Charity has always been extremely important to me, as I firmly believe that everyone reaps what they sow. One of my favorite Bible verses, which comes in Luke Chapter 6, verse 38, highlights this, saying "Give, and it will be given to you." I try to incorporate this into my daily life, even if they are small gestures such as holding the door open for strangers or picking up trash from off of the floor. Any chance I get, I also try to give food or drinks to homeless people who sit outside of stores or restaurants. I intend on giving back in the future through the clothing brand that I will be creating this summer. The clothing brand that my friends and I are creating will be very affordable and we plan on hosting many giveaways and service events to give back to our community. We already have a partnership in place with a local thrift/boutique clothing store that holds a popular status within our city, which we plan to utilize to develop a stronger relationship within the community. Overall, charity will continue to be of utmost importance in my life because I believe it brings us closer as human beings and betters our society.

My name is Elijah Bruce-McCrommon and I am a Junior Marketing Major at Howard University. During my fall semester of last year, I went through an extremely rough patch in my life where I felt almost nothing was going right. I was focused on the wrong things during this period, and this was reflected in my grades for that semester, which happened to be the worst I have performed in college. I knew that if I wanted to keep my scholarship that I would have to devote way more time to my studies than I had during the previous semester. As 2023 turned to 2024, I decided that I was going to go down the right path. My faith had taken a backseat during the fall semester, and I realized that was a major cause of the rough patch. Over the course of the semester, I prioritized my faith and relied on God as opposed to worldly things. I chose to focus and invest time into the things that would bring me success in the long term rather than immediate pleasure. Because of my efforts, I was able to live a much better and more productive life. Devoting a multitude of hours to my studies, I was able to bring my GPA up significantly to a 3.27, but I ultimately fell short of the 3.3 GPA to maintain my scholarship. The last grade of the semester took a while to be entered, so I had to move out of campus before I could see the grade. The professor entered the grade as a 91% which brought my GPA up to a 3.33. However, unfortunately, it was moved down to an 88% because he entered my final exam grade wrong in the gradebook which left me extremely disappointed and questioning the validity of the grade. He explained that it was a typo and that he could show me my test score in person, but I had already left campus until the following semester. IAll I could do in that moment was rely on the Lord to bring me through this shortcoming. One of my favorite series of verses, which I used to keep in my head at this time, comes in Proverbs Chapter 3 verses 5 through 6. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." I knew that by this point, it was out of my control, and that I had did my very best. All I had to do was trust in God to make my path straight. By the end of the summer, I had gotten a notification that my GPA fell under the requirement, but that Financial Aid was going to reinstate my scholarship out of the kindness of their hearts. I thanked God so much in this moment, as I wondered how I was going to make it through this circumstance, but He was in control all along. In the end, I trusted in the Lord rather than my own understanding, and He made my path straight.

My name is Elijah Bruce-McCrommon, I am a junior marketing major attending Howard University. I have huge dreams and ambitions that I want to accomplish and am constantly working towards. One of these dreams is becoming a music producer, which I have recently decided I want to take serious. At first, I started out creating instrumentals just for fun, and for me and my friends to freestyle rap over. When I would show my beats to my friends and family, I was very surprised to hear them tell me that they sounded professional and could hear real artists rap or sing over them. I decided last summer to start up a youtube instagram profiles to give myself platforms to post all of my instrumentals. Since then, my youtube channel has gained roughly 10,000 views and 440 subscribers. I have also sold a few of my beats to artists who have reached out to me, and I can feel myself improving every day by experimenting with different genres. I recently adopted a new software that allows me to both make my beats sound more professional and create them in much quicker fashion. On this new software, called FL studio, I am also able to mix and master vocals which expands my skill set and allows me to add an additional facet to my production abilities. I am still currently learning the full capabilities of the new software and the mastering aspect which I know will allow me to be more versatile and expand my network of artists to collaborate with. Another one of my long-time major aspirations is to start a clothing brand with my friends. My friends and I are largely interested in the fashion industry, and we enjoy thrift shopping. Our clothing brand will consist of mostly streetwear attire, as one of our favorite looks is distressed clothing. This summer, we plan on going all in on the project, as during previous summers, we have not had the financial means to start our brand. However, this summer, my friends have stable jobs with stable incomes, and I have earned an internship with PNC and will be making a considerable amount, much of which will be invested in the brand. Our plan for marketing and selling the brand is primarily through a local thrift store in our hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, which is called Zed's. We shop there consistently, and developed great relationships with the owners of the store. We told them that we were interested in starting a clothing brand, and one of the owners, who also has his own clothing brand, told us how he started his, and where he got his blank pieces from. He told us what software to use and how he creates his designs. We plan on going to them, explaining our brand to them, and asking if we could sell our first samples at their store to give us an idea of how many locals would support us. We also plan on selling them ourselves, not exclusively out of the store, with me selling them to Howard students, as well as DC locals, and my other two friends selling them to locals in our hometown. Overall, I feel as though both of my aspirations are attainable, and I will work relentlessly to make them reality.

