As a Business Administration Management major at North Carolina A&T State University, my passion is business, entrepreneurship, and philosophy. I also enjoy reading, creating art, and boxing. I was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. Growing up I watched people in my family start and manage businesses and I aspire to do the same. Currently, I own a sneaker store and my long-term goal is to become a CEO of a global operating company. There was a time in my life when I felt both physically and emotionally weak. It was when I was 18. I got put on academic probation, I was sent back home, and I had to get a job. This was the summer of 2020, the hottest summer of the past four years. There were weeks when it was a blazing 97-98 degrees. I remember melting through my clothes while driving in my Honda Civic because I didn’t have an A/C in my car and I didn’t have the money to fix it. I started to work at UPS to make money to repair my car and fund my sneaker business. I was working 2nd shift, meaning at 2:00 the hottest time of the day. I had to be in a UPS truck loading boxes. This is where my emotional turmoil started. I dropped out of college. I’m starting a business from scratch, and the people around me felt distanced. I wanted to work and focus on creating, while most of my friends wanted to have fun. I felt weak because I felt the aftermath of separation. Every day I would drive in a 99-degree car to work in a 100-degree truck. I went into work drenched and came out of work soaked and tired. But I knew I had to do more, I knew I had to use the best of my time. So right after a shift, I would work out to clear my mind; then I would sit and work on my business. My day-to-day life was packed with emotionally and physically draining tasks, but I knew I had to pull through. I knew I had to find some way to energize myself to keep the creative mind to move my business forward while making money to provide for myself. I started to look at ways to ground myself and build myself up from within. I started searching. I knew my work ethic had to be channeled in a direction that aligned with my dreams and goals. I started to dive deep into learning business strategies, self-help books, and financial wellness. Whenever I had the time, I used it to prioritize elevating myself and my business. There were nights when I lay awake, too tired to move and too passionate to sleep. I would think to myself, "I know there’s a better way, there has to be a better way of living. What do I need to do to make this change in my life?" These very questions helped me to keep studying and searching for answers. This gave me the strength to do the hard task. It gave me the strength to show up to work in a hot car. It gave me the strength to work on my business and develop business skills. At my weakest point, I knew there was a better way. This is what gave me the strength to move forward. This scholarship can help make a difference in my life by helping me obtain the funds to continue my education while staying focused on my career goals.

My favorite game to play in Cooperative mode is Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game that I enjoyed as a child. I like MK because of the fatalities, competition, and gore. Mortal Kombat is an easy-to-learn fighting game that is beginner-friendly. This makes it easy for friends and family to play which makes playing all the more fun. Mortal Kombat is a detailed gory fighting game that doesn’t pull the punches of ways to execute a fighter. One of my favorite things about MK and what it’s most known for are the fatalities. As you land a final blow on a fighter, the game comes to a halt, and as your opponent stands in a daze, there’s an opportunity to land a special attack to win the match. Another feature is the MK characters; each character has signature fatalities and combos that give players a chance to customize their own fighters. Playing MK Online is a random selection of players that could be pros, beginners, or intermediates. Due to the random selection of difficulty, the level of excitement never depletes. Most of my memorable fighting matches came from MK online. The online match I remember was a match where me and the opponent were going back and forth in wins. I was playing with three of my best fighters; Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Nightwolf. My opponent played with Joker, Liu Kang, and Raiden. For an hour straight, it was an intense session of controller hammering, action-patched fighting matches. If someone doesn’t know what a pro playing MK looks like, it sounds like someone typing 200 words a minute, while watching a Jet Lee fighting movie. After ten sessions of brutally tossing around these MK characters, we decided to move our efforts to a tournament, so the win and loss number didn’t affect our online ratio. Mortal Kombat solidifies as my top choice because it is easy to play and it holds multiple game modes. The online mode is the biggest highlight of MK. In MK, you're able to choose and customize a fighter based on different sets of combos and special attacks. This shows your skill set and knowledge of Mortal Kombat. Having the ability to play online and play with family and friends makes MK my top game.

