When I was eight years old, my mother was detained in a psychiatric ward and diagnosed with schizophrenia. Following her diagnoses, my four younger siblings and I went to live with my grandparents, who aided my mother in raising us. Growing up, I was closer to my grandparents than the typical child, as for a majority of my life they functioned as my parents also. My grandparents drove me to and from school every day. They took me to the dentist and to the doctors. My grandmother would give me money to go to the mall with my friends and my grandpa would drive me there. They showered my siblings and I in love, wisdom, guidance, and support; so much so that at times the ache of us not having completely present parents was overshadowed. However, on July 23, 2017, my grandmother had succumbed to her two-year-long battle with breast cancer. Her passing was detrimental to my family structure, and it took several years for me to learn how to properly grieve her presence. I had lost one of the most consistent and caring people in my life, and I didn't know how to deal with it. Seven years later, I am graced with the memory of the woman that my grandmother was and continuing to learn from all of the lessons she taught me. My grandmother engrained in me and my siblings the importance of education from a very young age. My grandmother paid for my siblings and I to receive private school education and encouraged us to aim for the best. In addition to the promotion of education, my grandmother also encouraged us to achieve mental, physical, and spiritual self-care. She taught us to brush our teeth three times a day and once with baking soda so our teeth would be pearly white and void of cavities. She also encouraged us to monitor the food that we put in our bodies and to stay away from drugs. It is because of the woman that my grandmother was, that I am still keen on educating myself on health, especially breast health. I am aware that due to her being my paternal grandmother, I am at a higher risk of obtaining breast cancer, as the gene is more commonly passed from mother to son to daughter. About one year ago, I had finally mustered up the courage to explore a small lump in my breast that I had noticed two years prior. Due to my family history, I was aware of the possibilities that could be my future, and I was afraid to put my family through the same situation again. However, I also realized that my health can only be maintained if I allow it to be. I realized that putting off my health another day had the potential to make it worse, if left untreated. Currently, I am unaware of what the lump in my breast is, although I was encouraged that it is a high possibility of being a benign mass. However, I am not giving up on finding out my results, and I am consistent in my check-ups. I also encourage my aunts and sisters to get checked out yearly, as I know that what we went through with my grandmother was a sad experience, but ensuring our health is what will keep it from happening again, not ignoring it. Breast health education is important to me because someone I loved experienced difficulties with their breast health, and I know that it is a familiar reality to many African American females. I am passionate about breast health education because although I may be at a higher risk for difficulties in breast health, anyone can endure them. Educating ourselves is the first step to ensuring better health, by not ignoring signs and symptoms, receiving yearly checkups, and being honest with our health care providers, we are more likely to recognize and address any issues before they become uncontrollable.

Throughout my life, my identity as a Black woman was the most fragile part of who I was. While I grew up in a predominantly Black neighborhood, that most would classify as the "ghetto" or the "hood", I also attended a predominantly white, private school for my entire life. I grew up as what is termed as the "token black friend" at school, where I felt my blackness was my entire identity. However, when I was around my cousins or kids in the neighborhood I "acted too white" because of the way I spoke, leaving me to feel as if I wasn't black enough. It wasn't until after my high school graduation that I began to explore what society perceived and painted as being a Black woman. I attended Georgia State University for my first two years of undergrad, in the city of Atlanta, the hub of black beauty, culture, and status. This was the first time that I had Black friends who didn't call me out for "being too white"--also I had been working on being "more Black" all summer. From there, I attended an HBCU, and I began to dive into my history, my culture, and surround myself with people who looked just like me, yet they came in all different forms. It was at my historically black university that I met Black people from all over the world. Here, I learned my history, I learned my culture, and I learned that there were other Black girls who sang to Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift. It wasn't until my experience at my HBCU, that I became comfortable in my identity as a Black woman and realized that my personality does not define my experience. Black women suffer a great deal in this country, based simply off of the color of their skin. I have faced those struggles my entire life. I've been punished in middle school for "being out of dress code" for a genetically curvy body, while others girls wore the exact same thing and received no redirection. I've felt ostracized and isolated from white spaces, no matter how eloquently I spoke or how well I displayed my education. I've also experienced prejudice at the hands of the law, personally and within my immediate family. I have grown to love my blackness despite spending my entire adolescence trying to make it the least important thing about me. However, I am proud of my identity as an Ethiopian-African American woman. I am comfortable in who I am, and I know that the color of my skin and the way that I talk are only small parts of the amazing human being that I am. It has taken me a long time to love my identity as a Black woman, and I am eager to support little Black girls and boys in loving themselves no matter the color of their skin, but rather the content of their character. As a growing social worker, I want to help others see themselves for who they are and to love the skin that they came in.

