My dream version is to be genuinely happy in my mental, emotional and physical life and offer resources to those who cannot access it to elevate themselves.

As a cybersecurity major and a Nigerian immigrant, my end goal is to bring cybersecurity awareness to Nigeria and provide educational and academic resources for people interested in the technology but who do not know where to start. I took a class in college called Interpersonal Communications and we discussed the factors that play into people's decision-making skills and most of them are environment, lack of exposure and low motivation. There are thousands of smart kids who have advanced technical knowledge and skills but due to the environment where they can not afford an education and have to fend for their families, they result to using their amazing technical skills for bad purposes. In Nigeria, it is classified as "419 scams", and while they are laws in place to protect victims, it does not address the root of the problem. Many young adults who have to get into 419 are victims of the failed education and job system of Nigeria. Some students who begin a 4-year university major do not know if they will finish in 4 years due to faculty strikes, inconsistent advisors and uncertainty of Nigerian safety issues. These factors discourage students from wanting to apply to high education and gain knowledge due to a system that is not working with them but against them. In addition, when students do graduate, they have a hard time finding employment unless through nepotism or public sector corruption favors. This leaves people to fend for themselves and get into illegal cyber activity also known as "419" or "Yahoo boys". I have observed the backlash surrounding the "419" situations. There have been instances where the intentions were not pure and they did it out of spite. However, in some situations, we have to analyze a bit differently and not categorize. One thing I have learned is never to judge people based on certain decisions they had to make. Despite my being in college, I have interned at a consulting company that has connections internationally and continue to make connections as I elevate in my cybersecurity career. My goal is to create a workshop class by providing educational resources to those who have technical skills but have no motivation or space to allow their creativity to flow. In addition, I will set up a grant to help low-income student whose schools have prolonged their degree date, to pursue other talents that can help cultivate their success in the future. As I said in the previous paragraph, it is all about exposure and resources. I am not better than anyone I left in Nigeria and I want to be able to provide the help my parents have provided for me and give another person a chance they never had or thought will ever come.

The pandemic gave me to reflect and refocus on myself and my mental health. Before the pandemic, I was always on the move, my head was running 24/7. I never had time to relax or take some time to myself to breathe and get away from the world. During the pandemic, I revisited some old hobbies of mine like making beats for my friend who raps, getting back into poetry again, and journaling my feelings and thoughts again. I also had time for reconnecting with my friends and family again and getting to understand my needs and wants as a person. In addition, I looked at my future goals, where I see myself, what career will I go into and the people I keep in my circle. That was a main topic I focused on because this pandemic showed me who I could call a "friend" or "associate". It really opened my eyes to a lot of things I could improve on, what I was doing good on and what I was lacking as a person. I also strengthened my personal relationship with God. As a Christian, it gave me time to reconnect with him, catch up on bible readings and develop a stronger relationship with God. Without God, I will not be where I am today in life.

My greatest inspiration in life is my family and their strong will. I grew up with my parents having to hustle and give me a life that will not make me jump through many loops to be successful in life. I moved to America from Nigeria because my parents wanted a promising future for me and my generations to come. A lot of people talk about migrating but never give the full detail on why they migrated. The year I moved to America, the Nigerian economy had fallen, girls were getting kidnapped from schools and turned into child wives and the system was broken. My parents knew if I stayed there I will regret it. Migrating to America was not easy either. It was a tedious process from sleepless nights trying to find funds to accommodate the application to countless phone calls with lawyers. At one point, I thought we would never leave but I saw a look in my mom's eyes that told me not to give up. She was determined and had all faith that we were going to leave and here we are today in America. Even after coming here, there were roadblocks. My mom did not have a job the first two to three years, my dad was still in Nigeria trying to make ends meet even when the exchange rate went up. Through it all, not once did I see regret or failure in my parents. I kept seeing bravery, courage, determination. That is what kept me through the last five years in America when I went through a lot of mental and physical issues. That is what is keeping me going now in college when I feel I can't make it. If my parents left everything they have known and grew up with, to move to an unknown country, I can do anything in life. My mom always told me since I survived migrating here then I can survive anywhere in the world as long as I have the determination and a strong will. Nothing can stop me.

