The life of a young, black woman growing up in the South is not one that is often met with kindness. Many institutional and environmental factors seek to delay, if not absolve, your existence. My escape from this crushing reality was education. My mom, the first in her family to acquire her degree, was my safe space. An educator herself, she took the same circumstances I was born into, and chose to sacrifice and dedicate her energy, time, and commitment to helping students like her do the same. My favorite book she ever gave me, Black Women in The Ivory Tower, detailed how black women in the Reconstruction era uplifted themselves and their communities, abiding by the core principle that education was “The Right to Grow”. They believed that education went hand in hand with community service, and established entire worlds in which they all could thrive, using education as a ladder to progress, despite the barriers they faced in climbing. Amongst them was poverty, social ousting, sexism, threat of violence, and more. As I read, the thoughts of why nearly two centuries later, we both faced the same issues in her classroom swirled through my mind. In my undergraduate studies, I began to research the systems that held these barriers in place, and in doing so, found my calling: social work and education. My childhood was filled with pleasant memories of helping my mother decorate her classroom, acing exams, and parent teacher conferences where my mom advocated for me to be skipped a grade due to the lack of challenge I experienced in the classroom. She was my first brush with the glory of what social work, advocacy and education could be for one, and my passion lies in helping others feel that same joy. Following in her footsteps, I currently teach at one of the most under resourced schools in the DC area, and actively pursuing both my masters in secondary education and social work. My students and peers stories parallel. They struggle to attend classes due to work, they can’t focus due to poor response to their learning disabilities. Education is the greatest equalizer that exists. It is a right, not a privilege. My intention is to use every breath in my body and resource at my disposal to build a world where these gaps are bridged, starting with this scholarship. I maintain a 3.0 and 3.5 at both of my institutions, and upon graduation, will pursue my doctorate in education policy. I will implement laws that ensure that students from all walks of life are enriched with the joys of learning. Education is not just means to an end, it is the essence of life itself, and social work is the purveyor of access to this space. It is because of education that I can even type these words, and that you can read them. Everything we do is the result of someone teaching us how, and I will ensure that right to students everywhere.

1. Golf, tennis and pilates have served as the most propelling extracurricular activities I engage in, enriching and cultivating my body so that my mind operates at those same levels of excellence. I used that mind as an undergraduate student, and served on the executive boards of the NAACP, NCNW, BSA, SGA, Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. as well as Softer Touch. This period of my life as a part of these organizations fulfilled my need for service, community and engagement, and my desire to contribute to the world I live in. 2. As a recent graduate of Georgia State University, I've recently reflected upon my experience as a collegiate student. During the pandemic, I struggled to maintain my grades amidst my mental health struggles, desire to cultivate relationships, maintain my own with myself, and hold a full time job. However, as illness and misfortune spread, I began to interrogate why everything in life seemed to simply be so difficult. I began to realize as a young, black woman, I was born with a set of systematic barriers set to impede my livelihood, including colorism, sexism, racism, and poor socioeconomic standing. My passion for success in social work stems from this desire to bring light, color, and cultivation into these dark spaces. I now see the world for what it is. I see the problems we face as a collective and know where they come from, what they are, and why they are. I want to know all that I possibly can so that I can shield all who wish to blossom into their fullest potential from these deterrents. 3. After obtaining resources and diagnoses provided to me by my alma mater, I reflected on my previous mental health struggles while reading Ellison’s Invisible Man and drew parallels that resound with me to this day. The barriers that prevented him from succeeding still exist today, and it is my purpose in life to lift these burdens from the shoulders of future generations. Changing the landscape regarding mental health will require inspired action from the bold, the determined, the passionate, and most of all, the empathetic. This scholarship will help me do just that. Upon graduating from Howard University’s Master’s of Social Work program, I hope to get my doctorate from my institution and to use my education, experience and passion in executive roles. My work will include enabling access to free or low-cost mental healthcare for people of color and demolishing barriers, putting them in positions that will empower them as well as their children, and ensure successful, accommodating education initiatives, medication, etc. I want our future generations to be and feel heard, valued, and most importantly, seen. 4. Being a recipient of this scholarship would frankly change my entire life. One of the many factors that inspires me to go into social work and eventually education, is to alleviate the cost of access to institutes of higher learning, especially at HBCUs. I aspire to a quality and prestigious education at Howard University, but at five figures per semester as an independent student, freshly off of the heels of my younger brother's high school graduation, it has been difficult seeking out opportunities for growth. However, these obstacles are not the end all be all, and I will continue to fight for equitable education in the black community, starting with myself. This scholarship to me represents a bridge to the future itself, to a world where the issues I've contended with my entire life are overcome by access to knowledge.

