My biggest desire is to change the world and make a positive impact world, especially for people like me, who are disadvantaged and oftentimes ignored and forgotten by the people who have power. Because of this, my biggest aspiration is to go to medical school and become a doctor specifically a psychiatrist. Using my education and training, I intend to make an NGO that focuses on helping people with mental health problems in third-world countries. I know that in a lot of third-world countries where getting physical care is already hard enough, mental care is not prioritized, and mentally ill people are either dismissed or mocked by the general public, and I want to be able to help remove the stigma associated with mental illness and to be able to assist in spreading mental health resources and awareness. According to Constellation Behavioral Health, two-thirds of mental disorder goes untreated, and I truly believe that I was bought into this world to help change that. Even if the percentage of untreated mental illness doesn´t change in my lifetime, I want to die knowing that the future generation will live in a world where mental health is regularly treated because of the progress I helped make. I want the world to understand how critical mental health is to the survival and longevity of humanity, and I want to help spread mental health resources to populations who are the furthest from access, specifically in third-world countries. Growing up in an African immigrant household, times were tough financially and resource-wise. We had to always rely on government resources and never had the best of anything or opportunities that those around us had. Through diligent work and perseverance, my parents have provided a lot for us, and even though we are still not very well off, we have come a long way. As thankful as I am for the sacrifices that my parents made for my siblings and me, it´s worth noting that in my parents' quest to provide the best life possible for us, our parents unintentionally neglected our mental well-being. Because in an African home mental health is not usually viewed as important and us not having money, I have never received the adequate mental health care that I need. During sophomore year when I struggled through the darkest time of my life, I had no one to talk to and no access to talk to any professional. I was going through so much all at once and felt like my world was crumbling at all points: in school, with my friends, and at home. It was because of this dark moment I went through in my life that I decided I wanted to become a psychiatrist. I never want any child to go through what a went through especially when a diagnosis or having someone to talk to can help immensely. Education has always been central and key in my life, and knowing that one day because of education I will be able to transform the lives of many and make a lasting impact makes me so excited for the future and prepared for all the years of schooling to come.

In 2020, my perspective of what being black meant in America completely evolved. I have been aware of racism for as long as I have been in America but the sequence of events that followed George Floyd´s death showed and emphasized to me how truly important finding a community that understood my struggles and what being black in America was. My high school is very diverse but the advanced and honors classes are predominately white and I have always been in a space where I am one of two/three black students in the class. Because of me taking advanced classes, it was hard to relate on a personal level to a lot of my classmates and my black friends were usually not in the classes I took so I also felt a disconnect there. I decided that I wanted to be in a space where I wouldn´t have to worry about being the only black person and where I could relate to my classmates on a personal basis. These reasons were why I decided to apply to an HBCU and specifically the illustrious Spelman College. I fell in love with Spelman during my sophomore year of high school and decided from that moment that that's where I wanted to go. I wanted a space where I can be around people who understood what it meant to be both black and a woman.

Many things motivate me to succeed, give me much pleasure, and fuel my life. However, my biggest fuels are my family, my community, and my desire to succeed. First and foremost, my family fuels my life. I have had friends come and go throughout my life, but my family has always supported me. I'm grateful for their love and support throughout my life. I will always have a strong family support system, regardless of disagreements or conflicts. In the sense that I represent the people, I am fighting for, being black and African (more specifically Burundian) fuels my life. I fight for black people (especially girls) to have their voices heard. By doing so, I hope to show the world that black people are powerful. My goal is to create a world where the black community is truly seen by the world and to help resolve the issues facing the black community. My desire to become someone someday is what fuels the strongest part of me because elevating my family and community is the driving force behind my desire to be somebody. Motivating me to pursue my goal of becoming a doctor is the desire to be able to help my people. The desire fuels and motivates me, as well as make me feel whole.

Being an immigrant and refugee, I learned to live with gratitude and appreciate everything I had early on, I practice appreciativeness and gratitude daily by making sure to appreciate the opportunities living I have in America and making sure I utilize those opportunities to be as successful as I have the potential to be. Being from a low-income household has been challenging but I appreciate how hard my parents work to provide for my family by making sure I prosper to show them that their efforts to provide for me and my siblings have not been in vain. I show appreciation for my home countries Tanzania and Burundi by actively working toward a career where I can help people back home and to show that I haven't forgotten my families back home. I appreciate my identity as a black African girl by celebrating my culture daily and celebrating my race and the strives that we as black people have made. My ultimate goal in life is to help my communities prosper to show how appreciative I am of everything that my people have done to get me to where I am.

1. I deserve this scholarship because I am beautiful, kind and generous, like that one time Angelina Jones needed a pencil in 2nd grade and even though I didn’t like her I gave her one. I deserve it because I mean why wouldn’t I 2. My career goals are to sit on the couch all day and grow a money tree that gives me money. 3. One time I over came an obstacle was during hurdles in 7th grade, I was so scared that I couldn’t jump over the hurdle but I over came the obstacle and jumped one hurdle.

In 2008, My family and I were some of the refugees from Mtabila camp selected to immigrate to America. Moving to America has changed my life tremendously and given me so many opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise but has been a challenge socially, economically, and culturally. Leaving your family and all that you have ever known is not easy, my dad was 28 and my mom was 23 when they immigrated to America, they had to start from nothing, forget everything and anything they had earned in Tanzania and move to a country with a language they didn't speak or understand. I was only 3 and my sister only 1 when we immigrated even though we weren't that old, overnight we had to lose so much to move to a big confusing country. We lost any sense of normality, we had to learn a new way of life in the midst of learning the way of life of Tanzania and Burundi ( which is where our ethnic background lay, where our parents' parents had left because of war and violence), and we were going to be exposed to a new language and culture when we had yet to learn our own. In Tanzania, even though we may not have been wealthy we had family, community, my parents had jobs which they had to leave behind. My parents had to get low skill jobs in America, and I started PreK in ESL classes and all throughout elementary school until the 4th grade had to take TELPAS tests, which a test bilingual students had to take to show they understood/spoke English. It has been hard being a low income immigrant but It had taught me so much. I have to fight harder then most of my classmates to get what I have, I have to balance school and being a third parent to all 6 of my sibling while my classmates got to be kids at home because my parent are always working overtime and extra shifts to provide for us, I have to find my own resources with little to none of my parents' help because they wouldn't understand or they just don't have the time to. Being a low income immigrant, had shaped me into the resilient fighter I am today, it taught me not to wait for more or to settle for less, to go out there and get things done regardless of how the world sees me, regardless if I have to run a mile compared to others kilometer. To proudly proclaim my culture in America but not to forget my culture back home in Tanzania or in BurundI (because even though I have yet to set foot there, it's the land of my ancestors). The challenges my family have faced when/since coming to the United States have shaped me into the smart, dedicated, resilient young woman I am today. and that will oneday change the world, not just for herself, but also for everyone just like her: immigrant, low-income and black.

Ever since I could remember going to college was always the dream /goal. For me, an immigrant refugee who arrived into a country with countless opportunities I knew that I would be doing myself and my family (here and back home) an injustice if I was content with just aiming for a high school diploma. I have one more full year of high school and its clearer to me then ever before why I need to attend college, I want to change my life. my families' lives and my comunities life and college would be the first step in my journey to become a doctor. With my education I plan to help destigmatize mental health and seeking mental help in the black community, and for Africans. I want to help spread awareness and resources that will help third world countries like my country Burundi.