I did not grow up talking about student loan debt. I grew up talking about ambition, about what it means to work hard and still want more, about the kind of future you build one decision at a time. But by the time I finished my undergraduate degree, a BBA in Marketing and Leadership Studies, the debt was real, and so was the weight of it. According to the Education Data Initiative, Black women carry more student loan debt than any other demographic group and are the least likely to be able to pay it off within a decade of graduating. I did not want to become that statistic. And yet, driven by a desire to serve student-athletes and build a career in football operations and player development, I went back to school. I completed a Master of Science in Education in Sports Administration at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and am now pursuing an MBA at Baylor. Two graduate programs layered onto an already existing undergraduate balance. The math is not pretty. Today I am managing that debt through a three-part approach: active income, strategic investing, and targeted scholarship pursuit. I currently hold two jobs simultaneously. As a Marketing Manager at LoanLogics, I oversee campaigns, coordinate cross-functional teams, and support product launches. I also serve as an Athletic Mentor with Texas A&M Athletics, providing academic and personal development support to Division I student-athletes. I am not waiting for relief to find me. I am building toward it deliberately, at a pace most people would not sustain. Every dollar I earn that is not allocated to rent or groceries is prioritized toward my loan principal or invested in low-cost index funds. I understand that compound interest works both ways. It grows debt and it grows wealth, and I am determined to make it work in my favor. Financial literacy has become a survival skill, not a luxury. Scholarships are the third leg of that strategy, and they matter more than people who have never needed them tend to realize. Winning this scholarship would not just reduce the balance. It would free up margin to breathe, to give fully to my students, and to finish this MBA with less financial strain pulling at my focus. It is critically difficult to do your best thinking when financial pressure never fully quiets. This scholarship represents the kind of support that creates real traction for people who are already doing the work. I am not asking to be carried. I am asking for a lever. I am a BIPOC adult learner, working two jobs, carrying debt across three degrees, and still showing up every day for the student-athletes I mentor and the career I am building. I do not want to be defined by what I owe. I want to be remembered for what I built, and for making sure the path behind me is a little more passable for the next person who walks it.

"Building a Seat at the Table" The sports industry generates over $500 billion globally, yet the people making decisions in front offices rarely reflect the athletes whose talents drive that revenue. According to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, Black professionals hold only about 10% of senior front office positions across major professional leagues. That gap is not a coincidence. It is a structural problem, and it is one I am actively positioning myself to help solve. I am building a career in football operations and player development, grounded in real experience rather than aspiration alone. I currently serve as an Athletic Mentor with Texas A&M Athletics, supporting Division I student-athletes in their academic and personal development. I hold a Master of Science in Sports Administration, and I am pursuing my MBA to add the strategic and financial leadership skills that front office roles demand. I am not waiting to be ready. I am doing the work now. My seven years in marketing strategy, communications, and cross-functional leadership have sharpened skills that translate directly to sports business: stakeholder alignment, brand management, budget oversight, and operational execution. What I bring that is rare is the combination of corporate rigor and genuine investment in athlete development. Most people in business have not worked inside a Division I program. Most people inside athletic programs have not managed cross-functional teams in a regulated industry. I have done both. Funding my education accelerates more than my own trajectory. Every athlete I mentor, every front office culture I help shape, and every young Black woman who sees someone like her leading in football operations is part of the return on that investment. I am grateful for the Aim Higher Scholarship's commitment to students with ambition and vision. It is my intention to pay that forward, creating access for the next generation of underrepresented leaders who are building something bigger than themselves.

