I never settled for any grade below an A after my freshman year of high school . I started to take school seriously once I realized I wanted to go to Howard University. I also joined as many clubs as I could. For example, the debate club where me and my partner increased to the city championships the year I joined. I learned a lot about public speaking, and research from debating and joining pushed me to be the confident, outspoken woman I am today. Additionally, I am very involved in community service. For example, The Chicago Food Depository, where we give fresh fruits and vegetables to people on link, the homeless, and others in need. I’m all about giving back to my community, which is why I partnered up with my church to create a community service project. We created self-care packages to give to the homeless, sheltered and whoever needs them. The self-care packages include soap, pads, tampons, toothbrushes, and deodorant. These baskets contained mandatory items that a person in need cannot get access to because they can’t afford them. That’s why this project was so important to me, because no woman or no human deserves to have to not be able to listen to their bodies when they so desperately need to be nurtured. I also started a clothing brand with my dad, as a way to uplift our community. Specifically, the black community, because for centuries, society has done the opposite of uplifting us. Which is why our brand name is “liveblack”, and we’ll continue our mission to impact as many lives as we can positively and give our community something to look forward to. Now, starting a business hasn’t been easy. I had friends tell me there wasn’t a point, months with zero sales, as well as struggling with balancing grades and creating clothes. I had no money to support the brand. My dad had just lost his job, so this was a financial risk. Nevertheless, I knew I had to push through and with marketing, posting on social media, signing up for pop-up shops whenever my school had them, I was allowed to get my brand out there. Being involved in my community, starting a clothing brand, and keeping my gpa up allowed me to unlock a drive in me to go after anything I wanted, and as I'm approaching university, I’ll have that same grit and motivation Stelios Aktipis had.

Hi! My name is Abrianna Mckennie, I recently graduated from Lindblom Math and Science Academy and am a proud member of my local church, Revival Center Church. I plan to go to Howard University, and I’m very involved in community service. For example, The Chicago Food Depository, where we give fresh fruits and vegetables to people on link, the homeless, and others in need. I’m all about giving back to my community, which is why I partnered up with my church to create a community service project. One way I plan on making a positive impact on the world is by creating self-care packages to give to the homeless, sheltered and whoever needs them. The self-care packages include soap, pads, tampons, toothbrushes, and deodorant. I’m in the process of creating these baskets with my current church and creating three events to pass out the baskets. I feel that it’s extremely important to constantly and consistently keep giving back to those less fortunate than us. We often don’t realize the things we take advantage of, such as a warm cooked meal, a fresh shower, and the ability to take care of our bodies. These are constants in our lives, but are blessings to others. These baskets that I will create will contain mandatory items that a person in need cannot get access to because they can’t afford them. Once I create the baskets, I’ll drive around downtown Chicago giving these baskets away to homeless people. My aunt and uncle are very involved in the church, so they will provide transportation and other members as well. Next, I'll ask The Boulevard, a homeless shelter, if we can pass out these baskets there. As a woman myself, I know just how important these items are and how they play a crucial part in making sure we are taking care of ourselves and our bodies. That’s why this project is so important to me, because no woman or no human deserves to have to not be able to listen to their bodies when they so desperately need to be nurtured. I plan to make this an annual event for my church, so not only can the people getting the baskets get self-care items, but also hear the word and message of God. Therefore, whenever I come home for break, I can make the baskets, and we can give them out every year for the holidays.

My mom is my superwoman. She provided emotional and financial support when my dad didn’t, and for that I’m forever grateful. But I also grew up as the oldest, and always helped my mom with leading my siblings, cooking dinner when she worked nights, cleaning the house when she worked double shifts and was very exhausted. This pushed me to become naturally independent and go after what I wanted when I wanted to. I graduated from high school this year and I plan on going to Howard University, a private historical black college, with an expensive tuition. Now you may be wondering why Howard? Well, that's easy, Howard spoke to me. I remember first researching hbcus when attending college was first brought to my attention. Because no matter what, I was going to an HBCU. No matter what, I was going to be at an institution created specifically because my ancestors were prevented from attending established colleges. Eventually, I chose Howard after seeing how many successful black people graduated from there. I knew the school was for me. I also knew my mother couldn’t afford Howard's $26,434 tuition to put me through school, which is why I’ve applied for over 70 outside scholarships to make up the cost. I know my responsibility. My mom’s the one who taught me that if I want something in life I have to get it. Additionally, becoming a therapist is the ultimate goal after college. Growing up as the oldest, where you’re forced to help your younger siblings with everything while mom was working, helped me come to the conclusion that I wanted a career centered around helping people. Being able to give my siblings an outlet to express themselves, allowed me to see the good therapy does to people. Therapists help people talk about their feelings, gain confidence, and work through childhood trauma or trauma in general. For that reason, if I win this scholarship, I’ll be one step closer to becoming a therapist, because I'll have less money to take out for student loans. This allows me to be able to get my masters in psychology quicker because I can focus less on picking up part-time jobs, and pursue school full-time. Howard offers a program where if you take extra classes you can graduate early, and if I win $1050 off my $26,434 account balance, I'll have time to take extra classes to do so.

