Growing up, my father wasn’t in my life much. He would randomly pop in and then disappear but when he was here, it never went well. It was just my mother and I. My mother tried her hardest to give me everything I needed in life. She got pregnant with me in her last year of college so she had to take time off from school to take care of me. She went back to school and got her bachelors in accounting and already had a job lined up for her. She worked hard and always got better offers from other jobs that caused us to jump from state to state. It never really affected me much growing up because I barely knew what was going on. My mother never let me know that we were struggling and living paycheck to paycheck. She always spoiled me and shielded me from what was really happening and I admired her for that. Due to her, I had an amazing childhood where I could focus on being a child and work on educating myself. My mom always motivated and supported me in anything I did. When I was required to learn an instrument in elementary school and I picked the violin, she would sit there and listen to me play. She never missed a single recital and always brought family members to come support me. When I made little crafts, she always encouraged me and praised how well and sturdy I made something. When I painted a piece of abstract art, she hung it up in the hallway so that the first thing people saw when they walked into our house was my painting. When I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor, chef, author and fashion designer. My aspirations have changed since then to being a mechanical engineer and she made me feel like I could be anything I wanted to be as long as I put the hard work in. While taking care of me, my mother managed to obtain a masters degree in Business Administration. Watching my mother reach for her goals motivated me to try and reach for mine. I worked hard to make sure that I passed all of my classes and I’m now on the same path as my mother as I’m attending her alma mater, Hofstra University. My mom tried to make sure I got the best education possible which is why I kept changing schools. My mom made me take a test when I was younger that would let me skip a grade and I passed the test and skipped a grade. This gave me a sense of confidence in myself as now I’m graduating at the age of 17 and this gave me a sense of determination as I had to now prove that I belonged in the grade I’m currently in. My mother instilled confidence in me and maintained it throughout my entire life. My family always had high hopes for me and motivated me and offered support at any opportunity. Ever since I committed, my mom has been worried about how I’m going to pay off all these debts but by winning this scholarship I can take some of the financial aid worry from her. This scholarship can help my mother and I not worry about all the debts I'll have to pay off by going to Hofstra and can help me move forward in my life without the dread of debt holding me back.

In the eighth grade, I wanted to hurt myself because of the stress I felt at school with taking advanced classes and I confided in my friend about my thoughts. He told the school counselor as he didn’t know what else he could do. The counselor called me out of lunch and took me to her office and made me talk about all the stress I was feeling and my previous trauma. She called my mother out of work and made us talk about why her only daughter wanted to take herself out of this world. I was almost hospitalized as my counselor feared that I was a danger to myself. At the age of 12, I didn’t understand why this was such a big deal, mostly because I didn’t think I was this important to anyone. I thought the lesson in this experience was to never confide in anyone and to keep everything bottled in but a couple years after this happened, I learned the real lesson. I learned that my actions and words affect other people. By confiding in my friend about my thoughts, I hurt his mental health in the process and caused him to make a drastic decison at such a young age. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t tell anyone how I feel but I should be mindful of what I'm saying and who I’m saying it to. Now I watch what I say and do around other people and make sure to stay mindful about how they may feel about what I’m going to say or do. After this experience, my mother became my safe haven. I tell her everything that’s going on in my life with no judgment. I learned that it’s ok to be stressed. Stress is a normal human emotion that everyone feels but how you deal with stress is what’s important. I learned healthy ways to cope with my daily life such as journaling. Journaling and writing out my feelings helps me cope with all my problems as it allows me to dissect and understand every point of view, helps me understand why I feel the way I feel and helps me come up with solutions for my problems. I can admit that I’m not healed enough to try therapy as the counselor experience made me feel as though I couldn’t ever confide in an official and made me not trust therapy but I hope to one day build the confidence to try therapy and continue to better myself. I learned to not bottle things up and instead, address my issues and move on as dwelling induces stress and helps no one. Even now, I still struggle with depression and this affects my personal life as I take days to respond to people’s messages because I don’t feel like talking to anyone and it affects my academics because I get lazy in regards to studying or doing homework but my friends always keep me on track and I’m extremely grateful for them. I’ve seen how bad mental health can destroy a person with myself, my family and my friends. I advocate for mental health by trying to help whoever comes to me with their problems. I’m not a therapist but I try to help as much as I can especially if someone doesn’t have access to therapy. I try to actively get better and try to help others get better. I give them a push in the right direction but if they choose to follow that direction is up to them.

