I hadn’t known my thumb sucking became such a troublesome issue until my parents displayed an immense effort to separate our bond; it became obvious when the tactics they used are not ones that can be characterized as normal, but then again, what is normal anyways? I’ll leave you to decide that for yourself. Compared to other children, I was not mischievous. I would often obey my parent’s rules to uphold the title of the golden child. I would often pride myself for staying out of trouble as I would not be subjected to punishment. Yet at a young age, I was not able to comprehend how my thumb sucking made me suddenly punishment prone. My mother’s first thought to tackle my addiction by making my thumb my enemy, by having it possess a foul taste. It is significant to note that I am not fond of spicy food, which my mom knew well of and used to her advantage. That night before being put to bed, she saturated my thumbs with hot sauce; ensuring that I would not try either thumb. As genius as she may have thought he was at the time, I sucked the hot sauce off. This disgusting, throat wrenching substance in my mouth was worth it to be united with my beloved friend again. Upon my mom’s failure, my parents paused in their methods of coercing my out of my addiction in hopes I would quit on my own. Approaching the age of ten, my father gave it a go. He can be characterized as traditional and the disciplinarian of the family. I knew whatever he could come up with, would possibly prove the most effective, but also in the most unethical way. Far from defeating the taste, my father thought to eliminate my thumbs as an option all together. Before night, he wrapped quite a few layers of maximum strength, grey duct tape. Currently, I am unable to identify whether my desire to tear off the tape was due to my thumb sucking or cut off circulation. Regardless, my dad was stunned the next morning to come into my room with shavings of tape on the floor and me, smiling, with my thumb in my mouth. Eventually, around the age of thirteen, where my parents retired their methods, I terminated my habit. With being an almost adult, I can now look back at my childhood and realize the reason as to why I persisted holding on to a strong, meaningless connection with my thumb. When given various opportunities to move on from my childish act, I resisted. It provided an outlet of comfort. Throughout the past seventeen years, I cannot name a time where I have subjected myself to new situations, new people, and a new environment; I have been living within a bubble of familiarity. Moving forward, I would like to deliberately expose myself to discomfort, and I encourage everyone to do the same. With this experience, I plan to pursue a career as a child psychologist, with a double major in African American studies. The additional major I plan to apply with my psychology discipline will allow me to better understand how the African American community are both positively and negatively influenced throughout their adolescent years. In this sense, I would like to investigate what other underlying factors may have contributed to my persistent habit.

With often being the only black girl in the room, I cannot help but speak to ensure my voice is heard. I articulate my words to ensure that I am understood, and put forth my opinions, ideas, and constructive criticism. These are roles I must possess while being a student representative on the school board. I place a great amount of importance in my position, as I am not solely the voice in which I speak from. I speak for all students, most particularly that ones that look like me; the students who are fearful of being characterized as outspoken or have not yet developed a level of comfort in talking to a higher authority. With the comfort I had felt, I made it my undertaking to arise an issue that impacted students directly, that felt ignored for too long. I brought to administrative attention the lack of student-oriented groups surrounding our students of color at Richfield Senior High School. In the height of the recent tragedies of both George Floyd and Daunte Wright, students of color needed a space in which they felt safe, supported, and prioritized. In doing so, I worked closely alongside principle to implement and publicize the addition of a Black Student Union in our listed organizations. In this way, our mission statement is to empower our young black students and encourage them to become courageous, inspiring leaders inside the classroom and out. Black student Union may seem like an extracurricular activity to some, but for me, and many other students, it is our lives that we face on a day-to-day basis. Having a confidential space to talk about issues allows black students to connect with one another, and ultimately feel less alone. I was presented with an immediate effect of this clubs beginning. Other students felt as though they were now capable of reaching out to administration to propose more organizations in which tailor towards the Hispanic and Asian American communities. My desire to act fueled others to act as well, almost as if it was a domino effect. Moving forward, it has been roughly nine months since the beginning of this organization at my school, and there has been overwhelming amounts of gratitude. This gratitude was a result of my desire to take initiative. When individuals act directly on their ideas, it can benefit a mass amount of people, not just the individual themselves. Possessing the quality of taking initiative will allow me to pinpoint the needs of myself, others, and ensure that they are met in a setting beyond my school. My future aspirations consist of becoming an adolescent therapist who works directly with children of color to tackle such issues as race-based trauma. To do so, I must continue to be willing to act and advocate for underrepresented individuals; much of what I will be doing in the future. As well, this quality keeps me well prepared in the face of adversity, in the sense that I will be able to provide viable solutions based on the practice that I hold now. I plan to maintain a mindset that poses a question we should all ask ourselves; if I am unwilling to speak up, who will?