I always wanted to be a therapist, ever since I was a little girl. I remember in Kindergarten my grandparents would pick me up from school when my mom was working and would argue the whole car ride. I remember saying, “can you guys stop arguing and actually talk to each other”, they just looked and laughed. My grandpa joked about how I would be a great therapist because what I said actually helped them stop yelling at each other. During the car ride they spoke in a normal tone and communicated what the problem was. Kindergarten me felt accomplished, now senior year me wants to fulfill that dream and get a psychology degree at Howard University. The question is why I have chosen this field of interest, and the answer is, I want to help people. I think growing up as an older sister where you’re forced to help your younger siblings helped me come to the conclusion that I want to do this in my future. I grew up in a household where we didn’t talk about our feelings or emotions, but giving my sister that outlet that I never had really opened me up to the good therapy does to people. Therapists help people talk about their feelings, gain confidence, and work through childhood trauma or trauma in general. Getting a higher education means being able to give people an outlet to talk and work through their feelings. Mental health is a serious topic in my community, because of the lack of support the black community has when receiving mental health help. Studies show that 25% of black Americans receive mental health treatment compared to 40% of white Americans. This is one of the reasons I want to become a therapist, so I can close the gap between the lack of treatment for minorities when it comes to mental health. As well as being able to help people with their emotions, thoughts, coping skills, and face their fears.

“Snow Cones and candy’, “Snow Cones and candy for 1 dollar!” It was a hot summer's day, around 3 pm, kids riding bikes passing by, walking up with the dollar their parents gave them to give to the neighborhood candy lady. Always leaving with way more than they paid for. I remember my first childhood memory of my Godmother was of her selling snow cones and candy in front of her house. All the neighborhood kids knew her as the snack lady, and a sweet soul that always gave more than what the kids even asked for. Nights at her house were always fun, dvds on repeat, my favorite foods, and soda my mom wouldn’t let me drink. Nights at her house, I looked forward to. Until I didn’t. I think I blocked out when she first got sick and how it happened, but somehow, and someday she was always in the hospital. My mom worked nights, so it wasn’t easy to visit her, but when I did, I couldn’t recognize her. I couldn’t look at her. I cried, and cried, wishing we could switch places, wishing it was me in the hospital bed, not her. I blamed myself, I blamed God, I blamed the doctors who couldn’t heal her. I wanted everything to go back to normal before she was sick, when I would spend a night at her house, when we could watch movies til the sun came up. She died. My godmother who I spent every summer with, every weekend, and every holiday with, died. At her funeral, it was like everybody was moving except me. I couldn’t talk, people would hug me, but I couldn’t hug them back. I saw her body, but she couldn’t see me. My mom moved me to our seats, because I couldn’t stop looking at her. Hoping and praying she would open her eyes and stare back, but she never did. People would talk to me and I could only respond with tears. It should’ve been me is what I wanted to say. The turning point was this year, my graduation year, the year I stopped blaming myself. It was time to apply to colleges and I didn’t want to, I didn't want to be in a reality where she wasn’t going to see me graduate, because applying to colleges would mean she was really gone. I procrastinated. I procrastinated until the deadline of my dream school, Howard University. Birtha, my godmother, talked about college and where I saw myself and I said, at an HBCU. A historically black college, and she replied, “the best HBCU, Howard University.” From then until now, that was my school. It was no other college but that one. But I couldn’t apply, not without her. My mom asked if I applied to any schools. I replied no and she made an argument. She said it was over a year since she died. She said a year like that was long. Like it wasn’t only 365 days, like her birthday hadn’t just passed, like I wasn’t just at her house watching movies on her beige couch. “Birtha wouldn’t want you to stop living your life”, is what she said. She was right, Birtha would want me to apply to Howard and go to my dream school and become that counselor I dreamed of being. I had to realize that I wouldn’t be moving on from her death by applying to schools but honoring her death. So I applied to Howard as well as backup schools and 100 scholarships. Fast-forward to months later, after getting a deferral from Howard University, I was accepted with a $13,000 leadership scholarship. It took long nights and hours to convince the university to accept my application, but I can now say I’m going to my dream school. Birtha always said I would go to school on scholarship because of how bright I was, and now I am, as well as honoring my promise to her to major in psychology at the #1 HBCU, Howard University.