When I am asked to describe myself, my mind often wanders, searching for the route to take in providing that answer. Sometimes I wonder if I should begin by listing all of the accomplishments I have achieved. I know it is impressive that I graduated with my bachelor's degree in Psychology with a 3.98 GPA while working full time to support myself, balancing organizations, friends, finances, and a social life. However, that girl doesn't feel like me. Therefore, I begin to wonder if I am what happened to me, and I question describing the trials and traumas I've been through that lead me to where I am now, like talking about how growing up with a mother battling schizophrenia was my introduction into the world of mental health and the most apparent catalyst to my desired career path. However, in the midst of healing, I don't believe that my past defines who I am now. So, I wonder if I should talk about what I do now, working in a residential facility for teens struggling with self-harm and suicide while simultaneously balancing graduate school. Yet, I feel so burnt out at times that I feel sick of what I currently do and oppose for my now to define who I am. Lastly, I wonder if I should talk about where I want to be, working with children in a school setting, enlightening them on social and emotional learning, being a safe space for children to be themselves, and advocating for the population that has one of the smallest voices. Nonetheless, I am not her yet. The truth is, I am a sum of all of these parts. I am a daughter who struggled with my only present parent not being present enough. I am a full time student, striving for academic success and trying to balance my personal life. I am a behavioral health worker, working overtime weekly and still trying my best to show up for the youth who feel alone, unseen, and unheard. I am also the woman of my dreams, showing up every day to pursue the life that I desire. At the age of 23, I have undergone a lot of hardships and trials, including some with my own battles with mental health. However, I am constantly trying my hardest to overcome them all. As I pursue my social work degree to become a school social worker, I am becoming the woman who pours into and nurtures others through each stage of their life. I want to aid youth in living in their present moment and understanding that each phase of their life does not define them, but rather they come together to make up their whole being. As I struggled throughout my life, battling the anxiety of not knowing myself, not knowing what's next, or not knowing how to overcome my past, I learned that sometimes the greatest thing that we can do for ourselves is to accept each part of life as it comes and goes. I want to be the support that youth need to learn how to radically accept the challenges of life and know that it is okay to ask for help along the way.

There were many obstacles that had the ability to deter my desire and commitment to obtaining my education as far as it has progressed. When I was eight years old, my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and detained in a psychiatric ward. At the time, my dad was not a constant figure in our lives, leaving my paternal grandparents to help my mother raise me and my four younger siblings. Despite the emotional and physical lack of our parents in our lives, our grandparents became our support system. My grandmother, a licensed social worker and therapist, was adamant in instilling the importance of education into our lives. Her and my grandpa worked tirelessly to send us to obtain private education, and pushed us to pursue it wholeheartedly. In 2017, my grandmother passed away after a three-year-long battle with breast cancer, and my world began to rock as my stability crumbled once again. Upon her passing, my dad had become more present in the lives of me and my siblings. My dad became our primary caregiver and bread winner. My grandfather continued to encourage us to pursue our education as if our grandmother were still here cheering us on. I was encouraged to begin my bachelor's degree in Psychology, with the intent of pursuing a Master's degree in Social Work. I was out-of-state, in school, when in 2021, my home was raided and my dad was detained. My primary caregiver, family breadwinner, and the father that I was just beginning to relearn and trust again was ripped away from me. At the start of my junior year of undergrad, I had become an independent student. I was troubled by loss, broken trust, financial burden, bills, and feeling as if maybe all these things happening to me and to my family was a sign. I was sitting in my dorm, staring at my $14,000 out-of-state tuition in one tab, Indeed.com on another tab, and Bold.org on the last. I was fearful of the debts that had already surmounted me and the possibility of exhausting my loan options. I didn't have credit, I wasn't financial literate, and I was over 700 miles away from my family. Battling severe anxiety, I had every reason to walk away, to give up, move home, and get a well-enough job to help take care of my younger siblings. However, my grandpa and paternal aunts continued to encourage me. I began to utilize my resources and remain determined. It was through the use of Bold.org, UNCF.org, and the generous donors that I complete my undergraduate degree, working full-time to support myself, and graduating with a 3.9 GPA. I am now back home, working full time and enrolled part-time in a Master's degree program obtaining a Master's in Social Work. I am a first generation college graduate, and I was able to persevere. I overcame these obstacles in order to have the knowledge and resources to help children like me and like my siblings. I want to help Black and Brown adolescents who endure obstacles such as poverty or foster care to encourage them through those obstacles and help them see that there are people who want to see and help them through to the other end.

In July of 2021, my father, and primary source of financial support had become incarcerated. Due to my mother's battle with mental illnesses, my father's incarceration left me to become an independent student just before my junior year of undergraduate. The circumstances were overwhelming, as I had never had to work while in school, especially not in order to support myself. Out-of-state, I was anxious that I might have to put my education on the backburner until I could figure out how to sustain life as a full-time student with out-of-state tuition and fees. It was during the latter half of 2021, that I found Bold.org. Since my discovery of this website, I was able to discover thousands of scholarships. Bold.org and UNCF.org were two resources that aided me in completing my undergraduate education. I was able to sustain the remainder of my tuition, and work solely to cover the other costs of life such as food, transportation, and shelter. I am now in my second semester of my Master's program, pursuing a degree in Social Work. I moved back home and began working full-time, while pursuing my second degree part-time. It has been overwhelming at times to juggle my coursework with the demanding hours spent in the field. However, I have always been determined to obtain my higher education with as little debt as possible. I am working to support myself and support my dreams. I am a first-generation, independent student. I am also graduating with lived experience both in my personal life and in the workfield. I have worked in childcare for over eight years, and my current position as an adolescent Behavioral Health Worker will also impact my ability to serve the population I desire to work with more effectively.

