My name is Zelda Fleming, and I am currently a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the School Psychology Program at the University of South Florida. I am no stranger to mental health struggles; I, like many of my family members, have struggled with mental health to varying degrees. I struggled with anxiety during most of my childhood and adolescence. I went undiagnosed and untreated. I could not receive treatment until I was an adult, this is what led me to this career. I am a proponent of early intervention and believe that early intervention gives children the best chance at succeeding in life and reaching all of their goals. Before beginning my doctoral journey at USF, I earned my BA in Psychology and my master's in educational psychology at Georgia State University. While earning my master's, I worked as a behavioral therapist for three years. As a behavioral therapist, I primarily worked with children diagnosed with developmental disabilities. Throughout my years of working with children and their families, I loved what I did. However, I noticed that there were significant disparities' regarding children of color receiving the proper diagnosis and treatments for developmental disorders both within the clinic and within the school systems. When I first embarked on this career, I aimed to improve cultural competency within behavioral and academic interventions to help children with disabilities succeed and reach their full potential. I have since learned that it will require more than just interventions at the individual level to alleviate these disparities. It will take systematic changes and involve us undertaking more collaborative participatory research with those from racially and ethnically minoritized backgrounds. My current clinical interests involve embedding cultural competency and relevancy within the assessment process to improve assessment and intervention outcomes. Since beginning my doctoral journey at USF, I have participated in several research projects and applied experiences that have helped me work toward improving equitable outcomes for youth from all backgrounds. I aim to continue using my applied clinical experiences and research to improve outcomes for minoritized youth. For my dissertation, which I will propose this year, I plan to explore the assessment and referral pathways for Black families that have children with a developmental delay or disability who have gone through the Early Steps program in Florida. My primary goal in conducting this type of research is to provide myself and the field with the knowledge to create more evidence-based practices that are not only clinically significant but also culturally significant. In the future, I plan to continue working with and collaborating with educators, psychologists, and medical healthcare providers to promote better outcomes for youth with disabilities. Moreover, I hope to mentor others who want to join and contribute to our field. Upon graduating, I seek to become a licensed psychologist and Nationally Certified School Psychologist. In addition to the initiatives previously mentioned, I also want to continue focusing on providing evidence-based services to youth with disabilities and continue conducting research in the hopes of promoting more equitable outcomes for all children.

My name is Zelda Fleming, and I am no stranger to the disastrous impacts that mental health struggles can have on the trajectory of your life. Since I was young, I have struggled with depression and anxiety. When left untreated, it left me numb and like I was always waiting for the next disaster to strike. This caused me to struggle both in school and socially. I was not able to receive therapy until I was an adult in college. When I did, it changed my life. Mental health struggles are not unique to me in my family. However, I am the only one that has received treatment since my great uncle. This is because when he sought help as a Black man in the 1950s, he was institutionalized and criminalized. Unfortunately, I doubt this story is unique to my family. The previous and current mistreatment of Black people within the healthcare system has caused mistrust between the Black community and the medical and mental health field. The only way to truly alleviate this distrust is to create more collaboration, and the best way of doing that Is by having more people from our community within this field. A very small percentage of licensed mental healthcare workers are Black. As someone who has seen the good that psychology can do for us all, I want to help others within the Black community improve their mental, developmental, and social health so that we can all reach our full potential. I am currently in the 3rd year of my PhD in school psychology program. When I finish, I will be a licensed and nationally certified school psychologist. I want to specialize in early intervention and prevention. Many Black youth are not given the proper support and tools early on. Then, when they act out, society treats them as if they are the problem. However, we are all products of our environment. We must equip our youth with the mental health support needed to process unresolved trauma, cope with grief and depression, and overcome anxiety. My specialty areas are behavioral psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy, and developmental assessments. My main goal is to provide behavioral and mental health services to Black youth, focusing on Black youth with disabilities. Black youth, in general, are less likely to receive mental health services, and this is even worse for Black youth with disability. These youth are more likely than others to be pushed out of general education classrooms without need. Further, Black youth with ADHD are more likely to enter the juvenile justice system and, later, the prison system. It is estimated that at least 55% of Black men in the prison system suffer from some form of developmental, behavioral, or mental health disorder. This number, in all reality, is likely much higher. I hope to give back to our community by providing competent and evidenced-based services to alleviate mental and behavioral health concerns and prevent them from occurring in the first place.