Growing up, my father wasn’t in my life much. He would randomly pop in and then disappear but when he was here, it never went well. It was just my mother and I. My mother tried her hardest to give me everything I needed in life. She got pregnant with me in her last year of college so she had to take time off from school to take care of me. She went back to school and got her bachelors in accounting and already had a job lined up for her. She worked hard and always got better offers from other jobs that caused us to jump from state to state. It never really affected me much growing up because I barely knew what was going on. My mother never let me know that we were struggling and living paycheck to paycheck. She always spoiled me and shielded me from what was really happening and I admired her for that. Due to her, I had an amazing childhood where I could focus on being a child and work on educating myself. My mom always motivated and supported me in anything I did. When I was required to learn an instrument in elementary school and I picked the violin, she would sit there and listen to me play. She never missed a single recital and always brought family members to come support me. When I made little crafts, she always encouraged me and praised how well and sturdy I made something. When I painted a piece of abstract art, she hung it up in the hallway so that the first thing people saw when they walked into our house was my painting. When I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor, chef, author and fashion designer. My aspirations have changed since then to being a mechanical engineer and she made me feel like I could be anything I wanted to be as long as I put the hard work in. While taking care of me, my mother managed to obtain a masters degree in Business Administration. Watching my mother reach for her goals motivated me to try and reach for mine. I worked hard to make sure that I passed all of my classes and I’m now on the same path as my mother as I’m attending her alma mater, Hofstra University. My mom tried to make sure I got the best education possible which is why I kept changing schools. My mom made me take a test when I was younger that would let me skip a grade and I passed the test and skipped a grade. This gave me a sense of confidence in myself as now I’m graduating at the age of 17 and this gave me a sense of determination as I had to now prove that I belonged in the grade I’m currently in. My mother instilled confidence in me and maintained it throughout my entire life. She's always had high hopes for me, motivated me and offered support at any opportunity. I hope to show her that she wasn't wrong to instill all this hope in me and prove her right that I can be something great.

Growing up, my father wasn’t in my life much. He would randomly pop in and then disappear but when he was here, it never went well. It was just my mother and I. My mother tried her hardest to give me everything I needed in life. She got pregnant with me in her last year of college so she had to take time off from school to take care of me. She went back to school and got her bachelors in accounting and already had a job lined up for her. She worked hard and always got better offers from other jobs that caused us to jump from state to state. It never really affected me much growing up because I barely knew what was going on. My mother never let me know that we were struggling and living paycheck to paycheck. She always spoiled me and shielded me from what was really happening and I admired her for that. Due to her, I had an amazing childhood where I could focus on being a child and work on educating myself. My mom always motivated and supported me in anything I did. When I was required to learn an instrument in elementary school and I picked the violin, she would sit there and listen to me play. She never missed a single recital and always brought family members to come support me. When I made little crafts, she always encouraged me and praised how well and sturdy I made something. When I painted a piece of abstract art, she hung it up in the hallway so that the first thing people saw when they walked into our house was my painting. When I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor, chef, author and fashion designer. My aspirations have changed since then to being a mechanical engineer and she made me feel like I could be anything I wanted to be as long as I put the hard work in. While taking care of me, my mother managed to obtain a masters degree in Business Administration. Watching my mother reach for her goals motivated me to try and reach for mine. I worked hard to make sure that I passed all of my classes and I’m now on the same path as my mother as I’m attending her alma mater, Hofstra University. My mom tried to make sure I got the best education possible which is why I kept changing schools. My mom made me take a test when I was younger that would let me skip a grade and I passed the test and skipped a grade. This gave me a sense of confidence in myself as now I’m graduating at the age of 17 and this gave me a sense of determination as I had to now prove that I belonged in the grade I’m currently in. My mother instilled confidence in me and maintained it throughout my entire life. My family always had high hopes for me and motivated me and offered support at any opportunity. I hope to show my family that they weren’t wrong to instill all this hope in me and prove them right that I can be something great.

Growing up, my father wasn’t in my life much. He would randomly pop in and then disappear but when he was here, it never went well. It was just my mother and I. My mother tried her hardest to give me everything I needed in life. She got pregnant with me in her last year of college so she had to take time off from school to take care of me. She went back to school and got her bachelors in accounting and already had a job lined up for her. She worked hard and always got better offers from other jobs that caused us to jump from state to state. It never really affected me much growing up because I barely knew what was going on. My mother never let me know that we were struggling and living paycheck to paycheck. She always spoiled me and shielded me from what was really happening and I admired her for that. Due to her, I had an amazing childhood where I could focus on being a child and work on educating myself. My mom always motivated and supported me in anything I did. When I was required to learn an instrument in elementary school and I picked the violin, she would sit there and listen to me play. She never missed a single recital and always brought family members to come support me. When I made little crafts, she always encouraged me and praised how well and sturdy I made something. When I painted a piece of abstract art, she hung it up in the hallway so that the first thing people saw when they walked into our house was my painting. When I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor, chef, author and fashion designer. My aspirations have changed since then to being a mechanical engineer and she made me feel like I could be anything I wanted to be as long as I put the hard work in. While taking care of me, my mother managed to obtain a masters degree in Business Administration. Watching my mother reach for her goals motivated me to try and reach for mine. I worked hard to make sure that I passed all of my classes and I’m now on the same path as my mother as I’m attending her alma mater, Hofstra University. My mom tried to make sure I got the best education possible which is why I kept changing schools. My mom made me take a test when I was younger that would let me skip a grade and I passed the test and skipped a grade. This gave me a sense of confidence in myself as now I’m graduating at the age of 17 and this gave me a sense of determination as I had to now prove that I belonged in the grade I’m currently in. My mother instilled confidence in me and maintained it throughout my entire life. My family always had high hopes for me and motivated me and offered support at any opportunity. I hope to show my family that they weren’t wrong to instill all this hope in me and prove them right that I can be something great.

