As a baby, the disdain with which I seemed to view the world around me caused my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents to tell everyone that I had an ‘old soul’. As a toddler, I showed a zeal for life and a thirst to know and experience everything that I could. They would chuckle and again say that I “had definitely been here before”. Perhaps they were right. Maybe that is why I look at success in what many consider to be an ‘old school’ way. To me, success is simply achieving the things for which I work hard. Even if the goal is difficult to reach, even if others believe it less satisfying than their chosen goals, I think that any person achieving a hard sought-after goal is definitely a success. This ideal of success holds true to me in all areas of life, academics, social standings, and even amassing material goods or wealth. Throughout my life, I have set incremental goals and worked hard to achieve them. When I was young, I worked towards goals such as being made ‘Student of the Month’ or ‘Year’ in my classes. I often achieved that small goal, and it built in me a confidence that I have since discovered is often missing in my current classmates who set goals that were too big and broad, or just plain unobtainable for most people. While their goals are not without merit, only a very small fraction of influencers or podcasters are actually able to become popular enough to monetize their efforts. During my early teens, my parents made sure that my brother and I knew that we needed to begin to think about what we hoped to do in the future. I made it an intermediate goal to figure out what I wanted to do as my career in the future. Once I determined that I wanted to become a forensic psychologist and act as both a clinical therapist and a profiler within the criminal justice system, I researched what I would need to study in college and used that, and my desire to attend an Historically Black College or University to figure out where I should apply. I narrowed my list down to three target schools and two safety net schools. I applied and was accepted to four of the five and decided to attend Tuskegee University. My decision ultimately came down to which school was willing to offer me the best financial aid package. I am very willing to work hard to achieve my goals, and thus obtain success, however, I would prefer to obtain success without being mired down in student loan debt for decades. The opportunity presented by this scholarship would help me in two different ways. I am in the midst of transferring to Kennesaw State University to better serve my academic needs. However, I am leaving behind a tuition covering scholarship and need to apply for more scholarships to cover the difference in costs between schools. Alternatively, in the event that I am ultimately not able to transfer for the coming school year, it would decrease the amount of the loans I have to renew for next year which would be an advantage given that I will have to work hard for at least seven to eight more years to achieve my goal of becoming a psychiatrist. I have applied for many grants and scholarships. The Redefining Victory Scholarship seemed very interesting, and I chose to apply for it not only because it can help me pay for my undergraduate degree, but also because it caused me to look at my methods and examine my definition of success. I appreciate the opportunity you have given to current scholars in this scholarship. Thank you for your consideration.

According to my parents, there was not a single creative outlet I didn’t try as a child. By the time I was in middle school, I had learned that singing was definitely not the musical expression for which I was destined. I joined the school band, playing alto saxophone. And, while I enjoyed it, it was too easy to give up when I reached high school and realized marching band was not for me. When I was in middle school, I also explored painting though I did not really focus on that avenue of art until the pandemic shutdown several years later. At the same time, I started dabbling in painting, I also started experimenting with fiction writing. I have enjoyed all the different creative endeavors I’ve played with, but of them all, writing is the one from which I cannot walk away. I love the building of new worlds, the shaping of new characters and the plotting of new stories. Writing isn’t simply an outlet of creative expression; it has become both a hobby and a passion. All artistic expression makes the world a better place. I believe that to be especially true of fiction writing. Horror stories can often teach hidden lessons of caution, wisdom and safety. Dramatic writing often teaches empathy and connectivity with others. Science Fiction can inspire hope for a new and different future, while dystopian fiction provides warnings, which if heeded, can spare generations from horrors that are far too easily imagined given recent and past history. Comedic fiction exposes truths in more palatable manners that can be accepted even when putting a mirror in front of us showing us all our worst traits and flaws. However, there are other forms of writing that do just as much. Non-fiction writing teaches us information and critical thinking. Poetry enlivens our souls and speaks to the hidden most dreams inside each of us. Heck, even fan-fiction writing allows creative expression and can bridge a gap for novice and hobby writers to the creation of their own worlds and works. Twenty-four added hours in my days would give me so much more time to explore and expand not only my writing, but my knowledge base as a whole. I would have time to dig deeper into social issues that I find interesting or which have an impact on my life and future. Then I would fill the time with using that research to make my worlds more realistic and yet more redeemable. I would study my chosen major of forensic psychology more in depth. That knowledge would help me create believable and relatable characters that shine with beautiful flaws and ugly strengths. I would also have time to get back into painting. Given my course load, study schedule and my writing, I have not been able to give any time to the other creative outlets that help me manage my stress and focus my energies. The only times I don’t feel very creative at all is when I try to force myself to focus on a particular creative endeavor rather than letting the stories flow through me naturally. Unfortunately, I often feel the same difficulty when writing assignments for class though not to the same level. Overall, I am a very nocturnal person. I am more active from six pm to six am rather than the other way around. I find my stories flow best after dark. I sometimes wonder if that is because I tend to write thrillers, horror stories and mysteries. But at any time of the day, I love weaving worlds with my words.