My name is Zelda Fleming. I am currently a 2nd-year graduate student in an APA-accredited school psychology program. I have been passionate about mental health since I learned about psychology as a career field in high school. I believe I can take several positive actions to make a positive impact within the mental health field. I hope to contribute positively through comprehensive mental and behavioral healthcare services. Through my program, I am learning to conduct an array of interventions, two of which are of particular interest to me Cognitive behavioral therapy and Acceptance and Commitment therapy. These interventions are evidence-based and have been effective in reducing depression, anxiety, and PTSD. I hope to offer these services to traditionally underserved youth, including children of color and children from neurodivergent communities (Autistic, youth with ADHD, etc.). The black community, with the abundance of trauma we have endured throughout the decade, has caused various mental health issues affecting our youth in their day-to-day activities. While we must also fight to actively end the causes of our trauma, it is vital that we equip our youth with the mental health support needed to process unresolved trauma, cope with grief and depression, and overcome anxiety. In addition to offering mental health therapy and interventions, I can also contribute to the mental health field through assessment. My main reason for entering the field of psychology was to get more into assessment and diagnosis. Black youth and other children of color are often diagnosed years later than their White peers. While a mental health label is not the end-all, having a diagnosis enables someone to get insurance coverage and the support they need. Black children are often misdiagnosis and thus cannot receive the proper support. I want to help change that to give these youths all the tools they need to succeed, and having good mental health is pivotal in achieving success. In addition to what has been previously discussed, I plan to make a positive impact through my research. Most of the clinical interventions we have, as well as the assessments we have, only used White children and adolescents in their samples. My main research interests pertain to ensuring that clinical and therapeutic interventions are culturally competent. Further, I want to reduce the common racial bias within assessment. In order to do this, I will have to conduct mass clinical trials with children of color, which has previously not been done. Children and adolescents cannot receive treatments if they receive inaccurate assessments causing them to get an inaccurate label. Thus, to ensure that children and adolescents of color can receive the appropriate treatments, we must first ensure that the assessments we are conducting are free of bias and that our interventions work with all youth.

I am currently a 2nd-year graduate student in a school psychology program. I am no stranger to mental health struggles; I, like many of my family members, have struggled with mental health to varying degrees. For me, I struggled with depression and anxiety during most of my childhood and adolescents. I went undiagnosed and untreated. I could not receive treatment until I was an adult and in college. I spent most of my youth thinking that something was wrong with me. While I battled with my own mental health struggles in school, my grades and academics slipped, and my relationships suffered. I was fortunate that I was still able to get into college, as that is where I was ultimately able to receive support. While I eventually got the support I needed to live a healthy life, the same cannot be said of everyone. Often when discussing the need for more mental health services within the Black community, the conversation is based solely on the stigma around mental health within the Black community. However, stigma is not the sole reason that Black children and adolescents cannot receive mental healthcare services; many barriers keep people from accessing mental, developmental, and behavioral healthcare services. As I stated, I did not receive support until I was an adult, and I could only gain access to counseling because these services were offered to us free of charge. No child should wait until they are adults to get help; mental and behavioral health should be treated like physical health. Further, psychologists, therapists, and clinicians must do better in providing early intervention services for Black children. Black youth are often diagnosed and receive support years later than their peers. Struggling with mental health affects every aspect of your life, and Black youth that do not get the supports they need will struggle to reach their full potential. One step in ending disproportionately in the black community is to ensure that all youth have the chance to thrive and succeed, and they need support in all areas in order to do that, including mental health support. It is estimated that at least 55% of Black men in the prison system suffer from some form of developmental, behavioral, or mental health disorder. This number, in all reality, is likely much higher. Many of these men were likely not even diagnosed until they entered the system. If they had the support they needed, they likely would have never ended up in the system in the first place. However, when it comes to Black youth, symptoms are often left unchecked, especially when therapists and clinicians are not culturally competent. Further, when it comes to externalizing behaviors in Black youth, people lean more toward punishment when these children need compassion. A very small percentage of licensed mental healthcare workers are Black, and the number of Black mental health professionals that hold doctorates is even smaller. I wanted to obtain my doctorate because it is crucial for me to not only be able to provide therapy and diagnostic services to Black youth, but I also want to be a mentor to other future Black mental health professionals. There is so much distrust between the Black community and all medical and behavioral health fields. The only way to truly alleviate this distrust is to create more collaboration, and the best way of doing that Is by having more people from our community within this field. This is what I one day hope to achieve.

