Flowers cannot bloom if they are ignored, left without water, or hidden in the dark.They need care, patience, and light to grow. In the same way, people need compassion, understanding, and support to heal and thrive. Some flowers take longer to open, some bend under storms, but with nurturing they rise again. Several moments in my life made me realize how heavy mental health struggles can be, not just for one person but for everyone around them. For a long time, it felt like mental health issues were a curse running through my life, and harming the ones I love. But I refuse to let that curse define me. I am choosing to break it. The hardest sound I have ever heard was silence. It was the silence after my close friend Gatlin took his own life, and it was the silence in my home when my brother was lost in psychosis, fighting to find himself again. Mental health is important to me because it has shaped my life in painful ways, but it has also given me purpose. I grew up in a single parent household where strength was expected, but silence about pain was common. I carried grief, fear, and responsibility, and there were nights when I wondered if I could keep going. What helped me was remembering that I could turn pain into purpose. I decided that instead of letting mental health struggles destroy me, I would use them to help others. My first year at WSSU, I became a R2R Mental Health Ambassador. In this role, I supported students through wellness activities, breathing exercises, and open conversations about stress and anxiety. As an ambassador, I earned my certification in QPR training, which taught me how to recognize the signs of suicide and how to respond with care. I also became certified in Mental Health First Aid, which gave me the skills to support people in crisis and connect them to resources. These trainings gave me confidence that I could make a difference. Every time I see someone open up, I feel like I am helping to rewrite the story that has haunted my family for so long. My dream is to become a speech pathologist. I want to help children and adults who struggle with communication find their voice. For me, this career is not just about therapy it is about giving people the chance to be heard, to feel understood, and to know they matter. My experiences with mental health have taught me compassion, patience, and resilience. I will carry those lessons into my career, using them to serve others with dignity and care. Helping someone find their voice is my way of honoring Gatlin, supporting my brother, and breaking the cycle of silence. Mental health is like tending to a garden and I am determined to turn pain into purpose, to break the curse of mental health struggles, and to create hope where it is needed most.

To pursue a passion in the field of STEM can be as exhilarating as challenging. Probably the most significant challenge that I had to face came during my high school years when I decided to go deep into the study of computer science. Since I never come from a technological background in my family, I had to see my way, largely by myself. The first difficulty was that the learning curve was steep. Ideas like algorithms, data structures, and programming languages were so new to me, and many times I felt overwhelmed. The only way to overcome this was for me to adopt some kind of strategy that would enable me to break down big topics into smaller, more manageable pieces. Resources from the internet, coding clubs, teachers, and peers helped in doing that. One pivotal moment in my journey was participating in the hackathon competition. It was a pretty intense 24-hour coding event; I got the opportunity to collaborate on real-world problems. Thus, this experience enhanced my technical skills but also taught me something more important: teamwork and perseverance. The journey so far has been quite influencing for the aspirations within me. I identified that my passion lies in using technology to solve problems and leave a positive impact. I would like to develop my specialization in Artificial Intelligence with a key interest in developing solutions that improve health outcomes. The initial setbacks, now overcome, have been an excellent lesson in the character of resilience and determination in overcoming every obstacle. Representation matters. Diverse views breed innovative solutions and make technology for all people. Having been the one to face challenges entering into a field without prior exposure, I understand how support and mentorship should look. I envision myself contributing to increased diversity and inclusion by mentoring students from underrepresented backgrounds, participating in outreach programs, and promoting/enacting inclusive policies within the tech industry. One of the most memorable challenges occurred when, during my junior year, I decided to take on an advanced coding project. The project involved developing a machine learning model for predicting stock market trends. Inexperienced in machine learning at that moment, I dived headfirst into an ocean of advanced mathematical concepts and programming techniques. The early stages were intimidating, at one point or another, and had me question my ability to finish the work. Nevertheless, by all means, I was determined to get it done. Well, I'd spent countless hours reading research papers, watching tutorial videos, and trying out different algorithms. I also sought advice from a professor at a local university, with a specialty in machine learning. His guidance was of immense value, exposing me to various insights and resources that I would have hardly discovered on my own. After some persistence and hard work, I finally came up with a functional model that could do reasonably decent predictions. This served as a turning point in my life, showing me the use of persistence and, at times, how important it is to ask for help. It also more thoroughly solidified my interest in artificial intelligence and the potential this held to solve real-world problems. I realized that the challenges faced were not roadblocks but opportunities to learn and grow.