Growing up, my father wasn’t in my life much. He would randomly pop in and then disappear but when he was here, it never went well. It was just my mother and I. My mother tried her hardest to give me everything I needed in life. She got pregnant with me in her last year of college so she had to take time off from school to take care of me. She went back to school and got her bachelors in accounting and already had a job lined up for her. She worked hard and always got better offers from other jobs that caused us to jump from state to state. It never really affected me much growing up because I barely knew what was going on. My mother never let me know that we were struggling and living paycheck to paycheck. She always spoiled me and shielded me from what was really happening and I admired her for that. Due to her, I had an amazing childhood where I could focus on being a child and work on educating myself. My mom always motivated and supported me in anything I did. When I was required to learn an instrument in elementary school and I picked the violin, she would sit there and listen to me play. She never missed a single recital and always brought family members to come support me. When I made little crafts, she always encouraged me and praised how well and sturdy I made something. When I painted a piece of abstract art, she hung it up in the hallway so that the first thing people saw when they walked into our house was my painting. When I was younger, I wanted to be a doctor, chef, author and fashion designer. My aspirations have changed since then to being a mechanical engineer and she made me feel like I could be anything I wanted to be as long as I put the hard work in. While taking care of me, my mother managed to obtain a masters degree in Business Administration. Watching my mother reach for her goals motivated me to try and reach for mine. I worked hard to make sure that I passed all of my classes and I’m now on the same path as my mother as I’m attending her alma mater, Hofstra University. My mom tried to make sure I got the best education possible which is why I kept changing schools. My mom made me take a test when I was younger that would let me skip a grade and I passed the test and skipped a grade. This gave me a sense of confidence in myself as now I’m graduating at the age of 17 and this gave me a sense of determination as I had to now prove that I belonged in the grade I’m currently in. My mother instilled confidence in me and maintained it throughout my entire life. My family always had high hopes for me and motivated me and offered support at any opportunity. Ever since I committed, my mom has been worried about how I’m going to pay off all these debts but by winning this scholarship I can take some of the financial aid worry from her. This scholarship can help me show my family that they weren’t wrong to instill all this hope in me and prove them right that I can be something great.

In the eighth grade, I wanted to hurt myself because of the stress I felt at school with taking advanced classes and I confided in my friend about my thoughts. He told the school counselor as he didn’t know what else he could do. The counselor called me out of lunch and took me to her office and made me talk about all the stress I was feeling and my previous trauma. She called my mother out of work and made us talk about why her only daughter wanted to take herself out of this world. I was almost hospitalized as my counselor feared that I was a danger to myself. At the age of 12, I didn’t understand why this was such a big deal, mostly because I didn’t think I was this important to anyone. I thought the lesson in this experience was to never confide in anyone and to keep everything bottled in but a couple years after this happened, I learned the real lesson. I learned that my actions and words affect other people. By confiding in my friend about my thoughts, I hurt his mental health in the process and caused him to make a drastic decison at such a young age. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t tell anyone how I feel but I should be mindful of what I'm saying and who I’m saying it to. Now I watch what I say and do around other people and make sure to stay mindful about how they may feel about what I’m going to say or do. After this experience, my mother became my safe haven. I tell her everything that’s going on in my life with no judgment. I learned that it’s ok to be stressed. Stress is a normal human emotion that everyone feels but how you deal with stress is what’s important. I learned healthy ways to cope with my daily life such as journaling. Journaling and writing out my feelings helps me cope with all my problems as it allows me to dissect and understand every point of view, helps me understand why I feel the way I feel and helps me come up with solutions for my problems. I can admit that I’m not healed enough to try therapy as the counselor experience made me feel as though I couldn’t ever confide in an official and made me not trust therapy but I hope to one day build the confidence to try therapy and continue to better myself. I learned to not bottle things up and instead, address my issues and move on as dwelling induces stress and helps no one. Even now, I still struggle with depression and this affects my personal life as I take days to respond to people’s messages because I don’t feel like talking to anyone and it affects my academics because I get lazy in regards to studying or doing homework but my friends always keep me on track and I’m extremely grateful for them. I remind myself that no one deserves to be ignored and that my grades need to be improved so that I can go to a good college and so that I can feel the satisfaction that every day I’m actively bettering myself. I’ll never be perfect mentally but I never plan to be. I try to get better actively and that's enough for me.

