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Hello World!!
It's Nini! I'm a graduating senior and scholarship awardee of an all-girls private high school in Southern California. As an honors student all four years, and one of the few Black students in my classes, high school’s been an interesting journey full of accomplishments and challenges!
Some of the accomplishments:
- I have a cumulative weighted GPA of 4.27, and 3.90 unweighted.
- My ACT Composite Score ranked in the 98th percentile for the U.S. in April 2021.
- I am a Founder and the Founding Co-President of the Black Student Union, my school’s first-ever affinity group, established in 2020.
- Since 8th grade, I have volunteered and planned fundraisers and drives to support a temporary family living shelter in my community, as well as other local service projects assisting unhoused populations.
- For the past three years, I've been a junior golfer and member of local and national golf associations that develop youth and girls.
- I'm a valued and dedicated leader of my school’s theater/drama program as a principal actor, soloist, and student director. My cast mates and I have won, placed, and been finalists in several competitions of the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California.
- My school’s admissions department has selected me as a student ambassador for recruitment and admissions events for the past three years.
A few of the challenges:
- A year and a half of stressful and often insufficient online learning in 10th and 11th grades during the stay-at-home orders of the pandemic.
- Overcoming debilitating social emotional and mental health challenges during my critical junior year to finish strong with my personal best semester GPA of 4.53 and a 33 Composite Score on the ACT last spring!
- Four years of learning to navigate microaggressions!
Through it all, I persevered and represented Black Excellence, unapologetically!!!
I’ve been accepted to six of the nine universities I applied to and was waitlisted for two:
- Howard University
- Northwestern University
- Xavier University of Louisiana
- University of Maryland, College Park
- Hampton University
- Clark Atlanta University
- UC Santa Barbara (offered waitlist)
- UCLA (offered waitlist)
Update: I'VE COMMITTED TO HOWARD UNIVERSITY!!!
After the 4-year partial scholarship and grant aid award I was offered, I have a remaining balance of over $29,000, which is far and above what my parents' teacher salaries and any babysitting jobs could cover. The gap between the AWARD amount and my EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is $18K, and growing, as I recently received a new award letter notifying me that the cost of attendance has actually increased slightly!!
I'm still aiming for a fundraising goal of $10K!!!
I am humbly calling on my local community and beyond to step in and help a hardworking, socially and culturally conscious, 17 year old aspiring psychologist to make her dream of going to a university a reality.
After the 4-year partial scholarship and grant aid award I was offered, I have a remaining balance of over $29,000, which is far and above what my parents' teacher salaries and any babysitting jobs could cover. The gap between the AWARD amount and my EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is $18K, and growing, as I recently received a new award letter notifying me that the cost of attendance has actually increased slightly!!
I'm still aiming for a fundraising goal of $10K!!!
I am humbly calling on my local community and beyond to step in and help a hardworking, socially and culturally conscious, 17 year old aspiring psychologist to make her dream of going to a university a reality.
In the future, I plan to conduct research within the field of psychology. The human mind amazes me! I believe in order to study a person's behavior, you have to be able to connect with and understand them, to possess the ability to see different perspectives, to walk in someone else's shoes. With that in mind, I believe the world needs more Black psychologists who can better connect with Black patients and subjects through shared experiences and perspectives. I'm personally intrigued by my grandparents' resiliency after a lifetime of facing various forms of racialized trauma and discrimination, especially in early childhood. I wonder how those experiences affect their mental health as they age.
The money you help me raise will be used to pay a portion of my tuition, fees, room & board, and books. This fall, as I make progress towards earning a bachelor's degree in Psychology, I will remain grateful for your support, which will not only make a difference in my life, but in the lives of those I aspire to help throughout my career!
Thank you all for believing in me!
~NE
~NE
Organizer and beneficiary
Nini E
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
Andrea Elkouby
Beneficiary