My first experience with higher education did not end the way I imagined it would. When I attended Dillard University, I was excited about college and capable of doing the work, but I was also young and trying to navigate financial responsibilities, paperwork, and college systems that I did not completely understand. Eventually, financial and administrative challenges led me to withdraw. At the time, leaving college felt less like a pause and more like I had failed at something I was supposed to be able to do. For a while, I questioned what returning to college would even look like. What ultimately brought me back was finding something worth returning for. Working with children started as babysitting and nannying, but the more experience I gained, the more I realized that childcare and education were not simply jobs I enjoyed. I genuinely cared about how children learned, why they behaved in certain ways, and how the adults around them could shape their development. I later became a behavior technician, where I worked closely with children who needed additional developmental and behavioral support. That experience strengthened my patience and taught me to look beyond a child's behavior to understand what they might be communicating. When I enrolled at Delgado Community College to study Early Childhood Education, I was returning to school as a very different person. This time, I had direction. My classes were no longer disconnected assignments I needed to complete for a degree. I could take something I learned about child development or classroom practices and recognize it while working with a child. Education became personal because I understood exactly what I wanted to do with it. I also became a different kind of student. I learned to communicate with professors, ask questions, advocate for myself, and seek help before a small issue became a larger problem. I became more organized and intentional about balancing school with work and my personal responsibilities. Most importantly, I stopped believing that needing help meant I was incapable of succeeding. I went on to successfully earn my associate degree in Early Childhood Education from Delgado. Today, I am a Pre-K teacher and am pursuing my bachelor's degree. Sometimes I think about the younger version of myself who withdrew from college and wondered whether she had ruined her opportunity. I wish she could see me now standing in my own classroom. My students have also changed the way I think about success. Every day, I encourage four-year-olds to try again. They write letters backward, count incorrectly, struggle to tie a shoe, forget a classroom rule, or become frustrated when something does not come easily. I would never look at one of them and decide that their first unsuccessful attempt determines what they are capable of becoming. I have had to learn to extend that same grace to myself. That is why I believe second chances in education matter. Sometimes people struggle academically because they lack ability, but sometimes life happens before they have developed the resources, maturity, support, or direction to handle it. A person's lowest academic moment should not automatically become the ceiling for the rest of their life. My long-term goal is to continue growing as an educator and eventually create an early learning program that provides children with safe, high-quality education while supporting the families and teachers who care for them. I want to take everything I am learning, from college classrooms and my own Pre-K classroom, and eventually pour it back into my community. Receiving this scholarship would help me continue pursuing my bachelor's degree with less financial pressure and allow me to focus more of my energy on becoming the educator and leader I know I can be. My first experience with college taught me what it feels like when a plan falls apart. My second chance taught me something far more important: falling behind does not mean you cannot move forward. I am not returning to higher education hoping that this time I can succeed. I returned with greater maturity, a clear purpose, and proof that I can. I earned my second chance. Now, I intend to make the most of it!

My path to becoming an educator was not a straight line. I did not grow up knowing exactly what grade I wanted to teach or imagining what my future classroom would look like. What I did know was that I had a natural connection with children and a desire to be someone they could feel safe with, learn from, and depend on. Over time, what began as simply caring for children became something much bigger: my purpose. My earliest experiences came through babysitting and nannying. Working closely with different families taught me quickly that no two children are the same. Some children were outgoing and independent, while others needed more reassurance, patience, or structure. I learned to adjust how I communicated, taught, and cared for each child instead of expecting every child to respond the same way. That understanding grew even deeper when I began working as a behavior technician. I worked one-on-one with children who needed additional behavioral and developmental support. That experience completely changed the way I viewed behavior. I learned that a child who is struggling is often communicating something they may not yet have the words or skills to express. Instead of only asking, "How do I stop this behavior?" I learned to ask, "What is this child trying to tell me?" That is a lesson I now carry into my classroom every day. I eventually pursued my associate degree in Early Childhood Education at Delgado Community College. College gave names, research, and theory to many of the things I had already begun learning through experience. I studied child development, classroom environments, curriculum, and developmentally appropriate practices while continuing to gain hands-on experience with children. Today, I am a Pre-K teacher, and having my own classroom has given me an entirely new understanding of the responsibility educators carry. I am not only teaching letters, numbers, shapes, and colors. I am helping children learn how to communicate, solve problems, manage big emotions, make friends, become independent, and believe that they are capable of learning. There are days when teaching is exhausting. There are also moments that remind me exactly why I chose it: watching a child finally understand something they struggled with, seeing a shy student become comfortable enough to participate, or realizing that a child feels safe enough with me to ask for help. I am now pursuing my bachelor's degree because I want my education to grow alongside my experience. My aspirations extend beyond one classroom. I eventually want to help improve early childhood education by creating programs that support children, families, and educators while making high-quality education more accessible within my community. My background taught me how to care for children. My experiences taught me how to understand them. Becoming an educator is teaching me how to help them grow. That is the work I want to spend my life doing. Without my students, I wouldn't feel complete.

