When it comes to finding the right major for you, it isn’t hard to notice and understand that certain majors require more than others. As someone who is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology, I took the liberty to understanding that I require a Master’s degree for most jobs that specializes in my degree field. My academic plan for after I graduate in 2024 is to multitask between finding a temporary job, furthering my education in obtaining my Master’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology, and obtaining my certification in Sonography. Regardless of my overall endgame, I want to be able to help others, whether it’s mentally and emotionally or just physically. I have plenty of motivation to get me through my short term and long term goals, and I feel that this scholarship will add onto those motivations. I do not intend to put this scholarship to waste, if I were blessed enough to be awarded the money from it. As mentioned in the information for this scholarship, furthering your education is not cheap, especially when you need to attend the right school that specializes in your degree of choice. Though I currently attend undergraduate at Fayetteville State University, it is not my first option in obtaining my Master’s degree, as it isn’t a specialty or main focus at this school. My top two options include North Carolina A&T State University and Xavier University of Louisiana, both meeting the request of being an HBCU and specializing in Sociology and Anthropology. When it comes to obtaining my certification in Sonography, I had to do extensive research for that as most schools, especially HBCUs don’t tend to specialize in that exact subject. It is a mostly online field, which is something that works for me as a single mother who is planning on working and attending another university for my Master’s, and the top two options for obtaining this certificate include Fayetteville Technology Community College and Wake Technical Community College. With my plans set, I plan to make the best out of everything and meet every goal that I have set for me. Though, as I previously stated, I would love to be able to put this scholarship to use in furthering my education, I will not let me not being awarded this scholarship prevent me from continuing my education and doing what I set myself out to do, which is help others in any aspect that I can.

Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community is hard, but adding onto the fact that I am a young black woman who is also a single mother, it tends to emphasize the struggle. My name is Soule Smith and I am a rising senior at Fayetteville State University. I am a single mother to a beautiful baby boy, who is turning two-years-old this year, and I identify as pansexual. Since our generation is considered very progressive and liberal, it is hard for us to come out to our families, due to differences in environments and just how we were raised. It is hard to not have people that you can talk to about sexuality related issues or issues regarding gender crisis, etc, but it helps when you surround yourself with likeminded and open minded individuals that you can go to. As a student at Fayetteville State, the environment is very open and there are plenty of people who are either just like you or who are allies for what you stand for and who you are, which help builds an inviting community for everyone to thrive in, regardless of ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and gender. With this in mind, I would like to fully reinstate who I am. I am a Sociology and Anthropology major, former education major, who would like to use my degree to either become a guidance counselor or a social worker, so that I can help others when it comes to both emotional and mental help. I would like to work as either of those options, before going back to school to get my certification in Sonography, which will help me become an Ultrasound Technician or Specialist, which will add physical health onto my list of skills that I am aiming for. Though my skills will not cater to just the LGBTQ+ community, I can advocate that I would never deny anyone of any help, regardless of status, gender, sexuality, and race, as most people and practices are infamously known for. The goal is to help any and everybody in need, and I would like to say that I feel that I can do this, with the right amount of education and time. I plan to make an impact on the world, little by little, starting with just my bachelors in Sociology, to my certification in Sonography, and finally ending with my masters is Sociology and Psychology.

Just as most women, I always dreamed of being a mother but never a single mother. My name is Soule Smith and I am a rising senior at Fayetteville State University. I am the mother to a beautiful baby boy that I was graced and blessed with by God, after many complications with my health, such as cancer and preeclampsia that caused my son to be born over two months early. Due to these complications, he was estimated to stay in the NICU for over two months, but was free to come home after only one month. I am a first generation college student of color, who is majoring in Sociology and Anthropology. The reason that I chose this major was to be able to reach out and help different individuals with mental, emotional, and spiritual health issues, which was issues that I faced since the beginning of my freshman year of college. The thought of helping people had always been the main motivation behind me attending school, before becoming a sociology major, I was an education major, because I knew I was going to aim to help people in any type of way that I can. After graduation, I plan to get my certificate in Sonography, so I can also work as an Ultrasound Technician, so I can add physical issues on my list of ways that I can help people’s health. If I were to be chosen for this scholarship, all of the money would be going into my education and into making myself able to obtain both my degree and certificate in all aspects. Along with the bachelors degree and the certification, I also aim to go back to school for my masters degree in sociology, while adding psychology onto my list of subjects. Though there’s a saying that money cannot buy you happiness, in which I can agree to an extent, I do feel that money can lead you towards the happiness that you dreamed of. For example, me achieving my goal of being able to help others in all aspects of health, which in turn would make me feel accomplished and happy. With everything that I have been through, I would like to be there for people who have been through the same situations, especially when it feels like nobody was there for me. I hope that I could achieve greatness for my son, myself; and for the others that I meet in the future.

