I completed one full semester of my undergraduate journey the fall of 2021 at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University before returning to school and conceiving my first child at the age of 18 at a time of deep depression. I am a first generation college student majoring in Psychology who had countless dreams about my future that never included a child at such a young age. Due to pregnancy symptoms, the common energy loss, sickness, and moodiness I eventually stopped going to certain classes, could care less about studying, I lost friends, and I was then diagnosed with antepartum depression. I always saw myself as the "rich auntie" who would one day get my PsyD then eventually have kids but there were other plans in store for me. It took many long sleepless nights and many days full of crying to think long and hard about the new reality I would be facing. I decided that I would continue with school and show my son that anything is possible. After my last semester I endured while pregnant, I ended on the Chancellor's list despite all the doubt I had about myself. I returned home with a goal of graduating a semester early and the work began soon after, I started summer courses receiving an A in each of them and still managed to serve my community through my nonprofit organization, Project Hygiene Haul. Many people see teen pregnancy as a handicap, but I see it as my motivation to wake up and be a better me every single day. As I await the arrival of my baby boy, Bryson in October 2022, it pushes me to be a better student so he will not have to be a first generation college student or live a life in poverty. If selected, I will advocate for the mental and financial wellbeing of expecting and parenting student at all HBCUs. I will find resources available that will help those find adequate financial help whether that is WIC, Welfare, or scholarships to pay for school. As a Psychology student, I have become a big mental health advocate and I will graciously share my story with all the parents and use it as a reassurance for them to know that they are okay, this is not the end of your story. Being able to be apart of someone else's support system will make winning this scholarship 100% worth it.

In 5 years I will be a new and improved Zakhyia Eagleton, a college graduate, graduating with two degrees in psychology and nursing. I will be inspired to continue my education and begin PA school. Many people will begin to know who I am due to my contributions to society. In 5 years, I would have donated many hours of my time to help those in need. I would have started up my app for the homeless, uninsured, and those living in poverty to give them free healthcare. Over the next 5 years, I will become more passionate about helping people get to where they want to be. In 5 years I will still be the reason my mom smiles because she did a good job raising two kids all alone. I grew up with a single parent but I never allowed that to stop me from being the best I can be. Despite the life she lived and where we came from, she was able to give us the best life. I will use the life I lived and begin to help those who are still struggling. Many times I found it hard to be able to reach my full potential coming from a low-income home with one parent because I saw many people that had two parents and everything they could ever want. Everybody deserves a fair chance at making it out, but because of the social class many people miss their opportunity. 5 years from today, I will continue to be my siblings' role model. I have three younger siblings who all look up to me. I will continue to show them that you can make anything out of nothing. In the next few years, I will set my siblings up for success, they will have the connections they need to be prepared for their future and just life skills that we will never learn in grades K-12. I want them to know that anything is possible although we came from Florence, SC, a very small town. My siblings will be better than me, I will always encourage them to take the next step and do what I was too afraid to do. In 5 years or less, I will keep my nonprofit organization going, Making HERstory. I started it in November 2018 and I see it continuing on, spreading it around the country, and it becoming well known for its community service component. I will take girl empowerment to another level and I will be happy doing it. I have always dreamed of becoming a motivational speaker and by being a founder and president of my own girls group, I was able to fulfill that dream. All things considered, in 5 years I will be happy serving my community and embracing where I come from because those are the things that built me into the person I am. I desire to inspire young girls who grew up struggling to become bigger in the world. I will be successful with my degrees and I will be continuing my education due to the fact that I know there is more work I can do in the world. Beginning a journey to be remembered in the world is something I aspire to do because I want people to look at the good I caused and want to do more. I will be one of the first black women to cure cancer, cancer took one of my bestfriends very early and when I was young I told her mom I would stop people from ending up where she went because of it. I want my mom to know she did an amazing job raising me alone even when it was impossible. I want my siblings to rise above the stereotypes and become better than me. I dream to be a new and improved Zakhyia Eagleton in 5 years.