In the eighth grade, I wanted to hurt myself because of the stress I felt at school with taking advanced classes and I confided in my friend about my thoughts. He told the school counselor as he didn’t know what else he could do. The counselor called me out of lunch and took me to her office and made me talk about all the stress I was feeling and my previous trauma. She called my mother out of work and made us talk about why her only daughter wanted to take herself out of this world. I was almost hospitalized as my counselor feared that I was a danger to myself. At the age of 12, I didn’t understand why this was such a big deal, mostly because I didn’t think I was this important to anyone. I thought the lesson in this experience was to never confide in anyone and to keep everything bottled in but a couple years after this happened, I learned the real lesson. I learned that my actions and words affect other people. By confiding in my friend about my thoughts, I hurt his mental health in the process and caused him to make a drastic decison at such a young age. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t tell anyone how I feel but I should be mindful of what I'm saying and who I’m saying it to. Now I watch what I say and do around other people and make sure to stay mindful about how they may feel about what I’m going to say or do. After this experience, my mother became my safe haven. I tell her everything that’s going on in my life with no judgment. I learned that it’s ok to be stressed. Stress is a normal human emotion that everyone feels but how you deal with stress is what’s important. I learned healthy ways to cope with my daily life such as journaling. Journaling and writing out my feelings helps me cope with all my problems as it allows me to dissect and understand every point of view, helps me understand why I feel the way I feel and helps me come up with solutions for my problems. I can admit that I’m not healed enough to try therapy as the counselor experience made me feel as though I couldn’t ever confide in an official and made me not trust therapy but I hope to one day build the confidence to try therapy and continue to better myself. I learned to not bottle things up and instead, address my issues and move on as dwelling induces stress and helps no one. Even now, I still struggle with depression and this affects my personal life as I take days to respond to people’s messages because I don’t feel like talking to anyone and it affects my academics because I get lazy in regards to studying or doing homework but my friends always keep me on track and I’m extremely grateful for them. I remind myself that no one deserves to be ignored and that my grades need to be improved so that I can go to a good college and so that I can feel the satisfaction that every day I’m actively bettering myself. I’ll never be perfect mentally but I never plan to be. I try to get better actively and that's enough for me.

When I first stepped into my engineering class my sophomore year of high school, I had a scary realization. In a class of about 30 people, there were five girls and only two were black, including me. I always knew that the engineering field was a white, male dominated field, as my uncle had told me this from a young age, but seeing it for myself I couldn’t believe it. In this classroom, I was even more of a minority than I was in my other classes. There were six black people, me included, in my engineering class and even fewer black girls. I’ve always wanted to see more black people in general spaces, which is why I originally wanted to go to a historically black university or move to a city with a majority black population. The girls in my engineering class hated engineering because it was a male-dominated class where the men would sometimes be torturous. Acting as if the women in class weren’t capable of making a simple cardboard chair, making sexist jokes, racist jokes and more. I began to hate engineering because of all the racist boys in that class saying the "n word" and making jokes at black people's expense. The women started to stick together for all projects because we knew that we wouldn’t cast each other to the side. We started to call engineering the “social experiment” and the “testosterone filled” class. After this, I wanted to try and get more black people and more women into engineering so that the black people and women who are pursuing STEM feel more comfortable since there's someone there that can relate to them. Many black people think that they don’t belong in many places since there’s barely any black people in those spaces but especially black girls feel ostracized and that they don’t belong. Many women feel as though they shouldn't pursue a STEM field because of the fact that it's male dominated. By going to college, I would want to try and get more black people to be interested in engineering and show the black community all the opportunities that they have available and that they shouldn’t limit themselves to one thing because they think that that is all they're good at. I believe that by implementing engineering principles when children are young, then they feel as though they have the ability to do anything. I want to pursue a career in STEM to show that a black woman can have a successful career and to disprove stereotypes. Despite all the possible prejudice I may face in my career, I plan on making engineering a more diverse space and plan to debunk stereotypes about black people and women.