My name is Zelda Fleming. I am a 2nd-year Doctoral student in a school psychology program. Since I was young, I have always dreamed of being able to do something that helped children. This program will enable me to become a licensed psychologist. After finishing this program, I will have a career that I am passionate about and make a decent living. This was something I never dreamed was possible when I was younger. I am the youngest of three children from a single-parent household. My mom did her best to support us, and education has always been paramount to her. She wanted us to have the life she never had. However, we lived in one of the poorest zip codes in the State of Florida. I saw her struggle to live from paycheck to paycheck, frequently coming up short despite how hard she worked. Seeing this, I thought the least I could do for her was make her proud of me one day. So I worked hard in school and tried to identify my path early on. As I said before, I had always dreamed of being able to do something that helped children, even when I was small myself. It was just always something I was interested in. When I started college, I began to carve out more of what that might mean for me. As an undergrad, I found my calling; I got an internship at Marcus Autism Center, a place that helped children with Autism and others with developmental delays reach their full potential. After witnessing this, I knew that was what I wanted to do. Specifically, being a Black woman coming from a low-income household, I knew I wanted to help other marginalized communities succeed and reach their full potential. After graduating, I went on to earn my master's in educational psychology. In my master's program, I worked a full-time assistantship to get funding. I also worked as a behavioral therapist to earn extra income and accrue hours to sit for the Board-Certified Behavior Analyst exam. I graduated successfully with my master's in educational psychology and started to apply to doctoral programs. Now I am in a Ph.D. program at USF, and last summer, I successfully passed the BCBA exam. This money would help me pay for the many costs associated with finishing my graduate degree. While I do receive some funding, this does not cover travel fees associated with presenting at conferences, daily living expenses, or research study expenses. Right now, I have to budget with a small stipend, and I cannot work due to the internship hours I accrue, which are unpaid. This money would help me get by now, which will help me build the future I want. This is a future that will not only enable me to make a living and make my mom proud. It is a future that will enable me to help others, and that is truly all I ever wanted.

My name is Zelda Fleming. I am a 2nd-year Doctoral student in a school psychology program. Since I was young, I have always dreamed of being able to do something that helped children. This program will enable me to become a licensed psychologist, meaning I can provide assessment, evaluation, and therapeutic counseling services. I am passionate about pursuing this career because I truly believe that with the proper support, everyone will be able to rise to their best selves. This is also why I primarily want to work with youth and adolescents. I am passionate about delivering support to children who are often under-supported due to systematic barriers or a lack of resources. This includes children of color and families living below the poverty line. When mental or behavioral health concerns go untreated, those with the disorder often have adverse behavioral reactions, including harming themselves and others or breaking the law. In addition to this, it creates a chain of disruption, families are torn apart, and it creates a gap in the economy. Children today have to process so much; with the uptick in mass shootings, we find ourselves all on high alert, and this affects our children the most. Since Covid-19 began, mental health disparities in at an all-time high. So many young children had to start their lives in isolation further, so many other young children lost family members, couldn’t see their friends, and had their learning disrupted for almost two years. Additionally, many minority students found themselves in almost two pandemics, one being covid-19, the other being the many racial injustices still sweeping the nation. Between the death of George Floyd, nationwide policy changes, and everyday microaggressions, these students desperately need the support of licensed mental health professionals. I cannot erase any of the events that have occurred, but I can give children the socio-emotional skills they need to cope with things that have already come to be. Further, I can equip them with tools to build resilience, empathy, and compassion so that they can work together toward a better future. That is what therapy does. It is not a magical wand that can be waved to make everyone their perfect selves; instead, it is a tool that can be used to help someone process difficult emotions and trauma. It is a tool that can be used to help guide introspection and enable someone to dive deeper, looking inward to pull strength. Further, it is a tool that can help us identify how to align ourselves with our values and how we can use those values to build a better future for ourselves and others. This is why I am passionate about becoming a psychologist, and this is why I am passionate about becoming a future therapist.

