As I'm only a 17-year-old high school senior, there are still many things in life that I have yet to deal with, but being an African American girl in America, there are many things that I have. Despite the trials I face due to the color of my skin and my gender, I have many goals in my life that I intend to achieve no matter what, one of those things being graduating high school and going into my adult life in college. I was recently accepted into my top college of choice and because I have yet to receive any scholarships, I plan on getting a job this summer to save up enough for at least a deposit since I will be starting college in the Fall of 2022. Growing up, I've always loved the idea of working with kids, whether it be teaching or being a nanny, but I've recently decided to get a degree in psychology to become a child psychologist because I want to help kids through the wide ranges of adolescence. I plan on getting my associates degree and going on to get a bachelors in psychology and skipping a masters degree to go straight to getting a PhD in Clinical Adolescent Psychology. Besides my big career aspects, in my life I've dealt with a lot of things that have dropped my mental health wellness and one of my coping mechanisms is writing and reading novels and poetry, so I also plan on getting a minor in creative writing to appease the author in me.

My name is Jada Powell and I'm a senior in high school. I've already begun mu college search and have even gotten accepted into two colleges so far. I would like to get a degree in Psychology because I want to be a child psychologist when I get older. In order for me to not have debt after graduating college, I'm not going to be taking out any loans. I've also already applied for Financial Student Aid (Fafsa). Plus, my grades are good enough to qualify me for a few academic scholarships (Hopefully) I haven't received any scholarships so far though, but I've applied to over 30 scholarships on this website and I've maintained AB honor roll at school to get grants and outside scholarships.

My name is Jada Powell and I'm a high school senior with a passion for helping children. I would like to go to college and major in Child Psychology (and get a minor in folklore and mythology to appease the author in me). But I would like to make a career with a diploma in psychology because I enjoy young children and would like to work towards helping kids that are in Special Education because growing up, I paid attention to the way children with special needs were treated and I never agreed with it. I feel as though students with Special Needs should be allowed to converse more with kids without special needs in the school. I have a friend that I've known since elementary school who has autism and when we were in middle school we both went out for track and while I was fully accepted onto the team, he was told to run laps around the track anytime he came to practice because the coaches "didn't know what to with him". That isn't the only example of a time I was angered by the way kids with special needs were treated, but it was the most vivid memory I have of one of those times. As I mentioned before, I don't agree with the fact that kids in Special Ed are separated from kids who aren't. People always stress that kids on the spectrum are just like everyone else, but they just need a little more help in certain areas, but then it's those same people who never let them be with other kids. I think that letting them integrate into the general population can also help them learn how to converse and grow. I've already started my college applications and have gotten a few acceptance letters, but some of the schools are really expensive so a scholarship would help make my future plans easier because I would be able to focus on getting the best possible education to really make a difference instead of stressing about student debt.

One of the biggest things in my life that sparks my passion is the obligation I feel towards bettering education in the African American community. As a POC (person of color) myself, I feel as though I have an unspoken obligation to help uplift my culture and bring awareness to the strife my ancestors faced across the diaspora. That being said, one of my many career goals is to create my own news broadcasting channel specifically for (elementary through high school) students of color to voice their opinions on many controversial topics that were deemed "adult topics" Like police brutality, systematic racism and intersectionality in the workforce. Growing up I lived a very sheltered life and because of that I never at all thought that racism was something that I ever needed to worry about personally. Of course, I knew about Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman; which seem to only be topics addressed during the 29 day gap in February, but that was the extent to my “black girl knowledge” so when I had my eventual racist encounter, not only did it push me to the ground, it then proceeded to back over me just to make sure I was down. I was in the 6th grade and I was not only nervous at the thought of going into middle school, but also at the prospect of changing schools to a more upscale charter school. Now just to disclaim, I’d always had a natural talent for writing that was often doubted to have come from the mind of a child, but instead of letting it get to me, I proved myself over and over until people began to expect it. Anyways, I had been in my English class when my perfect little bubble of naivety had begun to crack. We had to do a book report and one of the demands of the assignment included a detailed summary, so after spending days repositioning and rewording it, I had finally finished and was able to turn it in within three days of it being assigned. The day after I’d turned it in my teacher had been walking around class attending to students who had needed extra help, but towards the end of class she walked right up to my desk with my report in hand and told me that I needed to redo my summary. Shocked, I tried to explain to her that I’d already finished it, but she instead cut me off by saying, “No Jada, you need to redo your summary because I know you didn’t write it yourself and when I find out where you got it from you’re going to be in trouble!” And that’s a direct quote because I never could forget her angerful words. By then the class had gone quiet and all eyes were on me (I sat in the front of the class and was the only black kid) she then went on to explain how I must have thought she was stupid if I thought she would believe that I had written it. After that day, and a heated back and forth between my dad and the school, it’s safe to say that I changed classes and finished the semester with perfect essay and test scores and on my last day there, I clutched my perfect report card in hand as I walked by her class with a smile on my face. I never showed her my grade though, because I didn’t do it for her, I did it for myself.

