Before interning with Reproductive Freedom for All, I thought making a real difference in politics was something I would do later. After law school. Once I had an impressive title. Maybe when people actually had a reason to listen to me. Then I learned how much can start with one conversation. As a Georgia Organizing Intern, I spent months talking to students and community members across Atlanta about reproductive freedom. Some conversations lasted a few minutes between classes. Others happened at events or while recruiting volunteers. I met people who cared deeply about reproductive rights but had no idea how to get involved, and others who did not think politics had a place for them at all. I understood why. As a college student, politics can feel incredibly far away. We hear about bills, elections, and decisions being made at the Capitol, but it is easy to wonder what any one of us is actually supposed to do about it. My goal became making that answer a little clearer. Throughout my internship, I had more than 1,000 interactions with community members, recruited over 75 volunteers, helped organize more than five events reaching roughly 200 people, and helped bring over 50 students to Advocacy Day. I am incredibly proud of those numbers, but my favorite moments were much smaller. It was watching someone I had spoken to actually show up. It was seeing a student realize that advocacy did not require knowing everything about politics. It was watching people understand that their experiences were enough reason to care and their voices were enough reason to participate. A lot of the work behind those moments was not particularly glamorous. Sometimes community building meant talking to people one-on-one. Other times, it meant sending another follow-up, promoting an event, figuring out transportation, or convincing a busy college student that showing up was worth an afternoon of their time. I learned that creating change often means being willing to do a hundred small things that nobody sees. The experience also pushed me outside of the Spelman bubble. I love my college community, but Atlanta is much bigger than my campus. Working with people throughout the city helped me understand that the issues we discuss in our classrooms are affecting real people just a few miles away. Atlanta stopped feeling like simply the city where I attended college and started feeling like a community I had a responsibility to contribute to. I'm only 20. I still have a lot to learn, and I am still figuring out exactly what my career will look like. But this experience changed one thing for me permanently: I no longer believe I have to wait until I am “important” to do important work. I have watched one conversation become a volunteer, one invitation become a student showing up at the Capitol, and dozens of small interactions become a community of people willing to advocate for themselves and each other. That is the kind of community I want to keep building, where people don't just know that their voices matter, but actually feel empowered to use them. To see a few moments from my work with Reproductive Freedom for All and the communities I had the opportunity to serve, you can view them here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVYuV7aETc_/

Black children should not to have to play catch-up with the future. Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how we learn, work, communicate, and access information. By the time today’s elementary school students enter the workforce, understanding AI may be as fundamental as knowing how to use the internet. But as I watch this technology develop, I keep coming back to one question: Who gets prepared for that future first, and who gets left behind? That question is at the heart of how I want to improve my community. At Spelman College, where I study Economics and Sociology, I have become fascinated by the systems that determine who gets access to information, resources, and opportunity. More importantly, I have realized that I do not want to spend my life simply studying inequity. I want to build solutions to it. That belief led me to develop CLEAR: Critical Literacy & Early AI Readiness, an educational initiative designed to prepare children, particularly those in Black and underserved communities, for an increasingly AI-driven world. Earlier this year, I entered CLEAR into Duke University’s New Ideas Competition. I presented my vision for helping young students understand AI, misinformation, bias, and responsible technology use, and won the Grand Prize. I have already seen what can happen when someone notices a gap and decides not to accept it. During my first internship with the Women’s Diversity Network, I noticed that Black women made up only about 4% of participants in one of our programs. I was new, inexperienced, and given little direction, but I knew that number could change. I developed a more intentional outreach strategy focused on reaching Black women, and their participation grew from approximately 4% to 15%. That experience taught me that I do not need to wait for a degree, a title, or permission to make something better. Since then, whether organizing around reproductive freedom or creating civic engagement programming through the Girls Who Lead Atlanta Chapter, I have continued looking for communities being overlooked and asking what I can do. CLEAR is the next step in that commitment. I want Black children to enter an AI-driven future as informed creators and leaders, not as an afterthought in another technological revolution. I also know that ambition does not erase financial reality. As a college student, I constantly balance academics, work, professional development, and service. Receiving this scholarship would relieve some of that financial pressure, allowing me to spend less time worrying about how to afford my education and more time investing in what I came to college to do: learn, serve, and build. What inspires me about Henry Walker Sr.’s story is that he used what he had to serve something greater than himself. His opportunities may have been limited, but his impact was not. I aspire to create that same kind of legacy. I cannot predict exactly what the world will look like for the children I hope to serve. But I know technology will help shape it. I want them prepared to question that world, understand it, and ultimately change it. To learn more about CLEAR and the vision behind the initiative, please visit: https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/using-business-force-good/2026/profiles/kaitlan-thomas