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN Lately, I’ve contemplated my childhood deeply. It is startling, not because of the memories that have abounded, but because of the lack thereof. There are few memories that I can distinctly recall, most poignant being sitting in my frigid seventh grade class. My ELA teacher, Mr. Bettendorf, had just assigned us the first book to ever emblazon itself in my mind, slowly, yet surely, guiding me to the path I’m on currently: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. As an eleven-year old student with undiagnosed ADHD, severe depression, and anxiety, each illness worked fervently to rob me of the importance of the moment. My depression made me lethargic, I had no desire to even be in attendance, let alone read an entire novel. When called to the front of the room to retrieve my own copy, I shuddered the entire pace, anxious of the glares and judgements of my peers, until I returned safely to my seat. My ADHD prompted me to shove the novel down into my bookbag, lost in a sea of late assignments, broken pencils, and half opened snacks. It was because of these factors that in all honesty, I was never an excellent student. Though I strived to be, I was always obstructed by circumstances beyond my control. My mental health deteriorated rapidly after the divorce of my parents, who because of their own mental health issues, did not have the emotional, mental, or fiscal attention to alleviate the issues I faced. It was during this time my interest in mental health began to blossom. I began to analyze the connection between genetics, mental health issues, and my daily life. It began to make sense to me why so many of my memories had absconded from my mind, and that was because memory loss is a coping mechanism of traumatic events. Every human is a tapestry, crafted by millions of tiny genetic strands that can contain adverse mental, physical and emotional conditions. Understanding this brought me to a threshold in my life as I began to question: “How am I going to survive if this is what I’m made of?” I, just like the titular character of Ellison’s novel, was being overlooked and made invisible. I failed my classes, I wasn’t eating or maintaining my hygiene regularly, I attempted suicide, it didn’t matter. I, like that novel, had been shoved down into a sea of obscurity and disrepair. The only thing that saved that poor novel from mental obscurity was age and fate, as I revisited it in my collegiate freshman orientation class. It was necessary to expand in order to undertake the daily act of survival. It became clear to me that my parents were just as invisible as I was. Not because of a lack of care, but because of a lack of resources. Both of my parents came from low income backgrounds, Of course they couldn’t save me from the invisibility I had drifted into, they could hardly save themselves. As a young black woman, it is my mission in my pursuit of my master’s degree in clinical social work to alleviate and prevent these issues from plaguing another generation. In the black community, we have a collective problem of ignoring, overlooking, and mislabeling mental health issues. My mom didn’t have ADD, she was just “flighty”. My dad wasn’t depressed, he was “shy”. I didn’t have ADHD, depression, or anxiety, I was “lazy” and “hard headed”. After obtaining resources and diagnoses provided to me by my alma mater, I successfully read Ellison’s Invisible Man, and drew parallels that resound with me to this day. As a victim of circumstance, Ellison’s character had faded into obscurity. He, nameless, faceless, became a statistic in his pursuit of the American dream, which to many in his position, was just a meager existence: a home, a family, food, and the pursuit of happiness, just like my parents had before. The barriers that prevented him from succeeding still exist today, and it is my purpose in life to lift these burdens from the shoulders of future generations. Changing the landscape regarding mental health will require inspired action from the bold, the determined, the passionate, and most of all, the empathetic. As someone who has suffered and still suffers from, processed, and worked through many of these issues, I will work tirelessly to make these changes into reality. This scholarship will help me do just that. Upon graduating from Howard University’s Master’s of Social Work program, I hope to get my doctorate from my institution and to use my education, experience and passion in executive roles. My work will include enabling access to free or low-cost mental healthcare for people of color and demolishing barriers, putting them in positions that will empower them as well as their children, and ensure successful, accommodating education initiatives, medication, etc. I will start charities and push for initiatives that enable the equitable and independent cultivation of their livelihoods. I want our future generations to be and feel heard, valued, and most importantly, seen. It is my calling to help them be seen in the light that radiates from their being because they can be who they are without fear, or the weight of the world pressing on their souls.