I like to help others further picture their dreams and see a smile on their face after transforming what someone has already created.  Before I could think of transforming someone else’s life, my life was transformed. At the age of 6, I witnessed my dad quickly lose his memory of the people around him after suffering from a car accident. Throughout most of my life, I stared at my father’s pictures dreaming of how he acted, sounded, and looked before the accident. After mourning my father’s loss, I learned that with editing software I could transform a sad image into a reflective image. Beginning in the 5th grade, I experimented with free editing software like iMovie and Photoshop. My first video was a compilation of my brother’s dance progression. The next video was a collection of my father’s photos moving with background music. After showing both videos to my brother and mom I was given the largest hug of a lifetime; a hug that told me making videos could actually impact people. To develop my editing skills I volunteered to document and revise band videos, piano performances, step competitions, and family fun. Of course, I have the most fun when I see others' reactions to the videos. I intend to further develop my video presentation skills by learning and sharing editing software lessons on YouTube. I admire the leaders in the editing industry who are able to effectively capture someone’s intended message in a short video. My vision to share others' passions through visual storytelling along with music composition is the blessing that allows me to connect with others. 

Heartbreaking encounters often inspire impactful realizations because they replace naive qualities with maturity. For 11 years, I have learned to be a bedside nurse and companion to my father who suffered permanent brain trauma from a car accident. Caretaking is not glamorous. It is exhausting when my father wakes up at night and wanders around the house. It is exhausting when he throws up for the 3rd time that day and I arrive late to school because I have to clean him up. Caretaking has strengthened me physically and emotionally and has become my great awakening in recognizing my peer´s challenges. My peers have had struggles. My classmate, Gabe experienced anxiety from losing his home. My next-door neighbor faced the challenge of his parents getting a divorce. These examples have led me to an understanding that life brings challenges to everyone. When my father was brutally injured, I didn’t experience the worst crisis. I experienced a crisis, a human reality. My peers’ life realities gave my perception of pain a new viewpoint and strength to grow past my losses. This growth became the catalyst that birthed a necessary change in my compassion towards others, a quality that’s required for my future profession. In the fall of 2022, I will attend the University of Texas at Arlington as an undergraduate nursing major. Through the trade of nursing, I will grow through academic and social challenges. I will be a community support partner and become a problem solver. I will become a world leader that is not afraid to face a crisis, a knockdown.

Ever since Freshman year, I was the first one wide awake. I was the first to walk across the hall and wake my brother up. I don’t know if the boys in my family were born to be night owls, but my brother is definitely not a morning person. We have to leave for school at 7:00 am, so I close his door and start to make breakfast. I make up my bed, pull my curly hair back into a fluffy puff, and put the school bags in the car. All dolled up for school and my brother is still in his room at 6:50. I can’t get mad at him. I have made his breakfast for 4 years, and for 4 years has been late to breakfast. Every morning, my brother wakes up and prays. After praying, he reads a chapter in the Bible and then starts his day. I admire my brother for his consistent dependency on the Lord. His acts of worship before he starts his morning places him in a state of concentration so he can approach others with a smile. Every morning, I have the opportunity to complain about my brother’s lack of responsibility towards time management. But because I respect the results of his smile and admire his commitment to his Christian faith, I will continue to make his breakfast every morning so he can continue to pray and read the Bible.

Midway through my high school career, I learned the difference between the expectations of mastery and the reality of learning. My mom wanted me to become college-ready, so she insisted that I push through the pressure of AP-level courses. The teachers in the AP courses reviewed facts, gave the students bookwork, and then offered a quiz or test the next class. To pass the course, like the rest of my classmates, I read through the textbook, took notes, and memorized facts. With this study cycle, I managed to make an A in my first AP course. Junior year surprised me. Memorizing facts didn’t help me understand the concepts and taking several AP courses instead of one was leading me to burnout. Interestingly, instead of dropping out, I went to enough after-school tutoring sessions to learn what teachers expected, and what I could realistically accomplish while staying healthy and happy. Before a student enters the classroom, they need to know the vocabulary and be familiar with the concepts for the subject. To really understand a vocabulary term, you have to break that general definition down into simple words. Know what the word is and is not. This same idea also applies to concepts. Concepts are multiple definitions explained in a phrase. Although, teachers often assume that the student has learned the meaning of certain phrases or does not believe they have the time to teach the student the whole course’s terminology. Therefore, after leaving the classroom, the student needs to personally summarize the subject they learned in class and link the facts to form a general concept. Lastly, students should relate one concept to another concept to explain a larger framework of ideas. By following this full-proof study plan, I can ensure you that learning may become more understandable.

