Growing up, having a stable home was something I wanted more than anything in this world. In 2016, shortly after my grandmother passed, I sought to make my goal of being a homeowner come true. I began by saving up every paycheck, putting money aside for a down payment. I also had to build my credit by paying down debts and removing inaccuracies from my credit reports. This journey went on for four years, but not without many setbacks. My car broke down two years into saving up for my home, which took a considerable chunk of my savings to buy a new car for transportation. In addition to my car breaking down, I faced many setbacks, like unexpectedly high electric and gas bills. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did. Finally, in 2020, just when I was about to start looking at homes with my realtor, one of the deadliest pandemics in our lifetimes took the world by storm, causing a housing market crisis and making the home-buying process even harder. After two months of looking at homes and being outbid for many of the most affordable, I finally bought my house on April 10th, 2020. It was the proudest achievement of my life! Not only did I achieve in purchasing my own home, but I ended the long lingering cloud of not ever having a home that caused me so much turmoil and stress for my family and me. That experience taught me that I can do anything I set my mind to and complete any task, no matter the time or effort. The experience also taught me to trust myself. At times when I wanted to give up or didn't think it was worth continuing my path, I trusted myself that I could overcome and accomplish my goals despite my many setbacks. In the future, I plan to finish nursing school and become a pediatric nurse. I want to make a difference in children's lives and help facilitate their growth and development. I currently work as Patient Care Technician at Children's Hospital and love my job. I love assisting the nurses and helping with patient feedings, vital signs, and overall care. My mission is also to help children and their families who may be homeless or live in poverty by creating a foundation to help families find safe and affordable housing. In conclusion, my life has changed by becoming a homeowner and having a safe and stable place to live, and I want to help others who also lack stable housing fulfill that need in their lives. My most outstanding achievements and failures have made me who I am today, and I look forward to future successes and, by being successful, helping others achieve their dreams and goals.

Society must change its way of responding to the problems of the disadvantaged; why you ask? Because the problems of the disadvantaged do not just affect some of us but can affect us all. As a human race, we are all connected, which was made evident by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Although not everyone contracted the deadly virus, we all were impacted in some way by the pandemic, whether physically, mentally, or financially. Much like during the pandemic, the disadvantaged suffered more than others, making their recovery and back-to-normal process much more challenging than everyone else. As a society, we all must take accountability for one another; we rise or fall together. We can significantly impact each other's lives even without intent; imagine the amazing things we could do if we intentionally sought to respond to the disadvantaged problems in the same way we respond to our own. We could improve many people's lives and make the world as we know it a better place. For example, many disadvantaged people lack food and nutrition. If those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to afford healthy foods limited our wastefulness and put forth an effort to grow our own fruits and vegetables, the prices of many food items would decrease, making it more affordable for the disadvantaged to purchase the food they need for their families. Another way we can effectively respond to the problems of the disadvantaged is by taking the time to talk to them and see what their needs are with a nonjudgmental approach. Those who are privileged often blame the disadvantaged for their circumstances, not realizing that time and chance happen to us all, and many of us would be in the same circumstances if we were not born into a privileged family, country, or even economic background. We must show each other compassion and understanding when having these conversations. For all we know, we could one day be in their shoes. In conclusion, society must change its way of responding to the problems of the disadvantaged because we are all one human race connected to each other and have a moral obligation to care for one another. We must also talk to the disadvantaged and approach their problems without judgment or prejudice. If we start now, the next generation will be more compassionate and empathetic towards each other, lessening each other's burdens while making the world a better place.

From the moment we are born, there are many anticipated obstacles in our lives; racial background and gender should not be one of them. As a black woman, I am a minority member within a minority. Black women encounter prejudice and systematic oppression from both sides of the spectrum. We are judged from a racial standpoint in addition to our gender. I have encountered many obstacles in my life, including discrimination and microaggressions. As an aspiring nurse, I experienced my first racial encounter during a job interview for a tech position at a hospital I was most excited to work. I was talked over during the interview and drowned out with classical music, so the interviewer did not have to focus on what I said. My first encounter with racial bias in the workplace was so blatant that I was in total shock after it happened. Racial and gender discrimination has had, at times, a negative impact on my worldview and mental health. I have often been discouraged from continuing the nursing path due to my encounters with racial bias and microaggressions in the workplace. Despite my reservations, I have continued my path and am currently enrolled in Montgomery College (RN) nursing program. The nursing field is a predominately White/Caucasian population representing roughly 80.6% of all registered nurses, with black nurses only representing 6.7% of all registered nurses. Those numbers make room for racial bias and gatekeeping within the profession. Since my time as a caregiver with my grandmother, I have always had a passion for nursing. I wanted to care for others as I cared for my grandmother with empathy and compassion. It can be hard to show such compassion surrounded by hateful prejudice and bias, but I have learned not to let the ignorance of others taint my character. Allowing those negative experiences to change my outlook on life and how I treat people allows such ignorance to spread and infect me and the people I will encounter in the future. Instead, I have decided to continue showing empathy, compassion, and grace even if it is not returned. Why, you ask? Because I'm aware that life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react and handle it. How one handles discrimination, bias, and adversities is an example of their true character, and with outstanding character comes a great deal of blessings and opportunities. In conclusion, as a member of an underrepresented minority population, the prejudice encounters have had a negative impact on my life; however, I have decided not to let those obstacles deter me from showing compassion and empathy towards others in addition to achieving my dreams of becoming a nurse. Instead, I have decided to continue my path of compassion and empathy, knowing that my character and acts of kindness towards others will speak for itself and come back to me tenfold within my personal and professional life.

In this life, we all have obstacles to overcome. It is not the challenges we face that define us but how we handle those obstacles and use them to lay the groundwork for our future success. Born and raised in southern Maryland, I have faced many challenges in life. One life challenge I encountered was during my years as a caregiver. I have always had a passion for nursing and prided myself on my ability to care for others. As a teenager, I helped my mother care for my grandmother at home during her final years. It was one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences of my life. My mother taught me how to help bathe my grandmother, administer feedings through her feeding tube, change her wound bandages, clean her ostomy bags, take her blood pressure, take her temperature, and keep her comfortable. It was through this experience I decided to pursue a career in nursing. I plan to positively impact the world by using my nursing skills to spread compassion and empathy to everyone I encounter. I will simultaneously inspire people to show compassion toward others by showing that compassion. Paying it forward is how we evolve and become more empathetic and kinder to one another. When we show others empathy and compassion, we become the shining light in a world that can often seem so dark. In addition to promoting empathy and compassion, I plan to build a community that helps support caregivers and gives them the much-needed space to unwind and attend to their emotional and physical needs. I also want to build more respite care centers for caregivers to have a chance to live their lives, travel, and take care of their own needs while having peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are being properly taken care of with empathy and compassion. In Conclusion, receiving an Emma Jean Ridley Memorial Scholarship will help finance my school expenses and living conditions and aid in a successful career as a Pediatric Nurse. While in school, I work full-time as a Patient Care Technician at Children's Hospital. My responsibilities as a Patient Care Technician have reminded me of everything I did when caring for my grandmother. I love working at my med-surge Unit and have been inspired by my Unit's nurses to continue my education and become a Pediatric Nurse. The healthcare system has a shortage of nurses, and I am passionate about becoming a Pediatric Nurse to change the lives of children and their families and positively impact the world through my profession in nursing.