Picture this a show about high school teenagers but the script is intriguing! Not like other shows when you can tell a millennial in their late 20's wrote it. This show takes place in New York City at a school called Grand Army, where we follow the lives of multiple teens through their problems, secrets, friendships, and even politics! The first episode starts in the girls’ locker room where we meet the female leads. We learn who's friends with who and who are not so friends as well as the popularity ranks and captains of dance, swim, and basketball teams. The teams and clubs usually are in the same friend group. For example, the swim team also known as the jocks, George, Luke, and Amir who make their first screen appearance, creating a list where they objectify their girl peers and rank them from whos the most attractive, except Amir isn’t close with Luke and George and has his own story as a firstborn Indian-American. Amir’s story consists of trying to beat the stereotypes of being labeled a “terrorist” for looking similar to the person who orchestrated a bomb attack that caused their school to go on lockdown. Amir also battles the pressure from his family to get into the top Ivy League in America also known as Harvard as well as coming to terms with his sexuality. Next, we get a glimpse of one of the youngest main characters, Leila as she struggles with starting high school and the new maturity that comes with it. Leila struggles with her identity and coming to terms with who she is, as she goes to her first high school party and becomes obsessed with one of the swim team jocks, George who could care less about her. George’s friend group contains him, Luke, Joey DeMarco who is the captain of the dance team, her best friend Ana, and her brother Tim. Tim and Joey seem to have a romantic relationship going on but don’t want to label it considering that Joey doesn’t want to lose her best friend, we soon find out that Joey unfortunately loses her whole friend group due to a traumatic event of sexual assault. Next, the girls' basketball captain Dom, a Haitian-American daughter who is forced to take care of her whole family, struggles with balancing her home life and social life. Dom is very headstrong but cares about her loved ones; she just wishes she could have a break, but she runs into trouble when two lowerclassmen Owen and Jason lose her wallet. This results in Owen unreasonably losing his spot at Grand Army. We question if he got a harsher punishment because he was black since white rapists got to keep their spots at school with no punishment. Tune into Grand Army on Netflix to find out.

“Bought a bunch of makeup, trying to cover up my face. I started to skip lunch, stopped eating cake on birthdays.” I never felt like I was the beauty standard, so in Olivia's new album GUTS I resonated most with the song “pretty isn’t pretty”. In the song, she goes on to list all the things she’s done to look and feel pretty. She lists these things but follows up with the chorus “pretty isn’t pretty enough” because you’ll always find something in the mirror you won’t like. The endless feeling of not feeling pretty enough is a part of being a teenage girl. All my life I felt like I was never the “pretty one”. I wasn't the girl who guys asked to school dances or even prom, so I felt like I wasn’t pretty enough. I tried to change a lot of things about myself to feel pretty, I lost weight, I wore makeup, even dressed differently. As a black girl growing up where beauty standards always changed, I related to this song. The standards went from skinny to slim, thick, light skin or dark skin and I felt like I was always neither or maybe somewhere in the awkward middle. It didn’t help when people pointed it out either, when guys would tell me, “I wasn’t their type.” Or when my friends around me tried to make me feel better, but they didn’t understand because they were the standard. So when Olivia came out with this song, I finally felt heard, like I'm not the only girl who feels this way. “Pretty isn’t pretty” is a song about comparison, insecurity, beauty standards, and teenage girlhood. It’s relatable to us girls who desperately try to meet the beauty standard. Olivia talks about wearing makeup to appear prettier, and that she stopped eating cake on birthdays and started to skip lunch, all things some teenage girls, including myself, have done to appear prettier. But even after these things, I still felt like I wasn’t enough and that is what Olivia says in the song. The song “pretty isn’t pretty” captures the feeling of a teenage girl who always felt like she wasn’t enough, no matter what she did or changed about herself. She emphasizes that no matter what you do, beauty standards will always be there and insecurities will always be there, and if you keep trying to keep up with them, you’ll never feel satisfied.