I am a 23-year-old, African American, first-generation graduate student. I am, and have been an independent student for the past three years, as my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was eight years old, and my father has been incarcerated since July 2021. In May of 2023, I graduated with a 3.9 GPA from Winston-Salem State University with my bachelor's of Psychology. I am currently finishing my second semester of my Master's degree program in Social Work. With my education, I intend to become a License Social Worker. My career aspiration include working in child and adolescent mental health. I am also very passionate about foster care reform. I have been working in childcare since I was fourteen years old, beginning as a babysitter for my aunt's foster children, which is where my passion for foster children first budded. Since then I have also worked in an elementary school during my undergraduate career, volunteered with LEAD Girls of NC, a non-profit for elementary and middle school girls, and I am currently working as a Behavioral Health Worker at a residential facility for adolescents aged 10-18. During my undergraduate career, I also worked in a research lab part-time with my professor and mentor. While working in the lab, I was able conduct my own research study which assessed the perceived benefits of kinship care in relation to the traditional foster care system. I presented this research at my university's scholarship day and received first place. I was also able to present this research at the Southeastern Psychological Association conference in April 2023. While I was able to undergo my last year of undergrad free of financial burden due to the surplus of scholarships I was awarded, prior to my junior year I was not aware of Bold.org, UNCF.org, or the several other resources that could provide me with assistance to my higher education. Thus, I do have several undergraduate loans that I need to repay. Since becoming more financial literate, I am striving to obtain my Master's degree without taking out any loans, and also working toward loan repayment to build my credit. My goal is to continue doing my part in utilizing resources such as Bold.org and generous donors, such as the Cheeseman Family, to avoid resourcing loans to pursue my degree and work toward loan repayment. The money I receive from scholarships will first go toward my current tuition, and the surplus will be put toward loan repayment.

I am a 23-year-old, first-generation, low-income, independent graduate student. When I was eight years old, my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and detained in a psychiatric ward. Although my mother's circumstances are not the sole inspiration for my passion in mental health care, her illness was my introduction into the world of mental illness and mental health care. My paternal grandparents aided my mother in raising me and my five younger siblings, thus I grew up very close to my paternal aunts, one of whom was a foster mother and therapist. Through my aunt, I received my first "job" at fourteen years old as a babysitter to her foster children. It was then that my depth of experience in childcare began and where my passion for foster care reform budded. My childhood and adolescence with one parent with a mental illness and the other's whose presence was everchanging, was a rollercoaster of emotion. However, the support system I adopted through my paternal grandparents was encouragement to persevere. Growing up near the poverty line, education was a priority in my household. I grew up in Gary, IN, which is a small city on the brink on poverty. My grandparents worked long and hard to ensure my siblings and I received private school education and encouraged us to succeed despite the emotional turmoil we had experienced as young children, growing up with a shell of who our mother once was. In 2017, my grandmother passed away after at three-year-long battle with breast cancer. As the individual who encouraged me to pursue my education wholeheartedly, I knew that she would want me to continue striving for higher. Following in her footsteps as a therapist, I began my undergraduate degree in Psychology with the intent to obtain a Master's in Social Work. I am now in my first semester of my Social Work master's degree program. I am inspired by my grandmother, my mom, my aunt, and my city to help destigmatize mental health in Black and minority communities. I have witnessed first and second-hand the highs and lows of the foster care system and the impact of poverty on mental health. The social systems that I desire to create my own impact on are children, especially those within the foster care system, as I believe children are the future. Mental illness can be hereditary, children can be born into poverty, and mental health care should be a right for all, regardless of age, gender, or race. I want to become a child and adolescent therapist and social worker, as well as working on foster care reform. I want the do my part in changing the systems that impact children so when they become adults, there are more equipped to handle the challenges that I've witness people in my own life encounter.

In order to achieve a utopia for mental health within the Black communities, society would have to recognize and amplify the voices of the unheard. Growing up in Black culture, many individuals experienced a variety of similar circumstances, beliefs, and ways of life. Within Black communities, mental health and mental health care are often taboo topics and swept under the rug. Phrases such as "only white people go to therapy" and beliefs such as "what happens in this family stays in this family" are stigmatizing mindsets that have been passed along through generations of Black communities. However, this mindset is not solely the responsibility of our parents or grandparents, rather it was upheld by the systemic racism and stereotyping that Black communities have endured for centuries. From the suppression of aggression and pain in order to assimilate to societies standard of Eurocentric acceptability and the generational mistrust of health professionals and government organizations because of decades of bias resulting in the mistreatment of Black individuals, there is much work that needs to be done to achieve this utopia. Nonetheless, there has been an insurmountable amount of progress within the past ten years. Society has become more sensitive and various cultures, peoples, and groups are fighting for their health, safety, and beliefs. The use of social media has contributed to the progression of the destigmatization of mental health issues and the promotion of mental health care. However, there is still much more progress to be made at the systemic level. The utopian society for the optimal mental health of Black communities would be the implementation of Black-owned and Black-staffed organizations. These organizations would be dedicated to the promotion of mental health care and the destigmatization of mental health disorders within Black communities. In addition, these organizations would be staffed with Black professionals who care about the mental health of individuals within their community, thus promoting a feeling of relatability and trust with individuals in the community. The promotion of mental health by individuals who resemble the Black community assures the individuals that their health is truly being examined and cared for. Black culture carries the belief of ubuntu--an ancient African belief of collectivism--and places strong loyalty into kin and fictive kin, which is why many Black individuals might feel safety and reassurance when they see another Black person in a room full of individuals that do not look like them, or when an auntie smiles at them in the grocery store. Having individuals who mirror their traits and shared cultural experiences will allow them a feeling of safety and vulnerability. While no individual can have "perfect" mental health, the systems we create will affect the state of our mental health as a whole. Institutions that are Black-owned, Black-staffed, and dedicated to the mental health within Black communities allow room to create the safe space that Black individuals need to overcome generations of trauma, abuse, and mindsets that have hindered them from advancing their mental state of being. While cultural competence may help individuals of other races pursue an understanding of Black mental health, the experience of Black individuals is unique and can best be understood by Black mental health professionals. Social justice can be achieved in this utopia by the reduction of racial bias that may stem from other cultures unknowingly. This utopia also seeks to reduce the gap in mental health professional disparities by inspiring more Black individuals to seek positions in the mental health field. Subsequently, Black individuals will be inspired to break stereotypes within their own community, thus breaking stereotypes of our community in the public eye.

