My mother always taught me to be a leader and never a follower. Each day as teenager I work with younger children at a summer youth program traching them the importance of doing the right thing when no one is looking. I mentor young ladies and men from the age group of 8-13yrs of age. We go out into the community and help senior citizens with yard work . I show our youth there is so much more than where they come from. I just go out in the world and be the best that I know how to be. I stay focus and positive on the pure outcome of teaching what I love as well which is football and engineering. I plan to continue to check up on the youth that I've encountered over the summer to make sure they are during the right thing when no one is looking. Even when I go away to college I will take this attitude of leadership with me and show others the proper way to lead. Also this year I have worked with an afterschool program with younger children as well mentoring the young men that come from low income based areas. With this program each day we have circle time where they can be open and not judged about the things that are bothering at home or around their home. I usually open up the floor about something that maybe was once troubling with me and then it allows the young gentlemen to feel at ease . After all I am still a teenager but as I stated before my mother taught my brothers and I to be leaders and show what leaders are made of. Each day I ask ask myself what can I do today that requires leadership and honestly it starts at home with my brothers. I have to teach them how to be young leaders by working hard, being generous , leading by example will have them doing the right thing when no one is looking. For example if I take out the trash daily they will understand that this is something that should be done. Or if I am out in the community helping seniors and moms with yard work or putting groceries on their doorstep this shows them the right thing to do. I want to continue to be a leader and work extremely hard because it is very important to be a leader.

My name is Kameryn Dancy, I am a current Senior at Brother Rice High School. Getting this scholarship would help me a lot because my family is having financial problems. In ten years I see myself either playing in the NFL or working for a Mechanical Engineering company making about six figures. I’ve been wanting to be an Engineer since I was around 10. The reason I chose that path is because,I knew how to rewire things, build robots and overall just know how to deal with technical-based things. I will make a difference by going out into the environment and giving back to the community, and help out young children learn more about life and what has to come so they won’t have to do it on their own and do it wrong. I’ve volunteered at Brother Rice for a Mother’s Day event, South Suburban Community, and helped the Park District with a clean up around the community, and I've also helped raise money for an elementary school that was less funded for supplies etc. One challenge that I've overcome is when I was taking Spanish my Junior year and didn’t get the hang of it like the other kids were. The first semester of Spanish was kind of the hardest semester because I wasn't getting it and when I would study I still couldn’t comprehend it. I would even get someone to help me but it still did not work. I wasn’t doing so well on tests or homework assignments. That first semester was terrible for me because I didn't pass with the grade I wanted. When we went on Christmas Break I studied and studied until it finally clicked in my head. The second semester was great for me because of that off time I had and studied extremely hard. I overcame that challenge by studying and working harder than I did in the first semester and had gotten the grade I wanted. The extracurricular activities that I've participated in were football and the engineering/robotics club. I would also like to use my talents to pay it forward to young children to assure that they have the same chance I was able to have. I would like to also set up programming in my center for the children for afterschool and summer programming. This too would help teenagers get a job and help younger with the different fields of study

I would like to speak about my mother Krystal, she is my biggest supporter through my educational journey and community service. My mother had me at a younger age with my father. She put her dreams on hold and always pushed me to be the best I could be. From rooting me on in elementary school for my awards and grades to making sure I went to a great school for high school. She sacrificed so much for my younger brother and me to have. She stayed part-time at her job to ensure we made it to school and she made it to plays, parent-teacher conferences etc. I admire her for all her hard work and selfless acts. She is the one who taught me how to give back to my community by working with troubled teens and younger boys who experience trauma in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods. My mother works for social services in South Holland. She works with under privilege children and adults re-entering the world. I became curious when she would come home talking about the families she came across and helped. My mother introduced me to the head of the organization where I started to do the youth community services. Four days a week I work with these young men that are like me to show them other outlets they can do to become better people and not a product of their environment. After I graduate I plan to go off to college but I want to keep in contact with the kids that I mentor to let them know that I am available for them. I have also told them about the Comed Stem Lab program that we have here in Illinois which I attended and was featured on Channel 7 news. We worked together as a team and were paired with mentors and taught how to program and build a robot. I want them to experience great things along with knowing they can experience life outside of their neighborhoods. I want to come back each summer to see how they are doing, if they progressed or if they just need to talk. I also want to see if there are new young men to be able to reach. I would like to see them all succeed and push them just like my mother made sure she constantly pushed me to seek greatness and be successful

Thinking back when asked how I am overcoming adversity made me think deeply about my childhood growing up. I grew up in a single-parent home with my mom and little brother. My mom use to work a part-time job for most of my elementary school years so she could make sure she was there for my brother and me. I was not able to go to private school at a young age because my mother could not afford it. My schools weren't the best but I had a team who cared about me and worked hard with my mom to make sure I learned and stayed focused. My mother put me in football and I feel that saved me. Saved me from trying to hang out with the kids who use to get in trouble in the streets. Overcoming adversity for me was that. I had something to look forward to doing daily after school. Something positive in my life since at that time I was having a hard time with my father not being present in my life. I feel that that bothered me the most because I couldn't understand why he wasn't there when I hadn't done anything to make him go away. My coaches in grammar school and high school were father figures in my life helping me overcome struggles in becoming a young man. I'm forever grateful for them. My mother made sure I never missed a practice or a game even when we didn't have a car. I feel like it is a daily struggle to be a young black man because we some much stacked against us. My mother decided to send me to a Catholic school to keep me on a good path to success. I learned to join community givebacks to help young mothers with children by talking to them even though I'm only 17 years old they too like me have a future. I also volunteer on my younger brother's football team as a mentor because a lot of the children that play come from broken homes as well. I teach them that they don't have to turn to the streets but to maintain a positive attitude and continue their education. Volunteering helps me stay aligned and stay out of trouble knowing I have multiple people that count on me. I want to continue being able to overcome adversity through the rest of my life because it is a continued fight.