When I was seven years old, I decided that I wanted to be a scientist. I had no clue what kind of scientist, I just knew that I wanted to be knowledgeable and strong. That I wanted to solve hard problems. My mother told me that if that’s what I wanted to do, then I needed to find out what kind of science interested me most. Determining what kind of science I wanted to pursue was an interesting endeavor. I learned very early that all scientists had to go to college and most went to graduate school. I knew then that I would definitely be going to college. Though, honestly, my parents told me that I was always going to be going to college, I’d just need to decide which one I wanted to attend and what I wanted to study. By the time I was nine, I had learned the difference between a Ph.D. and an MD and that most medical doctors consider themselves to be biology-based scientists. But biologists were only one type of scientist. I did like researching biology, but I knew that it wasn’t the area that interested me the most. I learned that despite having an aunt who had studied chemistry through college, that was definitely not an area of science that interested me at all. The summer I turned ten years old, I found the area of study in which I knew I would spend my life engaged. My parents finally allowed me to watch the show television show “Criminal Minds”, with a parent’s accompaniment, and the world of forensic psychology introduced itself to me. After reading up on psychology, I realized that it was not, as I had assumed, a social studies like soft subject, it was a real science. I delved into the different aspects of the study of the human mind and its functions. I loved it. With that decision made, I worked hard in middle and high school. I learned all I could about the fundamentals of the study of the psyche. I did not start looking at which college I wanted to attend with as much verve as I had when I tried to figure out which science I wanted to delve into. It took me several years to determine that I wanted to attend a historically Black college or university. Then I researched and/or visited the top five schools on the US News and World Reports ranking of the unique set of schools. Tuskegee University had the best forensic psychology program of the five and it became my first choice. I was very fortunate that I was accepted and offered a very nice, partial scholarship. Unfortunately, the partial scholarship meant that I had to take out a student loan for my first year. Next year, I will begin my second year at Tuskegee working on my Bachelor of Science degree in psychology. Winning this scholarship will allow me to decrease the amount of my loan for next year. I am hopeful to earn enough scholarship money to be able to not have to take out student loans again next year. As I hope to achieve a doctorate in psychology if not an MD in psychiatry, I will need to keep my undergraduate student loan burden as low as possible. This scholarship and others like it will help me to fulfill my future goal of becoming a forensic psychologist and helping to decrease the deficit in psychologists of color.

There is nothing that exemplifies a spirit of true excellence more than hard work and gratitude for the things that one has been given or achieved. I was blessed to have been born into a great family, which may have struggled economically at times, but always had love and support to spare. My parents, grandparents and extended family made sure that my older brother and I knew that hard work was the only way to achieve anything of real worth in life. We also learned early that gratitude and appreciation separated those who deserve greatness from those to whom it is simply handed. Beginning in seventh grade, I started to try and figure out what I wanted to do for a career. That led me to begin to deeply research two different long-term goals. As my primary goal, I am working towards a psychology degree. I want to help my community by becoming a psychiatrist who specializes in criminal and forensic psychology. I am determined to do my part to help destigmatize mental health in the Black community and in advocating against and helping to decrease the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The Black community has often been avoidant of mental healthcare. I want to help at least lessen that inequity. Additionally, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the Black community affects how Black people are treated. I want to be a voice to help decrease prosecution and sentencing disparities. I want to help people. Furthering my education will empower me to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help others. The other goal I am working diligently towards is to become an author. I would love to be published in academic journals and perhaps publish a book or two in my chosen field, but my true goal is to write works of fiction. I have been writing novel-length works since my freshman year of high school. I love the practice of creating characters and building their worlds. Fortunately, my primary course of study will only help my secondary goal to create stronger, more fully developed characters with interesting motives and complex, but not ridiculous plots. The two goals will help me help my community and enrich my soul at the same time. Before I can be of help to my community through providing mental health care, advocacy and agency, I volunteer with several non-profit and community organizations. I do clerical work for a Georgia state-wide non-profit that helps people be able to afford life-saving transplants. I help with bake sales whose proceeds are given to charity every year. I have participated in a food and clothing drive and made masks for donations to service organizations during the pandemic. It is a point of pride in my family to volunteer and help others. We were trained to do so before we could form our own opinion on the subject. By the time we’re old enough to have choices, they usually only pertain to where we want to volunteer not if we were going to volunteer. For me, giving back through the act of helping others shows my gratitude for everything I have been given and achieved so far. I will continue to work hard to meet my goals and give back to show how grateful I am for all that I have.

I have been very blessed. The biggest obstacle I have had to overcome in my pursuit of higher education was one that was mostly expected. During the spring of my sophomore year of high school, my maternal grandmother came to live with us when she was placed in hospice. My grandmother had been my primary daycare provider for my entire life. When my parents lived close to her, she took care of my brother, me and our younger cousin every single day while our parents worked. When we moved to the metro Atlanta area, she came up and stayed with us every single summer. The only summer she didn’t come was the summer of 2020 when the pandemic meant my mother was working from home, though Grandma B said we were in high school and thus too old for her to watch us anymore anyway. Through my sophomore, junior and the first half of my senior year, I got to help take care of her. The doctors gave her six months. But she lived long enough to see my older brother graduate high school. After she made it to that milestone, I honestly thought that she would make it to see me graduate too. After all, I was only one year younger. However, last Halloween, two days after I submitted my college applications for early action, my grandmother died peacefully in her sleep. I had been very excited to share the college decision with her. I wanted to make her proud and give her peace in the knowledge that I would achieve all the things she wanted for me. When she died, I lost that excitement. I have still worked towards those goals. But much of the joy went with her. I am still moving forward and hope to make her proud of me. My primary goal after undergraduate college is to achieve my first step toward my doctoral degree. I plan to attend Tuskegee University to gain my undergraduate and possibly my master’s degree in psychology. I am unsure where I will achieve my doctoral degree because I am uncertain whether I want to pursue a Ph.D. or an MD. But overall, I am determined to do my part to help destigmatize mental health in the black community and in advocating against and helping to decrease the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The Black community has often been avoidant of mental healthcare. I want to help change that inequity. Additionally, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the Black community affects how Black people are treated. I want to be a voice to help decrease prosecution and sentencing disparities. I want to help people. Furthering my education will empower me to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help others.