Less than 5% of sports front office executives are Black women, a staggering gap in an industry that overwhelmingly serves, markets to, and profits from Black athletes. That disparity is not an abstraction to me. It is the landscape I am walking into, and it is the reason higher education is not simply a goal. It is a critical investment in closing a gap that cannot wait. My path into business was not linear. I began my career in marketing and communications at Baylor University, where I led campus tours and supported alumni engagement through the Baylor B Association. Over the next seven years, I built expertise in brand management, campaign strategy, cross-functional leadership, and budget oversight, most recently as a Marketing Manager at LoanLogics, a fintech company operating in the regulated mortgage technology space. I have managed product launches, coordinated cross-departmental teams, and driven results in an environment that demands both precision and agility. But the business world I want to lead in is sports, specifically football operations and player development, where business strategy and human development intersect. I am not approaching this from the outside. I hold a Master of Science in Sports Administration and currently serve as an Athletic Mentor at Texas A&M Athletics, working directly with Division I student-athletes on academic and personal growth. I have seen firsthand what it costs athletes when the organizations around them lack leadership that is both strategically sound and genuinely invested in them as people. That leadership is urgently needed. According to research published by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, front offices across major football organizations remain among the least diverse leadership environments in professional and collegiate athletics. Athletes often lack advocates in decision-making rooms who understand both the business of sport and the lived experience of being an athlete navigating that system. I want to be that person, and higher education is how I get there equipped, not just motivated. Pursuing my MBA gives me the financial acumen, organizational strategy, and leadership frameworks to operate at the executive level that type of change requires. My marketing background translates well. What I need to add is the business rigor to lead entire departments, manage budgets, and build programs that set organizations apart. An MBA is not a credential for its own sake. It is the missing piece between where I am and the impact I know I can have. Financial support through this scholarship would remove one of the most pressing barriers between aspiration and action. It would allow me to pursue this degree without compromising the mentorship work I am already doing with student-athletes, work that is ongoing, urgent, and deeply tied to the future I am building. I am grateful to the Marilynn Walker Memorial Scholarship for investing in leaders who are creating pathways where very few have gone before.

Only 4% of C-suite executives in America are women of color. Black women represent an even smaller slice of that number. We are also the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the country, among the most credentialed, and consistently ranked as the most ambitious segment of the workforce. The gap between what we bring and where we are allowed to lead is not a talent problem. It is structural, urgent, and something I have decided to spend my career closing. I am a corporate business professional with years of experience building expertise inside industries that were never designed with me in mind. I have earned every seat I have sat in. Now I am pursuing my MBA in management and leadership, not to figure out where I belong, but to sharpen what I already know so I can lead at a higher level and bring others with me. The business I am building is called NILeverage. Since the NCAA's 2021 ruling allowing college athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness, an entirely new economy has opened up for student athletes. Most of them, particularly those from under-resourced backgrounds, have no roadmap for navigating it. They do not know how to build a personal brand, identify the right deals, or protect the value they have worked their entire lives to create. NILeverage exists to change that. But the work goes deeper than deals and brand strategy. I mentor athletes, and one experience has stayed with me. I worked with a female college athlete who was so consumed by the pressure to perform that she had lost sight of who she was outside of her sport. She believed that if she was not excelling athletically, she had nothing to offer. What she needed was not a business plan. She needed someone to remind her that she is not behind, that her sport is a chapter and not the whole story, and that there is so much more life ahead of her to build, experience, and own. Watching her perspective shift was one of the most meaningful things I have been a part of. That is the real mission of NILeverage. Yes, we help athletes secure NIL opportunities and build their brands. More importantly, we help them understand that they are more than their sport, and that the same drive that made them great in competition can make them great in every arena of life. The MBA I am pursuing is the foundation of that work. The coursework in management, leadership, and business strategy will directly shape how I structure, scale, and lead this company. Every concept I learn, I will apply immediately, both in my corporate career and in the business I am growing. Returning to school while working full-time requires real sacrifice and real financial discipline. Research consistently shows that financial pressure is one of the leading reasons students, especially Black women, do not complete graduate degrees. I refuse to become that statistic. This scholarship would directly reduce that burden and allow me to pour my full energy into the work I came here to do. Investing in my education is investing in NILeverage. It is investing in every college athlete who deserves to know their worth extends far beyond a scoreboard. It is investing in the next generation of Black women, watching to see what is possible. I am grateful to the scholarship committee for recognizing that women who are already building, mentoring, and giving back deserve support to go further.