I have always made continuous effort to put-forth my education, as it will help me to achieve my professional ambitions. I am a current senior enrolled in post-secondary enrollment opportunity at my high school. In a sense, I am enrolled in college courses and obtaining the credit, while still working towards my high school diploma. This program offered by my school allows me to remain academically challenged, as college professors obtain higher standards for their course work requirements. As well, I find this experience beneficial, as it introduces me to a more rapid manner of learning material. With this, I hope to apply my participation in the Post-Secondary Enrollment Program to my undergraduate study at Northwestern University this fall. Most recently was I admitted to the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, where I will be majoring in Psychology and minoring in African American studies. The origin of my psychology interest stems from wanting to learn more about human interaction and behaviors. Our internal and external environment can govern how we go about everyday life. Psychology is a broad curriculum, but I desire to specialize in abnormalities and mental illness. Often, mental illness is a neglected conversation in America, but is a dire issue among our younger demographics. To accompany, I find use in African American studies where I will be able to tailor my professional career to that of minorities. Most specifically, I would like to dive into how generational trauma has impacted the mental health of our current generation of minorities. Overall, I am passionate that with these two educational backgrounds, I will be able to provide easily accessible resources to my community. With knowledge, starting from General Psychology to the more specific sectors, I will be able to view my environment differently. Currently, I am enrolled in a course that exposes the underlying factors contributing to mental illness, as well as early signs of recognition. Moving forward, as friends confide in me about issues they are experiencing, I will be able to link them to possible psychological abnormalities and direct them to more suitable solutions. Although, I do not view myself in the compacity to diagnose others at this point in my educational journey, I will be in the compacity to suggest seeking a higher authority for help and offer any support within my abilities. As well, I will be able to approach my own mental health in a different, more effective manner. With the completion of this discipline, I am hoping to become a psychologist, in which specializes in treating younger children before mental illness rises to extremities. Our younger demographic is the future leaders, in which deserve any assistance they need to be able to live life comfortably. Diving into African American studies, this curriculum will fulfill my goal of providing superb care. The curriculum broadens over the history and culture of people with African descent. With this additional major, I plan to apply what I know from my psychology discipline to combine these two educations to better understand how the African American community are more likely to obtain abnormalities based on current and past racial discriminatory measures against them. As well, within my own community, will I be able to identify the current challenges that are appointed to my people. Using my privilege to obtain an education, I would use my services and knowledge to give back to the community by providing affordable therapy. Additionally, I plan to start a Black-owned clinic, giving minorities the resources that they are often deprived from receiving.

Covid-19 instilled much fear within the community in its prevalence. Little to no information was known of its severity, causing the world to turn into complete panic. In its difficulty of understanding this new disease, there was an external factor that would prove to raise difficulty. At its start, the pandemic was soon accompanied by the murder of George Floyd. With both the events of a pandemic and civil unrest towards police brutality occurring simultaneously, I knew immediate action was needed on my part to help restore solidarity within my own community. I would do so by beginning with my education setting and working outward from there. Regarding the pandemic, I began to actively volunteer to assist my school administration in providing a seamless transition to distance learning for our graduating seniors. The abrupt change did not permit the class of 2020 to receive necessary materials to properly celebrate their accomplishment of a diploma. In this way, with a combination of student and administrative ideas, we put into action an outdoor, easy pick-up entrance to allow seniors to collect their necessities, with little possibility for coronavirus transmission. At this time, staff was quite short, so the need for student volunteers was needed. Since then, I have volunteered at multiple vaccination clinics, ranging from ages five to ten, in efforts to ensure our youth is staying safe in these uncertain times as well. In these roles, I act as a support, to assure the children that the shot is quick and easy! To expand my efforts beyond the community, I have spent countless hours at Feed My Starving Children. An organization whose mission statement is to provide nutritional meals to children in environments where it is not easily accessible. The pandemic has created a degree hardship for everyone, in which drove me to my involvement and beyond. Aside from the pandemic, my eyes were widened to the issue of police brutality, and the killings of my people. In support of racial justice, I rallied a group of my fellow peers together to bring about solidarity, which we so helplessly needed and deserved during this time. With an appearance of over 200 students from neighboring schools, we were able to host a walkout to our local precinct. This provided the opportunity for the community to come together and understand one another’s struggle and experiences within a system that aims to disadvantage minorities. My work did not stop here, as I thought more was to be done. Upon the beginning of this current school year, I have organized and created a Black Student Union. In this way, our mission statement is to empower our young black students and encourage them to become courageous, inspiring leaders in any field they desire. Black Student Union creates safe space for BIPOC students and allows those to connect with others who can relate to them on aspects only they understand. This extracurricular activity allows black students to feel like the majority, compared to being often placed in the minority. Overall, I have spent my time ensuring that I am doing everything within reason to promote a safe community, as well as advocate for black lives. Going forward, I am hoping to continue to be of help within my environment to create a more productive society for our youth.

I have chosen to submit a 1-2 minute video expressing individual thought as to how I could change the world.