Throughout my life, I have been known as many things, and have recognized myself as many things: a survivor, the oldest child and "second mother", a first-generation college graduate, the "therapist" friend, and the list goes on. I am a 22-year-old, HBCU and first-generation college graduate from the impecunious city of Gary, Indiana. Growing up, I was not only the oldest sibling of six children, but I was also seen as a "mini" mother. My mother fell ill and was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was eight years old, leading to a life of continuous ups and downs. I developed many character traits as a young child that aided me in growing up. Some of those traits were good, like the ability to empathize, be nurturing, and compassionate, and become a figure that others could look up to. However, some of these traits were responses to the stress I endured as a child with the everchanging presence of my parents in my life. The stress from my childhood manifested as anxiety, depression, and the overwhelming need for a sense of control in my life. My home life as a child was far from constant. My mother's mental health affected her ability to be mentally present in my life. My father was physically absent for most of my younger adolescence, and when I was 16, my grandmother passed away due to breast cancer. However, despite my circumstances and the challenges that came along with them, I continued to pursue a life worth living. My grandparents, who raised me for the majority of my life, always instilled the importance of keeping God first in my life and pursuing an education with my best foot forward. Due to their guidance and motivation, I graduated from a small, private high school that was geared toward preparation for higher education. Following high school, I was fortunate and determined enough to obtain my baccalaureate degree in Psychology, while maintaining a 3.98 GPA, and working two jobs to sustain my own cost of living. Currently, I am enrolled in a Master of Social Work program, continuing to pursue the life worth living that I know is possible. My goal in my future career is to obtain my license in mental health counseling for children and adolescents. I believe that my own childhood experiences have equipped me with the ability to empathize and relate to children who might have experienced some of the same traumas, setbacks, and trials as myself. Upon obtaining my Master's degree and licensure, I want to work as a therapist, advocate, and social worker dedicated to the promotion of children's mental health, with a focus on children within the foster care system. Growing up close to one of my aunts who was a social worker and foster mother, I was able to experience second-hand the highs and lows of the foster care system. I saw the need for reformation within that system and began my own research study during my undergraduate education. Due to my past experiences and research, I have felt a passion for helping children because it is easy for their voices to be overlooked and unheard. The Barbara J. DeVaney Memorial Scholarship would aid me in creating a better life in various ways. The primary way in which this scholarship would advance my future is by allowing me to continue my higher education void of the financial burden of paying for college and sustaining life on my own. This scholarship would alleviate my financial anxieties which would allow me to focus solely on higher education as well as my mental health.

The dream version of my future self is happy, healthy, and wealthy, using my knowledge, experience, and time to help others achieve this same sense of completion within their own lives.

If I could have everyone read one book in the world, it would be the Holy Bible. This might sound like some cliche, Christian line used to try and force my religion on others, but in reality, it is just my way of sharing my favorite book. The Holy Bible is my favorite book not because it is the framework for my faith, but because it is intricately and inexplicably written in a way that unfolded the future before the future had even come. Scientists, theologists, Christians, and millions of other individuals around the world have expressed their awe and realization that many places, things, and events in the Bible have once existed and have taken place within history and our present. The Bible is not just the rule book that many people who do not follow the faith may think it is, but it is an intricate story of a Creator who designed a perfect world in love, and like all good books, there is an antagonist who thwarts the intended storyline. The Bible tells the story of how the Creator desired companionship and family, so he created man. However, the deceiver was jealous of the Creator and his power, so he tricked creation into turning against the Creator. Thousands of years pass, and the Creator realizes that his creation cannot be salvaged if there is no redeemer, and so the Creator sends a part of himself, in the flesh to come and die for all of the transgressions of creation, that they might be forgiven for turning their backs on their creator and can access the eternal life that was intended for them from the beginning. As a fanatic of romance novels and romantic comedies, the Bible is by far my favorite love story. The Holy Bible is not just some faith-based rule book but is a story of a Creator's unconditional love for his creation, and the trials and tribulations that are faced before the Creator and his creation can be at true peace for the rest of eternity