Since the day I was born, I have been at a disadvantage; this is typical when you are born early and placed in the NICU; there is an increased risk for permeant delays that you will not overcome. Many people throughout my life, including doctors and former teachers, did not think I would accomplish much of anything. Quickly after I was born, my mom became a single mother of 3, with me being the youngest. I grew up watching my mom struggle to get by, but she always stressed the importance of education. At 18, I proved a lot of people wrong and graduated high school, but I have done much more than that since I was 18. I went on to college, majoring in psychology, and graduated with honors. During college, I had limited finical resources. I had to take out loans in addition to working. Further, to gain more experience, I also took on an unpaid internship. However, this internship helped me decide on my educational path. As an undergrad, I found my calling; I got an internship at Marcus Autism Center, a place that helped children with Autism and others with developmental delays reach their full potential. After witnessing this, I knew that was what I wanted to do. Specifically, being a Black woman coming from a low-income household, I knew I wanted to help other marginalized communities succeed and reach their full potential. After graduating, I went on to earn my master's in educational psychology. In this program, I was able to get an assistantship that helped cover my tuition; however, even with this, between supporting myself and helping out my mom, it was still very tight. Due to this, in addition to my assistantship, I also took on a part-time job where I could both work and gain supervision hours for the Board-Certified Behavior Analyst credential I was pursuing while in graduate school. In addition to my financial struggles, I also faced several hardships while in my master's program. When I was working on proposing my thesis, my best friend of over 15 years suddenly passed away. It sent me into a depression that took a lot of therapy for me to overcome, I took a two-week break from school, but then I went back and pushed through, knowing that she would not want me to stop. Eventually, I was able to finish and defend my thesis and finish my master's program after 2.5 years. My next and final step in my education was getting my Ph.D. to become a licensed psychologist. I applied to several programs and ended up being admitted to USF. I was so excited; however, that is when another obstacle occurred. All of a sudden, I had dizzy spells, and I did not know why. When I went to the doctor, I was told it was likely vertigo, the result of a horrible ear infection; I could no longer walk straight and could no longer drive. However, in 6 months, I had to move to a new state. So, I did what I had to do to get better; I had to take time off work every week to attend physical therapy, where we worked on getting my balance back, it took 5 months, but it worked. Now I am a 2nd-year Ph.D. student in my program. I still have struggles, but I know there is nothing I cannot overcome at this point in my life. As long as I am working towards the goal of helping others, there is no adversity I cannot overcome.

My name is Zelda Fleming; I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the University of South Florida School Psychology program. I received my BA in psychology at Georgia State University and my MS in Educational Psychology with a focus on ABA at Georgia State University. Higher education is essential because it is one of the last stepping stones for me to complete before achieving my professional goals. I come from a single parent low-income Black household. Since I was young, I have always dreamed of being able to do something that helped children. I am working on addressing my current student loan debt by reducing the number of new loans I take on during my graduate school career. As previously stated, I am currently working on my Ph.D. While in this program, I have barely taken out any loans as I was able to get a graduate assistantship that covers tuition and awards a small stipend. Thus, I only pay for the fees. In addition to trying my best to avoid taking out an abundance of loans, another thing that has helped me reduce my debt is ensuring that I continue to make excellent grades. My current GPA is 3.7. Due to my high GPA, I am eligible to receive more scholarships. Earning scholarships helps me reduce my student loan debt because this enables me not to have to rely on student loans to supplement educational expenses. I plan to continue making good grades and applying for all the scholarships I am eligible for. I will not add to my debt with more student loans while in graduate school. In addition to what I previously mentioned, I will also manage my future debt by working on grants that agree to pay a portion of my student loans. For me, that would be agreeing to work with the National Institute of Health. You can work with the NIH if you are a university professor; if you agree to support one of their research projects, they pay a 50,000 repayment of your student loans. I wanted to do this in the future regardless, as I am very passionate about research; however, having the opportunity to have my loans repaid through this program reaffirms that I am on the right path. After I graduate, I plan to become a licensed psychologist and a professor, enabling me to teach, recruit, and expose talented and diverse applicants to my field. Earning my Ph.D. in School Psychology at USF will help me accomplish several crucial goals. My first goal is to get more children of color the mental healthcare and behavioral treatment they need. Additionally, I want to change the face of school psychology. One day, I hope to establish a mentor program for other Black students interested in psychology to have adequate representation within our field. Many children start thinking about career options in high school, and I do not think black students are exposed to psychology enough. Most students, especially those at low-income schools, have never been exposed to psychology as a subject or career option. Early exposure is the best way to get more people interested in becoming psychologists. This exposure will help recruitment but may also destigmatize mental health, which is highly stigmatized within the Black community. I would be very grateful to win this scholarship as it will help me in the pursuit of my Ph.D. If I continue to work towards my goals and stick to my plan, I know I will successfully reduce my student loan debt. I thank you for your consideration.