Mental Health is really important to me because it affects your view of life, beliefs, personal relationships with yourself, and relationships with other people. Mental health was never taken seriously in my family because as a child, your feelings are not considered valid or your emotions are not important. I never understood that and it really did affect my mental health. It got worse when I migrated to America because it was last minute and I could not say goodbye to my friends back home. It really affected the way I made friendships because I was scared I was always going to leave and never say goodbye so I never got close to a lot of people. As I continue to grow up in America, I noticed they took mental health seriously and understood its importance. If I needed to talk to someone, there was someone who was willing to listen and I was taught not to let my emotions build because I will break down some days and will not be able to function. I got to learn how to express my feelings and how to communicate when I am feeling down or when I needed a break from the stress. As time moved on, my family got to understand the importance and together learned why mental health is extremely important.

When I moved to Virginia from Indiana, I was new to the area and I did not interact with a lot of people. In addition, I am an introvert so it is hard for me to open up to people unless they approach me first. In Spanish class, my teacher was giving me a hard time because I was new and I did not really understand the structure of her class and my new best friend approached me and noticed I was having a hard time adjusting and we just started talking and we became friends from them. To this day I always remind him of that moment because the day he approached I was planning on running away because it was difficult for me. I left my old school and moved to this whole new state, crying every night because I felt alone and for him to approach and want to help me and be there for me, made me feel happier and at peace with the fact I am not alone anymore.

I shared a video with the link below.

My greatest achievement was believing in myself multiple times when the odds were against me. No matter how big or small the situation was, I never gave up on myself. There were many times people wrote me off. One situation was when I was in military school my freshman year. It was a tough transition for me because I was dealing with identity crises from moving from Nigeria to America and my parents thought it was best for me to be in a place that provided discipline and structure. Like any normal pre-teen, I rebelled because it was not something discussed with me but rather decided for me. I struggled a lot my first year at military school with classes, behavior, and a lot of people labeled as the girl who could not confirm or the "black sheep." Towards the end of the school year, I had to sit down and reflect because my scholarship was based on my behavior and I was on the verge of losing it. The next school year, I came back and started improving on behavior towards my classmates, I started doing better in classes and I even got ranked up twice and won Cadet of the Period. A lot of people were surprised wit my the new personality that I portrayed. Looking back on it, it showed me that the only person who can push you to be a better person is you, and the only person who can cause your downfall is also you. Human beings tend to blame other people or the environment around us for the decisions we make but in reality, it is us who made those decisions. It is us that can improve on that decision or sit back and let it negatively affect us. I made the decision to improve the way I portrayed myself and focusing on my classes. This has helped me grow in many ways and how to handle when I'm in a new environment. I moved to Virginia and felt like the whole situation would happen again but I made a conscious decision to be better than I was. In the future, I hope to keep on believing in myself even when it gets hard. I'm human, I am going to doubt myself sometimes or many times but if I remember to believe in myself over and over again, I believe I can succeed in life no matter where I go.

2020 was an unexpecting year for me. I ended my high school experience in the non-traditional sense and looking back, I was not upset as I thought I would be. Growing up, I always dreamt about going to prom with a date, walking across a stage with my cap and gown and throwing it up in the air with my family in the crowd screaming my name loud. Unfortunately due to covid, I had to watch my name being said in my living room on a TV screen with my yearbook photo shown. This experience taught me that life can change anytime and you have to be willing to change with it. Nothing is permanent in life and you have to enjoy the moment you are in right now. 2020 also taught me to get things done immediately. Don't wait later to get it done but do it now. One experience I will remember was my graduation. Despite, not having to be in a room full of 50 plus people and having to sit in the heat for three hours, I am glad my graduation was as quick and private as possible. I got to celebrate it with my closest friends and sit by them and not a random student I did not know go to my high school for the past four years. 2020 shaped how I looked at college and my future goals is to enjoy the present and not worry about the future.