The experiences and traumas that I endured during my childhood followed me into my life as a young adult without me even knowing that the root of my personality, triggers, and thought process were due to the defense mechanisms and coping skills I developed through lived experience as a child. Due to the use of therapy, I was able to develop skills such as journaling and self-reflecting that guided me in understanding, processing, and working through my emotions, while being able to realize where these emotions stemmed from. As an individual who dealt with extreme anxiety, I cannot remember a time in my life when I did not have these struggles with undefined fear or moments of extreme panic when facing certain triggers. However, when I was in high school my grandparents, who raised me, placed me in therapy, which provided me with the tools that I didn't know I needed to combat my anxiety. Introduced to journaling and self-reflecting, I was able to pinpoint where I felt my anxiety stemmed from. I learned that my anxiety was due to some of the unstable circumstances that I experienced as a child such as living with a parent with a mental illness and my father being an unconstant presence in my life, as well as having faced sexual trauma at a very young age. My past life experience and introduction to the world of mental health care inspired me to join the field of Social Work. I have been working in childcare since I was 15 years old, but being a babysitter, nanny, and teaching assistant still did not feel like I had as much impact as I wanted to. I had always been excited to help the children who came in and out of my life learn more about themselves and express the feelings that they might have thought did not matter. My goal is to become a child and adolescent therapist to help youth understand, process, and healthily manage their emotions, as well as equip them with the necessary skill set to overcome any traumas and complex circumstances that they have experienced to prevent them from flowing over into their adult life. I believe that children are the future of the world and to truly destigmatize mental health and promote mental health care, it is a concept that should be introduced at a young age. Upon graduation, I want to work in urban and minority communities with young children, educating them on the importance of mental health care and working within programs that seek to provide children with the resources to address and take care of their mental health. As a product of Gary, Indiana, a small, poverty-stricken community, I too often see young children resort to drugs, fighting, and anger as a way to suppress some of the complex circumstances that they have had to live through. I want to be able to make a difference within my communities and communities just like mine by becoming a resource that allows a safe space for children to explore their emotions and healthily process them. I aspire to do my part to promote the importance of mental health care, which I believe starts with our youth.

My five-year plan is a written agreement with myself to ensure that I am doing everything within my own power to produce a successful and fruitful future. The overarching goal of my five-year plan is to create a life that allows me to become the resource necessary to give back to those who need it. I aspire to be a part of the change that promotes the mental health and overall well-being of the children in our society. Within the next five years, I aspire to hold my master's degree in Social Work, have completed my licensure as a mental health counselor, and have begun working as a child and adolescent therapist. Years one through three entail beginning my Master in Social Work program. I will be participating in a part-time program, due to the necessity of having to work to sustain my cost of living. Within the first year, I want to complete all of my courses with as high of a grade as possible, work to build my savings account, begin repaying my student loans, and build my line of credit. Within the second and third year I will continue pursuing my education to the best of my ability and aiming to secure an internship in direct correlation with the field of work I want to pursue. After graduating from my Master's degree program, I intend to pursue my licensure as a mental health counselor. I want to use my degree and licensure to work with children on understanding and processing their emotions, as well as equipping them with healthy mechanisms to deal with stress, trauma, and complex circumstances. Adolescence is the primary stage of development in response to how individuals feel and deal with the stressors of life, and with proper care and education, many mental health issues can be spotted and prevented at a young age. I want to be a part of the promotion of children's mental health care because I know how the traumas a child may face will have the ability to impact them for the rest of their lives if not dealt with and processed healthily. The Bright Lights scholarship will help aid me toward reaching my future goals, by helping to alleviate some of the financial burdens that may come with higher education. As a first-generation, independent student, there were many times during my academic career that I feared not being able to complete my degree due to the lack of financial support. In the middle of my undergraduate career, my father, and primary caregiver succumbed to incarceration, leaving me financially independent and at risk of exhausting my student loan options by the time I was in my last year of undergrad. However, it is because of organizations like Bold.org and donors such as Bria Alexander, that students like me, who are not in the best financial predicaments to be attempting to obtain a degree in higher education, have the opportunity to do so without fear of falling into hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The Bright Lights scholarship will help me pay my tuition without the fear of exhausting student loans to maintain my spot in the program and maintain my cost of living. On behalf of all applicants, as well as myself, I want to express gratitude to Bria Alexander, the head of the Bright Lights scholarship for allowing us to pursue our passions with the opportunity to alleviate financial burden or fear.

