to graduate school, despite the fact in today's society I need a master's degree to get a good-paying job. In my undergraduate years, I took out loans for all four years because I believed it would be the only way I could go to college. I didn't think of all the money piling up and how it would affect my future. Now I want to go to graduate school for a master's degree so I can have a higher chance of getting into my dream field. Yet, I don't want to be trying to pay for my student loans, and my current school and still trying to survive at the age of 23. I would not be able to survive in college that way. However, if I won this scholarship I would be able to pay down my student loans so I can attend graduate school without worrying about bills from a school I already graduated from. In graduate school, I plan to receive a master's degree in communications with a concentration in radio, television in film. This will give me the opportunity to get my foot inside the film industry. I plan on having my own television network that broadcasts shows that support showing the cultures of black and brown without their proximity to whiteness. I would like to have television shows like a different world, family matters, and George Lopez back on television. Not just pushed to the back where we only see ourselves at 4 o clock in the morning when everyone else is sleeping or on streaming services. I would like a television network that is available all day 24/7 that doesn't show us acting how other people perceive us. However, to do any of this I would have to have a foot in the door with the film industry. Right now I have no connection with the film industry and with no connection to the film industry, it's impossible for me to do any of these things. I believe that going back to school will give me the opportunity to make more connections and get more internships that will allow me the foot in the door to the film industry I need. This will give me the opportunity to have worked with and left an impression on the big names so I can become a big name myself. Then I will use that big name to give back to minority communities by putting us on tv screens in a positive light without erasing our history. The social issue I am looking to address is how black and brown people are presented in the media which gives people who have never been around any of us to view us in a negative light. Every time something negative in our communities happens there is someone quick to jump online and spew a negative stereotype about us that isn't true that they have either gotten from their upbringing or television. I would like to change that. I would like people to see for who we are. I believe I can do that by changing the narrative that is put out there through television.

I am a twenty-three-year-old college graduate who plans on going to graduate school. However, with all the debt I've taken out for undergrad, it feels almost impossible to go to graduate school, despite the fact in today's society I need a master's degree to get a good-paying job. In my undergraduate years, I took out loans for all four years because I believed it would be the only way I could go to college. I didn't think of all the money piling up and how it would affect my future. Now I want to go to graduate school for a master's degree so I can have a higher chance of getting into my dream field. Yet, I don't want to be trying to pay for my student loans, and my current school and still trying to survive at the age of 23. I would not be able to survive in college that way. However, if I won this scholarship I would be able to pay down my student loans so I can attend graduate school without worrying about bills from a school I already graduated from. In graduate school, I plan to receive a master's degree in communications with a concentration in radio, television in film. This will give me the opportunity to get my foot inside the film industry. I plan on having my own television network that broadcasts shows that support showing the cultures of black and brown without their proximity to whiteness. I would like to have television shows like a different world, family matters, and George Lopez back on television. Not just pushed to the back where we only see ourselves at 4 o clock in the morning when everyone else is sleeping or on streaming services. I would like a television network that is available all day 24/7 that doesn't show us acting how other people perceive us. However, to do any of this I would have to have a foot in the door with the film industry. Right now I have no connection with the film industry and with no connection to the film industry it's impossible for me to do any of these things. I believe that going back to school will give me the opportunity to make more connections and get more internships that will allow me the foot in the door to the film industry I need. This will give me the opportunity to have worked with and left an impression on the big names so I can become a big name myself. Then I will use that big name to give back to minority communities by putting us on tv screens in a positive light without erasing our history.

