Entering my first semester of college in the fall of 2026, I will be working towards a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics at Spelman College. With my degree, I will learn more about consumer behavior, the relationships between producers and consumers, and the relationship between individuals, businesses, and governments across different types of economies. Previously, I learned about human behavior and communication with my Associate of Liberal Arts degree earned in high school. In the future, I plan to pursue a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in marketing and business analytics. This curriculum will further my understanding of the relationship between consumer behavior, branding, and the data that confirms it. I plan to work as a business executive with the hopes of creating a more sustainable future for many businesses. Combining all my learning across each step of my academic journey will further my understanding of how industries operate. Currently, many companies face issues with hyper-consumerism driven by their marketing tactics and pollution caused by their production processes. With the knowledge I will gain from schooling, I plan to launch an initiative to develop new, more sustainable marketing strategies that help consumers slow down trend cycling, which fills landfills with previously “must-have” items. I will also introduce more sustainable products, no matter what field I’m in, to support the Earth and help combat the current climate crisis. As a black woman, I not only aspire to be a business executive to help with our current climate crisis, but to show other young black girls that they can achieve anything they put their minds to. As a child, I was very interested in fashion, but when I would research famous designers, they rarely looked like me. The lack of representation greatly discouraged me and made me think that fashion wasn't for people who look like me. While I now want to work in business marketing for fashion, I still want to be the representation that I did not have. While women make up over 50% of marketing executives, less than 1% of that statistic are black women. With this scholarship, I will not only be able to afford schooling to become a marketing executive, but also show a future generation of young black girls that people who look like them can do anything. Currently, I am the social media manager for my school's Black Student Union, posting about iconic figures in black history and showcasing all aspects of the black experience, to educate others and inspire our community. In our club, we are also hosting events throughout February to further promote this mission. We plan to do more community outreach in the second half of the semester, such as volunteering and visiting Historical Black Colleges and Universities, to help shape the minds of the underclassmen we will be leaving behind to run the club when we graduate.

As someone who comes from a low-income household, I recognize that education is a privilege and not a right. As unfortunate as that situation is, it is a reality not only for me, but for thousands of others throughout our country. With this scholarship, I would be able to focus less on affording tuition, housing, and food, and put more focus on achieving my dreams and helping my community that has helped me so much throughout my life. As someone going to school for economics in hope to work as a business executive in marketing, I aspire to bring my community to the forefront of the beauty, fashion, and entertainment industry and commemorate them for the amazing work they have done and will continue to do. This scholarship will allow me to put more time into school organizations and internships so that I can further build this network. I plan on creating and joining organizations having to do with marketing in different industries to further educate myself on the current state of the industry and figure out how I can change it to be more inclusive. I also plan on creating my own scholarship someday to give back to my hometown community that was able to provide me with scholarship information when I needed it most. Another long term goal of mine has been to find a way to help stop the current climate crisis. I have chosen to major in economics because it provides me with a more in depth analysis of consumer behavior and what influences changes in business economics than a business degree would. Using this education, I plan to use my findings to help on the path to solving the current climate crisis. In my school’s National Beta Club, we are working with local parks to help clean them, and we have recently adopted a creek. For my schools annual make-a-difference week, as the Student Council representative planning the event, I plan on using my connection with both Student Council and National Beta Club to create a community garden, which would help provide more biodiversity to my area’s ecosystem and teach my peers about gardening and ways they can help the environment. As I continue in my schooling, I plan to continue helping the environment in these small ways like those previously mentioned until I can reach an executive level and find ways to introduce new regulations for consumption and how products are made in ways that will lead to less waste.