“If I go forward, I die. If I go backward, I die. Better go forward and die.” This phrase perfectly encapsulates how I believe Kalia lived her life of moving towards her goals and not looking back. Like her, I was also a straight-A student during high school while being on a sports team. I was on the bowling team throughout high school, while juggling classes and an internship in my senior year. While an exhausting experience, I learned there is so much I’m capable of doing, which is why I would’ve appreciated having someone like Kalia for a friend. ​ I share Kalia’s ambition, but my aspirations pointed to a different career. From my world history class, I discovered that I loved learning about different cultures and their perspectives, such as how the Aztec people valued a life of purpose rather than fleeting happiness, or how the Sami people valued practical and observational-based learning. This allowed me to discover that I wanted to meet people from different backgrounds in my community and learn about their struggles, so I decided to become a social worker. ​ In social work, learning to understand people from different cultural backgrounds is important, as we live in a diverse country where individual bias and systematic ignorance have historically—and still do—harm minorities. Therefore, we need more social workers who are culturally competent and open-minded to people from different backgrounds, so that everyone can be understood and receive help for their unique struggles. This issue resonates with me personally because I’m a part of a minority group and have learned how my race puts me at a disadvantage. As I continue towards my bachelor’s degree, I hope to become the social worker my community needs. ​ Reflecting on my journey so far, I see that if Kalia and I had known each other, she could’ve motivated me to do even more. My experiences—volunteering as a peer mentor to students with disabilities, helping Flint residents learn about their water, and assisting teachers at a children’s summer program—taught me valuable lessons. Although I sometimes felt I hadn’t done much, each experience deepened my understanding of disabilities, community service, and workplace behavior. At Mott Community College, I struggled with classes, especially when I had to balance reading and writing, my job, and work to transfer to the University of Michigan-Flint. Transferring stressed me out; I was a slow reader and an even slower writer, and I would spend so many hours at my job. I learned to adapt by making a work schedule, finding reading and writing tips online, and doing homework while working. If I could, I’d ask Kalia for advice on how to keep moving forward. Maybe we could’ve even gone bowling, as I still enjoy watching the balls roll down the lanes and high fiving the other players, no matter the score. ​ Receiving the Kalia D. Davis Memorial Scholarship would help me continue my education as I plan to transfer and take six classes while hoping to find a campus job. Kalia’s story is truly inspiring, and I hope to accomplish as much as she has, even if I don't receive this scholarship. “If I go forward, I die. If I go backward, I die. Better go forward and die.” -Ashanti tribe of Ghana.

“I just feel depressed” was the only way I could make sense of what I was feeling, because there was no other reason for me to feel the way I did on my 17th birthday. There were a few times when I woke up on random days feeling like nothing was worth doing, but looking back, I doubt that what I was feeling was actual depression. However, what helped get through the day was having others listen to me and offer support, which I would discover, a lot of people with mental health problems do not get. “Mental health problems are rare,” people with mental illness are violent or dangerous,” people with mental illness can’t work or succeed.” In reality, mental health is actually quite common; those with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, and individuals with mental health conditions are capable of living successful, meaningful lives and careers. These kinds of assumptions frustrate me personally because, as a black woman, I do not like seeing people like me boiled down into stereotypes, so hearing misconceptions about those with mental health conditions makes me want to advocate for them. I discovered my career path in high school, after I argued with my teacher about why murder is wrong. We were discussing the Aztecs and their tradition of human sacrifices. I thought it was clear that killing people every day wasn’t okay, but my teacher argued that from their perspective, the world would end if they did not continue with human sacrifice. This sparked my interest in learning about different people and their perspectives, such as how the Aztec people valued a life of purpose over fleeting happiness, or how the Sami people valued practical and observational-based learning. This allowed me to discover that I wanted to meet people from other backgrounds in my community and learn more about their struggles, which is one reason I chose social work as a career. Social work is a profession that requires an open mind and working to understand the situations others find themselves in. No matter what field of social work I go into, I will have clients who suffer from mental health issues, and I will need to work with and empathize with them. As someone who knows how beneficial it is to receive patience and understanding when you don’t feel like life is worthwhile, I want to make any future client I have with a mental health condition feel as understood as I did. By remembering my experience and having an open mind, I plan to use patience and understanding to make a positive impact.