My name is Zelda Fleming; I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the University of South Florida School Psychology program. In addition to this, I am also a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst. I believe I should be awarded this scholarship due to my passion for improving the lives of children with developmental and behavioral disabilities. Before starting at USF, I worked as a behavioral therapist for five years. In this role, I primarily worked with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adhd, or other children with developmental delays. I am passionate about delivering evidence-based behavioral and academic interventions so that students have all the support they need to succeed. Particularly I want to support students who are often under-supported due to systematic barriers or a lack of resources. This includes children of color and families living below the poverty line. In addition, I am interested in expanding the field, particularly to those currently underrepresented within our field. In the past, I have spoken at conferences on panels about ways we can recruit others, particularly women from marginalized backgrounds into the field. I have also been on several DEI leadership committees within local aba chapters, including GABA, the Georgia Applied Behavior Analysis Association. This is something I am dedicated to continuing to do as I progress throughout my career. Currently, at USF, I am a behavior coach for a research study called project MOTIVATE. In this role, I teach educators in EBD classrooms how to implement evidence-based interventions that decrease disruptive behaviors and increase on-task behaviors and academic engagement. Working in this consultant role allows me to serve a higher number of students than I was able to serve when in private practice. In addition to this, being in a school setting, I can provide more services for children that otherwise would not have been able to access services due to numerous barriers out of their control. In addition, I have recently become certified in a program developed at USF called HOT DOCS, which stands for “Helping Our Toddlers Developing Our Children’s Skills .”In this program, I provide parent training services to parents of children with behavioral concerns. This includes parents of children with ASD and developmental disabilities. However, we also have many parents of typically developing children seeking support for behavioral concerns. I enjoy being able to work with this program because this population, similar to those in the school, are primarily parents that otherwise would not have access to these services. This program is offered in both English and Spanish, so we serve an array of diverse families. In addition to parent training and helping teachers implement interventions, I also have the opportunity to develop supervision skill’s so that I can train RBTs and aspiring BCBAs so that there are enough of us available to provide the services that our communities require. At USF, the school psychology program follows the behavioral model. Thus, many of our faculty are BCBAs and licensed psychologists. One of my professors acts as a mentor and support’s me in my BCBA training, enabling me to offer competent behavioral intervention services and adequate supervision services. Being at USF in the school psychology program offer’s me an array of training and clinical opportunities. However, as most of my training opportunities do not offer me compensation, I struggle to get by finically. The funds from this scholarship would help me pay for graduate school expenses, including attending additional training, attending conferences, and assisting me with paying for the rest of my graduate training. This will ultimately help me in achieving my final career goals. After completing my graduate training, I will apply to become a nationally certified school psychologist and a licensed psychologist. After this, I would like to work in a university where I can continue to conduct applied behavioral research and help implement and train others in implementing behavioral interventions. In addition, I am interested in training and recruiting new students in behavioral psychology and applied behavior analysis. Thank you for taking the time to hear my story, and I hope you will consider me for your scholarship.