I became interested in mental health as a discipline when I was just ten years old. When my great aunt, Estella, died in 2016, I watched my mother and grandmother experience the pain of grief. It looked very different from how I experienced it. How I felt that grief was different than the way my brother seemed to feel it. But the absolute worst grief experience belonged to my mother’s eldest aunt, Mary Jane. She went from a vibrant, bossy family matriarch to a bedridden, shell of herself within eighteen months after Estella perished. She began to suffer micro strokes and her once-controlled type-2 diabetes went wildly out of control. She was weighed down emotionally by grief and the bone-deep belief that there was something more she could have done to ensure that Estella lived after the very severe stroke she suffered. Mary Jane suffered such a debilitating amount of grief that her mental health took a physical toll. She passed away just twenty-five months later. I love science and have taken classes in anatomy, chemistry, and physics and loved them all. I have long been a person who observes others. I often try to understand their thoughts and why they think the way they do. As I grew up and learned more about majors and what a person needed to study to make a lifelong trait into a career, I learned that I would need to study psychology to study how and why people thought the way they do. I’ve been raised in a family that holds education sacrosanct. The study of the human psyche and behavioral analysis will allow me to help destigmatize mental health in the Black community. The Black community has often been avoidant of the psychology field as a whole. Only about twenty-five percent of Black people have admitted that they have sought out therapy for their mental health. That low number might be in part because only four percent of therapists in the United States are Black, compared to the almost seventy-three percent of therapists and mental health professionals who are White. All across the world of science, a problem persists to varying degrees. The original work to create most scientific fields, including psychology, was all done exclusively on people of European descent. That foundation has created inherent systemic biases which have only been exacerbated by the reality that for centuries little of the subsequent research and study of the human mind examined any members of the Black community. The science was focused on and only devised from interviewing, treating and discussions with White people. The foundational problems with the psychological study have directly led to the next reason Black people experience barriers to positive treatment of their mental difficulties and illnesses. The low competency among non-Black clinicians occurs because few clinicians are trained to be aware of or curious about how ethnicity, culture, and race influence a person’s mental and emotional well-being. I intend to make a positive impact on the world by focusing my scientific pursuit on studying a specific and underexamined section of humanity. The Black community, the study of whose psychological processes have been traditionally ignored. Achieving my goal of studying the psychology of Black minds will help to contribute to the expansion of the scientific field. It will also give me two different ways to help others. That's how my love of and study of science can help me make things better for my community in the future. I fully believe that helping the Black community in America will help build the national and global community as well.

When I was ten years old my first real experience with the darker side of mental health and my understanding of its importance began. When my great aunt, Estella, died in 2016, I watched my mother and grandmother experience the pain of grief. It looked very different from how I experienced it. How I felt that grief was different than the way my brother seemed to feel it. But the absolute worst grief experience belonged to my mother’s eldest aunt, and Estella’s elder sister, Mary Jane, affectionately known as ‘Auntie’. She went from a vibrant, bossy family matriarch to a bedridden, shell of herself within eighteen months after Estella perished. ‘Auntie’ began to suffer micro strokes and her once-controlled type-2 diabetes went wildly out of control. She was weighed down emotionally by grief and the bone-deep belief that there was something more she could have done to ensure that Estella lived after the very severe stroke she suffered. There was nothing that could have been done and ‘Auntie’ took the best possible care of Estella during the almost three months her body held on after the stroke decimated her mind. ‘Auntie’ suffered such debilitating amounts of grief that her disordered mental health took a physical toll. She passed away just twenty-five months later. That was when I began to truly understand the importance of mental health care and treatment. I know that mental health care is important. I know it to the very center of my being. That knowledge has been supported by years of scientific and psychological research. Mental Health impacts not only how one feels emotionally, but often it has negative and positive effects on the physical body as well. When one is taking care of their mental health, their physical health and environment are easier to take care of as well. Good mental health has been shown to create a more positive outlook overall. Studies have shown that better mental health is directly related to having better, stronger interpersonal relationships. Further research shows that bettering mental health increases workplace efficacy and satisfaction. It helps one to think more clearly and be more effective at problem-solving and with overall coping mechanisms. Moods are improved and self-esteem is higher when mental health care is a priority. Even more, despite all stereotypes, creativity is boosted by one having good mental health as well. Understanding the benefits of good mental health has shaped many of my academic and future goals. In the fall, I will attend the illustrious Tuskegee University and major in psychology. Ultimately, I want to gain the necessary education and credentials to empower me to both help destigmatize mental health in the Black community and help in advocating against and helping to end the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The Black community has often been avoidant of mental health and the psychology field as a whole. Only about twenty-five percent of Black people have admitted that they have sought out therapy for their mental health. That low number might be in part because only four percent of therapists in the United States are Black, compared to the almost seventy-three percent of therapists and mental health professionals who are White. Unfortunately, many people who have braved the stigma and have gone to therapy sessions have had horror stories about the experience. I believe that growing the number of Black therapists and Black mental health professionals might help further destigmatize the taboo of getting mental health help. Furthermore, increasing the number of mental health professionals who understand foundational truths many Black and Brown people live every day, could help to create better treatment outcomes for those who do seek help. My preliminary study of mental health has also helped me to understand myself and my relationships with others better. It is very interesting to me that whenever the topic of relationships is brought forward, most people immediately think of romantic relationships. That automatic default to hetero-normative, cis-romantic relationships of thinking in others can be harmful to people’s mental health and exploration. Friendships are vital to good mental health. They create extra-familial support systems, and they can also help to build confidence and communication skills. I have built some great friendships. I have some friends that I have known since sixth grade, and they are wonderful people. We do wonder how going off to seven different colleges in four different states will affect our friendship, but I hope that the relationship-building techniques I will learn as I study psychology will help us to maintain our friendships. While I am still building a true understanding of the world at large, I have reached a few conclusions. Everyone can benefit from getting some help with their mental health. I believe that the pandemic and the lockdowns taught many people that there are many, many reasons why mental health care is vital to one’s physical state. I understand that everyone needs to take time to maintain their mental health. Every person is most fulfilled when they feel good both mentally and physically, and when they are making a positive impact on their community. Mental health care helps with body and mind well-being and it can even be beneficial to the world at large when one uses one’s talents and creativity to bring about books and works of art that help others to maintain their mental health.