Leadership is vital to me. An instructional leader is someone who organizes a group of people to complete tasks productively. My long-term experience in band and step team requires that I serve as an instructional leader and manager of group activities. As a percussionist in the band, I have tutored other percussion students on stick technique and how to hit the drum. As a female leader in a percussion class of all boys, I have practiced the understanding that I can persuade people to support my ideas if I involve them in activities they benefit from actively engaging. To be successful in involving people, I have thoroughly worked to develop excellent communication skills. I have joined organizations that help people to become good public speakers and I have volunteered for roles that would put me in a diverse population of critics. I am an active member of the step team at my school. The step team is a majority African American club that educates members to perform drill moves and project their voices clearly so the audience can understand what every member says. After joining the step team, I gained more control over my voice to communicate with percussion students effectively. I do work well with diverse populations of age, beliefs, and backgrounds. As a member of the step team for over a year, I was adopted into the leadership role to tutor other step members on drill moves they were confused about. Interestingly, I served as an uplifter for several girls in step when they faced a problem and needed a step member to listen and pray for them. I have had plenty of relationship experience, and participating in 2 activities with different dominant races has taught me even more about making new relationships work. I am mostly strong in communication skills. I know how to address people based on their preferences and I know my roles and responsibilities in the leadership positions assigned to me. My only weakness in developing my communication ability is being distracted by critics' opinions instead of listening to my known morals. Several times I’ve heard from critics that my method of teaching is ineffective, and I listened to their opinions leading to ineffective group learning. As a leader in both the band and step team, I’ve had to communicate to these critics that an entire organization can resemble the character of its leader, therefore I believe it is important to develop my leadership skills so I can ensure no one under my leadership feels unwelcome, taken advantage of, or left out of the group. Within both the band and step team, there are leadership responsibilities that I thoroughly enjoy and leadership responsibilities that I find less than enjoyable. However, at the end of the day, I am grateful that I have both a demanding and very humbling opportunity to influence my peers as one of the several leaders in the band and step team.

Learning about my African American history taught me that segregation was the catalyst that continued the economic and social separation of races. To be successful in involving people, I have thoroughly worked to develop excellent communication skills. I have joined organizations that help people to become good public speakers and I have volunteered for roles that would put me in a diverse population of critics. I am an active member of the step team at my school. The step team is a majority African American club that educates members to perform drill moves and project their voices clearly so the audience can understand what every member says. After joining the step team, I gained more control over my voice to communicate with band students effectively.  I do work well with diverse populations of age, beliefs, and backgrounds. I have had plenty of relationship experience, and participating in both step team and band activities, with different dominant races, has taught me even more about making new relationships work while in a leadership position. As a learning leader, I want to develop the leadership skills a health professional would use, so during my junior year of highschool I took a Phlebotomy class. My peers in Phlebotomy were students who have previously learned about medical terminology, career readiness, and other fields in medicine. By actively listening to several knowledgeable students, I expanded my desire to learn more about my aspiring profession, a passion for nursing. I have chosen to pursue a Master’s degree in nursing at the University of Texas at Arlington. As a nurse I will help fix patients. I will hurt when patients cry. I will tell patients who stay sick, “ You have to get through the pain of fear”.  I will use the Team Black Empowerment Scholarship to fund my intellectual and leadership development so I can ensure no one under my leadership feels unwelcome, taken advantage of, or left out of the group.