I grew up in Southeast, Washington, DC and I have been raised by a single father. The media does not talk much about fathers raising their children, but even in a bad environment, my father sacrificed so much and did what it took to make sure I went to a great high school so that I can become the best in whatever I choose to do in life. I have had family members and close friends lose their lives to violence. There was crime, drugs, and poverty in my community, yet my father instilled values and a work ethic in me that goes beyond anything imaginable. Being raised by a single parent is difficult as many know. Being raised by your dad when most of your friends have their mothers in their lives is very, very tough as well. There were doubters about me going to a catholic high school. My father told me to trust myself and prove people wrong by my work ethic. By making the team, I became somewhat of a neighborhood star, especially with the younger kids being able to look up to me. I do not take anything for granted and I know that growing up in the community that I did will only continue to help me strive for more and more success. With my upbringing, I plan to become successful, whether in football or off the field, and come back to assist my community. Your community is where you have grown up as a young child, where you call home, and where you have most of your supporters. It is important to be involved because you can give others things to hope for. You can help by motivating the youth who look up to you. I have helped my community in multiple ways by helping in summer camps, tutoring, and mentoring foster care children at the National Center for Children and Families. In these venues, I have taught the younger children about football and the importance of academics and life outside of football. I attended a camp that taught me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with football skills. With that knowledge, I have tried to pass it along to others within my community. Where I am from in Southeast, Washington, DC, not too many people have made it this far by graduating high school and going on to college. This motivates me because I want the people of my community to have hope that someday they can make it to wherever their dreams take them. Through my future career, I plan to set up charities to help the recreational centers as well as the local school system. I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a private high school and I would love to give the youth in my community the opportunity to have some of the advantages even in the local public school system. I know my father's sacrifices to ensure that I attended my high school, but everyone will not have that opportunity. I believe that I can make a huge difference by giving back and helping to close that educational gap for those that cannot afford a private school education.

I grew up in Southeast, Washington, DC and I have been raised by a single father. The media does not talk much about fathers raising their children, but even in a bad environment, my father sacrificed so much and did what it took to make sure I went to a great high school so that I can become the best in whatever I choose to do in life. I have had family members and close friends lose their lives to violence. There was crime, drugs, and poverty in my community, yet my father instilled values and a work ethic in me that goes beyond anything imaginable. Being raised by a single parent is difficult as many know. Being raised by your dad when most of your friends have their mothers in their lives is very, very tough as well. That has been an obstacle that I have mentally had to overcome for my entire life so far. There were doubters about me going to a catholic high school. Yet, my father told me to be myself and just continue to prove everyone wrong by outworking my peers. By making the team, I became somewhat of a local star, but more so in the sense of younger kids being able to look up to me. I do not take anything for granted and I know that growing up in the community that I did will only continue to help me strive for more success. With my upbringing, I plan to become successful, whether in football or off the field and come back to assist my community. I have helped my community in multiple ways by helping in summer camps, tutoring, and mentoring foster care children at the National Center for Children and Families. In these venues, I have taught the younger children about football and the importance of academics and life outside of football. I attended a camp that taught me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with football skills. With that knowledge, I have tried to pass it along to others. Where I am from in Southeast, Washington, DC, not too many people made it to graduate high school and go on to college. This motivates me because I want people to have hope that someday they can achieve their dreams. I plan to assist the community by setting up charities to help the recreational centers and schools through my future career. I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a private high school and would love to give the youth in my community the opportunity to have some of those advantages even at their public schools. I know my father's sacrifices to ensure that I attended my high school, but everyone will not have that opportunity. I believe that I can make a huge difference by giving back and helping to close that educational gap in the community that helped raise me.