I love science and have taken classes in anatomy, chemistry, and physics and loved them all. I have long been a person who observes others. I often create backstories for them and try to understand their thoughts and why they think the way they do. As I grew up and learned more about majors and what a person needed to study to make a lifelong trait into a career, I learned that I would need to study psychology to study how and why people thought the way they do. I’ve been raised in a family that holds education sacrosanct. One of my maternal great-aunts was the first Black teacher in her south Georgian county to be hired after integration. Another was one of the first Black female students admitted to Dartmouth College in the sixties. My mother and father both went to college and got degrees during the height of the post “A Different World” Black higher education bump. Science, the study of the human psyche and behavioral analysis, will allow me to both help destigmatize mental health in the Black community and help in advocating against and helping to end the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The Black community has often been avoidant of mental health and the psychology field as a whole. Only about twenty-five percent of Black people have admitted that they have sought out therapy for their mental health. That low number might be in part because only four percent of therapists in the United States are Black, compared to the almost seventy-three percent of therapists and mental health professionals who are White. All across the world of science, a problem persists to varying degrees. The original work to create most scientific fields, including psychology, was all done exclusively on people of European descent. That foundation has created inherent systemic biases which have only been exacerbated by the reality that for centuries little of the subsequent research and study of the human mind examined any members of the Black community. The science was focused on and only devised from interviewing, treating and discussions with White people. The foundational problems with the psychological study have directly led to the next reason Black people experience barriers to positive treatment of their mental difficulties and illnesses. The low competency among non-Black clinicians occurs because few clinicians are trained to be aware of or curious about how ethnicity, culture, and race influence a person’s mental and emotional well-being. I intend to contribute to the field of science by focusing my scientific pursuit on studying a specific and underexamined section of humanity. The Black community, the study of whose psychological processes have been traditionally ignored. Achieving my goal of studying the psychology of Black minds will help to contribute to the expansion of the scientific field. It will also give me two different ways to help others. That's how my love of and study of science can help me make things better for my community in the future. I fully believe that helping the Black community in America will help build the national and global community as well.

In March 2020, just three weeks before I was supposed to experience my first spring break as a high schooler, the entire world imploded due to a global pandemic. I was immediately thrust into virtual learning and homeschooling hybrid with my mother as my brother and my supplemental educator. Not only were we no longer going to school in the traditional sense, we, even more than many other people, were somewhat trapped in our homes. My paternal grandmother, who suffered from a debilitating autoimmune disease, had moved in with us only five months before. And, honestly, we were not only still adjusting to having a mostly bedridden person living with us, but we suddenly couldn’t leave our home at all lest we bring home a new virus no one understood but everyone agreed would more than likely kill her. It was a very difficult time. I excelled at virtual school. I really enjoyed learning without being encumbered by group work or even worse, group thinking. I had attended a public charter elementary school that was heavily focused on academics with a highly diverse student body. I had attended a similarly oriented and diverse middle school. The high school I attended was not in the same vein at all. It was focused primarily on the athletic teams, so much so the school has three gyms. Even more, it was very much predominantly White and, given the rural Georgia area we lived in, when the schools reopened, my parents chose to keep my brother and I attending virtually. There was far too much science denial and anger at those who followed CDC guidelines at that time in our community. It was almost guaranteed that we would have brought the virus home if we had attended in person. There was also a likelihood that either my brother or I would have gotten into fights with those who disagreed with our rights to protect ourselves and our family had we gone back to in-person school my sophomore year. My bedridden grandmother had to go to a nursing home after my father wrecked his shoulders and back lifting her during her care. So, we were scheduled to return to in-person learning for my junior year, and my brother’s senior year. Unfortunately, shortly after the time period ended when my parents could have changed their minds, my maternal grandmother had to come to live with us as she was placed in hospice care for end-stage COPD. We went back to school and took every precaution we could. There were harsh glares from many of our classmates and even some of the teachers. We met their unverbalized anger with glares of our own, but we did what we had to do. However, I think those reactions from others of my generation both hardened me and made me even more curious to understand how people thought about things and even more, why they thought the way they did. That is part of the reason I have chosen to study psychology. It is even more important to why I chose to attend HBCU. While I understand that there are Black people who also denied science and harbor anger at those who refuse to capitulate to their way of thinking, I feel more comfortable engaging in discourse with them. I do not fear that they will choose to harm me the same way I feared some of the people I attended high school. Today, I am strong, fiercely curious and extremely determined to understand my fellow humans. I have a plan for the future that I will make come true.

