Help send me to Howard University :)
Donation protected
Hello Friends and Strangers!
My name is Cierra, I am 18, a high school senior and a mother to a beautiful baby boy. I was accepted into Howard University--my dream school! I would love to attend this college in the fall but need help paying for my enrollment. The total amount for tuition and fees is 32,250 per year. Plus an enrollment, housing application, and housing deposit fee. Although this is a grand amount of money, I am determined to become a Howard Bison. I've never been one to quit nor give up (even though times have gotten undeniably difficult) and I won't start now.
Trust me when I say that anything will help. A donation, scholarship links, advice, anything.
I really do not want to give up on my chance at Howard. My life has been filled with so much adversity and hardship (COLLEGE PERSONAL STATEMENT BELOW) but I have come a long way; and I feel as though if I choose today to give up, everything that I have worked for to get this far has been a waste.I will not take any opportunity for granted.
However, time is running out and I need your help! Please donate WHATEVER you can and spread the word to people you know. Thanks!
Cierra
P.S. If you want check out my son's site and his photos click here: http://babypharelltelis.shutterfly.com or http://www.mom365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=6ca2ddb4-e01d-491f-af02-5aa95f3d7106&utm_source=wnshare&utm_medium=email&utm_content=wnshare_mom_babylink&utm_campaign=wnshare_button
PERSONAL STATEMENT:
By the time I was eight years old, my heart and soul, and ability to feel was like a bottomless pit. Better yet, a landfill. I disposed of refuse in my life-indefinitely burying and disguising my hurt and pain with counterfeit smiles, happiness and even an unreal me. Being touched in the wrong places, living "unpretty," watching dad choke mommy, lying on a hospital bed getting stitches because dad got drunk again-those things- those things were enveloped and erased from my memory.
My refusal to acknowledge that my existence entailed those realities created a barrier that prevented me from reaching my full potential. Yes; I was smart but didn't accept nor embrace it. I continued life "normally" as an ill-tempered, feisty, confrontational youth. I robbed myself of opportunities and refused affection and love. Eventually, those characteristics landed me in the streets. Mommy was sick of the attitude; teachers were through dealing with the disrespect. No one wanted to deal with me anymore, yet I still concealed the shrieks of help and drowned my yearning for condolence. An act that only angered me, made me violent and miserable for years.
I soon found myself in a number of situations. I was a familiar face at my county's juvenile detention center, homeless, and inches away from becoming a marihuana addict. Stripping became an ideal career, stealing became the way to get what I wanted, and family and friends were not an option. I allowed those things to become me and yet, my anger, misery and unhappiness amplified.
It was in the bathroom of a shelter that I looked in a mirror for more than a few seconds. The eyes that stared at me began to tell a story of the past I thought I'd erased. They revealed that the road I was paving was a road towards death. Unable to look away, I watched my entire life play before me. And then, I watched myself cry. For hours and hours, I wept and prayed to a God that hadn't heard from me in a long while. My eyes soaked and I my nose stuffed but still, I cried. The life I was creating was not what I wanted. I had hopes and dreams and wishes. Living as a delinquent, a thief, all those things made me unhappy. It was then I knew what I needed to do. The first step to paving the road toward the future I wanted was recognizing my hurt, anger, and experiences from my past.
Instantaneously, the capsule that contained every wicked feeling and every vile recollection was no longer suppressed. They flowed within me. Grasping the meaning of my history, as if it were tangible, I embraced it passionately. I comprehended that it should not define me but make me powerful. Although my circumstances were tainted with hurt, loneliness, poverty, and anger, the being that stands today is eager to make a difference. Those endurances molded me. Al though it wouldn't be easy, it was time for me to move past them and walk toward a brighter light-the light that was my future.
Now driven to live life with a mind as open as a vast savannah, the determination in me was activated. Charging at my goals like a fierce show bull, I witnessed myself blossom into the next Oprah Winfrey, future President of America and most valuably, a mentor for others facing adversity. Admired by my educators, believed in by my peers, and constantly recommended for leadership roles, I became what I was born to be: A leader.
