I did not first see myself as an educator in a classroom. I saw it on a court, in conversations with younger athletes, and in the moments when someone needed help understanding something that felt too confusing to ask about out loud. My name is Kenan Larry, and I am a Black male undergraduate student-athlete at Maryville University studying cybersecurity and cloud computing. I compete in Division I volleyball while balancing school, work, service, and entrepreneurship. My path has taught me that education is not only about receiving information. It is about helping people gain confidence, discipline, and the belief that they are capable of becoming more than their current circumstances. As a Black male student, I understand how powerful representation can be. There are many young people who are talented, intelligent, and creative, but they do not always see people who look like them in academic, technological, or leadership spaces. That absence can quietly shape what they believe is possible. I want my life and career to challenge that. I want young Black students, athletes, and first-generation students to see that they can belong in STEM, build technology, lead teams, and use their gifts to serve others. My career as an educator will not be limited to one format. I want to teach through mentorship, coaching, technology, and eventually programs that help students learn practical skills in cybersecurity, cloud computing, software development, and artificial intelligence. These are fields that can change a person’s future, but only if students are given access, encouragement, and patient guidance. I want to be the kind of educator who makes complex things feel reachable. One way I am already working toward that vision is through FoFit, an AI-powered fitness app I am building to help people train smarter, understand nutrition, track progress, and stay consistent. At its core, FoFit is not just a fitness app. It is an educational tool. It helps users learn how to take care of their bodies, follow structure, and make better decisions without feeling overwhelmed. Building it has shown me that technology and education can work together when the goal is to help people grow. I also see education in athletics. As an athlete, I know younger players are always watching how older athletes carry themselves. They notice how we respond to pressure, how we treat teammates, how we handle failure, and whether we make time to help them improve. I want to use that influence well. Sometimes making a positive impact means teaching someone a skill. Other times, it means showing them discipline, patience, and resilience by example. I believe I am a strong candidate for this scholarship because I am committed to becoming an educator in the fullest sense of the word. I want to teach people how to think, build, train, lead, and believe in their own potential. My goal is to use my education to open doors for others, especially those who may not always feel seen in the spaces they are trying to enter. Through technology, mentorship, and service, I plan to make a positive impact by becoming the kind of Black male educator I needed to see: present, ambitious, patient, and willing to help others move forward.

The first time I watched someone test FoFit, I realized that technology is most powerful when it stops being an idea and becomes something a real person can touch. FoFit is an AI-powered fitness app that I have been building as an undergraduate student studying information technology with a focus on cybersecurity and cloud computing. I started it because I saw a problem that felt personal: many people want to get healthier, train consistently, and understand their progress, but they often feel overwhelmed by confusing workout plans, nutrition advice, and apps that are either too basic or too complicated. I wanted to build something that made fitness feel more guided, personalized, and encouraging. FoFit became much more than a class project or side idea. It became the project that taught me what it really means to work in technology. I have worked on mobile app development, user interface design, databases, authentication, artificial intelligence features, and product testing. I built screens for workout planning, nutrition, progress tracking, discovery, community, and an AI coach named Cypher that helps users make better fitness decisions. Every feature forced me to ask deeper questions: Does this actually help the user? Is the data being saved correctly? Is the experience clear? Is the design motivating instead of overwhelming? What made me passionate about the project was the challenge of turning a vision into a real product. There were moments when things broke, screens did not connect properly, data did not persist correctly, or the app looked good but did not feel easy to use. Those problems were frustrating, but they were also the moments where I grew the most. Technology taught me that progress comes from debugging, listening, rebuilding, and staying patient long enough to find a better solution. Working on FoFit also changed how I see my future. Before building it, technology sometimes felt like a field I was trying to enter. Now, it feels like a language I can use to serve people. Code can become a safer system, a better app, a useful tool, or a product that gives someone confidence. A database is not just a database when it stores a person’s goals and progress. An AI feature is not just impressive when it helps someone feel less lost. A clean interface is not just design when it makes someone more likely to keep going. Technology inspires me because it rewards curiosity and discipline. It gives people like me the chance to build solutions from limited resources, keep learning, and create impact beyond ourselves. As a student-athlete and first-generation college student, I know what it feels like to balance pressure, responsibility, and ambition. Building FoFit has shown me that I do not have to wait until I graduate to start creating value. I can learn, build, test, and improve now. My long-term goal is to grow into a technology professional and founder who builds secure, useful, and human-centered products. I want to continue developing my skills in cybersecurity, cloud computing, software development, and artificial intelligence so I can create systems that are not only technically strong, but meaningful. FoFit is the project I am most proud of because it represents who I am becoming: someone who sees a problem, learns what is necessary, and keeps building until the solution becomes real.