When I think about my future, I don't just think about the career I want or the degree I want to earn. I think about what I want to build for other people! One day, I will build an early learning center where families can leave their children and genuinely feel at peace. I know how difficult it can be for parents to find childcare that is affordable while also being safe, dependable, and centered around their child's development. I want to help close that gap. My dream has grown alongside me. I started by babysitting and nannying, simply knowing that I loved working with children. Since then, I have worked as a behavior technician, worked in childcare centers, earned my associate degree in Early Childhood Education, and become a Pre-K teacher. Being inside classrooms every day has taught me things a textbook never could. I have seen how much children depend on the adults around them. Sometimes a child needs help learning their letters or numbers. Other times, they need someone patient enough to understand why they are having a hard day. I have learned that teaching young children requires you to care about the whole child, not just what they can accomplish academically. I have also seen how much teachers pour into their classrooms and how difficult that becomes when they do not have the support or resources they need. Those experiences have shaped the kind of center I hope to create. I want children to be excited to come to school. I want parents to know their concerns will be heard. I want teachers to feel valued instead of exhausted and overlooked. Most of all, I want quality early education to be something families in my community can actually access, not something reserved for those who can afford the highest tuition. I'm still building toward that dream. Continuing my education is part of that process, but so is every child I teach, every family I meet, and every lesson I learn along the way. Someday, I hope to look around at a building filled with children learning, teachers who love what they do, and parents who trust us with the people they love most, and know that everything I am doing now helped me build it.

I always thought I had my life all figured out. I thought I knew what I wanted to do, and I would get in and out of school and start working. I should have known something was wrong when I sat down to think about it thoroughly: my mind couldn't grasp what I had in mind. A time that I persevered through a life obstacle was changing my major. I've always wanted to be a nurse, specifically a postpartum nurse because it sounds fun, and it's such a rewarding job, after all my mother is a nurse. I could be around babies and help as many mothers in need as I could get my hands on. But after careful thoughts and consideration, I realized that I can still love Nursing but from afar. I appreciate and applaud all nurses, but it seems smaller than my wings can fly. I'm taking a chance and have changed my major to Film Studies and minoring in Food Studies instead of Nursing. I love the dream of being behind cameras again. After all, I loved doing it a whole year and a half in high school. Maybe I'll be on set filming a movie of my dream one day. I've always had a passion for cooking and baking. I can even see myself in the future opening up a bakery. I love to talk and have an outstanding love for houses and interior design, so I want to be a Realtor. To answer the question once again, I'm persevering in life by dreaming big and living by faith. No one knows where I'll be in the next 10 or 20 years from now. I can only imagine that I'll be happy and grateful that I made this change.

Hello! My name is Da’Jean Williams. I am a senior at Destrehan High School. I am a very proud African American lady. I take a lot of pride in my heritage and stand up for my brothers and sisters because Black Lives Still Matter. I am very passionate about helping everyone in need. I have volunteered at Ochsner Hospital and will continue to do so when Covid-19 goes away. I am pursuing my education at Dillard University, an HBCU in New Orleans, Louisiana. I wish to major in Nursing and acquire my Bachelor’s degree. I will then continue to become a Labor and Delivery Nurse and help deliver babies and assist mothers. I first knew that I wanted to be a medical professional when I helped keep my autistic brother Terrance Scott Jr. (TJ) awake while driving to the nearest hospital after he suddenly became sick. Throughout his entire life, he’s never been able to take care of himself or speak due to his disorder. My mother was his primary care provider and I would help when needed. I kept him responsive and aware of his surroundings so that we could make it to the hospital and we could let the ER nurses take over. Through the heart racing, emotional roller-coaster of getting him to the hospital, I lost my older brother on August 28, 2012, at the age of 9 years old. He suffered a ruptured stomach and it was not caught by the doctors at the many hospitals he attended. I want to help bring as many babies into this world and be a part of such a magical and huge step in many lives. I don’t want what happened to my brother which was something out of my control to happen to anyone on my watch. I am dreaming and doing big in life because I am not only pursuing my life to be a Labor and Delivery nurse but I also want to eventually start a small business in the cosmetic industry by doing nails. I also have a passion for the film industry. I worked with Press Play Productions for a year and took many classes in school to make my own films and films with my class. I created scripts, filmed videos, edited the videos, and sent them to clients. With this experience, I even went as far as starting my own Youtube channel to experience new things in life and to make my name known by others. I am bettering the life of myself and others around me by volunteering, helping nonprofit organizations, and bringing awareness to things that need to be acknowledged. I pride myself on expressing the true issues on my YouTube channel. I have spoken out on the Black Lives Matter movement and on a potential school that could be racist by experience. I am bettering myself by focusing on school and keeping my head up. I am helping those around me find their way in life and narrowing down what they want to do for the next couple of years. I am making sure that I acknowledge the ones that are helping us conquer Covid-19 and showing my gratitude.

I am a graduating student from Destrehan High School. I am pursuing my education and my career in Nursing at Dillard University in New Orleans Louisiana. I am very excited to be a nurse and hold the powerful title and be able to help any and everyone that needs help. I want to become a nurse for several reasons. I have always been very passionate about helping people in need. I always tend to care for others before I care for myself and I would like to continue to do so. I don't even look at being a nurse as a job. I mainly look at it as a career that I am very passionate about and something that I know I would be really good at it. The first moment that I knew I wanted to become someone that worked in the medical profession is when I helped my sick autistic brother, Terrance Jr, or TJ stay awake while being rushed to the hospital. He was 18 at the time and was never able to care for himself his entire life. My mother was his main caretaker and I would help when needed. When August 28, 2012, came it all happened very fast. We left home in a hurry, my mother was driving and I was in the backseat with my brother. The entire ride to the hospital I never once thought about anything but my brother or you could say my patient. I kept him awake and stable until I handed him off to the ER nurses at the hospital. It was the very last thing that I was able to do for my brother since he was taken off of life support the next day as he passed away from a ruptured stomach. I will never forget being able to keep him awake which is why I am so passionate about helping everyone. The specific area of nursing that I would like to pursue is Labor and Delivery. I'm going to help mothers bring newborns into this world and help them take care of their babies while they are under my care. I am passionate about this specific area because I’ve heard and seen that delivering a baby can be a very hard process and if I can make any mothers' experience better in any way possible I definitely will. I will also assist them in the first few hours or days of caring for the mother and newborn.