My father is a man who I admire and look up to like nobody else. He is my role model, and I strive to one day be as great a father as he is to me and my 2 siblings. During my toddler years, my dad was playing professional basketball in multiple countries in Europe, like Germany, the Netherlands, and France, to provide for my family. There were times where we traveled with him, and times where he was without us, and although he loved playing basketball, I know he did not want to have to be away from us, but he did what he had to in order to keep us financially stable. After his basketball career, he worked at several different institutions, from being a substitute teacher, to a program coordinator at a recreation center, and finally a business analyst at PNC bank. Now, my dad and mom work together as entrepreneurs, running a hair salon chain with 2 locations, one in my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, and one in Miami, Florida. My dad has always been my biggest mentor and motivator, as growing up he signed me up for different sports teams to keep me active at all times. Basketball wa my favorite of the sports, and he trained me and pushed me to be the best possible player that I could be. Although there were hard days where I wondered why he was pushing me so hard, I've realized that he just wanted me to excel, and all the work paid off, as my high school team made it to both the section and state semi-finals during my senior year. On top of all of this, my dad grew up with his father being absent. The best part about this is that you would never know it, because he is the best father anybody could ask for. Although his father was not involved in his life, he never needed anyone to teach him how to love his children. When it comes time for me to be a father, I have no doubt that I will forward the love that my dad has shown me. The way that he has led and grown our family into what it is now is so amazing to me and I am forever grateful for the man that he is. I know that one day I will return all of the favors that he has done for me because he deserves the world.

Hello! My name is Elijah Bruce-McCrommon. I am a rising Junior marketing major from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I attend Howard University. The cost to attend Howard University has risen by over $5,000 for the upcoming semester, and in addition to that, Juniors and Seniors are not guaranteed on-campus housing, so on top of the risen cost, I will also have to pay monthly rent in an apartment in the already expensive city of Washington D.C. This scholarship would be of massive assistance to me and my family as we seek to figure out how to cover the costs. Being in the Howard University School of Business, I have seen so many successful individuals, whether it be corporate executives that come in to speak to us, or students who run successful businesses. I have been inspired by these people and reassured by them that I can indeed be one of those people as well, so I have ventured into my own personal endeavors and found that a few of them that have born fruit. The first is producing, which I started around a year ago but have recently started taking seriously. I have always been fascinated by music and started making beats last summer. Only within the past month have I started selling the beats and posting them on social media. The other endeavor is a clothing brand that me and my friends have started called silver sage gallery. We had been planning to start the brand for a while back and have recently began the early stages of designs, and are in contact with a manufacturer to create our first samples. We have collaborated with a local boutique store that we frequently shop at, and they are allowing us to sell our samples out of their store. My goals for the first venture is to push out at least 2 beats per week to advertise on social media with videos, and my goals for the second venture is to sell all 100 samples when I go back to Howard for the next semester. Some community service I have completed is the Howard University School of Business Day of Service, which took place in August of 2022 and 2023. In 2019 I completed a summer of volunteer work in my city at Monroeville Day Camp where I was an unpaid intern called a Junior Counselor. In 2021, I completed 3 days of community service at the Hindu Jain Temple in my city, Monroeville, PA, where I was a wedding server. Thank you so much for this opportunity!

I feel that education is extremely important because it allows our minds to expand and bring even more into this world. I feel that learning gives us a baseline in life which allows us to eventually, as we grow, be able to innovate and create more. Education is mandatory as we advance as a society and it is, undoubtedly, one of the largest influencers of creativity when done correctly without limiting the learner. I am thankful that education was very prominent during my younger years, and I am glad that I took it as serious as I did, because I feel like education has morphed and influenced me into the man that I am today. I was mesmerized by knowledge and always wanted to learn more, but I could never exactly put my finger on exactly what I wanted to do because of the fact that there was always more to learn. An example of how education influenced my creativity is from when I was in 4th grade. During my 3rd grade year, every kid had to play the recorder, which is a flute like instrument played by blowing into it. I loved playing it, and by the time 4th grade came around, we all got the opportunity to play an instrument of our choice. I wanted to be different and chose to be in the orchestra and play the cello, which is a string instrument. I played the cello from 4th grade until the day I graduated high school, and I am glad that I took the time to learn how to read music and understand time signatures because now, I am currently using the information I learned from those years and making money off of it. One of my passions is producing music and making beats which I sell and post on social media. Without this education, none of what I do now would have been possible. My understanding of music makes producing far easier than if I had to teach myself, and because I retained the information, I am able to put it to use to my advantage. Overall, education has been a huge staple in my life, and I take pride in my learning. As my life continues, the knowledge I have gained over the years continues to assist me in my journey, and I hope to continue to learn more and more every single day