When I first stepped into my engineering class my sophomore year of high school, I had a scary realization. In a class of about 30 people, there were five girls and only two were black, including me. I always knew that the engineering field was a white, male dominated field, as my uncle had told me this from a young age, but seeing it for myself I couldn’t believe it. In this classroom, I was even more of a minority than I was in my other classes. There were six black people, me included, in my engineering class and even fewer black girls. I’ve always wanted to see more black people in general spaces, which is why I originally wanted to go to a historically black university or move to a city with a majority black population. The girls in my engineering class hated engineering because it was a male-dominated class where the men would sometimes be torturous. Acting as if the women in class weren’t capable of making a simple cardboard chair, making sexist jokes, racist jokes and more. I began to hate engineering because of all the racist boys in that class saying the "n word" and making jokes at black people's expense. The women started to stick together for all projects because we knew that we wouldn’t cast each other to the side. We started to call engineering the “social experiment” and the “testosterone filled” class. After this, I wanted to try and get more black people and more women into engineering so that the black people and women who are pursuing STEM feel more comfortable since there's someone there that can relate to them. Many black people think that they don’t belong in many places since there’s barely any black people in those spaces but especially black girls feel ostracized and that they don’t belong. Many women feel as though they shouldn't pursue a STEM field because of the fact that it's male dominated. By going to college, I would want to try and get more black people to be interested in engineering and show the black community all the opportunities that they have available and that they shouldn’t limit themselves to one thing because they think that that is all they're good at. I believe that by implementing engineering principles when children are young, then they feel as though they have the ability to do anything. I want to pursue a career in STEM to show that a black woman can have a successful career and to disprove stereotypes. Despite all the possible prejudice I may face in my career, I plan on making engineering a more diverse space and plan to debunk stereotypes about black people and women.

In my Advanced Placement United States History class, I was on the brink of failing. I would always fail the tests and I only passed the class because I always did the homework so it balanced out. I even asked my counselor if I could transfer out of the class because I was scared of failing and that class tanking my GPA. As May and my test approached, the thought of the AP test loomed over me. I was so worried that I would fail the test and I knew the way I studied now wasn’t working so I tried a new studying technique. Social media told me about a man on Youtube named Heimler's History and how he would always post reviews for each APUSH chapter on his channel. Everyone raved about how he saved their lives in their classes. The study technique I came up with was watching each chapter review and taking notes on them since I learned in my AP Psychology class that writing helps you retain the knowledge better. I did this for an entire month and studied whenever I had free time. I studied in class, at my moms job, at home, even on the bus. I even had study sessions with my friends that were also taking the class and we would practice our writing and multiple choice. Heimler’s videos were always in extreme detail and this helped me on the test because I was able to remember the smallest details. When I sat down in the test room, I felt prepared. I opened the test and applied all the knowledge that I had studied an entire month for. I left that test room feeling confident and two months later when the scores came out, I had gotten a four. This was the first four I had ever gotten on an AP test and knowing that I got it on one of the hardest AP tests made me feel a great sense of accomplishment because all the hard work paid off. This challenge affected me because I realized that if you work hard it always pays off. I knew this lesson before but I finally applied it to my life and saw the payout. Ever since then, I knew that studying method worked for me and I’ve been applying it and it always works out. Even now in my AP Government and Politics class, I binge watch Heimler's videos and take notes and it still pays off.

When I first stepped into my engineering class my sophomore year of high school, I had a scary realization. In a class of about 30 people, there were five girls and only two were black, including me. I always knew that the engineering field was a white, male dominated field, as my uncle had told me this from a young age, but seeing it for myself I couldn’t believe it. In this classroom, I was even more of a minority than I was in my other classes. There were six black people, me included, in my engineering class and even fewer black girls. I’ve always wanted to see more black people in general spaces, which is why I originally wanted to go to a historically black university or move to a city with a majority black population. The girls in my engineering class hated engineering because it was a male-dominated class where the men would sometimes be torturous. Acting as if the women in class weren’t capable of making a simple cardboard chair, making sexist jokes, racist jokes and more. I began to hate engineering because of all the racist boys in that class saying the "n word" and making jokes at black people's expense. The women started to stick together for all projects because we knew that we wouldn’t cast each other to the side. We started to call engineering the “social experiment” and the “testosterone filled” class. After this, I wanted to try and get more black people and more women into engineering so that the black people and women who are pursuing STEM feel more comfortable since there's someone there that can relate to them. Many black people think that they don’t belong in many places since there’s barely any black people in those spaces but especially black girls feel ostracized and that they don’t belong. Many women feel as though they shouldn't pursue a STEM field because of the fact that it's male dominated. By going to college, I would want to try and get more black people to be interested in engineering and show the black community all the opportunities that they have available and that they shouldn’t limit themselves to one thing because they think that that is all they're good at. I believe that by implementing engineering principles when children are young, then they feel as though they have the ability to do anything. I want to pursue a career in STEM to show that a black woman can have a successful career and to disprove stereotypes. Despite all the possible prejudice I may face in my career, I plan on making engineering a more diverse space and plan to debunk stereotypes about black people and women.

