I am a 31 year old single woman with no children. I am currently a medical assistant with 10 years of experience. I have worked with babies, adults, specialty offices and I have been an office manager. My resume is impeccable. I have dedicated my life to helping others. My Grandmother, rest her soul, was a nurse and urged me to become one. She was absolutely right! I love being in the medical field. I adore helping people and making them feel great when coming in or leaving an office I am working at. My goals once I graduate is to help at my current job and get trained as a Nursing Coordinator and specialist in infertility. Once I have mastered infertility, I will begin to take contracts out of state an over seas as a traveling nurse so that I may be introduced to different cultures and gain knowledge about the world outside of California. I would also like to teach people my culture as well.

I am a Medical Assistant going back to school for my Bachelor's degree in nursing. My grandmother was a nurse and she told me before she passed away that she felt I would be a great nurse. She was right I love being in the medical field. I am such a people person, I plan on traveling the world as a travel nurse spreading my diversity everywhere I go. Touching the lives of as many people as possible. I will show people everywhere I go they can trust their healthcare providers and also give them a sense of belonging someone who really understands them and their needs. My financial needs are endless. I have a lot of school expenses I am paying out of pocket due to me not qualifying for financial aid. Books are so expensive and so are school supplies for every class. Transportation is now a huge financial burden since the surge in gas prices. I live in Los Angeles and I rent a room out for $1000 a month. This does not include my car note or my car, dental, vision and health insurance. Food prices have also gone up. This scholarship will help me pay for necessary expenses and enable me to focus solely on my studies versus how I am going to borrow money and how am I ever going to pay it back. In the next 10 years, I want to be a successful Registered nurse who has established herself un her career. Once that has been accomplished I want to give back to my community by opening up my non-profit organization. This will be a program that targets the underprivileged communities and will provide the necessary resources needed to transition into a successful adult.

My life has not been easy but the obstacles I have faced help shape me into a great person. I was born in Watts, California which is a very dangerous a poverty stricken neighborhood. My Father was murdered when I was only one year old. When I was only 4 years old my brothers had to hide me under the bed during the Watts riots. The city looked like it was burning to the ground and my mother was terrified someone would try to break in and harm us. Thankfully, nothing happened and everyone was safe. I was the only girl growing up with five boys was not easy. I never had anyone to play with unless I wanted to wrestle or play video games. When I got hurt while wrestling, my mother would scold the boys for playing too rough with me. So they told me if I wanted to play I had to toughen up and stop crying. That's exactly what I did and I became tougher. The hardest challenge I ever had to face in life was when my mother got married to a pedophile. He preyed on her and knew she was a perfect target. He swept her off her feet and proposed. It was not long before they found a house and we were moving away from my Grandmother and Aunt. They got married so fast, that time in my life is such a blur. I do remember getting ready for the wedding and how happy my mother was. We did move into a beautiful house with a huge backyard and she was finally about to get married. Little did she know, the night they got married her now newly wed husband would sneak into the kids room in the middle of the night and kidnapped her only daughter out of bed. He carried me to the empty living room in the dark and molested me. This would not be the first or the last time either. This child abuse went on for years. The very first time it happened I was seven years old. He did not have to threaten me or tell me not to tell anyone because he knew how smart I was. He knew that I would keep this to myself because I would never want to ruin my mothers new found happiness. I felt so trapped and confused. This went on until he abused my friend when I was about 11 or 12. I had to speak with detectives to give the a report and we found out her had abused other children as well. It was horrible and by far the darkest days of my life. He only spent 3 months in jail for ruining lives. I am still in therapy today trying to heal from the years of trauma I endured. I plan to use my education to help heal the world in every way that I can. I want to start a non-profit organization that is geared to assist and provide resources for young black youth to promote therapy and bring awareness to mental illness in the black community. Our fellow black, underprivileged sisters and brothers can barely afford the everyday cost of living, let alone be able to afford any therapy treatment. Most therapist do not accept insurance. Finding a good therapist is key to making leaps in your mental treatment. Change and healing is needed and we will never grow as a people if we are still stuck in our trauma.

I have many different passions. I love to dance the most. If I could dance for a living I wouldn't work a day in my life. I love listening to music. Eating is the absolute best because I am a huge foodie. I also enjoy reading, helping others and being outdoors. My long term goal is to get my Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. I want to be a travel nurse so that I may have access to other parts of the world while helping people and possibly saving lives. After my travels are complete, I want to start a non-profit organization targeted to black youth, especially those who have no access to government assistance. I would like to shine a light on mental illness in the black community because it is still shunned as taboo. Our people need to heal generational trauma that has been passed down by our ancestors. I want to be at the forefront of that shift in our community. People do not realize the importance of finding a good therapist that works for themselves and the strides in treatment they can make if they would only give themselves the opportunity. I would like to create a hub of resources that people did not think they qualified for and or did not know existed. Growing up in poverty is not easy. You are forced to grow up and learn how to provide for yourself as a child. It takes the focus off of your studies and other extracurricular activities we should be enjoying as children. I want to give the youth a chance to be kids and to grow up in a healthy mental state. This way they are not robbed of their opportunity to have a normal life that is not cloudy by mental illness. If granted with this award, I will be able to pay off some student loans from my previous education while becoming a Medical Assistant. I had to take out loans. They are in good standing but I also need money for bills, rent and everyday living expenses. I currently work a full time job that takes away time from my education. I have created a healthy balance between the two and have been successful in both school and at work. I am going to have to take out more loans for the nursing program. I will apply this money to previous loans that are already do. I can also use this money to pay a portion of the cost for nursing school.

I have many different passions. I love to dance the most. If I could dance for a living I wouldn't work a day in my life. I love listening to music. Eating is the absolute best because I am a huge foodie. I also enjoy reading, helping others and being outdoors. I am currently trying to get back into therapy once a week with my new insurance but it has been difficult as I have an HMO plan. To cope with my mental illness I listen to music everyday especially when I am frustrated or feeling down. I write in my daily journal about my feelings and any triggers that have came up during the day. I have been given tools by my previous therapist such as worksheets to help me process my feelings to make sure that I am seeing situations as they are and not how I feel they are. My perception can be wrong a lot of times, so I stay close to these tools. I also have an adult coloring book I use to help calm me down as well. My long term goal is to get my Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. I want to be a travel nurse so that I may have access to other parts of the world while helping people and possibly saving lives. After my travels are complete, I want to start a non-profit organization targeted to black youth, especially those who have no access to government assistance. I would like to shine a light on mental illness in the black community because it is still shunned as taboo. Our people need to heal generational trauma that has been passed down by our ancestors. I want to be at the forefront of that shift in our community. People do not realize the importance of finding a good therapist that works for themselves and the strides in treatment they can make if they would only give themselves the opportunity. I would like to create a hub of resources that people did not think they qualified for and or did not know existed. Growing up in poverty is not easy. You are forced to grow up and learn how to provide for yourself as a child. It takes the focus off of your studies and other extracurricular activities we should be enjoying as children. I want to give the youth a chance to be kids and to grow up in a healthy mental state. This way they are not robbed of their opportunity to have a normal life that is not cloudy by mental illness.

Hello, My name is Jasmin. I am a 31-year-old Black woman aspiring to get my BSN. I do not have any children and I am not married. This makes it very difficult to get any government assistance and even financial aid. I am struggling to pay rent, bills, and school expenses. I am going to be the first college graduate in my family. My Grandmother passed away on Christmas day last year, so this past holiday season was our family's first year without her. I dedicate my education to my Grandmother. I hope you will consider me for this scholarship as it will be very helpful towards my educational costs.