For extra-curricular, I like to play volleyball in my free time. I was on the school's volleyball team for the first two years of high school and switched to club volleyball my last two years due to my busy schedule. Now I play volleyball on my free time and occasionally play games. I like to workout as well because I want to stay healthy and it helps me destress when I feel anxious. My financial situation is not the best right now. For the three years my mom has not had a job and my dad recelty moved from Nigeria to America to retire and settle. He is currently in the process of finding a job, as well as my mom. My mom works a side job with COVID at the airport and with the money she makes, she has to pay our house mortgage and some of her student loans. My parents can barely help cover my tuition and this scholarship will be beneficial to pay for my summer classes that I need to take this summer to help in my major. Upon graduation, my goals are to be in software industry as a software developer or design video games from upcoming organizations. In addition, I do want to start my own organisations that offer helps to projects and business in need of software developers, video game designers, coders and more.

My role model in my life is my mother, Dr. Kate Anteyi. As a black immigrant mother from Nigeria, who had to leave her life behind and move to the United States for a better life for her children, taking all the risk necessary, that is a strength and determination I have embodied from her. My mother has taught me many life lessons but the two main things I have learned from her are faith and perseverance. According to my mother, faith is the belief in the things we have not seen. The hope human beings put in the unknown. There were many times I was scared of the future, scared of the decisions I would make that could negatively or positively affect me. She said if we live life with fear, we will never accomplish the things we want. That has helped me through many moments in my life. From leaving my home country and coming to America, dealing with the culture shock, deciding what I wanted to do in college. I had many doubts about those points in my life but what never left my side was my faith. With the faith my mother has taught me, I have taken risks and put myself out there in order to achieve goals. My mother is the definition of perseverance. The human form of perseverance. The soul that preserves through life and the heart that preserves through the world. She grew up on the value of never giving up. No matter how hard life gets, you keep moving. Quoted by Dr. Anteyi "If you are stuck in a hard dilemma, you do not stop. Because why would you want to stay at a place that gives you hell when you can move forward to the place that gives you peace." I have met many roadblocks in my life and perseverance has kept me moving. In high school, when I was not sure I would get into a good college, I preserved and made sure Fall of 202 I was in college studying my passion. Moving forward in life, I live by my mother's word, her lifestyle, and morals. She has taught me everything she knows and it is up to me to abide and live by it.

During the pandemic, a lot of jobs and schools had to convert to online learning and working but not many people were familiar with this concept and found it hard to adapt. This is where the importance of STEM occupations comes into play. Most STEM jobs are usually remote and have very few in-person meetings and introducing people to this work lifestyle and helping them adapt can be beneficial to the world in a post-pandemic world. For example, for meetings, there are many meeting applications for companies and organizations to use if a required face-to-face is insisted on. Like Zoom meetings, Google meetings, Google duo, and Skype. If a team is working on a project and needs to write down ideas, Google Docs has a sharing tool for many people to edit, view, and share a document. With this application, everyone's ideas and comments are seen and heard. In addition, there will be documents that need to be signed. STEM has created a way for that to happen without having to show up in-person: DocuSign. It is an efficient and neat way for people to sign documents and safely do it without losing the document. With DocuSign, it is protected and viewed by the recipient and sender.

I am currently working on learning how to code in C++ and Java. Using this grant would help me pay for the courses at my college to learn how to code in these languages. Learning how to code will help me achieve my dream of becoming a software developer or software engineer in the tech industry. It would open many doors for me, especially as a black woman who is trying to break into the coding industry with no connections. Coding will break barriers and help me open doors for other black women who want to be a software developer or coder as well.

My name is Olohi Anteyi and growing up I was never fit or healthy. It wasn't until my junior year of high school that I was close to 230 pounds, I decided to become healthy. When I first started embarking on my healthy journey, it was difficult. In the first two weeks, I lost five pounds but in between, I kept gaining weight. I gave up but slowly kept working out. The summer before senior year, I was going through a lot of stress with college applications and SAT prep and was dieting and working out at the same time. I lost 13pounds before senior year started and I felt good. However, I knew I had to keep up my health habits to stay the same weight or lose some more. The way I stay fit is being in eating healthy. People think eating healthy is starving yourself but you have to find the right meals. Normally for breakfast, I eat oatmeal and a banana. Also, I make a kale-strawberry smoothie and take my vitamins with it. I normally eat this at noon because I do intermittent fasting and eat from noon to six in the evening. For lunch, I eat a chicken avocado salad with beans and corn or I make an egg avocado sandwich. Then after I work out, I drink water and eat fruits if I'm hungry or craving something to eat. The benefits I have achieved by staying fit have shown me my strength when working out and when I was eating healthy, I felt healthy. My skin was clearing up, I was drinking more water, and felt lighter. It made my mood better on my moody days.