Over the years I was unsure how to properly love myself. I brought myself down every chance I got, hated the way I looked, and I didn’t take care of me. I waited on others to lift me up instead of trying to learn how to fix myself. It took time to learn these things, I attended different clubs, different seminars, and therapy sessions all in hopes of eventually learning to love who I was inside and out. Self love did not come easily but once I found what it looked like, I could not have been more happier. While learning to love and accept myself, I started a girls empowerment group Making HERstory where I taught other girls how to love and accept themselves. I was able to help other females who were struggling with the same things I once struggled with. Being able to help others love themselves taught me different ways to appreciate who I was and different coping mechanisms when dealing with it. After starting this group, I realized I was meant to help others so I found another girls club, Brown Girls Big Things and I became Vice President then a year later I was named President. These two clubs aligned with my aspirations of one day becoming a womens empowerment advocate. My journey to love and accept myself both positively and negatively affected my relationships. Some relationships failed because I learned you can’t love others without first loving yourself, I was too far in the hole of not accepting who I was. On a positive side, many of my relationships helped me find out who I was and that impacted my journey of loving myself. Although I was negatively impacted with some relationships, each one taught me more about myself and how to go on about accepting myself. My journey as a whole introduced me to new people, opportunities, and strategies that would all allow me to learn who I was and love my true authentic self.

Mental illness has been one of my biggest struggles over the past few years. My battle with my mental health began to spiral out of control once I began to lose myself and my way with a lot of things. In 2017, I had my first failed suicide attempt. In that same year almost two months later, I had another failed suicide attempt. Those two failed suicide attempts made me realize, I had a purpose and a reason to still be alive today. So I became a better version of myself, I did not allow myself to fall back in that dark hole again. During a high school basketball game in 2019, I had my first anxiety attack and after that I began to lose myself once again. I lost myself and the progress I was making towards achieving positive mental health. I didn’t understand why it was happening to me because it felt as if I just recovered from being suicidal. Following this, 2020 came and the pandemic came as well. During this time, I felt like I was dying inside. Nothing about myself felt like it belonged. I ate everything which resulted in a weight gain of almost 20 pounds, I cried more, lost more friends, and once again I lost myself. I took time for myself over the summer of 2020 just to get myself back together and to realize I needed to be here. Battling mental health taught me many things. It taught me self worth, self care, and self love. Although I am still dealing with negative mental health, I aspire to help others. In the spring of 2022, I plan to release a book about my journey with my mental health to help others. Releasing this book will allow me to speak my truth and allow others to know that they are not alone. All things said, I am a survivor and I hope to help others survive while fighting their battle with mental health.

Music has helped me in many ways than I could have ever imagined. A lot of songs allowed me to express my feelings without actually saying how I felt. Music has always been a peace for me, a way to escape reality. I have felt closer to some people while listening to certain songs. Music has also sometimes encouraged me to cut people out of my life. One song in particular that is special to me is Best in Me by Marvin Sapp. This song was my late grandmother's favorite song and after losing her, playing this song made me feel closer to her. At her funeral I danced to this song because of how much she loved it and I knew she would have absolutely loved to see me dance to it. When I am down, this is my go to song. It reminds me of a beautiful soul that I was able to call my “Mae Helen.” This is a song I once cried to, a song I danced to, and a song I listened to so I can lift my spirits. When people doubted me and my ability to do certain things, I listened to this song because I knew God would see the best in me and so would my grandmother. Sometimes, I find it weird to rely on a song to bring me such happiness and some answers I need but, I am able to say that when listening to this I am filled with utter happiness.

My name is Zakhyia Eagleton, I am a senior in Charlotte NC at Phillip O Berry Academy of Technology on the Health Science NAF track. One of my biggest goals in life is to work in Pediatric Oncology as a doctor or nurse practitioner. Working as a Pediatric Oncologist is one of my biggest goals because I aspire to be one of the first black woman to officially cure cancer. Cancer has hit close to home several times so I believe that curing cancer is my purpose in life. I hope to be recognized, no matter what I am doing I want to have a big affect on those around me and around the world. In this world I am most excited about helping others. Everything I want to do in life, I want to help others. One goal that I have to give back to my community is to design an app that will allow homeless people to get healthcare for free. Summer of 2020 I had an internship with Atrium Health and I was tasked with designing an app that will help one specific population in my city and I chose the underserved. Releasing this app would first help me reach my goal of getting into the healthcare field and help others around me. Overall in life I want to do everything I put my mind to. If that is to cure cancer, I won’t stop until I do so. Being able to create realistic goals that I know I can accomplish has always been a big deal for me because nobody in my family has ever been able to accomplish their goals. When considering me for this scholarship, please consider my dreams and aspirations. This scholarship would allow me to do more than what my family has done.