I am Jerry Boyce III a sophomore at North Carolina A&T State University. My family consists of my mother, my father, and my younger brother. Our dynamic is speaking of ways to grow our passion, empower each other, and love. Growing up, my parents taught my brother and me the importance of self-love, relationships, and religious grounding. My family made sure to support each other's dreams and ideas while making sure we maintained our responsibilities. These key lessons help me as an individual by having a strong foundation in character and discipline. Growing up my parents made sure that I was involved in extracurricular activities. Starting from kindergarten through high school, I always played sports. My parents intentionally put me in IB schooling(International Baccalaureate schooling). I was able to make friends from different cultures. What I love most about being in IB schools was learning a new language. I am still practicing my Spanish skills to this day. The reason is because my dad started to teach me Spanish at a young age. These teachings drove me and my brother to speak multiple languages. My future plan is to become a CEO of an international company. Ever since I was young, I always wanted to own a business. Because I went to school in an environment with students with different backgrounds and cultures. I knew that my business had to include people from different parts of the world. Due to my idea of business, I applied to become a business administration major. My education has sparked an enormous amount of excitement and hunger for learning new things. Some of my favorite subjects are macroeconomics, global business studies, and speech foundations. After I graduate, I want to own a business that brings people together from different parts of the world. I will achieve this goal by turning my passion into a business. I have a strong passion for art and footwear. I want to be able to start up a sneaker store and create a business to help artists market their art. In my experience, obtaining the right pair of sneakers can be hard. Sneaker buyers may run into problems with the sneaker selling out or a particular pair of shoes aren't sold in their country. Another issue I see is the art industry. Often one may hear," Artists don't make money". I don't believe that. I think there are some very talented people who not only earn a living but can create financial freedom for themselves all because of their talents. I want my business to solve both of these problems. I want to be able to provide people all over the world with some of the best-looking sneakers. While creating a platform for artists to create wealth for themselves by being a helpful tool to market their artwork so artists can continue to create. My platform will be a safe space for artists and sneaker enthusiasts to connect and share their likes and interests. I believe people are connected through passion. Growing up I understand that staying true to who you are is a key aspect of growing up in life. This helps develop passion while empowering both the love for self and others. I want my passion to show and encourage others to stay true to themselves and their vision.

I am Jerry Boyce III a sophomore at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. I am 21 years old with a passion for business. I started my first business in high school, and I then proceeded to obtain my real estate license at 19. Through my experience, I can say that leadership, service, and empowerment are key factors that are instilled within everyone. With these characteristics, people can build a community and connect with those around them. These three factors gave me the ability to mature as an individual. Leadership is a trait that I believe we all have. Leadership is the ability to make the right choices to create a certain outcome. Leadership creates an environment that’s welcoming for all people while simultaneously pushing others to be strong leaders. A leader is someone who shows compassion and empathy to better connect and understand those in their proximity. The way I stand on leadership is by finding things that people in my community have in common to bring out the best within themselves. I have done this both in and outside of school. My first act of leadership was through being team captain of my wrestling team. Being team captain allowed me to get to know my team members and find ways to elevate their skill sets. I made sure to hold my teammates accountable to push themselves during practice to be well-prepared for a match. Another instance where I brought people together was through my podcast. In my junior year of high school, I started a podcast. On my podcast, I would impact my community by having discussions about character and what it takes to be successful. I did this to provide my community with words of encouragement to pursue their dreams. Service is the act of giving. I believe service is what one can provide for their community. This can be in the form of volunteering, contributing to a non-profit, or joining a leadership group in the community. The way I contribute to service in my community is by being present. I want to make sure that I am there for my community and the people around me. Throughout school, I have made sure that I would volunteer at my local library, church, or non-profit. A couple of my favorite non-profits are Educators of Financial Wealth and Rolemodels University. Both of these non-profits educate the community on ways to build foundational financial skills to build wealth.

I am Jerry Boyce III, a current sophomore at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University studying business administration management. Recently I've been doing a lot of reading and book-finding. My book findings come from both my research, Booktok, and Booktube. All of these methods have helped start my book collection of 15 books, excluding audiobooks and books from the library. Some of my favorite books are War of Art, The Power of Positive Thinking, Think and Grow Rich, and Living in Balance. My ideal bookshelf would be filled with comic books, mangas, fiction books, autobiographies, business books, cookbooks, and more. Reading has been very important growing up as a kid, and still to this day. From BookTok recommendations, my bookshelf would include Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, Stephen King's You Like It Darker, and Babel by R.K Kuang. I plan on reading more books to grow my book collection. Currently, I have been reading a lot of self-development books and business psychology books. Right now, I see the value of gaining new skills to grow as an individual. I recently bought a book that was recommended by Booktube. The title is How To Talk To Anyone 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes. I bought this book to find ways to better interact with strangers. I have been going to a lot of local meetings, networking events, and meeting people through daily life. I wanted a book that would help me sharpen my skills to become a better communicator. So far, How To Talk Anyone has been a great book that is very relatable. One of the BookTok titles I think is a must-have is The Power Of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. This book is great for anyone no matter where they may be in life. This book goes into great detail about how to stay positive and create a positive outcome for yourself. The reason why I started to read this book was because of a new job I started when I was 18. It was a commission-only pay job and at the time I started to pay bills. I was very used to having a job that paid weekly, this was a different environment. Being that this was my first commission-only pay job, I felt pressure, doubt, and uncertainty for the first time. I didn’t know how to handle these feelings and still perform at a high level to reach a successful outcome. This book was my go-to before work, after work, and between work. I can say that I truly fell in love with this book because it not only positively changed me. But this book helped me create habits and actions that changed the people around me. I would recommend this book to anyone. Based on the reviews of this book, the book has greatly impacted others. A lot of comments have spoken positive things about this book. There are even short testimonies within the comments of how people were affected by the book. Yes, there are still a couple of comments that find things within the book that aren’t “ideal”. For the majority, this book left a positive impact on the booktok community.