I am the youngest of my parent’s two children and grew up in Sandy Springs and Cumming Georgia. I will graduate from North Forsyth High School in Cumming Georgia on May 21st. During my four years at NFHS, I was awarded the ‘Student of the Month’ Award in several classes during my high school education. I enjoyed participating in Science Ambassadors during the 2020, 2022 and 2023 school years. During the 2023 school year, I joined RaiderCast, as well as the Black Student Association. During the 2021 school year, I attended school virtually due to the global pandemic. Next fall, I will attend Tuskegee University in Tuskegee Alabama. I respect and strive for all types of intelligence and creative excellence. I love writing and painting. I find joy in gaining a new understanding of how people think and why they think the ways that they do. I believe that my love of ‘getting into people’s heads’ has empowered my desire to study psychology and my goal of becoming a licensed psychiatrist. However, that goal is also impacted by two intrinsic values I hold dear as well. I want to use my education to help provide, my community, the Black community, with an understanding therapist. We, as a community, really need mental health professionals who have a deep and intrinsic understanding of the roots of their trauma, with at least one more person they can turn to for mental health treatment. I also believe in the very heart of my being that all people were created equal, and all people should be treated ethically and with equity. I want to become a psychiatrist called upon as an expert witness in cases where a voice is needed that shares a deeper understanding of the Black American community and the biases against them. My primary goal after undergraduate college is to achieve my first step toward my doctoral degree. I plan to attend Tuskegee University to gain my undergraduate and possibly my master’s degree in psychology. I am less certain where I will gain my doctoral degree simply because I am still unsure whether I want to pursue a Ph. D. or an MD. But overall, I am determined to do my part to help both destigmatize mental health in the black community and in advocating against and helping to end the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The Black community has often been avoidant of mental healthcare. I want to help change that inequity. Additionally, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the Black community affects how Black people are treated. I want to be a voice to help decrease prosecution and sentencing disparities. But at the root of everything, I want to help people. Furthering my education will empower me to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help others.

When I was three years old, my parents had to move us six hours away from where we were living at the time because there were so few jobs that would allow them to make the kind of living, they needed to make to raise my older brother and I. Two summers later, my parents were both once again out of work. My brother and I spent the summer with our grandmother and her siblings because our parents’ unemployment gave them just enough to keep rent and utilities paid, but they feared that we would go hungry since the State of Georgia decided that they made too much money to qualify for any assistance programs. For me, that summer was one of playing with my cousins and making memories with my grandmother and great-aunts. I became interested in mental health as a discipline when I was just ten years old. When my great aunt, Estella, died in 2016, I watched my mother and grandmother experience the pain of grief. It looked very different from how I experienced it. How I felt that grief was different than the way my brother seemed to feel it. But the absolute worst grief experience belonged to my mother’s eldest aunt, Mary Jane. She went from a vibrant, bossy family matriarch to a bedridden, shell of herself within eighteen months after Estella perished. She began to suffer micro strokes and her once-controlled type-2 diabetes went wildly out of control. She was weighed down emotionally by grief and the bone-deep belief that there was something more she could have done to ensure that Estella lived after the very severe stroke she suffered. There was nothing that could have been done and Mary Jane took the best possible care of Estella in the almost three months her body held on after the stroke decimated her mind. Mary Jane suffered such a debilitating amount of grief that her mental health took a physical toll. She passed away just twenty-five months later. My choice of my future major was directly impacted by the experiences of my childhood. The Black community has generations of trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms. I am determined to help destigmatize mental health in the Black community and help to decrease the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The Black community is avoidant of mental health and the psychology field. I believe that growing the number of black therapists and black mental health professionals will help further destigmatize the taboo of seeking mental health help. Increasing the number of mental health professionals who understand the generational trauma many Black people experience, could help to create better treatment outcomes for those who do seek help. I also want to help people who are being negatively impacted by racial biases in the legal system. Despite making up only a bit over fourteen percent of the population, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the Black community affects how Black men and women are treated. While there are other ways to combat these systemic biases, as an individual I can help in a small way by expanding the amount of Black criminal psychologists to help decrease those with biases against the community. Furthering my education will also empower me to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help others.

I became interested in mental health as a discipline when I was just ten years old. When my great aunt, Estella, died in 2016, I watched my mother and grandmother experience the pain of grief. It looked very different from how I experienced it. How I felt that grief was different than the way my brother seemed to feel it. But the absolute worst grief experience belonged to my mother’s eldest aunt, Mary Jane. She went from a vibrant, bossy family matriarch to a bedridden, shell of herself within eighteen months after Estella perished. She began to suffer micro strokes and her once-controlled type-2 diabetes went wildly out of control. She was weighed down emotionally by grief and the bone-deep belief that there was something more she could have done to ensure that Estella lived after the very severe stroke she suffered. There was nothing that could have been done and Mary Jane took the best possible care of Estella in the almost three months her body held on after the stroke decimated her mind. Mary Jane suffered such a debilitating amount of grief that her mental health took a physical toll. She passed away just twenty-five months later. Both of my great-aunts were very active in the Black community. They taught me about the Pillars of the African American Community. My choice of my future major was directly impacted by the African American Pillar of Collective Work and Responsibility. The Black community has generations of trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms. We will need to work hard to overcome those impairments and I am determined to help destigmatize mental health in the Black community and help to decrease the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The Black community is avoidant of mental health and the psychology field. Only about twenty-five percent of black people have admitted that they have sought out therapy for their mental health. I believe that growing the number of black therapists and black mental health professionals will help further destigmatize the taboo of seeking mental health help. Furthermore, increasing the number of mental health professionals who understand the generational trauma many Black people live with every day, could help to create better treatment outcomes for those who do seek help. I also want to take the responsibility of helping the Black people who are being negatively impacted by racial biases in the legal system. Despite making up only a bit over fourteen percent of the population, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the black community affects how black men and women are treated. While there are other ways to combat these systemic biases, as an individual I can help in a small way by expanding the amount of Black criminal psychologists to help decrease those with biases against the community. Even in little ways, learned or formed biases find their way into every facet of life. However, I have also lived with said biases controlling how people interact with me. I don't have these biases influencing how I interact with Black people. Furthering my education will also empower me to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help others. That's how my further education can help me make things better for my community in the future. The pillar of collective work and responsibility towards my community has given me a focus for my future education.