My name is Cierra, I am 18, a high school senior and a mother to a beautiful baby boy. I was accepted into Howard University--my dream school! I would love to attend this college in the fall but need help paying for my enrollment. The total amount for tuition and fees is 32,250 per year. Plus an enrollment, housing application, and housing deposit fee. Although this is a grand amount of money, I am determined to become a Howard Bison. I've never been one to quit nor give up (even though times have gotten undeniably difficult) and I won't start now.
Trust me when I say that anything will help. A donation, scholarship links, advice, anything.
I really do not want to give up on my chance at Howard. My life has been filled with so much adversity and hardship (COLLEGE PERSONAL STATEMENT BELOW) but I have come a long way; and I feel as though if I choose today to give up, everything that I have worked for to get this far has been a waste.I will not take any opportunity for granted.
However, time is running out and I need your help! Please donate WHATEVER you can and spread the word to people you know. Thanks!
Cierra
P.S. If you want check out my son's site and his photos click here: http://babypharelltelis.shutterfly.com or http://www.mom365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=6ca2ddb4-e01d-491f-af02-5aa95f3d7106&utm_source=wnshare&utm_medium=email&utm_content=wnshare_mom_babylink&utm_campaign=wnshare_button
PERSONAL STATEMENT:
By the time I was eight years old, my heart and soul, and ability to feel was like a bottomless pit. Better yet, a landfill. I disposed of refuse in my life-indefinitely burying and disguising my hurt and pain with counterfeit smiles, happiness and even an unreal me. Being touched in the wrong places, living "unpretty," watching dad choke mommy, lying on a hospital bed getting stitches because dad got drunk again-those things- those things were enveloped and erased from my memory.
My refusal to acknowledge that my existence entailed those realities created a barrier that prevented me from reaching my full potential. Yes; I was smart but didn't accept nor embrace it. I continued life "normally" as an ill-tempered, feisty, confrontational youth. I robbed myself of opportunities and refused affection and love. Eventually, those characteristics landed me in the streets. Mommy was sick of the attitude; teachers were through dealing with the disrespect. No one wanted to deal with me anymore, yet I still concealed the shrieks of help and drowned my yearning for condolence. An act that only angered me, made me violent and miserable for years.
I soon found myself in a number of situations. I was a familiar face at my county's juvenile detention center, homeless, and inches away from becoming a marihuana addict. Stripping became an ideal career, stealing became the way to get what I wanted, and family and friends were not an option. I allowed those things to become me and yet, my anger, misery and unhappiness amplified.
It was in the bathroom of a shelter that I looked in a mirror for more than a few seconds. The eyes that stared at me began to tell a story of the past I thought I'd erased. They revealed that the road I was paving was a road towards death. Unable to look away, I watched my entire life play before me. And then, I watched myself cry. For hours and hours, I wept and prayed to a God that hadn't heard from me in a long while. My eyes soaked and I my nose stuffed but still, I cried. The life I was creating was not what I wanted. I had hopes and dreams and wishes. Living as a delinquent, a thief, all those things made me unhappy. It was then I knew what I needed to do. The first step to paving the road toward the future I wanted was recognizing my hurt, anger, and experiences from my past.
Instantaneously, the capsule that contained every wicked feeling and every vile recollection was no longer suppressed. They flowed within me. Grasping the meaning of my history, as if it were tangible, I embraced it passionately. I comprehended that it should not define me but make me powerful. Although my circumstances were tainted with hurt, loneliness, poverty, and anger, the being that stands today is eager to make a difference. Those endurances molded me. Al though it wouldn't be easy, it was time for me to move past them and walk toward a brighter light-the light that was my future.
Now driven to live life with a mind as open as a vast savannah, the determination in me was activated. Charging at my goals like a fierce show bull, I witnessed myself blossom into the next Oprah Winfrey, future President of America and most valuably, a mentor for others facing adversity. Admired by my educators, believed in by my peers, and constantly recommended for leadership roles, I became what I was born to be: A leader.
Organizer
Cierra CollegeBound Howard
Organizer