I am Jerry Boyce III, currently studying business administration. I chose this major because I plan on becoming a CEO of an international company. As a child, I have always been interested in becoming a business owner. Being able to create my job, schedule, and lifestyle has always been a goal of mine. What I have always enjoyed in life is making friends, creating works of art, and trying new things. What my future job looks like is an environment that encourages creative thinking, diversity, and being outside. I feel that being creative while working with other creators with different perspectives is a beautiful thing. Also, taking the time to go outside to get fresh air is a great way to recharge and draw inspiration from the natural world. So far my interests have been in the world of sneakers and real estate. I have always grown up in a world of sneaker culture. Sneaker culture has been a burning passion of mine ever since I was a child and still is to this day. The world of sneakers has been my creative outlet in life. The world of sneakers allowed me to be creative and make lifelong friends. What real estate has done for me is give me a real-life perspective on what ownership means. I have been studying and practicing real estate for a little over a year now. Which has been a very exciting journey from the start. Real estate has allowed me to meet great people and understand a different generation of people. In my opinion, what allows me to create the ideal job for myself is becoming a shoe store owner and a real estate investor. The benefits of being a shoe store owner are staying aware of new trends, collaborating with sneaker enthusiasts, finding rare sneakers, and being able to provide sneakers to those who don’t have them. Throughout my life, I have always met great people through sneakers and I have always felt gratification from being able to help someone find a pair of sneakers. Becoming a real estate investor allows me to open so many doors of opportunity not only for myself but for my community. Ever since I started studying real estate, I started to notice the importance of having a safe place to stay. I started to take notice of this the more I talked with people in the community, both homeowners and nonhomeowners. One of the things I love about real estate is that it allows me to be involved with my community at a very high level. If I can pursue a career in real estate I want to provide opportunities for people to build wealth for themselves and their families. In the time we are in now, so many people are creating their jobs. So many people are becoming their very own CEO. I feel like my job hasn't been created yet so this would be the perfect opportunity to create the job or position I want to be in. So, my future job looks like me being a part of a global and diverse community of thinkers, leaders, and creators. I have a great urge to create. I want my job to allow me to create and build new, innovative things for the future. Hopefully, my future job is me be the CEO of my very own company.

The business I believe in starting within my community is a sneaker store, that inspires individuals to create from a healthy source of inspiration. I see that there can be a lot of unhealthy ways to create that can cause a negative image around creative thinking. My store will show my community that being creative can come from a place that everyone can enjoy. That’s inspired by a healthy lifestyle. The way my business will contribute to the welfare of my community will be by giving fruitful thought and positive inspiration. Outside of just being a regular retail store, the message of the business will attract a community of creators. In this community, shared knowledge and creative thought will nurture and grow into a bigger picture. Being able to tell the stories of healthy creation will hopefully inspire my community to continue to create from a source of passion. As a kid growing up, I know the importance of community events that spark the inspiration of young creators. Being able to see people around creating art, for the whole family to enjoy. I will provide a source of inspiration to the next generation of creators. Knowing the growth of my community will be able to move in the direction of progress. I plan to host events within my community through my business to provide family fun. My plan would be to host shows, sneaker pop-up shops, and even art galleries. This will show the culture around creativity. The biggest connections I have with creative thinkers are with artists. Artists have such an outlasting effect through their message of creativity. I want to be able to connect the culture of sneakers and the culture of art to bring forth and grow a community. As an artist, you are constantly walking through life experiencing and fueling your mind to produce creative work. Subjectively, certain messages and stigmas in the media can promote unhealthy sources of inspiration, which could leave a negative connotation on artists. But I know plenty of great artists that have great works of art with a healthy source of inspiration, that impacts in a positive manner. Being able to show how art and sneakers can promote healthy sources of creation, will not only be a success for myself but also a success for my community. Having a creative way to express, share, and connect will always provide aid to the welfare and growth of communities.