When I was three years old, my parents had to move us six hours away from where we were living at the time because there were so few jobs that would allow them to make the kind of living, they needed to make to raise my older brother and I. Two summers later, my parents were both once again out of work. My brother and I spent the summer with our grandmother and her siblings because our parents’ unemployment gave them just enough to keep rent and utilities paid, but they feared that we would go hungry since the State of Georgia decided that they made too much money to qualify for any assistance programs. For me, that summer was one of playing with my cousins and being spoiled by my grandmother and great-aunts. For my parents, it was one of worry and fear. Primarily because the safety net programs were inaccessible to those the programs were designed to help the most. People who simply needed a little help for a short term until they got back on their feet. Since the eighties, the racist and misogynistic trope of the Welfare Queen has been used to strip vital funding and resources from the programs established by the New Deal and the Great Society. We now live in a nation that while being hailed as the ‘richest country in the world’ we have hundreds of thousands of homeless citizens, hundreds of thousands of children go hungry several days every week and our veterans and elderly often have to go without the healthcare they need. Many in our government would see the US become a Christianity-based theocracy, yet they are not following the most basic tenet of the religion. Those same politicians yearning to ignore the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment, are currently ignoring Christ’s words of Matthew twenty-fifth chapter, Luke fourth and sixth chapters and First John third chapter. Over two thousand verses in the Christian Bible call for the taking care of the poor, yet little is done to actually help as Jesus mandated by some of the richest ‘Christians’ in the modern world. In fact, many of the plans of Christian Nationalists in this country would only see the creation of more poor and more disadvantaged. They chose to legislate in ways that would only accelerate the current climate crisis to a point where flooding would make several coastal regions uninhabitable. Such massive destruction of populated areas would lead to an even greater homelessness crisis in a nation that, as of the last census, had almost six hundred thousand unhoused persons. Given that there have been no positive changes to programs that are supposed to help those who are disadvantaged in the last forty years, It is doubtful that certain types of politicians will be willing to make any helpful changes at that point either. The above paragraphs all state why I feel that the way our society deals with those who are disadvantaged in one aspect or another. More could be done to help those who are disabled. Equal rights and equitable treatment under the law should apply to all racial, gender-based and other minority groups. The poor and unhoused would all benefit from an expansion of the nation’s safety net programs. My parents were lucky. They were able to get temporary jobs and eventually find new careers. Others are not so lucky and due to poorly funded schools and job deserts, some families are stuck in poverty for generations. Change must be made before revolution becomes inevitable.

Growing up, I heard the stories of my great-aunt getting beaten by the sheriff in her hometown for the ‘crime’ of returning to a small southeastern Georgia town to practice law. I saw and felt the divot in her arm where her muscle had been scrapped away from the bone during the meeting and the doctors of the early eighties had not had the technology, the skill or the know-how to repair the muscle and the skin healed directly against the bone. The understanding that the Civil Rights Act had not ended the persecution of Black people in our nation framed my most deeply held core value. All people were created equal, and all people should be treated ethically and with equity. I apply that particular core value, by treating everyone how I would choose to be treated in every situation. When I have questions as to what the most equitable way is to treat others, I ask the person how they would like to be treated. As a child, I remember my grandmother saying that one has to treat all children equally. “What you do for one you do for all.” I know that she meant that one shouldn’t show any favoritism. But not every child needs the same thing. It would be better to say, ‘Meet the needs of each child fully and without exception’. I attempt to make sure that all the people I encounter are treated in a manner that meets the needs they have, not the needs I think they have. I work from a place of empathy and compassion, but I try to never condescend and act as if I know what offends or benefits another person or group better than they do. Another intrinsic value I carry inside me was gifted to me by my parents. They made very sure that I am comfortable in my skin and completely aware of who and what I am. Even when my parents may not agree with my opinions on social justice issues, they always let me know that they have pride in how dedicated I am to fighting for what I believe is right. That confidence and strength had impacted my integrity, my self-respect, and my attitude. I do not accept poor treatment from anyone. I do not allow others to be treated badly in front of me. I do not treat anyone badly unless they have done something to deserve it. The final value I hold most dear is that I respect and strive for all types of intelligence and creative excellence. I love writing and painting. I find joy in gaining a new understanding of how people think and why they think the ways that they do. I believe that this value has empowered my desire to study psychology and my goal of becoming a licensed psychiatrist. However, that goal is also impacted by the other two values I hold most dear as well. I want to use my education to help provide the Black community, which needs mental health professionals who have a deep and intrinsic understanding of the roots of their trauma, with at least one more person they can turn to for mental health treatment. I want to become a psychiatrist called upon as an expert witness in cases where a voice is needed that shares a deeper understanding of the Black American community and the biases against them. Equity, respect for myself and others, and a love of creativity and knowledge are my core beliefs. I value and will always remain true to all of them.