Before coming to Spelman, I knew I wanted to be successful. I just don't think I fully understood what I wanted that success to mean. Being at an HBCU, and especially being at Spelman, has changed that. I am surrounded every day by Black women who are smart, ambitious, creative, outspoken, and completely different from one another. There is something really powerful about walking into a classroom and knowing that being a Black woman is not something I have to explain before I can contribute. I can just learn. I can ask questions. I can figure out who I am. And I have definitely had to figure some things out. My sophomore year was probably the hardest year of my life. At one point, I was taking 18 credit hours while working around 25 hours a week. I was trying to keep my grades up, stay involved on campus, build my career, pay for the things I needed, and somehow still be a person outside of all of that. I struggled with my mental health, started going to therapy, and had to learn that constantly pushing myself wasn't the same thing as actually being okay. But I also learned how much I am capable of. I finished the year with a strong GPA. I became more comfortable asking for help. I became more intentional about my faith, my relationships, and where I put my energy. Most importantly, I stopped thinking of college as four years where I needed to collect as many accomplishments as possible. Spelman has given me room to discover what I actually care about. I came into college thinking my future might be in law or public policy. Now, as an Economics major, I have discovered that I am fascinated by the business behind culture and entertainment. Through my internships, I have gotten to work behind the scenes on major events and see how strategy, operations, production, and creativity come together. Eventually, I want to become an entertainment executive and build a production company of my own. I also know I want to bring other people with me. Whether I am helping build Girls Who Lead at Spelman, organizing students around reproductive rights, volunteering, or simply encouraging friends to seek support when they need it, service has taught me that success feels a lot less meaningful when it only benefits me. A scholarship would allow me to spend fewer hours working while I am in school and put more of that time into learning, creating, serving, and preparing for my future. I still have a lot to figure out, but that might be one of the biggest things Spelman has taught me: I don't need to have every answer yet. I just need to keep becoming the woman I came here to be.

I have always been fascinated by the moments that bring people together. A concert where thousands of strangers sing the same song. An event that makes someone feel like they belong. A piece of media that becomes part of culture. What most people experience as entertainment, I have learned to see as both creativity and business. Behind every unforgettable experience are people making decisions about strategy, operations, budgets, talent, and ultimately, whose stories get the opportunity to be told. I am an Economics major at Spelman College pursuing a career in entertainment strategy and operations, with the long-term goal of becoming an entertainment executive and eventually building my own production company. This past summer helped turn that goal from an idea into something I could actually see for myself. Through my work with ESSENCE, I gained experience in operations, logistics, and production, including supporting activations at ESSENCE Festival. I also had the opportunity to work behind the scenes on a Roc Nation, Refinery29, and Target experience celebrating Jay-Z’s 30th anniversary. Seeing how many moving pieces go into creating experiences people remember confirmed that this is the industry where I want to build my career. But I do not just want to succeed in entertainment. I want to have enough influence to change it. As a Black woman, I am especially interested in creating spaces where women in entertainment have greater ownership, protection, and power. My ultimate goal is to build a company that produces culturally significant experiences and media while creating opportunities for talent and creatives who have historically had less access to decision-making positions. Studying economics gives me the analytical foundation to understand how businesses grow, how resources are distributed, and how financial decisions shape opportunity. My experiences in production and strategy are teaching me how to turn those ideas into something people can actually experience. Service has also shaped the kind of leader I want to become. At Spelman, I co-founded the campus chapter of Girls Who Lead, an organization focused on helping young women understand policy, civic engagement, and their ability to create change. Through Reproductive Freedom for All, I participated in community outreach, canvassing, advocacy, and organizing across Georgia, connecting with more than 1,000 people and helping mobilize students around issues affecting their communities. I have also worked on maternal justice initiatives and volunteered with a community food pantry. These experiences taught me that leadership means very little if it does not create opportunities for other people. Receiving this scholarship would give me more freedom to invest in that future. As a college student, balancing academics, professional development, service, and the financial realities of earning a degree requires constant prioritization. Financial support would allow me to dedicate more time to my education, pursue career-building opportunities, and continue serving my community without finances determining which opportunities I can afford to take. I want my career to exist at the intersection of business, culture, and impact. My goal is not simply to have a seat at the table. I want to learn how the table works, become someone capable of leading it, and eventually build my own.