Since before I can remember, I've always had a passion for reading and writing. I've written over five short stories with a plethora of poetry journals, and I even got the opportunity to participate in a young authors conference two years in a row in middle school. As I've grown older, I've developed a taste for using my writing abilities to write articles and essays on real-world topics. So with the support of my family, I've reevaluated my dreams and career goals and have decided to become the owner of a news broadcasting station specifically for children of minority communities like myself. I want to give kids the opportunity to have a safe platform to voice their perspectives on many different social, economic, etc issues that affect their specific minority groups. I grew up with a metaphorical hedge surrounding me, and it was designed to keep out the bad things in the world so I could focus on the small good things. But as I got older, I realized that having that hedge was a privilege that not many kids like me can afford. Therefore, I decided that I will be attending a community college to complete my basics before transferring to a four-year college to get a bachelor's degree in Journalism and communications broadcasting. While I pursue that end goal, I'm going to get a teaching degree and become an advanced English high school teacher. So, this scholarship would be very beneficial for my vast future goals.

My name is Jada and I'm a 17-year old African American woman who has a passion for investigative journalism and news broadcasting. I love to read and write, but I also have a side passion for cooking. I love animals and have lots of exotic pets. I'm also an honor roll student with big future college plans. One of my biggest influencers is my aunt Amy, like me, she loves to read and write and she actually has a published book. Anytime I'm working on a book, I usually call her or text her while I'm in the process of writing it to get tips on how to develop my stories. She's also who I got to anytime I hear about a new book I want or a new author I read about. She really helps me have a better understanding of literature and opens my eyes to different perspectives on topics I would otherwise be too close-minded to pay attention to. One of the ways she's shaped my career aspirations is in the way that although I don't necessarily want to pursue being an author as my full-time career, I can still pursue my love of writing short stories and eventually get them published on the side while I go to college and work on my journalism and broadcasting.

My hands-down, all-time favorite film would have to be the 2009 film, Coraline. It's a stop-motion animation film about a young girl who's unhappy with her dreary life, her mother and father are both freelance writers who often neglect the 11- year old girl. The movie starts off with the family moving into a remote boarding house. Later on in the movie, the young girl goes exploring in the house and finds a tiny door that leads to another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets. I enjoy the movie because there have been many a time where I've wished to live in an alternate universe where my life was infinitely better. As the oldest sibling, I can relate to Coraline's situation and not because she has siblings(because she doesn't) but because we sometimes feel like nobody understands us and our parents never pay attention to the things that excite, disappoint, or irritate us because they don't have time or just don't want to. I can also relate to how in the movie, all of the people who live around Coraline are these whimsical, slightly peculiar people who've done all these incredible things, and yet she still yearns for more and can be viewed as ungrateful in certain parts. Most if not all of my family members have or had really important jobs and do all these interesting things but I still find myself wishing things were better for myself.

Education plays a very important role in my life, besides giving me the knowledge needed to succeed in the real world, it helps me liberate myself from the stereotypes that come with being an African American. On top of the basic things that people say about how black people are uneducated and loud and crazy, I'm also a female and that's a whole other list of stereotypes in itself, so education is very important to me because with the things that I learn, not only can I further better myself in everything that I do, but I can also stop the stereotypes that plague my ethnic background and show that race has nothing to do with the level of intelligence.

You often hear about how single mothers have overcome many challenges and how kids are always drawn towards mothers because they make cookies and sing lullabies. Especially when May hits and all you hear on TV is about how "Moms do so much!" and "Moms do all the hard work!" But for me, it's a little different because when I was about two years old, my parents divorced, and while sadly it's incredibly unheard of, my dad got complete custody of me. So with how much mothers are put in the limelight, I spent my entire childhood explaining that I didn't have a mother present in my life, but no matter how many times I said it, people were always referring to the mother I didn't have. As in, "You're not feeling good? Well, do you want me to call your mom?" or "Jada, stop misbehaving, or I'll call your mom!" So as you've probably guessed, this essay is not about my mother. It's about my dad. Where do I even begin? He's been a single dad of one for ten years until my little sister was born from a different mother, and yet again, he became a single dad for another six years, but the difference is that now, he had two kids. Now you've probably heard of being in the military and what it does to a person, and I'm sure my dad knew too, but he graduated high school early and went straight into the military, where he served for 21 years. With two kids and no help, might I add? Now, my dad and I haven't had a very positive relationship in the past. That's completely my fault, and it caused my dad even more stress than he already had between getting out of the military and adjusting to the civilian world and taking care of a five-year-old and in the times when he should've been able to relax, he couldn't because he had to worry about me and make sure that I wasn't doing anything that I wasn't supposed to be doing. Even now as I'm writing this, I realize that my dad has been through a lot. But despite that, he's taught me such valuable life lessons that I can carry to my future adulthood, and with the end of my high school years right around the corner I really have been needing some advice lately, so having such an amazing person in my family be my father who I talk to every day and laugh with really means a lot to me.