I grew up in Southeast, Washington, DC and I have been raised by a single father. The media does not talk much about fathers raising their children, but even in a bad environment, my father sacrificed so much and did what it took to make sure I went to a great high school so that I can become the best in whatever I choose to do in life. I have had family members and close friends lose their lives to violence. There was crime, drugs, and poverty in my community, yet my father instilled values and a work ethic in me that goes beyond anything imaginable. Being raised by a single parent is difficult as many know. Being raised by your dad when most of your friends have their mothers in their lives is very, very tough as well. That has been an obstacle that I have mentally had to overcome for my entire life so far. There were doubters about me going to a catholic high school. Yet, my father told me to be myself and just continue to prove everyone wrong by outworking my peers. By making the team, I became somewhat of a local star, but more so in the sense of younger kids being able to look up to me. I do not take anything for granted and I know that growing up in the community that I did will only continue to help me strive for more success. With my upbringing, I plan to become successful, whether in football or off the field, and come back to assist my community. I have helped my community in multiple ways by helping in summer camps, tutoring, and mentoring foster care children at the National Center for Children and Families. In these venues, I have taught the younger children about football and the importance of academics and life outside of football. I attended a camp that taught me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with football skills. With that knowledge, I have tried to pass it along to others. Where I am from in Southeast, Washington, DC, not too many people made it to graduate high school and go on to college. This motivates me because I want people to have hope that someday they can achieve their dreams. Through my future career, I plan to assist the community by setting up charities to help the recreational centers and schools. I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a private high school and would love to give the youth in my community the opportunity to have some of those advantages even at their public schools. I know my father's sacrifices to ensure that I attended my high school, but everyone will not have that opportunity. I believe that I can make a huge difference by giving back and helping to close that educational gap in the community that helped raise me.

Not a lot of people where I come from have a father figure in their life. God has blessed me with the presence of my own father. I have witnessed him being a single father that has made sure I have never gone without. With that being said, the greatest influence on my life thus far has to be my father. Over the years growing up as a young black man in America you face adversity. This adversity can be by default just based on the color of your skin. My father has shown me what it is to be a young black man in America. My “Pops” has been raising me by himself ever since I was born, and he was only 20 years old. At that time, he was a college student at Howard University. During that time, I do not remember much of him working and going to school. The one thing I do remember is sitting with him as he graduated from Howard University when I was 3 years old. I know that he pushed and pushed to finish college while raising me alone. This man has done a lot of things over my lifetime that I do not believe I will ever get a chance to repay him for doing. I used to tell him that I would go to the NFL or become rich in some other area and I would take care of him. His response has always been for me to “do what I am supposed to do and succeed at whatever I choose to do and that would be his payment. Seeing that he still is working multiple jobs trying to provide for me and my 3 younger siblings is all the influence I need. He is why I am the person I am today. When I say he just leads by example, I truly mean it. While putting me through a private high school, my dad went back and got his master’s degree while working full-time and driving part-time for Uber and Lyft to pay my tuition. And still, he continues to say he will sacrifice anything in order for me to be successful. So, while he is giving me life advice all the time, he is a walking example of what he is speaking about to me. I tried to look up statistics on single black parents, and I could only find statistics on single black mothers. The highest stats I found say that 64% of black children are raised by single mothers and that last year that equaled 4.15 million black families being headed by single mothers. The narrative is that black fathers are absent. My dad is a true testament that black fathers are present and that they are involved fully in the lives of their children. He is the most influential person in my life, and he continues to show me what it is to be a successful black man in America.

I grew up in Southeast, Washington, DC and I have been raised by a single father. The media does not talk much about fathers raising their children, but even in a bad environment, my father sacrificed so much and did what it took to make sure I went to a great high school so that I can become the best in whatever I choose to do in life. I have had family members and close friends lose their lives to violence. There was crime, drugs, and poverty in my community, yet my father instilled values and a work ethic in me that goes beyond anything imaginable. Being raised by a single parent is difficult as many know. Being raised by your dad when most of your friends have their mothers in their lives is very, very tough as well. There were doubters about me going to a catholic high school. My father told me to trust myself and prove people wrong by my work ethic. By making the team, I became somewhat of a neighborhood star, especially with the younger kids being able to look up to me. I do not take anything for granted and I know that growing up in the community that I did will only continue to help me strive for more and more success. With my upbringing, I plan to become successful, whether in football or off the field, and come back to assist my community. Your community is where you have grown up as a young child, where you call home, and where you have most of your supporters. It is important to be involved because you can give others things to hope for. You can help by motivating the youth who look up to you. I have helped my community in multiple ways by helping in summer camps, tutoring, and mentoring foster care children at the National Center for Children and Families. In these venues, I have taught the younger children about football and the importance of academics and life outside of football. I attended a camp that taught me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with football skills. With that knowledge, I have tried to pass it along to others within my community. Where I am from in Southeast, Washington, DC, not too many people have made it this far by graduating high school and going on to college. This motivates me because I want the people of my community to have hope that someday they can make it to wherever their dreams take them. Through my future career, I plan to set up charities to help the recreational centers as well as the local school system. I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a private high school and I would love to give the youth in my community the opportunity to have some of the advantages even in the local public school system. I know my father's sacrifices to ensure that I attended my high school, but everyone will not have that opportunity. I believe that I can make a huge difference by giving back and helping to close that educational gap for those that cannot afford a private school education.