My name is Zelda Fleming; I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the University of South Florida School Psychology program. Out of the 8 listed attributes of Black excellence, I think the one that I embody the most is getting it done/taking action. I have always been a goal-oriented person. When I finished high school, I knew I wanted to become a psychologist due to my desire to help children. After completing high school, I went to Georgia State University, where I majored in psychology. I graduated from Georgia State with honors and a BA in psychology. While gaining my BA at GSU, I mapped out my path to becoming a psychologist, it was a long road, but I was ready to do what it took. In addition to working throughout college, I worked several unpaid internships to gain the clinical and research experience that I knew was required to attend graduate school. I graduated with my BA in the fall of 2016. I started my master's program in educational psychology in the fall of 2017 at GSU. In my master's program, I continued to gain more research experience and clinical experience. While in this program, I worked a research assistantship I also worked as a behavioral therapist. I did all of this while completing my coursework. By the end of this program, I had earned enough supervision hours to sit for the BCBA exam. In addition to this, I completed a thesis. For my thesis, I examined the perspectives of parents of Black children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I wanted to gain more insight as to how they felt their child's autism impacted being able to navigate the k-12 education system. As I passed the certification exam, I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and I am revising my thesis manuscript for publication. While finishing up my master's program I started to apply to Ph.D. programs. I finished my master's program in May of 2021. I started my Ph.D. program in August of 2021. I have not taken any breaks from school since finishing high school. Once I finish this Ph.D. program, I will be one step closer to my ultimate goal. It has been a challenging road; however, it was something I set out to accomplish, so I made sure I did it. When looking at which attribute, I could grow in, it would be area two, striving for servant leadership. While I aspire to be a leader, I have not quite reached this level in my career thus far. I am used to being the student, the trainee, and the mentee. I have yet to have the chance to be the teacher, the trainer, or the mentor. I look forward to more opportunities to become a leader and take on more leadership roles. Regarding being able to teach others, one step I plan to take with this is volunteering and taking on more speaking and seminar roles. In the past, I have had opportunities to be a part of research presentations and panels at conferences. I plan to seek more opportunities to present research or lead seminars where I work independently or collaborate with smaller groups or organizations. One opportunity to do this may come next semester as I seek to become certified in "Helping Our Toddlers Developing Our Children's Skills" (HOTDOCS), a parent training program at USF. This program gives parents the tools to help manage their child's or children's challenging behaviors. To be certified, you must attend a training and co-teach the class at least three times. I have already attended the training and am currently on the waiting list to co-teach. One way that I will gain more leadership experience is through my role as a BCBA. Being a BCBA means that I can design and implement behavioral interventions. In addition to this, I can supervise behavioral therapists and conduct parent training sessions. One of the steps I plan to take to ensure I am an efficient leader who can supervise therapists is to take on an apprenticeship with one of my professors, who has current supervisees. I will take on some of his current clients, enabling me to gain experience supervising and mentoring future BCBAs and therapists while getting direct feedback on how to hone my supervision skills. These and future experiences I will gain throughout my graduate career will enable me to become the leader I envision myself to be.

My name is Zelda Fleming; I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the University of South Florida School Psychology program. I received my BA in psychology at Georgia State University and my MS in Educational Psychology with a focus on ABA at Georgia State University. When I think of what the life of my dreams looks like, I cannot help but look toward my education and the goals I have already set for myself. In my dream, I am a licensed psychologist, working to help support and restore those within my community. Higher education is essential for me because it is one of the last stepping stones for me to complete before achieving my professional goals. I come from a single parent low-income Black household. Despite this, education was always crucial to my mom, and she pushed my sisters and me to pursue our education and passions. Since I was young, I have always dreamed of being able to do something that helped children. This pushed me to pursue being a child psychologist. As I got older and started exploring the field, I noticed the significant race-based disparities that occur regarding access to mental health treatment and access. In the United States, 86% of psychologists are white, and only 4% are Black. The lack of diversity within licensed clinicians is likely why we see significant disparities in diagnosing and treating children of color for developmental, behavioral, and mental disorders. I plan to become a licensed psychologist and a professor, enabling me to teach, recruit, and expose talented and diverse applicants to my field. This is my dream. Earning my Ph.D. in School Psychology at USF will help me accomplish several goals crucial goals. My first goal is to get more children of color the mental healthcare and behavioral treatment they need. To do this, I will need to ensure