Throughout my life, I have been known as many things, and have recognized myself as many things: a survivor, the oldest child and second mother, a first-generation college graduate, the "therapist" friend, and the list goes on. I am a 22-year-old, HBCU and first-generation college graduate from the impecunious city of Gary, Indiana. Growing up, I was not only the oldest sibling of six children, but I was also seen as a "mini" mother. My mother fell ill and was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was eight years old, leading to a life of continuous ups and downs. I had developed many character traits as a young child that aided me in growing up. Some of those traits were good, like the ability to empathize, be nurturing, compassionate, and a become a figure that others could look up to. However, some of these traits were responses to stress I endured as a child with the everchanging presence of my parents in my life. The stress from my childhood manifested as anxiety, depression, and the overwhelming need of a sense of control in my life. My home-life as a child was far from constant. My mother's mental health affected her ability to be mentally present in my life. My father was physically absent for most of my younger adolescence, and when I was 16, my grandmother passed away due to breast cancer. However, despite my circumstances and the challenges that came along with them, I continued to pursue a life worth living. My grandparents, who raised me for a majority of my life, always instilled the importance of keeping God first in my life, and pursuing an education with my best foot forward. Due to their guidance and motivation, I graduated from a small, private high school that was geared toward preparation for higher education. Following my high school, I was fortunate and determined enough to obtain my baccalaureate degree in Psychology, while maintaining a 3.98 GPA, and working two jobs to sustain my own cost of living. Currently, I am enrolled in a Master of Social Work program, continuing to pursue the life worth living that I know is possible. My goal in my future career is to obtain my licensing in mental health counseling for children and adolescents. I believe that my own childhood experiences have equipped me with the ability to empathize and relate to children who might have experienced some of the same traumas, setbacks, and trials as myself. Upon obtaining my Master's degree and licensure, I want to work as a therapist, advocate, and social worker dedicated to the promotion of children's mental health, with a focus on children within the foster care system. Growing up close to one of my aunts who was a social worker and foster mother, I was able to experience second-hand the highs and lows of the foster care system. I saw the need for reformation within that system, and began my own research study during my undergraduate education. Due to my past experience and research, I have felt a passion for helping children because it is easy for their voices to be overlooked and unheard. I want to help children who endure circumstances that might make seeing a life worth living as impossible, and encourage them to keep pursuing the life that they dream of. I believe that children are the future of our world, and it is up to the previous generations to equip them with the resources, encouragement, and and promotion of education to maintain happy, healthy lives.

I have been in and out of therapy since I was eight years old. For a young Black girl in a predominantly Black community, therapy was easily identified as a taboo topic. It was familiar for me to hear that "therapy is only for white people", "black people don't go to therapy", or "therapy is for crazy people". As a little girl, I was conditioned by the outside world to believe the stigmatization that was placed on therapy as a construct. However, I grew up in a family that recognized the importance of therapy to someone who had endured so much trauma from a young age. My grandmother was a therapist and social worker, herself, and knew that the situations I had experienced as a child would manifest in my mental health, had I not been consistent with therapy. As a young child, I experienced various sexual traumas and trauma from living with a parent with a diagnosed form of psychosis, all before the age of eight years old. However, with the help of my family, I was placed into a setting where I felt comfortable talking through the way these circumstances made me feel. With the use of therapy, I learned how to process and talk through my emotions. I learned how to take the guilt and shame off of myself and displace the feelings of trauma through healthy coping mechanisms. Therapy was not an easy fix and it did not solve all of my problems, but my therapist became my counsel, my confidant, and equipped me with the tools I needed to apply to my life for better outcomes. I am passionate about pursuing a career in therapy because I want to be able to help children realize the power that they can have over their own lives. I want to do my part in destigmatizing mental health within Black and urban communities and teaching our children the healthy way to deal with their emotional turmoil. Therapy is more than its stereotype, and I believe therapy is for everyone regardless of race, gender, or mental and emotional performance. I want to provide a space that is free for all to release whatever is on their minds because sometimes people just need a safe place. Therapy has helped me be more confident in handling my own emotions and recognizing the signs and triggers from certain traumas I endured in my early childhood. Therapy has also aided me in being able to effectively communicate my feelings with others, set boundaries, and properly display my emotions. I believe that therapy can help individuals become more socially and emotionally competent by teaching them about managing their own thoughts, feelings, and desires in a healthy way. In order to achieve my goals, I am currently pursuing my Master's degree in Social Work and will be pursuing my licensure upon graduation. I am adamant about continuing my education to ensure that I can become this resource that is needed within my community.

My mother had been sick for a long time, and as an eight-year-old little girl, I could tell that something was going on, I just didn't know what it was. My mother had always been the constant source of love, counsel, and inspiration in my life until one day she had become a shell of the person she once was. Succumbed to post-partum depression, as well as raising five children under the age of eight years old, my mother began to experience an undiagnosed form of psychosis, but as a child, all I knew is that we were moving in with my grandparents because my dad was always away at work. It had seemed to be a Sunday like any other as we all fellowshipped in the back room of the church. My cousin was instructed to take all of us younger children upstairs as the loud sirens of an ambulance approached our church building. Being the nosy child that I was, I tried to linger behind to view all of the commotion that was happening, but I was not prepared for what I would see. Two men in uniform entered our church and began to aid my resistant mother toward the open doors of the ambulance. With tears rushing down my face, my aunt ushered me up the stairs of the church building and that was the last time I was able to see my mother before she was detained in the psychiatric ward for two months. As an eight-year-old, those two months seemed like an eternity without my mother, and growing up I was not prepared for the volatile lifestyle that would soon come with the ever-changing presence of my mother in my life. Once my mother returned from her hospitalization, she had never been the same mother emotionally or mentally, even until this day. My whole life I have been adjusting to different versions of my mother. Versions of her where she did not acknowledge me as her own child, versions of her that were drastically repentant with the guilt of damaging our emotions as young children, and versions of her that were physically absent as she was out of my home several times throughout my adolescence. Growing up as a child with a parent that has succumbed to mental illness was a form of adversity that no one could prepare you for. The emotional turmoil my siblings and I faced growing up was similar to that of grief, but it was a constant cycle of losing different versions of our mother that we had adapted to. However, with time and wisdom, I had grown to let go of the hurt and anger of losing the mother I once knew to mental illness and began to choose to learn about the woman she was becoming despite the challenges she faced. My mother inspired me to pursue my higher education in psychology to better understand the way the mind works so that I might be able to help others learn the fragility of their own minds. I want to pursue a career working with children in families that undergo oppression, mental illness, and poverty in order to aid them in understanding their own mental health and the mental health of those that surround them. It is my passion to help young children understand, address, and deal with their adversities the way that I wish someone could have helped me. I want to do my part in aiding the destigmatization of mental health in Black communities by starting with our children, who are the future.

