My favorite places to shop online are TJMaxx, Amazon, and BookFinder. I love shopping and selecting gifts for my family and friends. There is something so special about finding an unexpected gift to surprise them with. The variety of products available are superb and I cannot recommend these sites enough. For your average bookworm BookFinder is a site where you can hunt down your favorite authors and support used bookstores, a dying group. Amazon enables for fast delivery when I am on a deadline. TJMaxx allows me to provide my favorite people with luxury finds at a bargain price. Happy holiday shopping.

My mother is the most important person in my life. I would not be who I am without her love and support. My mother never went to college and focused on raising her children. This is despite a life which has not been without tragedy. Her courage and approach to living her life independently left an impression on me. She loves but stands firm on her beliefs. She forgives but she does not forget what has happened in the past. She perseveres even when circumstances would have her give up and accept defeat. I think about how she supported me both financially and emotionally when I went for my bachelors degree. She gave me the little advice that she could because she did not have any experience in higher education. After graduating from college and beginning a job with a community college, I encouraged my mother to start her college career. She is now studying anthropology and I could not be prouder. When she first began taking classes, she was afraid that she would not be able to contend with her peers. She rose through the ranks of her classmen and is now preparing to study for her bachelors in anthropology. From one generation to another, you must always encourage each other to grow and learn. I could not have done without my mother and now I get to return the favor.

My favorite tools when learning about personal finance are Ally Invest, Nerd Wallet, and the Wall Street Journal. Ally Invest works in two ways, a managed portfolio or a self-directed portfolio. This enables the user to approach investment from their level of comfort with a lump sum of $2,500. Nerd Wallet works to help me understand which credit cards improve my credit and which loans are safe to use. The Wall Street Journal educates on upcoming trends and explains shifts in the current economy. I approach this information with the understanding that for a majority of my investments will not be impacted. Or in the current economic climate, I am positively rewarded by the government bailing out the investment economy at the cost of the middle and lower class. The real question is when are the middle and lower class going to use this information to their advantage?

I spent 4 years working in a women's domestic violence shelter. It was an experience that humbled me to see how pervasive the system of violence is. Most of us do not know what it is like to be a battered man or woman. To enter a relationship with someone we trust and have that trust returned in abuse. The people I met while working in this shelter were some of the bravest and wisest individuals, I have had the privilege of knowing. They knew more about life than a college professor could express, save one and she was the director of a women's shelter in a major metropolitan city. The residents of the shelter told me of their lives and what had brought them here. No two stories were alike, and their experiences were enlightening, to say the least. I learned how consent worked and how complicit our society is in enabling the abuse of others. Some individuals were poor while others were rich, but it did not matter. Society doesn't want to look at the toxic way we portray love and relationships. We do not have many examples of healthy and consensual relationships. What made the work challenging was the realization that many of the resident's stories matched those of romantic comedies and romances marketed to women. Their partners were charming and committed to their pursuit of the relationship. The difference is that once the relationship became formalized either through marriage or monogamous commitment, the abuse would start. The residents couldn't give attention or affection to other people in their lives. Their partners would isolate them and alienate their family and friends. By the time physical violence entered the relationship, there was no one to tell their story to. Running to the shelter was the last choice for many residents, most of whom lived in constant fear of their partner finding them. Violence in relationships has many forms, most abusers are not media stereotypes. They are love interests in our popular movies and tv shows. These are the bad boys' and girls' people who are told that they can fix through the power of love. This is what makes the work of people in domestic violence shelters so difficult. We have a culture that celebrates one type of abuser and demonizes another. From my 4 years as a volunteer, I learned to see relationships through a different lens. When my friends and family tell me about their relationships and encounters, my expectations are different. I think in terms of consent and health. Does this person care about you or are they interested in how you make them feel about themselves? Did you do this because you wanted to or because you felt obligated to give into to them? Are you happy in your relationship or are you afraid of how they will react to you being unhappy? If we want domestic violence to stop, we need to be willing to look at for what it is. The norm in many people's lives but we need to pay attention to see it. I want to use this grant money to complete my master's degree and become a director of a foundation. I want to give men and women the chance to escape from relationships that put them in danger. I want to assist organizations in keeping their doors open to assist these men and women in getting the help that they so desperately need.

My adoption took 12 years. I was born during the era of crack and the 1990s crime bill. My mother spent her pregnancy in a prison and when I was eventually born, I was given to foster parents. My foster parents were granted guardianship over me while my mother completed her prison sentence. It has been speculated that children can inherit the trauma of their parents. I am given to believe this to be true for many children of the crack and crime bill era in the 1990s. We are the children not meant to make it in the system and many of us do not. I was one of the lucky ones. My guardians became my parents while my mother because a stranger to me. My mother fought in the courts to have her rights returned to her, but the courts refused to do so. They instead, allowed my guardians to retain their rights for the next 12 years. During those 12 years, my guardians became my parents and we lived in several countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. I was exposed to a different life that I would not have with my working-class mother. It was an amazing childhood, but I was always aware of my status as a child who had another parent. I met her when my guardians returned to the United States for a brief period. I was in second grade at the time and I remember asking her one day why she wouldn't let me be adopted. She began to cry and I, being only a child, could not understand what I had done to my mother. She asked me if they, my guardians, had asked me to say this to her. She continued to cry and explain to me that life is complicated, and I didn't understand the circumstances. My mother has had a very difficult childhood and even harder adulthood. She was raised in poverty and couldn't escape it no matter how hard she tried. I didn't understand that at the time, I only knew that I wanted to belong. Years later when the courts finally determined that my guardians had earned the right to adopt me did, I realize the truth. I was both their child and her child. My adoptive parents loved me and continue to do so but they were not prepared for what would happen next. I am black and my parents are white. They could not understand what that would mean when they returned to the United States when I was 14. Being black in America is difficult for many black people but to not know that one's blackness determined one's life in America is even worse. I was the only black child in my school. No teacher looked like me, the only time I would see people who looked like me were in the movies. I did not get to be with other black people until I went to college. My experience in college changed me and my identity. I could see myself through their eyes but not through their experiences. I was raised with all the privileges of whiteness and none of the constraints associated with my blackness. I want to use this scholarship to complete my masters and become a director of a foundation. I want to make pathways for other black women who have not had the privileges that I have had. I want to give them the chance to make the world a better place without having to fear how they are going to afford it.