When I first stepped into my engineering class my sophomore year of high school, I had a scary realization. In a class of about 30 people, there were five girls and only two were black, including me. I always knew that the engineering field was a white, male dominated field, as my uncle had told me this from a young age, but seeing it for myself I couldn’t believe it. In this classroom, I was even more of a minority than I was in my other classes. There were six black people, me included, in my engineering class and even fewer black girls. I’ve always wanted to see more black people in general spaces, which is why I originally wanted to go to a historically black university or move to a city with a majority black population. The girls in my engineering class hated engineering because it was a male-dominated class where the men would sometimes be torturous. Acting as if the women in class weren’t capable of making a simple cardboard chair, making sexist jokes, racist jokes and more. I began to hate engineering because of all the racist boys in that class saying the "n word" and making jokes at black people's expense. The women started to stick together for all projects because we knew that we wouldn’t cast each other to the side. We started to call engineering the “social experiment” and the “testosterone filled” class. After this, I wanted to try and get more black people and more women into engineering so that the black people and women who are pursuing STEM feel more comfortable since there's someone there that can relate to them. Many black people think that they don’t belong in many places since there’s barely any black people in those spaces but especially black girls feel ostracized and that they don’t belong. Many women feel as though they shouldn't pursue a STEM field because of the fact that it's male dominated. By going to college, I would want to try and get more black people to be interested in engineering and show the black community all the opportunities that they have available and that they shouldn’t limit themselves to one thing because they think that that is all they're good at. I believe that by implementing engineering principles when children are young, then they feel as though they have the ability to do anything. I want to pursue a career in STEM to show that a black woman can have a successful career and to disprove stereotypes. Despite all the possible prejudice I may face in my career, I plan on making engineering a more diverse space and plan to debunk stereotypes about black people and women. In the face of prejudice I always either advocate for my opinion on topics or I tune it out because it's not worth listening to. I'm passionate about engineering because it's a kind of field that allows you to create anything and leaves room for imagination.

When I first stepped into my engineering class my sophomore year of high school, I had a scary realization. In a class of about 30 people, there were five girls and only two were black, including me. I always knew that the engineering field was a white, male dominated field, as my uncle had told me this from a young age, but seeing it for myself I couldn’t believe it. In this classroom, I was even more of a minority than I was in my other classes. There were six black people, me included, in my engineering class and even fewer black girls. I’ve always wanted to see more black people in general spaces, which is why I originally wanted to go to a historically black university or move to a city with a majority black population. The girls in my engineering class hated engineering because it was a male-dominated class where the men would sometimes be torturous. Acting as if the women in class weren’t capable of making a simple cardboard chair, making sexist jokes, racist jokes and more. I began to hate engineering because of all the racist boys in that class saying the "n word" and making jokes at black people's expense. The women started to stick together for all projects because we knew that we wouldn’t cast each other to the side. We started to call engineering the “social experiment” and the “testosterone filled” class. After this, I wanted to try and get more black people and more women into engineering so that the black people and women who are pursuing STEM feel more comfortable since there's someone there that can relate to them. Many black people think that they don’t belong in many places since there’s barely any black people in those spaces but especially black girls feel ostracized and that they don’t belong. Many women feel as though they shouldn't pursue a STEM field because of the fact that it's male dominated. By going to college, I would want to try and get more black people to be interested in engineering and show the black community all the opportunities that they have available and that they shouldn’t limit themselves to one thing because they think that that is all they're good at. I believe that by implementing engineering principles when children are young, then they feel as though they have the ability to do anything. I want to pursue a career in STEM to show that a black woman can have a successful career and to disprove stereotypes. Despite all the possible prejudice I may face in my career, I plan on making engineering a more diverse space and plan to debunk stereotypes about black people and women.

In the eighth grade, I wanted to hurt myself because of the stress I felt at school with taking advanced classes and I confided in my friend about my thoughts. He told the school counselor as he didn’t know what else he could do. The counselor called me out of lunch and took me to her office and made me talk about all the stress I was feeling and my previous trauma. She called my mother out of work and made us talk about why her only daughter wanted to take herself out of this world. I was almost hospitalized as my counselor feared that I was a danger to myself. At the age of 12, I didn’t understand why this was such a big deal, mostly because I didn’t think I was this important to anyone. I thought the lesson in this experience was to never confide in anyone and to keep everything bottled in but a couple years after this happened, I learned the real lesson. I learned that my actions and words affect other people. By confiding in my friend about my thoughts, I hurt his mental health in the process and caused him to make a drastic decison at such a young age. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t tell anyone how I feel but I should be mindful of what I'm saying and who I’m saying it to. Now I watch what I say and do around other people and make sure to stay mindful about how they may feel about what I’m going to say or do. After this experience, my mother became my safe haven. I tell her everything that’s going on in my life with no judgment. I learned that it’s ok to be stressed. Stress is a normal human emotion that everyone feels but how you deal with stress is what’s important. I learned healthy ways to cope with my daily life such as journaling. Journaling and writing out my feelings helps me cope with all my problems as it allows me to dissect and understand every point of view, helps me understand why I feel the way I feel and helps me come up with solutions for my problems. I can admit that I’m not healed enough to try therapy as the counselor experience made me feel as though I couldn’t ever confide in an official and made me not trust therapy but I hope to one day build the confidence to try therapy and continue to better myself. I learned to not bottle things up and instead, address my issues and move on as dwelling induces stress and helps no one. Even now, I still struggle with depression and this affects my personal life as I take days to respond to people’s messages because I don’t feel like talking to anyone and it affects my academics because I get lazy in regards to studying or doing homework but my friends always keep me on track and I’m extremely grateful for them. I remind myself that no one deserves to be ignored and that my grades need to be improved so that I can go to a good college and so that I can feel the satisfaction that every day I’m actively bettering myself. I’ll never be perfect mentally but I never plan to be. I try to get better actively and that's enough for me.