I realized the importance of good mental health when I was just ten years old. When my great aunt, Estella, died in 2016, I watched my mother and grandmother experience the pain of grief. It looked very different from how I experienced it. How I felt that grief was different than the way my brother seemed to feel it. But the absolute worst grief experience belonged to my mother’s eldest aunt, Mary Jane. She went from a vibrant, bossy family matriarch to a bedridden, shell of herself within eighteen months after Estella perished. She began to suffer micro strokes and her once-controlled type-2 diabetes went wildly out of control. She was weighed down emotionally by grief and the bone-deep belief that there was something more she could have done to ensure that Estella lived after the very severe stroke she suffered. There was nothing that could have been done and Mary Jane took the best possible care of Estella in the almost three months her body held on after the stroke decimated her mind. She suffered such a debilitating amount of grief, that her mental health took a physical toll. She passed away just twenty-five months later. That was when I began to truly understand the importance of mental health care and treatment. I do not believe that mental health care is important. I know it to the very center of my being. That knowledge has been supported by years of scientific and psychological research. Mental Health impacts not only how one feels emotionally, but often it has negative and positive effects on the physical body as well. When one is taking care of their mental health, their physical health and environment are easier to take care of as well. Good mental health has been shown to create a more positive outlook overall. Studies have shown that better mental health is directly related to having better, stronger interpersonal relationships. Further research shows that bettering mental health increases workplace efficacy and satisfaction. It helps one to think more clearly and be more effective at problem-solving and with overall coping mechanisms. Moods are improved and self-esteem is higher when mental health care is a priority. Even more, despite all stereotypes, creativity is boosted by one having good mental health as well. Creativity is both how and why I maintain my mental health. I enjoy creating stories and the organization and world-building involved in the process of my writing both soothes and calms me. The process of thinking through all of the different aspects of my characters, their settings and timelines, often makes me get up and walk as I work things out. My mechanism for caring for my mental health directly improves my physical health as well because I walk a lot when planning out my stories. I do know that I am lucky. I have a good support system from my parents. Whenever I have a problem, I can always turn to them for help and advice. Though, my mother’s answer to mental health maintenance does not work for me. She prefers to take ridiculously long, incredibly hot baths with almost annoyingly long novels. I did try that, but my mind was not able to handle the stillness. There are many, many reasons why mental health care is vital to one’s physical state. Treating and maintaining one’s mental health helps with body and mind and it can even be beneficial to the world at large when one uses their talents and creativity to bring about books and works of art that help others to maintain their mental health.

In writing this, I worry that my answer for what makes me unique will make me sound trite and pedantic. But honestly, I am fairly certain that there are no answers that do not sound trite and pedantic. What makes me unique is that I am a people observer and very creative. I have been raised to be strong and confident. I have a level of independence that seems to be missing from some of my peers. I have drive and focus. I have an intellectual curiosity bordering on nosiness about how people think and why they think the way they often do. I will use my inherent skills and talents to give back to my community by achieving my doctorate or MD in Behavioral Psychology or Psychiatry and using my education to both help destigmatize mental health and mental health stigma in the black community and help in working to negate at least some of the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The black community has often been avoidant of mental health and the psychology field as a whole. Only about twenty-five percent of black people have admitted that they have sought out therapy for their mental health. That low number might be in part because only four percent of therapists in the United States are Black, compared to the almost seventy-three percent of therapists and mental health professionals who are White. Unfortunately, many people who have braved the stigma and have gone to therapy sessions have had horror stories about the experience. I believe that growing the number of black therapists and black mental health professionals might help further destigmatize the taboo of getting mental health help. Furthermore, increasing the number of mental health professionals who understand foundational truths many Black and Brown people live every day, could help to create better treatment outcomes for those who do seek help. Despite making up only a bit over fourteen percent of the population, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the black community affects how Black men and women are treated. It is also impossible to ignore the hundreds most likely thousands of Black men and women killed in disputes with the police officer. While there are plenty of ways to control and combat this system, a way that I as an individual think that I can help in small ways by expanding the amount of Black criminal psychologists to help control the number of biases seen against the community. When questioning crimes committed by people of color and especially black people, psychologists in all fields but especially in criminal areas, internalized biases are almost always found. Even in little ways, learned or formed biases find their way into every facet of life. However, I have lived also dealing with said biases controlling how people interact with me. I don't have these biases influencing how I interact with Black people. Furthering my education can empower me to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help others. That's how my further education can help me make things better for my community in the future. I fully believe that helping the Black community will help build the national and global community as well.

I have long been a person who observes others. I often create backstories for them and try to understand their thoughts and why they think the way they do. As I grew up and learned more about majors and what a person needed to study to make a lifelong trait into a career, I learned that I would need to study psychology to study how and why people thought the way they do. However, I did not choose to further my education. It has never been a choice for me. My parents are both college educated. Both of my grandfathers have attained higher education. So, I have always known that I would be going to college. That is not to say that I have no choice in the matter at all. The decision of where I would apply and attend has always been my own. So, too, is the choice of what I should major in and how I would like my future to proceed. When applying, I decided to apply primarily to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Upon receiving my acceptance letters, I have chosen to attend the illustrious Tuskegee University. I’ve chosen to major in psychology, hoping to concentrate on forensic psychology or behavioral analysis. I’ve been blessed in a lot of ways. One of my maternal great-aunts was the first Black teacher in her south Georgian county to be hired after integration. Another was one of the first Black female students admitted to Dartmouth College in the sixties. My mother and father both went to college and got degrees during the height of the post “A Different World” Black higher education bump. However, they had a very heavy student loan burden, as many of their classmates do as well. As such, though they make a decent living and have created a wonderful home for my older brother and I, they already live paycheck to paycheck. And, this coming school year, they will have two children in college. I hope that getting this scholarship will help to lessen both the burden on them and help me to avoid or at least reduce the student loans I will need to have in order to begin my future. To achieve my goals, I will need to get several higher-level degrees including at the very least a Ph.D. though an MD in psychiatry may need to be my ultimate goal in order to best be prepared for the career I desire. As such, I am working very hard to apply for scholarships to make it less costly to make my dreams a reality. Thank you for considering my application to your program. Mr. Mosley reminds me a lot of my great-aunt. She would have loved to be able to leave behind such a great legacy.