Nearly half of all African Americans to graduate from a higher education institute are considered to be first-generation college students. First generation college students are individuals who are pursuing a degree as the first in their immediate family (i.e., their parents or siblings have not graduated from a college or university). Being a first-generation college student is an immense responsibility, honor, and dream. I am the first individual in my nuclear family who has pursued a Bachelor's degree and has come so close to the finish line; however, it was not a process void of ups and downs, trials, or tribulations. The pursuit of my education is extremely important to me for a variety of reasons. As a first generation college student, the oldest of six children, and a product of Gary, Indiana, a small, poverty-stricken community, I can see that education is the key to my success, happiness, and making myself, my family, and my community proud. I am pursuing my education as a means to become the resource necessary to not only my own success, but the success of the village that has raised me. When I was eight years old, my mother was detained in a psychiatric ward and diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, my mother's illness wasn't the full extent of my exposure into the world of mental health and mental health care, but it is what inspired my desire to know and learn more. Due to my mother's illness, my grandmother's position as a therapist and social worker, and my own personal struggle with mild depression and severe anxiety, I sought to obtain a degree in Psychology. Subsequently, I desire to pursue my Master's of Social Work upon graduation because I have a passion for the destigmatization and promotion of mental health care within the Black community. Not only has my past experience with mental illness and mental health care inspired the desire to pursue higher education, but also the love I have for my people and the community that has raised me influence this desire. As a product of what most people would consider the "ghetto", I have seen first-hand the effect that little to no health care, lack of mental health resources, and lack of therapy has on a community that so desperately needs it. I know that my education is important because with the things I learn, the networks I create, and the degrees I obtain, I will be able to become the necessary resource to help my community. Lastly, my education is detrimentally important to me because it is important to my family. When my mother had fallen ill, my grandparents aided her in raising me and my five younger siblings. Education was a concept that was not taken lightly in our household. Due to the community we lived in, my grandparents poured thousands of dollars into our education and sent us to private schools two cities over; however, in 2017, my grandmother passed away from breast cancer and my grandfather, alone, was not able to continue putting the last of my siblings through private education. Nonetheless, the importance of my education was a concept that my grandparents had instilled in me from a very young age. I know that being a Black woman in the United States, education is a right that was once considered a privilege. I pursue the education that my great-grandparents didn't have the privilege to, that my grandparents promoted with pride, and that my parents never got to complete after becoming pregnant with me at just 20 years old. My education is the key to my future.

Nearly half of all African Americans to graduate from a higher education institute are considered to be first-generation college students. First generation college students are individuals who are pursuing a degree as the first in their immediate family (i.e., their parents or siblings have not graduated from a college or university). Being a first-generation college student is an immense responsibility, honor, and dream. I am the first individual in my nuclear family who has pursued a Bachelor's degree and has come so close to the finish line; however, it was not a process void of ups and downs, trials, or tribulations. The pursuit of my education is extremely important to me for a variety of reasons. As a first generation college student, the oldest of six children, and a product of Gary, Indiana, a small, poverty-stricken community, I can see that education is the key to my success, happiness, and making myself, my family, and my community proud. I am pursuing my education as a means to become the resource necessary to not only my own success, but the success of the village that has raised me. When I was eight years old, my mother was detained in a psychiatric ward and diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, my mother's illness wasn't the full extent of my exposure into the world of mental health and mental health care, but it is what inspired my desire to know and learn more. Due to my mother's illness, my grandmother's position as a therapist and social worker, and my own personal struggle with mild depression and severe anxiety, I sought to obtain a degree in Psychology. Subsequently, I desire to pursue my Master's of Social Work upon graduation because I have a passion for the destigmatization and promotion of mental health care within the Black community. Not only has my past experience with mental illness and mental health care inspired the desire to pursue higher education, but also the love I have for my people and the community that has raised me influence this desire. As a product of what most people would consider the "ghetto", I have seen first-hand the effect that little to no health care, lack of mental health resources, and lack of therapy has on a community that so desperately needs it. I know that my education is important because with the things I learn, the networks I create, and the degrees I obtain, I will be able to become the necessary resource to help my community. Lastly, my education is detrimentally important to me because it is important to my family. When my mother had fallen ill, my grandparents aided her in raising me and my five younger siblings. Education was a concept that was not taken lightly in our household. Due to the community we lived in, my grandparents poured thousands of dollars into our education and sent us to private schools two cities over; however, in 2017, my grandmother passed away from breast cancer and my grandfather, alone, was not able to continue putting the last of my siblings through private education. Nonetheless, the importance of my education was a concept that my grandparents had instilled in me from a very young age. I know that being a Black woman in the United States, education is a right that was once considered a privilege. I pursue the education that my great-grandparents didn't have the privilege to, that my grandparents promoted with pride, and that my parents never got to complete after becoming pregnant with me at just 20 years old. My education is the key to my future.