The thing that drives my passion for art is pain and motivation. My art is writing.I express myself through writing in three different ways poetry, short stories and screen plays. Ever since I was young I had trouble with words. I learned later in life that I actually had anxiety from childhood trauma. However, since it was so hard for me to talk about the things I was going through I let writing become my outlet. I tried out all types of writing’s . First I started writing songs, then letters until finally my first real outlet became poetry.Poetry is sacred to me because my poetry is where I let out my deepest darkest secrets. The words I write there is the words I would be too afraid and ashamed to ever say to anyone else.it’s the one place where I never feel judged. I let the pen touch the paper and it’s like I’m writing away my trauma. However, I do like to use writing as something fun as well.My next outlet is writing short stories. Short stories are fun to me. I write short stories so I can read short stories with characters like me in it. Everytime I write a short story I feel like a part of my inner child is healing. The little girl who didn’t get see herself in much gets to see herself in everything she would’ve wanted to read because she wrote it. My last outlet is writing screen plays. My main goal is to write for film and television. So, this art is my motivation. This art is what I will show the world. I want to bring back television shows similar to one on one or the nanny. However, I don’t want remake of these shows. I want fresh shows but with these same vibes. This scholarship would help me pursue my passion of writing because I am currently looking to go to graduate school. However coming from a poor family, I do not have enough money to go. I took out so much money to go to undergraduate school that I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to pay back my debt. However, I don’t want that to keep my from following my dreams. This scholarship could help me pay for graduate school. So, I can continue to to attempt to perfect my craft in writing and film. In order to make the perfect television shows that will be remembered decades from now.

When I was younger I watched my mother be physically abused by her boyfriend everyday. After he finished abusing her she would come and physically and verbally abuse me. She would tell me things like how worthless I was but I didn’t need her to tell me though because I already believed it. I believed I was worthless because I believed it was my fault she was being abused. The first day I seen him I was only five but I knew there was something not right about him. My pit dropped to my stomach and filled with dread seeing him. His presence bothered me so much I walked past him without speaking despite me never being that rude before. I was made to come back to speak which I did but the feeling never went away. However, I never mentioned this feeling to anyone before. So, I felt for a long time my mother being abused and her abuse of me was my fault. Yet, while I was busy blaming myself my mother couldn’t even remember any of it. Everytime one of these nights happened she would get so drunk that she didn’t remember any of it happening m. Till this day she can not recall these parts of my childhood that have traumatized me for the rest of my life. I would like to use my voice to help women and children stuck in situations like this. A lot of times black women are less likely to get helped because it is believed that they are making it up, strong enough to handle, must’ve done something to deserve it, will go back or it simply wasn’t that bad. I would like to use my voice to break that stereotype against black women. I would like to create a safe space for block women to talk about their experiences in love, what love is and women should be treated in love. A lot of times we grow up not seeing the best examples of love. So, we try to convince ourselves that it is love even though deep down we know it isn’t. I believe open conversations with people who have gone through this will help women who are going through it see it isn’t the best situation and seek help. I would like for this safe space to offer black women therapy done by black women, housing assistance and job or college assistance. Once a woman leaves behind her abuser she most leave everything behind a lot of times even her home. So these resources would allow women to get back on their feet and recover. These resources would put them in the position to restart in life without one mistake or person ruining the rest of their lives for them. The children experiencing their parents go through this I would offer them the same thing. A safe space and therapy for traumatic experiences. Yet since they wouldn’t be old enough for job training I would offer scholarships for their future endeavors.

My biggest fear is dying. I always fear that when I die my existence would have meant nothing. So, my bucket list is pretty career-oriented. My first goal on my bucket list is to go sky diving. My second goal on my bucket list is to travel the world. My third goal on my bucket list is to travel the world. My fourth goal is to create my own minority-based television network. I have not completed any of these goals yet unfortunately but I have started on two of them. I have begun to travel the world and see different places but I haven't traveled the whole world yet. I am also only one month away from graduating college. So, while I have not completed any of my goals completely. I am extremely close to one and currently working on another. I will continue adding to my bucket list as time continues to progress.

I am a fairly shy person who suffers from anxiety. My anxiety is caused by conflict but I also have flare-ups with presentations and meeting new people. However, my goals are designed for an outgoing person. I dream of being a household name screenwriter who eventually creates her own network. To do this will take networking with people much beyond myself. I know there will be no excuses accepted in this field. So, at seventeen years old I got on a plane for the first time in my life, leaving the only place I have ever known. I flew three thousand miles across the country to go to a university to help start my career. I knew the only way to make networks is by networking with the people I was currently in college with. I started with my roommate and began trying to get to know people. Since would be the people I would be with for the next four years. Not all of the people I meet worked out and I have not stopped having anxiety. However, I no longer stand there with my mouth opening and closing speaking barely above a whisper when I meet new people.