In the eighth grade, I wanted to hurt myself because of the stress I felt at school with taking advanced classes and I confided in my friend about my thoughts. He told the school counselor as he didn’t know what else he could do. The counselor called me out of lunch and took me to her office and made me talk about all the stress I was feeling and my previous trauma. She called my mother out of work and made us talk about why her only daughter wanted to take herself out of this world. I was almost hospitalized as my counselor feared that I was a danger to myself. At the age of 12, I didn’t understand why this was such a big deal, mostly because I didn’t think I was this important to anyone. I thought the lesson in this experience was to never confide in anyone and to keep everything bottled in but a couple years after this happened, I learned the real lesson. I learned that my actions and words affect other people. By confiding in my friend about my thoughts, I hurt his mental health in the process and caused him to make a drastic decison at such a young age. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t tell anyone how I feel but I should be mindful of what I'm saying and who I’m saying it to. Now I watch what I say and do around other people and make sure to stay mindful about how they may feel about what I’m going to say or do. After this experience, my mother became my safe haven. I tell her everything that’s going on in my life with no judgment. I learned that it’s ok to be stressed. Stress is a normal human emotion that everyone feels but how you deal with stress is what’s important. I learned healthy ways to cope with my daily life such as journaling. Journaling and writing out my feelings helps me cope with all my problems as it allows me to dissect and understand every point of view, helps me understand why I feel the way I feel and helps me come up with solutions for my problems. I can admit that I’m not healed enough to try therapy as the counselor experience made me feel as though I couldn’t ever confide in an official and made me not trust therapy but I hope to one day build the confidence to try therapy and continue to better myself. I learned to not bottle things up and instead, address my issues and move on as dwelling induces stress and helps no one. Even now, I still struggle with depression and this affects my personal life as I take days to respond to people’s messages because I don’t feel like talking to anyone and it affects my academics because I get lazy in regards to studying or doing homework but my friends always keep me on track and I’m extremely grateful for them. I remind myself that no one deserves to be ignored and that my grades need to be improved so that I can go to a good college and so that I can feel the satisfaction that every day I’m actively bettering myself. I’ll never be perfect mentally but I never plan to be. I try to get better actively and that's enough for me.

In the eighth grade, I wanted to hurt myself because of the stress I felt at school with taking advanced classes and I confided in my friend about my thoughts. He told the school counselor as he didn’t know what else he could do. The counselor called me out of lunch and took me to her office and made me talk about all the stress I was feeling and my previous trauma. She called my mother out of work and made us talk about why her only daughter wanted to take herself out of this world. I was almost hospitalized as my counselor feared that I was a danger to myself. At the age of 12, I didn’t understand why this was such a big deal, mostly because I didn’t think I was this important to anyone. I thought the lesson in this experience was to never confide in anyone and to keep everything bottled in but a couple years after this happened, I learned the real lesson. I learned that my actions and words affect other people. By confiding in my friend about my thoughts, I hurt his mental health in the process and caused him to make a drastic decison at such a young age. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t tell anyone how I feel but I should be mindful of what I'm saying and who I’m saying it to. Now I watch what I say and do around other people and make sure to stay mindful about how they may feel about what I’m going to say or do. After this experience, my mother became my safe haven. I tell her everything that’s going on in my life with no judgment. I learned that it’s ok to be stressed. Stress is a normal human emotion that everyone feels but how you deal with stress is what’s important. I learned healthy ways to cope with my daily life such as journaling. Journaling and writing out my feelings helps me cope with all my problems as it allows me to dissect and understand every point of view, helps me understand why I feel the way I feel and helps me come up with solutions for my problems. I can admit that I’m not healed enough to try therapy as the counselor experience made me feel as though I couldn’t ever confide in an official and made me not trust therapy but I hope to one day build the confidence to try therapy and continue to better myself. I learned to not bottle things up and instead, address my issues and move on as dwelling induces stress and helps no one. Even now, I still struggle with depression and this affects my personal life as I take days to respond to people’s messages because I don’t feel like talking to anyone and it affects my academics because I get lazy in regards to studying or doing homework but my friends always keep me on track and I’m extremely grateful for them. I remind myself that no one deserves to be ignored and that my grades need to be improved so that I can go to a good college and so that I can feel the satisfaction that every day I’m actively bettering myself. I’ll never be perfect mentally but I never plan to be but I try to get better actively and that's enough for me.