My life is an essay. It would be simple to believe that one experience cannot alter a lifetime, but just as each paragraph of an essay frames the next, each chapter of my life is influenced by my past. Each paragraph holds a piece of the conclusion in its length, just as my life experiences hold influence over my end goal. Within my lifetime I have endured many pivotal moments of adversity that have shaped and molded me into the woman that I am today. The drive and passion that I have for clinical psychology, social work, and fighting for social justice are products of the influence my past experiences have on me. I was born into a family of therapists and social workers, but that was not the full extent of my exposure to the world of mental health care. When I was eight years old, my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Since I was young, the world of psychology was a mystery to me. At first my interest was rooted in the lack of understanding of why my mother was the way she was, but eventually it grew into a desire to help people like her and myself who had endured mental illnesses so close to home. When my mother got sick, she, my four younger siblings, and I moved in with my grandparents so that they could aid her in raising five young children. Throughout my childhood I was exposed to the world that I now hope to be a part of. I grew up around my aunts, one of whom was a social worker and foster mother. My early adolescence was filled with foster-cousins, which allowed me to experience the foster care system second-hand. I have seen a lot of sweet children who were hurting due to a system built to protect them. A lot of these children have been family to me, and my desire to want to help them was the spark that ignited my passion for foster care reform. While becoming a clinical psychologist and foster mother are two of my most personal goals in life, I am just as adamant about social justice. My childhood trauma, struggle with my own mental health, as well as the loss of my late grandmother, and the most recent loss of my primary care provider and family breadwinner to the hands of incarceration are all experiences that have helped me build thicker skin. These experiences inspire me to fight not only for myself and my family, but for every other person in the world who might not have someone to fight for them. I believe all people deserve the opportunity to have someone care for and fight for them. In order to ensure my desire to help others in this manner, I pursue the further of my education. As I am obtaining my undergraduate degree in psychology, I aspire to obtain a Master's degree in social work. My dream career is being able to help and fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. Furthering my education will allow me to become the resource that is necessary to help those who need it. It is with scholarships such as the Carey Jackson Future Leaders Scholarship, that I will be able to complete my higher education without the financial stress that comes with college expenses and loans. I want to thank the donor, and on behalf of all the applicants, express our gratitude for individuals such as Carey Jackson that desire to help us reach our goals and aspirations.

When I was eight years old, my mother was detained in a psychiatric ward and diagnosed with schizophrenia. While the experience was scary, mental health had been no stranger to me. I, myself, had been in therapy since I was seven due to a traumatic experience with sexual assault I had endured. I am now twenty years old, and I have attended therapy sessions semi-regularly since I was six years old. Presently, I struggle with depression and anxiety, and despite all of that, I am an African American female. I was lucky enough to grow up in a Black family that was filled with therapists and social workers, so I was never ashamed of the fact that I went to therapy or that I had these chemical imbalances in my brain. However, for a majority of the Black community, this luxury of acceptance is not as common. Mental health has a tendency to hold a negative connotation when discussed in the black community. Black adolescents are no stranger to the impression that mental illness such as depression or anxiety is close to nonexistent within their communities. However, mental illness knows no specific race or color, and therapy is not “just for white people”. Within the past few years, adolescents in the black community have strayed from the stereotypical stigmatization of mental health, and are now acknowledging the large amount of depression, anxiety, and trauma that has been suppressed in the past. As a child of a parent with a severe mental illness, I know firsthand the toll that these conditions have on individuals, and that is why I am adamant about making a change concerning mental health in black and other minority communities. My utopian vision for optimal mental health in the Black community would be the implementation of free, non-profit, mental health clinics in urban and underfunded communities. As a product of Gary, Indiana, I am no stranger to the conditions of poverty, and how deeply those in my community struggle to gain the resources necessary for the betterment of their mental health. Fortunately, self-care and mental health has become more of an accepted topic in the Black community, which makes the utopian vision seem possible. A part of this vision would be mental health centers with a plethora of services such as therapy sessions, group sessions, self-care classes, and other means of therapeutic relaxation. It is also desired that these community centers would be run by black therapists and social workers because it is equally as important to see someone who looks like us to care for our mental health just as much as we do. A community of Black mental health professionals will promote acceptance and inspire adolescents in the community. It is imperative to advocate for mental health regardless of race or color because mental illness is a condition that anyone can endure. I believe that it is important that mental health care as well as mental health awareness become a more common topic within the minority communities. Being open and honest about our internal struggles with someone--such as a therapist--will help release the stigma on mental health in the Black community and will allow room for healing as an entire race. The Black community has hundreds of years of generational trauma to overcome so that we might be able to level the playing field, and this healing process will begin when we, as a people, open up to the possibility of therapy, as well as other means of mental health care.