My name is Olohi Anteyi. I was born and raised in Nigeria for twelve years before I moved to the United States. I have always been interested in computers and software programming but never had the right guidance or support because my family is in the medical field and growing up, I was either the only girl in class or the only black person in class; so I never had a lot of support. It was more of degrading comments males students and sometimes teachers. Regardless, it never stopped me from pursuing my dream or pursuing a degree in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. While I was applying to college, I had to encourage myself I could do it because I thought I could not do it but from the support from family and friends I knew I was not alone. I am dreaming big of becoming an Engineer and achieving goals and aspirations. As of right now, I do not have a set idea of what I want to achieve when I become an Engineer because everyday there are new problems that need solutions, need ideas that need to come to life and that is my main purpose of becoming an Engineer: to solve the world's problems. Eventually, as I become a software developer, I do want to show other black girls like me who were not given many opportunities, that they should not give up. In high school, no one thought I could major in Engineering because I was not smart enough or the college I decided to attend only accepted me because of affirmative action. I want to show black girls that I did not listen to negative people and stayed focused on my dream. There were times when I wanted to give up or felt I was not good enough to be in Engineering but I didn't because it was dream. It is my dream to provide online security for people's search engines. It is my dream to write codes and figure out a way to solve it. It is my dream to build a website or an app that can make people's lives easier and market it off. It is my dream to create devices for my mother that can help her around the house. It is my dream to help my community and support them because they supported and rooted for me when no one else would. That is what I hope to achieve in my career. It is not about the money, rather it is the passion. There are several ways I am preparing myself for it, I babysit a girl, who is also interested in STEM, and we always play coding games or I am advising her on some decisions to make academically and personally. In school, when I am having trouble with my classes, I go to a tutoring center or my professors because I know I need to get my Engineering degree in order to achieve my dreams and goals. I am surrounded by my Engineering friends and we support each other through these times because it is hard and we are all going through it together.

My name is Olohi Anteyi. I was born and raised in Nigeria for twelve years before I moved to the United States. I have always been interested in computers and software programming but never had the right guidance or support because my family is in the medical field and growing up, I was either the only girl in class or the only black person in class; so I never had a lot of support. It was more of degrading comments males students and sometimes teachers. Regardless, it never stopped me from pursuing my dream or pursuing a degree in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. While I was applying to college, I had to encourage myself I could do it because I thought I could not do it but from the support from family and friends I knew I was not alone. As of right now, I do not have a set idea of what I want to achieve when I become an Engineer because everyday there are new problems that need solutions, need ideas that need to come to life and that is my main purpose of becoming an Engineer: to solve the world's problems. Eventually, as I become a software developer, I do want to show other black girls like me who were not given many opportunities, that they should not give up. In high school, no one thought I could major in My name is Olohi Anteyi. I was born and raised in Nigeria for twelve years before I moved to the United States. I have always been interested in computers and software programming but never had the right guidance or support because my family is in the medical field and growing up, I was either the only girl in class or the only black person in class; so I never had a lot of support. It was more of degrading comments males students and sometimes teachers. Regardless, it never stopped me from pursuing my dream or pursuing a degree in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. While I was applying to college, I had to encourage myself I could do it because I thought I could not do it but from the support from family and friends I knew I was not alone.