In the television show "How I met your mother," the friend group had a no questions asked policy where anytime you could ask someone for something no questions asked. However, at the end of this particular episode marshall realized he had never used this rule with his wife Lilly because he didn't need to. They told each other everything and she never judged. Every group has that friend that is like lily, someone who never judges. I am that person for my friends. They can always come to me at anytime or any day to tell me about their problems. No matter how big the problem is or how long it takes them to explain, I am always a listening ear. Sometimes I do not know exactly what to say so I just listen instead. However, my friends have told me that even just listening helps with their problems. When I can offer more than just listening I offer my advice, opinion, or words of encouragement. I encourage others by being a listening ear. This simple action lets them know that someone cares. They don't need to give up or feel slighted by the world because someone cares and that someone is me.

When I was younger I didn't have many friends. My dad would try to cheer me up about but my mother would always say "You don't have any friends, only family." At the time I didn't think either approach was really helpful. However, I never understood my mother's statement until I got older. When I got older I learned friends are people you can trust. People who will end up being the godparents, aunties, and uncles to your children. People who will be there for you when you're in the hospital. People who are there in your good times showing support but are also there in your bad times showing extra support. Friends are what the characters on friends, living single and how I meet your mother have, family. Freinds real true friends will become your family in the end. So, to me, Friendship means trust, reliability, love, and support but most of all friendship means family. So I learned is what my mother's statement meant all those years. Real friends are your family.

My favorite piece of art I have created is a poetry piece about beauty standards. I was inspired to write this piece by a prompt giving in class by another students with just the three words my first wig. This prompt ignited all the positive and negative emotions my first wig brought me all those years ago. When I received my first wig I was sixteen and going to prom for the first time. I wasn’t a popular student because I was too shy to talk most of the time. So, I didn’t have a lot of confidence at the time. Due to my lack of confidence I tried fitting into other peoples views. I tried blending in with my peers by assimilating to their norms. I tried assimilating to beauty standards that didn’t agree with my own. I seen television and magazines and I didn’t look like anybody else. Even my peers seemed to all develop before me. I realized my own beauty later but it was much after high school. It was until a good time until college where I started to recognize my own self worth. For other girls growing up in an era where they will not see women who look like them on television I don’t want them to experience the same thing. I would love them to look on television and say that woman looks just like me. I don’t have to change anything about myself to look like her. I don’t need a wig ,plastic surgery or all these enhancements to feel beautiful. I know I am beautiful and if I had enhancements it Is just because I want to. This piece of art allowed me to showcase that in my art. It allowed me to show beauty is in the eye of the beholder through the power of words. This piece of art allowed me release that childhood wound to the air and try to make sure no other person receives it.This is my favorite piece of art because it does not only show pain and grimace of the past but it shows growth as well. I believe it to be a piece of art that I could show my kids or anybody struggling with self confidence. It’s not just a piece of art but a stepping stone to healing my own trauma and every other person inflicted by impossible beauty standards.