I always wanted to be a therapist, ever since I was a little girl. I remember in Kindergarten my grandparents would pick me up from school when my mom was working and would argue the whole car ride. I remember saying, “can you guys stop arguing and actually talk to each other”, they just looked and laughed. My grandpa joked about how I would be a great therapist because what I said actually helped them stop yelling at each other. The rest of the car ride they spoke in a normal tone and communicated what the problem was. Kindergarten me, felt accomplished. Now, senior year me, wants to fulfill that dream and get a psychology degree at Howard University. Getting a psychology degree at Howard University will not only fulfill that dream I've had since I was a little girl but also allow me to go to the school of my dreams. Now you may be wondering why Howard? That's easy, Howard spoke to me. I remember first researching hbcus when attending college was first brought to my attention. Because no matter what, I was going to an HBCU, but going to Howard was definite. After seeing how many successful black people graduated from there, I knew the school was for me. The only downside is the cost, the cost being $26,434 I haven't earned in scholarships. The question is: How do I plan to turn my dreams into a reality, and the answer is whatever it takes. My single mother, who also happens to be a disabled veteran, cannot afford $26,000 to put me through school, which is why I’ve applied for over 70 outside scholarships to make up the cost. I know she has medical bills and my other siblings to take care of and, as the first generation college student in our family, I know my responsibility. My mom’s the one who taught me that if I want something in life I have to get it. Therefore, I have six weeks till I have to be on campus and 6 weeks to make $26,434, and I know with hard work, consistency, and prayer I’ll get it. Every day for the next 6 weeks, scholarship after scholarship, video, essay, no essay, resume no matter the requirements, I’m applying. Additionally, my other dream is to major in psychology, but I would need to change my major. That’s one of my goals when I get to college. After the first semester, I’ll change my major to psychology. My original major was journalism but after a lot of self reflection, I realized my heart is in psychology. I thought I wanted to be a news anchor and report stories about my community and in a way that was helping people. But I realized I wanted to do something more hands-on, like being a therapist. The field is catered towards helping people face to face. It allows me to help people with their emotions, thoughts, coping skills, and face their fears. Being able to pursue a degree in psychology will help me become a therapist in the long run and I love everything about that field.

“Your dad didn’t get the job.” The words rang through my head. I heard my stepmom say these words, but I didn’t want to believe it. Stage 1 denial, I responded with, “What he didn’t tell me that. How long has he been officially unemployed?” Since Thursday, she said. Thursday. I’m fairly close to my dad, so I was confused about why he didn't tell me. "You didn’t ask," my stepmom said, interrupting me from my thoughts. “You didn’t ask, he was expecting you to ask, but you didn’t." She was right. I didn't ask, I assumed. I assumed when his original job laid him off he would automatically find a new one. I assumed the interview he was supposed to hear back on Thursday would follow up with him. I didn’t expect him not to get the job. I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t want to know what my dad being unemployed meant. I should’ve asked. After that conversation with my stepmom, I went to apologize to my dad. As the man society tells them to be the provider, I knew he felt kind of defeated right now. My apology consisted of, “I'm sorry I was busy worrying about my own problems and life that I didn't bother to ask you about yours.” He responded with a typical dad response,“ it's fine honey, you didn’t know.” But it wasn’t fine. I should've asked him. I was too busy to ask my dad about his job status because the idea in my head sounded better than the possible reality . I questioned myself, my character. The next few weeks, I asked my dad about his day, his job status, updates on interviews, etc. Anything that concerned him. I was taking my dad for granted. I was taking my life for granted. I was used to both parents having jobs, both paying for everything I wanted, but now we’ll be making financial cuts and with college being less than a year away, I needed a job. I started looking for summer internships with school almost being out. It was my best bet at getting employed. So I applied for a library internship. I had my interview and I got the job. I started working Monday through Friday from 1-5 pm for the next few weeks. During summer, I usually rot in bed and hang out with friends, but with my family's recent struggles, I didn’t have the luxury of rotting in bed. Before my dad was unemployed, I didn’t realize the value of a dollar. But when I started working for my own money, I finally understood the importance of my dad and mom. They not only provided for me the best way they could, but I took it all for granted. I rarely said thank you and always held my hand out. I finally understood why my parents said “money doesn’t grow on trees”, because it doesn’t, it grows off of hard work and sacrifice. I now know that if you want something in life, you have to go get it yourself. Something my dad and my mom have done for me all my life. Something I plan on doing for the next few stages of my life, especially in college.