My greatest accomplishment so far would be making the Varsity Football team at my high school. In a little over a month, I would say that the greatest accomplishment would be my graduation from DeMatha Catholic High School. You would have to truly understand the neighborhood that I was raised in to know why just attending DeMatha is a huge accomplishment. I grew up in Southeast, Washington, DC and I have been raised by a single father. The media does not talk much about fathers raising their children, but even in a bad environment, my father sacrificed so much and did what it took to make sure I went to a great high school so that I can become the best in whatever I choose to do in life. I have had family members and close friends lose their lives to violence. There was crime, drugs, and poverty in my community, yet my father instilled values and a work ethic in me that goes beyond anything imaginable. Being raised by a single parent is difficult as many know. Being raised by your dad when most of your friends have their mothers in their lives is very, very tough as well. There were doubters about me going to a catholic high school. My father told me to trust myself and prove people wrong by my work ethic. By making the team, I became somewhat of a neighborhood star, especially with the younger kids being able to look up to me. I do not take anything for granted and I know that growing up in the community that I did will only continue to help me strive for more and more success. With my upbringing, I plan to become successful, whether in football or off the field, and come back to assist my community. Your community is where you have grown up as a young child, where you call home, and where you have most of your supporters. It is important to be involved because you can give others things to hope for. You can help by motivating the youth who look up to you. I have helped my community in multiple ways by helping in summer camps, tutoring, and mentoring foster care children at the National Center for Children and Families. In these venues, I have taught the younger children about football and the importance of academics and life outside of football. I attended a camp that taught me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with football skills. With that knowledge, I have tried to pass it along to others within my community. Where I am from in Southeast, Washington, DC, not too many people have made it this far by graduating high school and going on to college. This motivates me because I want the people of my community to have hope that someday they can make it to wherever their dreams take them. Through my future career, I plan to set up charities to help the recreational centers as well as the local school system. I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a private high school and I would love to give the youth in my community the opportunity to have some of the advantages even in the local public school system. I know my father's sacrifices to ensure that I attended my high school, but everyone will not have that opportunity. I believe that I can make a huge difference by giving back and helping to close that educational gap for those that cannot afford a private school education.

The obstacles in life always turn into motivation. Growing up in DC is not for the weak. Every day is a struggle where I come from. I lost my Great-grandmother in the eighth grade. Just before my sophomore year of high school, one of my closest childhood friends was murdered. Over the years 2017-2021, I have witnessed many of my peers lose their lives to gun violence. I have always kept myself focused on football. In my neighborhood, I was a known star. I am the oldest of my siblings and I have always been determined to show them the way. All the older people around the neighborhood believed in me and supported me. So, as I grew up over the years, I was taught to complete everything with a passion as if it is the last thing you get. I was taught you must have faith and believe that the work you are doing now is what will be given back upon yourself. I have always been known because of my hard work, my great personality, or my competitiveness. Having to witness violence, drug use, and poverty has left a stain on my heart that propels me to work hard every day. If you were to ask me to describe what shaped me, I would say that the struggle in DC is what made me who I am, and it will continue to keep me focused on achieving all of my goals. In addition to the environment that I lived in for the majority of my childhood, I have been raised by a single father. While he was married to my stepmother for a few years, most of my life has been him working hard and supporting me on my own. I have watched him sacrifice so much for me and my younger siblings to succeed. This has motivated me to work even harder so that his hard work pays off. If I ask him, he will say that the only thing I ever owe him is to finish college and become successful in whatever career field I choose. He has been a true model for me as I have seen him work three jobs at once and then watched him put himself through graduate school while working a full-time job and driving for Uber to pay my high school tuition. He also moved us out of the environment which I wrote about earlier to show us a different way of life. My father is my example of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice. With him leading the way, there is no way that I will fail as the expectation and standards have been set for my life. With my upbringing, I plan to become successful, whether in football or off the field, and come back to assist my community. I have helped my community in multiple ways by helping in summer camps, tutoring, and mentoring foster care children at the National Center for Children and Families. In these venues, I have taught the younger children about football and the importance of academics and life outside of football. I attended a camp that taught me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with football skills. With that knowledge, I have tried to pass it along to others. Where I am from in Southeast, Washington, DC, not too many people made it to graduate high school and go on to college. This motivates me because I want people to have hope that someday they can achieve their dreams. Through my future career, I plan to assist the community by setting up charities to help the recreational centers and schools. I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a private high school and would love to give the youth in my community the opportunity to have some of those advantages even at their public schools. I know my father's sacrifices to ensure that I attended my high school, but everyone will not have that opportunity. I believe that I can make a huge difference by giving back and helping to close that educational gap in the community that helped raise me.