My role model would definitely be my dad 100% because he has shown me how to be a loving parent and a successful African American. I'm proud to say that my dad is a Navy veteran who retired only two years ago and he's broken the stereotype of being in the military. It's very common to see veterans who are physically and mentally broken down because of the things they experienced being in active duty, but my dad immediately got out of the military and went back to school to pursue another career that he's passionate about. That just really resonated with me as empowering because he gets up early in the morning from a sleepless night, goes to work for 8-10 hours, comes home for about 20 minutes just to get up and go to school which is usually another 2-3 hours long. I'm very proud of my dad because although we butt heads a lot, he teaches me very valuable life lessons about anything that you could ever think of, and as a single parent of two(one who's finishing high school(me) and one who's just starting school), that's even more of a testimony to all of the people who feel like they can't be successful. As I'm right around the corner to finishing high school, anytime I'm struggling in any aspect of my adulthood I can always recount all the stories my dad told me, and all the life lessons he gave. People have come to the conclusion that superheroes aren't real unless they have supernatural abilities, but my dad has them and it's not very often you come across a person with all of the: Empathy, intelligence, discernment, benevolence, and loyalty.

I feel like the song that has really resonated with me in so many different ways, is Rise Up by Andra Day. For me, the song is about never giving up on anything no matter what challenges you face and who or what tries to stop you. There were some very hard times in my life where I felt like giving up on life and just letting go, but with the support of my family and singing this song with my aunt all the time, I pushed through and I'm glad that I did because there would've been so many things that I'd missed had I given up. Also, the song by Kiana Lede called Ex is a really good song that I belt on the top of my lungs every time that I hear it. I can't really say that the song connects to me in a relationship sense because God knows I'm not in one, but I really love that song because it's relatable even to people who aren't in romantic relationships. It's a song for everybody and I will make sure that my future kids know about it.

Besides the people that are biologically in my family, my best friend Simone is the most important person in my life. I met her my freshman year of high school and we clicked in the very beginning, I immediately found myself caring more about her than I did myself and that was very scary for me at first because even though she's my best friend, I felt like I was trusting her to quickly or giving too much of myself too soon, but I realized that she's worth all of that and more. We've had many talks about our futures and how we want to spend them and even though our dreams find themselves far away from each other if I really sat down and thought of what I want to be...I want to be my dad's strength, my sister's joy, my grandmother's smile, my grandfather's laughter, my aunt's love, and Simone's future. Someone once said, "A true friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you forget the words." Simone Yong is all of that and more.

The biggest failure that has ever happened in my life that changed and shaped me into the powerful, unapologetically me person that I am today was when I tried out for the volleyball team two years in a row and didn't make it either time. From a very early I can remember wanting to do a sport in middle and high school. Now, at the time I didn't know what sport was for me, so even though I knew that I would be in a sport, none of the sports that I knew of really stood out to me, that was until I heard about volleyball. Volleyball was the sport that all the pretty, cool, popular girls tried out for and I was ready to be one of those girls. 7th grade year was the first year that you could try out for sports so after months of practicing with the professional volleyball my dad had gotten for me, I was finally ready. The tryouts were long and the competition was tough, but I wasn't nervous as to how I stacked up against these girls because I knew that all my hard work would pay off, then I received the news. "I'm sorry, Jada, but your serves weren't going over the net, and, well, you didn't make the team." I was crushed, I remember crying and listening to my dad's reassuring words, but his words meant nothing to me except that I wasn't good enough. Then came my 8th-grade year, I had moved on from my heartbreak and was ready to try out again, having successfully gotten my serves over the net. Unfotunately, I was not granted a spot on the team that year either. But instead of the generic response, I had gotten the year before, my coach pulled me to the side and asked me if I had ever tried track. "You mean run, for fun?" I'd asked, but after a long deliberation with her and my dad who I later found out did track as well, I decided to try it. The first day of practice I was a nervous wreck, having just been told that this would be the better sport for me I realized that if I stepped out onto that track, I would risk being told that track wasn't "my sport" either and if that were so then I would always be the outcast, I would never find the place where I belonged. But to this day I'm so glad that ignored my inner self-doubt because I never realized how freeing and therapeutic it was to run down the track and jump through the air. To feel who was once my inner self-doubt, but who is now my inner Nubian goddess soar above the clouds. The wind on her fingertips and in that brief moment when we were in the air, I could feel myself jumping out of my insecurities and my negative thoughts and into the place where I finally felt I belonged.