What should a woman do if she is a lower-class single mother of two children and has no college degree? For my mother, she often had to rely on family for support and worked as hard as she could. Younger me never understood what our situation was like. I was happy with having one parent and never questioned why she wanted me to take school more seriously or why she tried to teach me not to waste money. ​ Growing up, I began to understand that life was not easy for her, which is why she had me value my education. She was my motivation to start caring about my grades. She worked all day to keep up with the bills, while I found my love for learning. When I didn’t agree with her advice, I applied it in different ways. She told me to keep up with Spanish from Spanish class, but I kept up with what I learned from my world history class instead. Learning about different cultures, I gained insight into interacting with people of different backgrounds in my community. ​ Despite how stressed she must have been, she always tried to encourage any hobby or interest I had. When I wanted to learn about my ancestry, she called my aunt to set up a DNA test. As I became more interested in different cultures, she praised me for wanting to learn. When I decided that I wanted to go into the social work field, she told me that I would be a good social worker, and her support is one of the reasons I am grateful to her. Watching my mother work as a nursing assistant is what I think helped push me in the direction of social work. She would often need to take me to work with her, allowing me to watch her care for her patients. I also had the opportunity to interact with them and learn a bit about their struggles. ​ I agreed to sign up for the youth empowerment program when she suggested it to me. That program led me to an internship at the Flint Community Lab. There, I learned that I enjoyed helping members of my community and decided that I wanted a career in social work. I imagine a future where I become a case worker so that I can advocate for people in my community, refer them towards resources, and set plans of recovery for struggles.

Most people would not spend hours watching videos on murderers and psychopaths, but I’m not like most people. I have been addicted to YouTube since I was little. If it wasn’t for school or doing chores, you would catch me lying in bed trying to find a video to watch. However, I learned to take more advantage of it as I got older. In middle school, I had problems controlling my emotions in class. Tears of frustration would run from my eyes whenever I’d struggle in class. So, I used YouTube to teach myself how to calm down when angered by taking deep breaths, thinking of calming music, and questioning myself on why I was angry in the first place. While I use technology to learn more about the world, personal growth, and to keep up with my classes, I feel like others do not take advantage of online platforms in the ways that they should. When I became interested in the social work field, I wanted to learn more about social issues and the psychology of why people act in certain ways. I would watch videos explaining how the disappearance of Native women is becoming more of an issue, because of their history of discrimination and complicated law enforcement responses due to jurisdictional challenges. Also, I sought out many videos on the psychology of murderers and psychopaths that taught me how influential factors (such as environmental and familial) can contribute to their chosen paths. However, in the case of psychopaths, there are no influential factors other than their brain function and structure. Learning about the psychology of people and the social issues in our society are big factors in becoming a social worker. Beyond YouTube, I would use platforms like Google and Safari to research the beliefs, traditions, and concepts of cultures worldwide. I learned how the Aztec people valued a life of purpose rather than fleeting happiness, or how the Sami people valued practical and observation-based learning. This allowed me to discover that I wanted to meet people from different backgrounds in my community and learn more about their struggles, which is one reason I went into social work. Other than learning cultural competence, I realized that I could also apply my knowledge as a future social worker by utilizing these different perspectives for my personal growth. Adopting values of practicality from the Sami can help me become a better problem solver and become more adaptable, as the Sami learned to be during the harsh winters. From the Aztecs, learning to value purpose over fleeting happiness can make me more focused on my goals rather than on the distracting pleasures of life. As I have already taken steps towards becoming a social worker by getting a job on my campus to provide other students with resources to help them continue their education and interning at the Flint Community Lab, I’ve been able to meet others from different backgrounds. So far, I’ve applied what I learned in real life when meeting others from different places, like my classmate from Ghana, my supervisor from Europe, and one of my co-workers from Ethiopia. With my continued use of online platforms to expand my knowledge, I am very hopeful for the future I’ve set up for myself.