When I first stepped into my engineering class my sophomore year after coming back from the COVID pandemic and online school, I had a scary realization. In a class of thirty people, there were five girls and only two were black, including me. I always knew that the engineering field was male dominated, as my uncle had told me this from a young age, but seeing it for myself I couldn’t believe it. In this classroom, I was even more of a minority than I was in my other classes. There were four black people, me included, and even fewer black girls. Even the girls in my engineering class dreaded going to engineering because of the fact that it was a male-dominated class where the men would sometimes be torturous. Acting as if the women in class weren’t capable of soldering a few wires into a circuit board, making sexist jokes, racist jokes, bothering the girls to the point where they couldn't focus on their work and more. The women started to stick together for all projects because we knew that we wouldn’t cast each other to the side and because we didn't want to deal with the men's comments. We started to call engineering the “social experiment” and the “testosterone filled” class. After these experiences, I wanted to try and get more black people and women into engineering so that other women and black people could feel safe and welcome in STEM spaces. Many black people think that they don’t belong in many places since there’s barely any black people in those spaces but especially black girls feel ostracized and that they don’t belong. Many women don't want to pursue STEM fields because of the fact that it's mostly men in STEM spaces, the pay gap between men and women especially black women and white men and because it doesn't seem worth it to go through years of mental torment from said male peers in both college and the workplace. In my career, I would want to try and get more black people and women to be interested in engineering and show them all the opportunities that they have available and that they shouldn’t limit themselves to one thing because they think that that is all they're good at or because of stereotypes. I believe that by implementing engineering principles when children are young, then they feel as though they have the ability to do anything. My goal in my engineering career is to make engineering a more diverse place.

When I first stepped into my engineering class my sophomore year after coming back from the COVID pandemic and online school, I had a scary realization. In a class of thirty people, there were five girls and only two were black, including me. I always knew that the engineering field was male dominated, as my uncle had told me this from a young age, but seeing it for myself I couldn’t believe it. In this classroom, I was even more of a minority than I was in my other classes. There were four black people, me included, and even fewer black girls. Even the girls in my engineering class dreaded going to engineering because of the fact that it was a male-dominated class where the men would sometimes be torturous. Acting as if the women in class weren’t capable of soldering a few wires into a circuit board, making sexist jokes, racist jokes, bothering the girls to the point where they couldn't focus on their work and more. The women started to stick together for all projects because we knew that we wouldn’t cast each other to the side and because we didn't want to deal with the men's comments. We started to call engineering the “social experiment” and the “testosterone filled” class. After these experiences, I wanted to try and get more black people and women into engineering so that other women and black people could feel safe and welcome in STEM spaces. Many black people think that they don’t belong in many places since there’s barely any black people in those spaces but especially black girls feel ostracized and that they don’t belong. Many women don't want to pursue STEM fields because of the fact that it's mostly men in STEM spaces, the pay gap between men and women especially black women and white men and because it doesn't seem worth it to go through years of mental torment from said male peers in both college and the workplace. In my career, I would want to try and get more black people and women to be interested in engineering and show them all the opportunities that they have available and that they shouldn’t limit themselves to one thing because they think that that is all they're good at or because of stereotypes. I believe that by implementing engineering principles when children are young, then they feel as though they have the ability to do anything. My goal in my engineering career is to make engineering a more diverse place.

In my Advanced Placement United States History class, I was on the brink of failing. I would always fail the tests and I only passed the class because I always did the homework so it balanced out. I even asked my counselor if I could transfer out of the class because I was scared of failing and that class tanking my GPA. As May and my test approached, the thought of the AP test loomed over me. I was so worried that I would fail the test and I knew the way I studied now wasn’t working so I tried a new studying technique. Social media told me about a man on Youtube named Heimler's History and how he would always post reviews for each APUSH chapter on his channel. Everyone raved about how he saved their lives in their classes. The study technique I came up with was watching each chapter review and taking notes on them since I learned in my AP Psychology class that writing helps you retain the knowledge better. I did this for an entire month and studied whenever I had free time. I studied in class, at my moms job, at home, even on the bus. I even had study sessions with my friends that were also taking the class and we would practice our writing and multiple choice. Heimler’s videos were always in extreme detail and this helped me on the test because I was able to remember the smallest details. When I sat down in the test room, I felt prepared. I opened the test and applied all the knowledge that I had studied an entire month for. I left that test room feeling confident and two months later when the scores came out, I had gotten a four. This was the first four I had ever gotten on an AP test and knowing that I got it on one of the hardest AP tests made me feel a great sense of accomplishment because all the hard work paid off. This challenge affected me because I realized that if you work hard it always pays off. I knew this lesson before but I finally applied it to my life and saw the payout. Ever since then, I knew that studying method worked for me and I’ve been applying it and it always works out. Even now in my AP Government and Politics class, I binge watch Heimler's videos and take notes and it still pays off.