I admire my aunt, who is a Mechanical Engineer. She is the epitome of excellence, focusing on her dream and not letting anything stand in her way. She is the reason why I wanted to go into STEM because she was different from the family and that gave me the courage to be different as well. She taught me how to use the computer and basics of coding. She has taught me life lessons being a woman in STEM and the tribulations she went through. I simply applaud her for her braveness and strength. As of right now, I do not have a set idea of what I want to achieve when I become an Engineer because everyday there are new problems that need solutions, need ideas that need to come to life and that is my main purpose of becoming an Engineer: to solve the world's problems. Eventually, as I become a software developer, I do want to show other black girls like me who were not given many opportunities, that they should not give up. In high school, no one thought I could major in Engineering because I was not smart enough or the college I decided to attend only accepted me because of affirmative action. I want to show black girls that I did not listen to negative people and stayed focused on my dream. There were times when I wanted to give up or felt I was not good enough to be in Engineering but I didn't because it was dream. It is my dream to provide online security for people's search engines. It is my dream to write codes and figure out a way to solve it. It is my dream to build a website or an app that can make people's lives easier and market it off. It is my dream to create devices for my mother that can help her around the house. It is my dream to help my community and support them because they supported and rooted for me when no one else would. That is what I hope to achieve in my career. It is not about the money, rather it is the passion.

My name is Olohi Anteyi. I was born and raised in Nigeria for twelve years before I moved to the United States. I have always been interested in computers and software programming but never had the right guidance or support because my family is in the medical field and growing up, I was either the only girl in class or the only black person in class; so I never had a lot of support. It was more of degrading comments males students and sometimes teachers. Regardless, it never stopped me from pursuing my dream or pursuing a degree in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. While I was applying to college, I had to encourage myself I could do it because I thought I could not do it but from the support from family and friends I knew I was not alone. As of right now, I do not have a set idea of what I want to achieve when I become an Engineer because everyday there are new problems that need solutions, need ideas that need to come to life and that is my main purpose of becoming an Engineer: to solve the world's problems. Eventually, as I become a software developer, I do want to show other black girls like me who were not given many opportunities, that they should not give up. In high school, no one thought I could major in Engineering because I was not smart enough or the college I decided to attend only accepted me because of affirmative action. I want to show black girls that I did not listen to negative people and stayed focused on my dream. There were times when I wanted to give up or felt I was not good enough to be in Engineering but I didn't because it was dream. It is my dream to provide online security for people's search engines. It is my dream to write codes and figure out a way to solve it. It is my dream to build a website or an app that can make people's lives easier and market it off. It is my dream to create devices for my mother that can help her around the house. It is my dream to help my community and support them because they supported and rooted for me when no one else would. That is what I hope to achieve in my career. It is not about the money, rather it is the passion. There are several ways I am preparing myself for it, I babysit a girl, who is also interested in STEM, and we always play coding games or I am advising her on some decisions to make academically and personally. In school, when I am having trouble with my classes, I go to a tutoring center or my professors because I know I need to get my Engineering degree in order to achieve my dreams and goals. I am surrounded by my Engineering friends and we support each other through these times because it is hard and we are all going through it together.

My name is Olohi Anteyi. I was born and raised in Nigeria for twelve years before I moved to the United States. I have always been interested in computers and software programming but never had the right guidance or support because my family is in the medical field and growing up, I was either the only girl in class or the only black person in class; so I never had a lot of support. It was more of degrading comments males students and sometimes teachers. Regardless, it never stopped me from pursuing my dream or pursuing a degree in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. While I was applying to college, I had to encourage myself I could do it because I thought I could not do it but from the support from family and friends I knew I was not alone. As of right now, I do not have a set idea of what I want to achieve when I become an Engineer because everyday there are new problems that need solutions, need ideas that need to come to life and that is my main purpose of becoming an Engineer: to solve the world's problems. Eventually, as I become a software developer, I do want to show other black girls like me who were not given many opportunities, that they should not give up. In high school, no one thought I could major in Engineering because I was not smart enough or the college I decided to attend only accepted me because of affirmative action. I want to show black girls that I did not listen to negative people and stayed focused on my dream. There were times when I wanted to give up or felt I was not good enough to be in Engineering but I didn't because it was dream. It is my dream to provide online security for people's search engines. It is my dream to write codes and figure out a way to solve it. It is my dream to build a website or an app that can make people's lives easier and market it off. It is my dream to create devices for my mother that can help her around the house. It is my dream to help my community and support them because they supported and rooted for me when no one else would. That is what I hope to achieve in my career. It is not about the money, rather it is the passion. There are several ways I am preparing myself for it, I babysit a girl, who is also interested in STEM, and we always play coding games or I am advising her on some decisions to make academically and personally. In school, when I am having trouble with my classes, I go to a tutoring center or my professors because I know I need to get my Engineering degree in order to achieve my dreams and goals. I am surrounded by my Engineering friends and we support each other through these times because it is hard and we are all going through it together.