My teenage self was confused as to why I was arguing with my teacher about why murder is wrong. We were discussing the Aztecs and their tradition of human sacrifices. I thought it was clear that killing people every day wasn’t okay, but my teacher argued that from their perspective, the world would end if they didn’t continue with human sacrifice. This sparked my interest in Mesoamerican culture and other cultures worldwide. I discovered that I loved learning about different cultures and their perspectives, such as how the Aztecs valued a life of purpose rather than fleeting happiness, or how the Sami people valued practical and observational-based learning. I discovered that I wanted to meet people from different backgrounds in my community and learn about their struggles, which is why I started focusing on how my life is shaped as an African American. I discovered how racism can be institutional, even in the modern era, and many people only focus on racism on the individual level. For example, when the Flint water crisis occurred, it disproportionately affected black residents and led to serious health repercussions. Despite making up a portion of the population, minorities are more likely to be incarcerated, come from low-income families, and be denied opportunities. In institutions like healthcare, certain groups are less likely to receive adequate services. Even in the media we consume, non-white people are usually reduced to supporting roles or stereotypical tropes. News media, especially, depict certain groups as more dangerous than others, encouraging negative stereotypes. Racism is deeply rooted in our country, which is clear from how Natives were put onto reservations. African Americans were also forced into slavery to help build America. However, it is less known that Irish people (who weren’t considered white at the time) were mistreated and made into indentured servants. Racism is even woven into the most innocent-seeming actions, like how people use the expression “mumbo jumbo” without knowing that the phrase was created to mock Africans. This highlights a big issue with racism and minority oppression, which is that few people are educated on the complexity. I’ve heard people talk about what liberation from oppression looks like, but not about what it doesn’t look like. I believe this is crucial to figure out how to stop oppression and move forward. We should look at how minorities are affected beyond an individual level, how the media we consume contributes to racism, and ask, “What does securing generational liberation from oppression not look like?” In an Ashanti proverb, "If I go backwards, I die; if I go forward, I die; it’s better to just go forward.”

My teenage self was confused as to why I was arguing with my teacher about why murder is wrong. We were discussing the Aztecs and their tradition of human sacrifices. I thought it was clear that killing people every day wasn’t okay, but my teacher argued that from their perspective, the world would end if they did not continue with human sacrifice. This sparked my interest in Mesoamerican culture and other cultures worldwide. I discovered that I loved learning about different cultures and their perspectives, like how the Aztec people valued a life of purpose rather than fleeting happiness, or how the Sami people valued practical and observational-based learning. This allowed me to discover that I wanted to meet people from different backgrounds in my community and learn more about their struggles, which is one reason I went into social work. In social work, learning and understanding people from different cultural backgrounds is important as we live in a diverse country where individual bias and systematic ignorance have historically and are currently harming minorities. We need more social workers who are culturally competent and open-minded to people from different backgrounds, so these people can be understood and can get help for their unique struggles. This is important to me personally because I’m a part of a minority group and learned, when I was younger, how my race puts me at more of a disadvantage. In my earlier years, I also learned how to assist others in my community. My mother and I would sometimes volunteer to help pass out water bottles at the Bethel United Methodist Church to Flint residents. Also, in my senior year of high school, I interned at the Flint Community Lab to test the water of Flint residents while being a member of the national honor society and a peer mentor for students in my school with disabilities. All these experiences helped me discover that I wanted to become a social worker. After graduating from high school as salutatorian, I enrolled in Mott Community College to get my associate's degree. Once I graduate from Mott, I will transfer to the University of Michigan-Flint for my bachelor’s degree in social work. I would need financial aid to transfer because it’s a four-year university, and the refund checks I received from my financial aid at Mott have almost been burned through by my mother because working nonstop is not enough to pay the bills. With my degree, I can be a case worker. As a case worker, I can advocate for my community, refer them towards resources, and set plans of recovery for struggles. When I gain enough experience from being a case worker, I’ll be eligible to take the Michigan Social Work licensure exam. I want to become a licensed social worker so I can have the range to provide services to the people in my community, including therapy, clinical services, schools, government agencies, and influence policy change, and this scholarship will help me achieve my goal.