After attending a predominantly white high school, attending an HBCU has given me a stronger connection with my grandfather's Kenya roots. In high school, I was just Black girl a lumped in with the other Black students. At Morgan State University, I get to celebrate, and am celebrated for, all the parts that feed into my racial identity. As one of the few people of Kenya ancestry in the Africa Student Association, I've enjoyed sharing special aspects about my culture while learning about other African foods, customs and histories. Together, we share our African heritage with the entire college population though fashion shows, mock baby naming ceremonies and friendly athletic competitions with the Caribbean Student Association. The students and faculty at Morgan take the time to learn how to pronounce my first and last names correctly. They ask questions about my names' origins and meanings with authentic interest rather than than to suggest I'm not normal. While there are so many reasons why I love attending an HBCU (teachers who care about my success, great music at parties and not having to explain why my hair does what it does), obtaining a stronger sense of my Africaness was the most surprising.

Being a part of the Black Student Union (BSU) encouraged me to choose psychology as a major and Africana Studies as a minor. Attending a predominantly white school, with its lack of support for the black experience, can negatively affect a young person of color's mental health. Experiencing microaggressions, differing standards, and a lack of cultural understanding is what pushed me to join BSU. I sought out and found a community where we could discuss and address the issues we had in common. Through my years of participating with BSU, I watched the leaders advocate for change schoolwide and nationwide with protests, bonding activities, hosting community events, and school debates. I was eager to play a more significant role than just attending the meetings, I wanted to help run the meetings and create a better school atmosphere for the black students. In the 2021-2022 school year, I ran for BSU president on the platform of providing more mental health resources for black students and faculty, honing in on spreading “black joy” throughout the community and celebrating the different cultures throughout the black diaspora. “Blacksgiving” is one of the events that I hosted this school year. We invited all of the black families to join us on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to celebrate the culture across the diaspora. The potluck lunch featured traditional African-American dishes like collard greens and macaroni and cheese, Caribbean favorites like jerk chicken, and African food like Ethiopian Sambusas. We played icebreaker games and played Black History trivia. The event helps both the parents and students become closer. This is one example of how forming a tighter community while experiencing black joy helped the black students feel mentally stronger and more comfortable in our school environment. I look forward to using what I’ve learned and experienced as a BSU member and leader in a career as a psychologist working with black children and adults in their mental health journies and prioritizing their joy and happiness as they walk through this life embracing and showing up as their full selves. In my upcoming years of school attending Morgan State University, I hope to be able to use what I have gained from my time at BSU to continue to speak out for the rights of black people and all people of color. I plan to join and work eventually to become a leader in Morgan's BSU. I will do whatever I can to fight for change in our community.

As a woman, existing already puts you in a position to lose. Whether it be in the work place, socially, politically, or in a simple conversation. On top of that being a woman of color comes with those issues but in a whole other area of one’s identity. If you are not being ridiculed for your sex it’s the color of your skin or way you wear your type 4 hair. Growing up surrounded by my higher income, white peers, it forced me to stand tall in the body I was born it to crumble under the misogyny, racism, and bigotry. But I chose to try my best to thrive. Throughout my years in school I was scrutinized for just being, ranging from micro aggressions by confusing me with another black girl who shares no similar attributes to flat out slurs and threats being thrown in my face, I have taken that energy and translated into something positive. In my senior year of high school, I was elected head of the Black Student Union. I was able to help make a voice for the students who have been continuously silenced. I was able to put together a black history assembly with my co-leader and presented in front of the entire school. We were able to organize a group wide trip to the African American museum with the other POC affinity groups. And I worked hand in hand with the leaders of the black women affinity group and woman identifying affinity group. As I move into higher levels of education, I will be attending Morgan State University. An HBCU known for their sciences and liberal arts, I will be joining their science division with a major in psychology. I want to be able to use my skills as a leader and advocate from high school and mold that into a track to help my community at large. I wish to become a psychologist for low income, younger black women and help to support them in navigating a world that was not built for them based in their race, gender, income class. I want to help give them the tools I gave myself to be able to give not just themselves a better life but the people similar to them when others will not help out. If I am able to help out just a few of those girls I will feel that all I have been working and fighting for will have been worth it.