I've been blessed to have gotten into a great school for the degree I hope to attain first. I will need a BS in forensic psychology or behavioral analysis. That will have to be followed by a Master's Degree in a related field of study. My ultimate educational goal is to get a Ph.D. though my dream is to go to medical school and become a fully accredited psychiatrist. My professional goal is to both help destigmatize mental health in the black community and help in advocating against and helping to end the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The black community has often been avoidant of mental health and the psychology field as a whole. Only about twenty-five percent of black people have admitted that they have sought out therapy for their mental health. That low number might be in part because only four percent of therapists in the United States are Black, compared to the almost seventy-three percent of therapists and mental health professionals who are White. Unfortunately, many people who have braved the stigma and have gone to therapy sessions have had horror stories about the experience. I believe that growing the number of Black therapists and black mental health professionals might help further destigmatize the taboo of getting mental health help. Furthermore, increasing the number of mental health professionals who understand foundational truths many Black and Brown people live every day, could help to create better treatment outcomes for those who do seek help. Despite making up only a bit over fourteen percent of the population, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the Black community affects how Black men and women are treated. It is also impossible to ignore the hundreds most likely thousands of Black men and women killed in disputes with the police officer. While there are plenty of ways to control and combat this system, a way that I as an individual think that I can help in small ways by expanding the amount of Black criminal psychologists in order to help control the number of biases seen against the community. When questioning crimes committed by people of color and especially black people, psychologists in all fields but especially in criminal areas, internalized biases are almost always found. Even in little ways, learned or formed biases find their way into every facet of life. However, I have lived also dealing with said biases controlling how people interact with me. I don't have these biases influencing how I interact with black people. Once I have fully completed my education I hope to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help others. That's how my further education can help me make a difference in the world beginning with my community in the future. I fully believe that helping the Black community will help build the national and global community as well.

My Name is Grace Patterson and in the fall, I will be attending the illustrious Tuskegee University. I want to study psychology because I want to help destigmatize mental health in the black community and help in advocating against and helping to end the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. While I have been fortunate not to struggle very much with my own mental health, I have seen others in my family who have had very hard times dealing with past trauma. The Black community has often been avoidant of mental health and the psychology field as a whole. Only about twenty-five percent of black people have admitted that they have sought out therapy for their mental health. That low number might be in part because only four percent of therapists in the United States are Black, compared to the almost seventy-three percent of therapists and mental health professionals who are White. Unfortunately, many people who have braved the stigma and have gone to therapy sessions have had horror stories about the experience. I believe that growing the number of black therapists and black mental health professionals might help further destigmatize the taboo of getting mental health help. Furthermore, increasing the number of mental health professionals who understand foundational truths many Black and Brown people live every day, could help to create better treatment outcomes for those who do seek help. Despite making up only a bit over fourteen percent of the population, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the black community affects how black men and women are treated. It is also impossible to ignore the hundreds most likely thousands of black men and women killed in disputes with the police officer. While there are plenty of ways to control and combat this system, a way that I as an individual think that I can help in small ways by expanding the amount of black criminal psychologists in order to help control the number of biases seen against the community. When questioning crimes committed by people of color and especially black people, psychologists in all fields but especially in criminal areas, internalized biases are almost always found. Even in little ways, learned or formed biases find their way into every facet of life. However, I have lived also dealing with said biases controlling how people interact with me. I don't have these biases influencing how I interact with black people. Furthering my education can empower me to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help those who struggle with mental health difficulties. That's how I would like to help make things better for my community in the future. I fully believe that helping the Black community will help build the national and global community as well.

My continued education will empower me to both help destigmatize mental health in the black community and help in advocating against and helping to end the racial biases found in the criminal justice system. The black community has often been avoidant of mental health and the psychology field as a whole. Only about twenty-five percent of black people have admitted that they have sought out therapy for their mental health. That low number might be in part because only four percent of therapists in the United States are Black, compared to the almost seventy-three percent of therapists and mental health professionals who are White. Unfortunately, many people who have braved the stigma and have gone to therapy sessions have had horror stories about the experience. I believe that growing the number of black therapists and black mental health professionals might help further destigmatize the taboo of getting mental health help. Furthermore, increasing the number of mental health professionals who understand foundational truths many Black and Brown people live every day, could help to create better treatment outcomes for those who do seek help. Despite making up only a bit over fourteen percent of the population, Black people make up thirty-eight and a half percent of the people in the prison. It is almost impossible to ignore or miss how racial bias toward the black community affects how black men and women are treated. It is also impossible to ignore the hundreds most likely thousands of black men and women killed in disputes with the police officer. While there are plenty of ways to control and combat this system, a way that I as an individual think that I can help in small ways by expanding the amount of Black criminal psychologists in order to help control the number of biases seen against the community. When questioning crimes committed by people of color and especially black people, psychologists in all fields but especially in criminal areas, internalized biases are almost always found. Even in little ways, learned or formed biases find their way into every facet of life. However, I have lived also dealing with said biases controlling how people interact with me. I don't have these biases influencing how I interact with Black people. Furthering my education can empower me to be a voice that helps the Black Community. Achieving my goal of becoming a criminal psychologist will give me two different ways to help others. That's how my further education can help me make things better for my community in the future. I fully believe that helping the Black community will help build the national and global community as well.