My greatest accomplishment so far would be making the Varsity Football team at my high school. In a little over a month, I would say that the greatest accomplishment would be my graduation from DeMatha Catholic High School. You would have to truly understand the neighborhood that I was raised in to know why just attending DeMatha is a huge accomplishment. I grew up in Southeast, Washington, DC and I have been raised by a single father. The media does not talk much about fathers raising their children, but even in a bad environment, my father sacrificed so much and did what it took to make sure I went to a great high school so that I can become the best in whatever I choose to do in life. I have had family members and close friends lose their lives to violence. There was crime, drugs, and poverty in my community, yet my father instilled values and a work ethic in me that goes beyond anything imaginable. Being raised by a single parent is difficult as many know. Being raised by your dad when most of your friends have their mothers in their lives is very, very tough as well. There were doubters about me going to a catholic high school. Yet, my father told me to be myself and just continue to prove everyone wrong by outworking my peers. By making the team, I became somewhat of a local star, but more so in the sense of younger kids being able to look up to me. I do not take anything for granted and I know that growing up in the community that I did will only continue to help me strive for more and more success. With my upbringing, I plan to become successful, whether in football or off of the field, and come back to assist my community. Your community is where you have grown up as a young child, where you call home, and where you have most of your supporters. It is important to be involved because you can give others things to hope for. You can help by motivating the youth who look up to you. I have helped my community in multiple ways by helping in summer camps, tutoring, and mentoring foster care children at the National Center for Children and Families. In these venues, I have taught the younger children not just about football, but about the importance of academics and life outside of football. I attended a camp that taught me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with football skills. With that knowledge, I have tried to pass it along to others within my community. Where I am from in Southeast, Washington, DC, not too many people have made it this far by graduating high school and going on to college. This motivates me because I want the people of my community to have hope that someday they can make it to wherever their dreams take them. Through my future career, I plan to assist the community by setting up charities to help the recreational centers as well as the local school system. I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a private high school and I would love to give the youth in my community the opportunity to have some of the advantages even in the local public school system. I know the sacrifices my father made to ensure that I attended my high school, but everyone will not have that opportunity. I believe that I can make a huge difference by giving back and helping to close that educational gap for those that cannot afford a private school education. Opening a community center is another goal of mine. My community center will have activities for all ages and ensure that the community has a safe haven for children. Lastly, I would like to hold sports camps every year to help the children in the community learn more about different sports and about life outside of the sports that they play.

Your community is where you have grown up as a young child, where you call home, and where you have most of your supporters. It is important to be involved because you can give others things to hope for. You can help by motivating the youth who look up to you. I have helped my community in multiple ways by helping in summer camps, tutoring, and mentoring foster care children at the National Center for Children and Families. In these venues, I have taught the younger children not just about football, but about the importance of academics and life outside of football. I attended a camp that taught me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with football skills. With that knowledge, I have tried to pass it along to others within my community. Where I am from in Southeast, Washington, DC, not too many people have made it this far by graduating high school and going on to college. This motivates me because I want the people of my community to have hope that someday they can make it to wherever their dreams take them. Through my future career, I plan to assist the community by setting up charities to help the recreational centers as well as the local school system. I was blessed with an opportunity to attend a private high school and I would love to give the youth in my community the opportunity to have some of the advantages even in the local public school system. I know the sacrifices my father made to ensure that I attended my high school, but everyone will not have that opportunity. I believe that I can make a huge difference by giving back and helping to close that educational gap for those that cannot afford a private school education. Opening a community center is another goal of mine. My community center will have activities for all ages and ensure that the community has a safe haven for children. Lastly, I would like to hold sports camps every year to help the children in the community learn more about different sports and about life outside of the sports that they play.