Painting is always a form of expression for me and a haven from the trauma of stressful moments in my life. Even though I am a nursing student, art, and more specifically watercolor and acrylic-style painting, has since been an important way to work to express myself creatively. Art helps me slow down and think it all in order to get down to feelings of grief and sadness that aren’t necessarily something I can convey in words. It makes me calmer and more reflective, and reminds me that even amidst hard seasons, there’s still beauty, that things change — even in the hard times, and that hope is alive. Nursing is the career in which I want to contribute positively to people’s lives with compassion, care, and advocacy. I have watched as a Certified Nursing Assistant and future nurse observe the need of emotional comfort and human relationships in moments of sensitivity. In many aspects, both art and nursing demand empathy, patience, and attention to detail. In each of these two, their main purposes were to understand the emotions and also comfort others through a person's care. However, this first painting was an art painting I uploaded by myself based on the sunflower and was inspired by resilience and the struggle to grow up. Sunflowers naturally bend toward sunlight, and, for me, they represent hope in rough times. From my personal life I used to have so many commitments and struggles which I wanted to write this piece. The petals falling symbolizes struggles and hardships people go through, so the flower itself keeps standing tall yet. A good painting I desired would tell people that they can still grow despite the overwhelming situation they find themselves in. The second painting, with abstract flowers and bright colors, speaks to freedom, creativity, and the pursuit of emotional expression.

I am working around the clock to terminate my future student debt. All tho it's been hard very anitexy but I have been pushing through and not telling be me just a softmore has a issure to not apply/think about colloge and scolorships.Hopefully, putting be in a better position after completing my bachelor's to bring generational wealth to my family so that not only have I been a fit, but my doing can one day have a domino effect on other generations. In addition, I am also currently helping my BIPOC students at my local high school do so. My action plan in doing so has been improving my knowledge of financial literacy, mainly because this isn't taught in most black communities in school. Through this research, I am currently studying the Disparities of African Americans regarding Financial Literacy and some of the roadblocks in place for BICPOC when it comes to Higher Education. With that; I found that financial literacy is essential,,,, yes! Learning and educating yourself and others within the BIPOC community increase percentages for success, but America is a paper-pen society. Without well-documented calculated steps, you wouldn't be able to achieve your goals. Ways I am helping slowly dismantle the racial wealth gap in my community. Talking to BIPOC students in my high school and shared tips about how I start my small business. How they too can create their own company. How to get scholarships, the different types of scholarships, and any advice or resources I do have, I help share so that they do have a fighting chance of higher education and are as close to debt free as possible. What drives me and fuels my passion for financial literacy and looking at and being able to my debt free after my education are two powerful accepts. It would be my mother's vision and determination and learning about the statistics behind how many black students actually are pretty discouraging and extremely low. From that meager amount, only about 45.9% pursue higher education, and one reason is that it's too expensive. That should be a reason not to be able to go to college. Through my research, I discovered patterns of one person in a family where it is an older brother or sister, maybe even mom drops out, and then that individual is more likely to or does follow the same pattern. My mother is a first-generation student and obtained a full-ride athlete scholarship to Idaho University in track and field. Seeing it was not only it was possible not achieve able to be debt free after high school. I hope to get a full ride or pay my tuition.