My name is Olohi Anteyi. I was born and raised in Nigeria for twelve years before I moved to the United States. I have always been interested in computers and software programming but never had the right guidance or support because my family is in the medical field and growing up, I was either the only girl in class or the only black person in class; so I never had a lot of support. It was more of degrading comments males students and sometimes teachers. Regardless, it never stopped me from pursuing my dream or pursuing a degree in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. While I was applying to college, I had to encourage myself I could do it because I thought I could not do it but from the support from family and friends I knew I was not alone. As of right now, I do not have a set idea of what I want to achieve when I become an Engineer because everyday there are new problems that need solutions, need ideas that need to come to life and that is my main purpose of becoming an Engineer: to solve the world's problems. Eventually, as I become a software developer, I do want to show other black girls like me who were not given many opportunities, that they should not give up. In high school, no one thought I could major in Engineering because I was not smart enough or the college I decided to attend only accepted me because of affirmative action. I want to show black girls that I did not listen to negative people and stayed focused on my dream. There were times when I wanted to give up or felt I was not good enough to be in Engineering but I didn't because it was dream. It is my dream to provide online security for people's search engines. It is my dream to write codes and figure out a way to solve it. It is my dream to build a website or an app that can make people's lives easier and market it off. It is my dream to create devices for my mother that can help her around the house. It is my dream to help my community and support them because they supported and rooted for me when no one else would. That is what I hope to achieve in my career. It is not about the money, rather it is the passion. There are several ways I am preparing myself for it, I babysit a girl, who is also interested in STEM, and we always play coding games or I am advising her on some decisions to make academically and personally. In school, when I am having trouble with my classes, I go to a tutoring center or my professors because I know I need to get my Engineering degree in order to achieve my dreams and goals. I am surrounded by my Engineering friends and we support each other through these times because it is hard and we are all going through it together.

My name is Olohi Anteyi. I was born and raised in Nigeria for twelve years before I moved to the United States. I have always been interested in computers and software programming but never had the right guidance or support because my family is in the medical field and growing up, I was either the only girl in class or the only black person in class; so I never had a lot of support. It was more of degrading comments males students and sometimes teachers. Regardless, it never stopped me from pursuing my dream or pursuing a degree in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. While I was applying to college, I had to encourage myself I could do it because I thought I could not do it but from the support from family and friends I knew I was not alone. As of right now, I do not have a set idea of what I want to achieve when I become an Engineer because everyday there are new problems that need solutions, need ideas that need to come to life and that is my main purpose of becoming an Engineer: to solve the world's problems. Eventually, as I become a software developer, I do want to show other black girls like me who were not given many opportunities, that they should not give up. In high school, no one thought I could major in Engineering because I was not smart enough or the college I decided to attend only accepted me because of affirmative action. I want to show black girls that I did not listen to negative people and stayed focused on my dream. There were times when I wanted to give up or felt I was not good enough to be in Engineering but I didn't because it was dream. It is my dream to provide online security for people's search engines. It is my dream to write codes and figure out a way to solve it. It is my dream to build a website or an app that can make people's lives easier and market it off. It is my dream to create devices for my mother that can help her around the house. It is my dream to help my community and support them because they supported and rooted for me when no one else would. That is what I hope to achieve in my career. It is not about the money, rather it is the passion. There are several ways I am preparing myself for it, I babysit a girl, who is also interested in STEM, and we always play coding games or I am advising her on some decisions to make academically and personally. In school, when I am having trouble with my classes, I go to a tutoring center or my professors because I know I need to get my Engineering degree in order to achieve my dreams and goals. I am surrounded by my Engineering friends and we support each other through these times because it is hard and we are all going through it together.