that children of color are accurately diagnosed at the same rate as their white peers. My main goal in conducting more research is to better inform educators and fellow clinicians on best practices for children of color. Additionally, I want to ensure that all interventions and treatments for children of color are culturally relevant. My primary research interest pertains to examining how socialization and culture affect learning and development for those within atypical populations. My last goal involves changing the face of school psychology. One day, I hope to establish a mentor program for other Black students interested in psychology to have adequate representation within our field. Many children start thinking about career options in high school, and I do not think black students are exposed to psychology enough. Early exposure is the best way to get more people interested in becoming psychologists. Most students, especially those at low-income schools, have never been exposed to psychology as a subject or career option. This exposure will help recruitment but may also destigmatize mental health, which is highly stigmatized within the Black community. It is what our clients deserve, and not being adequately represented is a disservice to my clients and my field as a whole, which is something I hope to alleviate in the near future. My dream is to become a licensed psychologist. I would be thankful to receive this scholarship if given the opportunity, as you would fund a dream I have had since childhood. I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to pursue this dream and start to help and support those that need it

Worrying about college debt has always been a huge concern for me. I am A Black woman who comes from a low-income single-parent household. Despite knowing this, I didn’t hesitate in my pursuit of education. My goal was to become a psychologist from the start of my college career. When I started as an undergrad to cut costs, I attended a two-year community university before transferring to Georgia State University. This helped me in several ways. I was considered an out-of-state student when I first attended Georgia Perimeter College. By the time I finished the two years at GPC, I had qualified for in-state tuition at Georgia State, which likely saved me at least 30 thousand dollars from out-of-state tuition fees. Throughout my undergrad degree, I worked part-time while maintaining a 3.45 GPA. In addition to this, I also worked several unpaid internships. While this was difficult, I knew the experience was needed to reach my goals. While I would have loved to experience living in the dorms in college, I decided to do the more cost-effective thing and stay with family who lived close to the university. While doing all of this was helpful, I could not cover living expenses without taking out loans in college. In addition to paying for school, buying food, and maintaining other everyday living expenses, Throughout college, I also needed to help my mom and pay off medical expenses. As I have chronic eye concerns and other chronic health issues, skipping these doctors’ appointments was not something I could do lightly. After graduating with my BA in psychology, I applied and got into the MS in educational psychology program at Georgia State University. While attending this program, I got an assistantship that covered tuition, and I also worked part-time to gain supervision for my BCBA supervision hours. While working part-time and working my assistantship did help, I still had to take out loans to help cover the cost-of-living expenses. After graduating from GSU with my MS, I had a 3.67 GPA. My next step was to obtain my Ph.D. This brought me to where I am now, the Ph.D. program in School Psychology at the University of South Florida. I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the program and receive funding through my assistantship. However, due to various factors, including an increase in the cost-of-living expenses, ongoing medical expenses, and facing out-of-state tuition, I am also taking out student loans. I have been in college for more than 6 years, all to reach the goal I set out for myself when I finished high school. While this is an expensive endeavor, I did this because I want to increase access to behavioral healthcare for children of color that disproportionately do not receive the treatments they need to succeed and live a healthy life. I am aware that I will have some debt when I finish. However, I hope to utilize loan forgiveness programs and take advantage of research grants that agree to pay your loans back if you take on specific projects. Being awarded this scholarship will help me reduce the financial burden I will be taking on once I finish my program. I would be thankful to receive this scholarship if given the opportunity, as you would fund a dream, I have had since childhood. I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to pursue this dream and start to help and support those that need it.

My best back-to-school tip revolves around organization, time management, and planning. Having a steady and consistent way to keep on top of your deadlines is critical. Whether it be a planner, organizer, or calendar, building your schedule in advance is much less overwhelming. It is also essential to schedule mental health days and do the things we love. When the school year gets hectic, it is easy to forget about taking time for ourselves. That is why I suggest blocking a few days out early and ensuring that you stick with it. When striving for success, it is easy to forget that recharge time is essential. To be our best selves, we must be rested and ensure to take care of our physical and mental health. We must remember that, whether big or small, we all go through challenges that can impact or day to day lives. Thus, it is vital to take the time to address how these struggles make us feel and find strategies that help us relax. Even at the high school level, it is vital to your success to schedule time to do the things you love.