Be the change by Jynae

Be the change by Jynae - June 2020 Scholarship Essay

The minority in our society deal with so many hardships on a day to day basis. They are overlooked and judged before getting the chance to speak, because their race is seen as a threat. Minorities constantly have targets on their backs because of the perspective placed on them by society. These issues inspired me to take the steps to positively impact my community.
I am currently involved in two activities to help inspire those around me. I am creating a YouTube channel and volunteering at a Saturday Heritage Academy at Genesis Baptist Church. The audience for my YouTube channel is aimed towards high school students. Within my videos I allow my subscribers to understand life as a minority in the modern world, students in IB Programs, and insight into racial injustice. I set up this channel to allow users to share their opinions and/or learn new information.
Secondly, I have been a student assistant at the Saturday Heritage Academy since my 8th grade year. Every year from January to May, I help enhance middle school students' education in Math, English, and African American history. African American history gives them the opportunity to focus on more positive aspects, as opposed to negative ones that derive from slave masters and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). I personally think African American students should learn about their history without mentioning “poverty” and “slaves”. For this reason, other students and I provide assistance to help teach this class and go on field trips. The students visit the Greensboro’s International Civil Rights Center & Museum and The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum in Washington D.C. These field trips allow the students to have a visual of African American History. My involvement in this program makes me want to create African American study groups that focuses on African-American History (from slavery-present), wrongful convictions, citizen rights, and etc. My goal is to discuss topics that are placed in the shadows within the public school system. The youth should have more knowledge about the background of their culture rather than focusing on the degrading experiences illustrated within history textbooks. The students will know how to handle being approached by police and questioned by detectives.
“A white man's heaven is a black man's hell”. African Americans have been victims of police brutality and brutal violence by the majorities for centuries. The mind state of some caucasians create prejudice actions towards African Americans. In the year of 1999 my uncle was murdered in front of his house, and in January 2020 his murderer was released. On the other hand my other uncle was wrongfully convicted for an armed robbery in 1999 and is currently still serving time for a crime he did not commit. The inequality within the criminal justice system inspires me to give those who are unheard a voice, and ensure equality within the justice system.
For my future, this will allow me to investigate crimes and decrease the amount of wrongful convictions of African Americans and other minorities. I am determined to major in criminal justice at 4 years of college, and receive a Juris Doctor(JD) in law, and become an attorney for criminal and civil cases. I have taken a Spanish course every year throughout my high school career (Spanish 1-IB Spanish SL). The knowledge I’ve gained from my spanish courses has inspired me to minor in Spanish in college. This will give me the opportunity to get a thorough insight of speaking another language and assist more than one race in the legal system. I will be the voice for the ones who feel misunderstood, unheard, or silenced.Winning this scholarship will allow me to educationally achieve my future career goals of attending a 4 year college. It will assist me in pursuing a bachelor's degree in criminal justice with a minor in spanish. It will give me the opportunity to focus on my goals rather than constantly getting distracted by thinking of ways to pay for my tuition. I will use this opportunity to help other students in the near future achieve their goals and not be hindered by financial aid.