To speak about adversity, one must know what it is and to me, adversity is defined as difficulties and/or misfortunes. Some of my adversities would include my overall health, especially when I arrived to my college campus. As a 2020 graduate from high school, I arrived to campus at the height of Covid-19, just like everyone else, I was concerned with my health and did everything I could to make sure I did not catch the virus. It was hardly well into my freshman year that I tested positive for the virus and was removed from my personal space and friends to a secluded dorm for isolation. As an outgoing and extroverted person who wanted to be involved on campus and in my community, this put a damper in my plans and in my mood and mental health. I stayed isolated for almost two weeks, missing out on my 18th birthday, as my friends and family did the best they could to support me from a distance. After that experience, I kept myself distanced from others, closing into myself and hardly coming out of my dorm. The first semester of freshman year came to an end, and over break, I decided that I was ready to start anew. My plans and goals were back on track, and I was ready to make up for the lost time in the previous semester. I started working and had planned on running for a position with the Student Government Association. It was then that I was hit with another adversity concerning my health, I had went to urgent care for chest pains and was sent to the hospital with news that I had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in its second stage. This discouraged me greatly and due to the demands of the chemotherapy treatments and doctor appointments, I was unable to run for any position as I wasn’t in the right state, physically and mentally. It seemed as though the odds were stacking up against me, my overall mental state was bad and my physical state was not any better. My grades began to slip and my focus shifted from my own health to the health of my son, as I discovered that I was also pregnant during my sophomore year. Everything started looking up after my prematurely born son was released from the NICU, it was towards the end of the second semester of my junior year. Just seeing him smile and laugh was enough to encourage me to do better, if not for myself, but for him. I managed to pull my grades back up, I finished out my last rounds of chemotherapy, and I was able to open back up to my friends and family about my issues. As a junior who’s taking summer classes to continue into my expected graduation class of 2024, I am maintaining straight A’s to pull my GPA up from the previous failure from my last semester. I wish to help young kids, especially minorities, who are struggling with their mental health. I want to give young boys and girls someone that they can talk to and open up to, something that I felt like I didn’t have. The struggles and adversities with my health made me realize that the urge to be better for myself and someone else is what made me want to switch my major from education to sociology, in general.

Integrating myself into my community and college campus is the most exciting and awarding thing about college. The ability to be able to join and try out for different organizations and clubs prompts the feeling of being involved and a part of something special. When it comes to college, it is important to make a positive name for yourself, especially if you want to have experiences that can last you for a lifetime, and that could potentially help you out, later in life. Though, these clubs and organizations could add on and cause one to feel overwhelmed and stressed, there are many ways to maintain a healthy mind, body, and soul amidst the challenges that are faced within school. In order to remain healthy, each aspect of you health must received the same amount of attention as the other, you cannot focus on just one aspect over the other. With that being said, some things that one can do to maintain a healthy mind is meditate, take some rest days from class, practicing self-care, and just going out with a few friends and having a day of just doing the things that you enjoy and love to do. Now, when it comes to a healthy body, it is more focus on the physical aspects, rather than the mental aspects like a healthy mind. Things like working out, eating healthy, maintaining a good diet, and staying hydrated keeps your body in top shape for the running around you may have to do for your college and community, if you are involved, or just for classes, in general. Taking care of the soul is a spiritual thing, not necessarily religion related but that could be an aspect, if you are a religious person, such as praying and attending a place of worship. For people who aren’t religious, maintaining a healthy soul can be achieved by connecting yourself with nature, practicing gratitude and compassion, calming your mind, and just making sure you receive the right amount of sleep that is required for someone of your caliber. All of these aspects: mind, body, and soul, are connected and you can’t focus on one without focusing on the other. Your health, as a whole, must remain balance and in order for you to achieve any sort of balance, you must practice either one or two of the things that could boost your overall health, one by one.

Mental health is seen and defined as a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being. This is one of the most important aspects of regarding how well a person is doing in life. When it comes to mental health and how it shapes and affects one’s goals, relationships, and understanding of the world, it is important to consider how heavy of a factor it is for all three, whether it is positive or negative effects. I can admit that as a child, I wasn’t educated in the factors and capabilities of what mental health could do to a person. It wasn’t until I got to college that I got the full rundown on what mental health truly is and how important it is. Coming into college as a freshman in the year of 2020, I was already dealing with worries due to Covid-19 and how difficult it was to fully understand the grasp of college being strictly online with restrictions. It wasn’t until I caught the illness that my mental health went downhill. I remained isolated from everyone for over two weeks, and during that time I struggled with focusing on classes and with maintaining relationships with the people outside of isolation. It didn’t matter that these people were considered my friends beforehand, what matter was that as a people’s person who strived through physical contact and communication, it was hard for me to just have that stripped away from me. After my results came back negative, I was expected to go back to my regular schedule, but I could hardly maintain the positive attitude that I had before Covid. It was hardly a couple months later, when I was hit with even more news: I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Though many people tend to say that I “got lucky”, because it wasn’t serious and it was treatable, that did little to nothing to ease my stress and worry. I manage to catch it early, sitting at stage 2 of the immune disease and it was one of the reasons I caught Covid so easily, as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma affects my immune system and limits my body’s ability to fight off infections. I went through chemotherapy for over 12 weeks, having to do multiple rounds once a week. It was draining and overwhelming, I was struggling between the affects of the chemotherapy and maintaining a good academic record for school as I was still only in my freshman year. Through it all, I successfully maintained a good record and was able to continue onto my sophomore year of college. As my mental state improved, I was hit with one more curveball, I was 5 months pregnant. The results came from a necessary pregnancy test that I would take before going into my appointments for my pet scan. I was only a sophomore in college, barely moving back onto campus when I got my results. The uncertainty crept back in and I was once again in the same state that I was in the last two times. With the support from my family, close friends, and father of my child, I was able to continue going, making sure that none of my physical state affects my academic performance. Though it prevented me from being involved on campus as I would like to, I don’t regret anything that I have been through. My son was born two months premature and had to reside in the NICU for over a month. While he was there, I was able to finish my chemotherapy and have been in remission for almost two years now. My son is now healthy and is almost two years old. Everything I went through got me to where I am now, and with my relationships, I was able to keep myself levelheaded, and I am now a senior at Fayetteville State University.