I think what makes me different is that I have never fit into just one category. I am a first-generation college student, a student-athlete, a cybersecurity and cloud computing student, a builder, and someone who is still learning how to carry responsibility without losing who I am. I have had to grow in environments where there was not always a clear roadmap, so I learned to be resourceful, observant, and willing to keep going even when I did not have everything figured out. Being different has not always felt easy. There have been times when I felt behind because I was learning college, finances, career planning, athletics, and adulthood at the same time. But over time, I realized that my uniqueness is not something I have to hide. My perspective allows me to connect with people who feel overlooked, uncertain, or unsure of where to start. Because I know what it feels like to be figuring life out while still trying to perform, I try to be the kind of person who makes the path feel less lonely for someone else. Service has been one of the ways I live that out. In the last few years, I have served through nonprofit volunteer opportunities, church service, tutoring and academic support, youth volleyball coaching, and community recreation work. Those experiences taught me that service is not always loud or public. Sometimes it is helping a younger student understand something they were embarrassed to ask about. Sometimes it is encouraging an athlete who does not believe in themselves yet. Sometimes it is showing up, staying patient, and being consistent when no one is giving you credit. As a student-athlete, I know someone is always watching how I respond to pressure. It could be a younger athlete, a teammate, a classmate, or someone online seeing me build my future piece by piece. I try to leverage that by showing that ambition does not have to make you selfish. I want people to see that you can chase big goals while still being kind, disciplined, and willing to help others. That mindset is also part of why I am building FoFit, an AI-powered fitness app designed to help people train smarter and stay consistent. Fitness changed my life because it taught me discipline, confidence, and resilience. Now I want to use technology to help others build those same habits. To me, that is another form of service: taking what I am learning in school and turning it into something that can support real people. This scholarship would help me continue my education with less financial pressure as I balance school, work, athletics, service, and building my future. More importantly, it would remind me that being myself is not a weakness. My background, my ambition, my creativity, and my willingness to serve are all part of the same story. I want to be someone who proves that you do not have to come from a perfect situation to make a meaningful impact. You just have to keep showing up, keep learning, and keep using what makes you different to help someone else move forward.

My name is Kenan Larry, and I am an undergraduate student studying information technology with a focus on cybersecurity and cloud computing. I am also a student-athlete, a builder, and someone who has learned that education is not just about passing classes. Education is the tool that teaches you how to solve problems when life does not give you perfect conditions. My interest in education grew from realizing how much technology can change a person’s options. Before I understood cloud systems, cybersecurity, software development, or artificial intelligence, many of my goals felt distant. The more I learned, the more I saw that technology is one of the few fields where curiosity, discipline, and persistence can turn into something that helps real people. Every new skill I gain gives me more freedom to build, create, and serve. That belief is what pushed me to start building FoFit, an AI-powered fitness application designed to help people train smarter, stay consistent, and feel less lost in their fitness journey. FoFit began as an idea, but it has become a real project that has taught me more than any single class could. I have worked on user experience, databases, app development, artificial intelligence features, and the challenge of turning feedback from real users into better product decisions. Building it has shown me that education becomes powerful when it turns into action. My long-term goal is to become a strong technology professional and founder who builds products that make people’s lives better. I want to continue growing in cybersecurity and cloud computing because those areas are the foundation of secure, scalable technology. I also want to keep building software that helps everyday people improve their habits, health, and confidence. I do not want my education to stop with me. I want the knowledge I gain to create opportunities, tools, and examples that help others believe they can build something too. This scholarship would help me continue moving forward with less financial pressure. Like many students, I am balancing school, work, athletics, personal responsibilities, and the cost of continuing my education. Even a scholarship of $500 would make a meaningful difference by helping cover school-related expenses, technology costs, books, transportation, or other needs that allow me to stay focused on my classes and projects. Support like this reminds students that someone believes in their future. Dr. Junior Gentles’ legacy of resilience and belief in education deeply connects with the way I see my own path. I know that success is not always clean or easy. There are setbacks, financial obstacles, long days, and moments where the path feels uncertain. But I also believe that perseverance, faith, and education can turn difficult seasons into growth. I am committed to using my education not only to build a career, but to build something meaningful. Thank you for considering my application. This scholarship would not just support my education; it would support the work I am doing to become the kind of person who uses education, technology, and opportunity to create impact for others.

The heaviest pressure I have felt in college has not always come from one major event. Sometimes it has come from trying to carry everything at once and pretending it is normal. As a student-athlete, a cybersecurity student, a worker, and someone building a fitness app, I have learned how easy it is for young people to look busy, successful, and motivated on the outside while quietly feeling overwhelmed on the inside. That is why mental health and suicide prevention are so important among people my age. Many students are dealing with pressure from school, money, family expectations, athletics, social media, and the fear of falling behind. At the same time, a lot of us feel like we have to keep moving and act like we are okay. For young men especially, and especially in competitive environments like sports, there can be a mindset that you should just “tough it out.” But silence can be dangerous. When people feel isolated or believe their pain does not matter, they may not reach out until things become a crisis. My own experience with mental health has taught me that strength is not just pushing through everything alone. Strength is also being honest, asking for help, checking on people, and allowing others to check on you. There have been seasons where I was balancing classes, volleyball, work, bills, and building my future, and I realized that discipline alone is not enough if you are not taking care of your mind and spirit. My faith has helped me slow down and remember that my worth is not only based on performance, money, grades, athletics, or how much I achieve. These experiences have also changed how I view my relationships. I try to pay more attention to the people around me, not just when they seem happy or productive, but when they seem distant, tired, or different from themselves. Sometimes supporting someone starts with a simple question like, “Are you really good?” and then actually listening to the answer. I have learned that people do not always need a perfect solution right away. Sometimes they need to feel seen, heard, and reminded that they are not alone. Mental health has also influenced my career aspirations. I am studying cybersecurity and cloud computing, but I am also building FoFit, an AI-powered fitness app focused on helping people stay consistent with their health goals. Building that app has made me think deeply about how technology can either add pressure to people’s lives or help support them. I want to create tools that encourage healthier habits, accountability, and confidence without making people feel judged or behind. In my community, I can support mental health and suicide prevention by speaking honestly, checking on teammates and classmates, encouraging people to use counseling and support resources, and helping create spaces where asking for help is not seen as weakness. Mental health matters because it affects how we learn, love, lead, and see ourselves. Suicide prevention matters because no one should feel like their life is not worth continuing. Even one honest conversation can remind someone that they still matter.