I am A senior English major at Clark Atlanta university. After I graduate I plan to attend graduate school and obtain my masters degree in the arts. I choose my major because I want to be a screenwriter. I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer. When I was younger I would write songs in my notebook. As I got older I began writing poetry and short stories. Once I reached college level I knew writing was what k wanted to do for the rest of my life. When I was younger I would set and read books that took me into a different world and for moment I forgot all my problems. I was no longer the girl who got braces and glasses way to early. I was no longer the shy nerdy kid. I was no longer the kid other kids picked on. I was no longer the kid with all the problems at home who all my teachers were concerned about. Instead I was whoever I wanted to be. I could be a princess, a werewolf, a scientist , anything.Books have every genre. Realizing I could do more than just read books but I could also write them may have been the best day of my life. I no longer had to wait for someone to make the book I wanted to read. Instead I could just go write the book myself. Writing doesn’t sound like a way for anyway to make a difference to most people. Yet it is. Representation matters so much for kids and even adults. Just the response for movies like black panther, Shang- chi and big red show this. This is the way I plan to make a difference. I want to bring representation into the super natural and super hero Novel and television world. I want to make original movies and novels that show case underrepresented cultures while still being telling a good story. Shows like the originals, vampire diaries, teenage witch , how i meet your mother would be brought back to television. Television not ruined by terrible writing but added to with representation of all under represented cultures. Once I have done this I want to go own a television network. This television network will specifically play these types of shows and movies. Giving a people a safe place to wind down and feel themselves represented on television.

Artist name: Dj D.W. Album: No back up plan Song 1 (freshman year): Change j.cole Song 2 (sophomore year): sum 2 prove lil baby Song 3 (junior year): pretty bitch freestyle saweetie Song 4 (senior year): big bank yg ft 2 chainz and big Sean Song 5 (fifth year): dedication nipsey Hussle feat Kendrick Lamar Song 6 ( keep going): get up 10 cardi b Song 7 (finish line) :Thot shit Megan thee stallion

I deserve this scholarship because I’m like super popular on tiktok and I’m really pretty. I have no academic or career goals. After I graduate I plan to make income by making tiktok videos and getting brand deals. Once I get too old for tiktok or tiktok is no longer popular then I will become a house mom to the richest man I can find. In summary my only goals are to be a luxury black girl or material girl by doing nothing like the old Hillary Clinton. A time I has to overcome obstacle was one day I came home from school and just wanted to relax. Yet when I went to relax tiktok was down. I almost lost it. I was thinking how can I get my tiktok career started now. Now I’ll have to talk to my family and friends instead of having a good day. I sucked it up and I went to talk to my family and friends. It turns out their actually really interesting people. Hopefully that never happens again though. That was the worst day of my life.

I would convince a peer to go to college by telling them people of color are only rewarded more chances when they go to school. White people can not go school and fall back on a family business , trust fund or still make it through life on their privilege. However when people of color don’t go to school, they end up stuck up in the same situations they were born in. For people of color who need degrees to advance in life they will need at least a masters degree since the bachelors degree is starting to viewed as the new high school diploma. However, if they stop at is a high school diploma, six figure paying jobs would not want to hire them. Besides just going to college to better your life, it will also be the funniest time of your life. In college you will be away from your parents from the first time. You’ll make your own mistakes with no adults to fix them for the first time. Yet, during this time you will also make life long memories. You’ll meet the people who will be the aunts and uncles to your children and your best friends for the rest of your life. In college you will have access to everything at once. All of your friends will be in one place, all the resources you need will be one place and opportunities will be handed to you if you put yourself out there with friends, clubs and professors.

Hobbies are hard to find but my hobby almost fell in my lap or was handed down to me like a birthright. My favorite hobby is playing the piano. During high school I realized all of my dads side of the family could play the piano except for me. My great grandma even had a piano in her house. I was astonished by the way the were so casually talented at something so complicated. So I decided I would learn to play the piano. However, it always seemed like I never had time to truly learn until the pandemic happened. While the pandemic wasn’t a good thing it allowed a lot of free time to go crazy or discover new things. I decided to start learning the piano again. The first song I began to learn on the piano was the pink panther. I decided that when I finally got it down packed, I would go to my great grandmother house and surprise her and the rest of my family with my new found piano skills. Unfortunately, my great grandma died before I could show her. However, I still like playing around and learning the piano. I am by no means a professional yet. I’m still in the beginning stages of learning the piano. However, when I play the piano I feel free and connected at the same time. I feel free because it feels like there is nothing else or nobody else in the room. There is nothing else going in my mind except for the keys and the sound of the piano. I feel connected because even though I never got to play for my great grandmother it feels as though I can be connected to her and other family members who have passed with a shared common interest and talent.