The Uplifting and Restoration of a Community by Kalah

The Uplifting and Restoration of a Community by Kalah - May 2019 Scholarship Essay

Growing up in Florida to most people means growing up with beach in your backyard and DisneyWorld down the street. Although that may be the picture painted by post cards or tourist, growing up in my small, country, low income town we didn't quite have that picturesque upbringing. If I were to win a $10,000 grant, I would use it to pour into the youth of my community by creating a community center to cultivate their academic and recreational interests and in term, help keep them away from the street life.

I grew up in a town where drug dealers where considered to be the highest level of wealth or success one could achieve. I feel a lot of kids took this route because there wasn't much else to stimulate our minds or show us that we have just as many choices and alternatives as anyone else. That is the purpose of the community center I would build. I would have leaders from various professions and even current college students to speak with the young people and ignite the fire within them to be more than just another statistic. That's what happened for me. I started attending a community center in an area outside of my hometown and I became a member in different academic clubs and teams that grew my desire for excellence. Up until joining that program, I always imagined that I would be stuck in the mental prison of how I was raised and those thoughts foster anxiety and frustration within me, I knew that there had to be more to life then being poverty stricken and I had no aspirations to lead of life of crime. The impact of that community center, something seemingly so small, was life changing for me and I would want to give that same experience to every child in my hometown.

The community center programs would focus self-empowerment, the importance of academic excellence, overcoming adversity, and how to grow beyond your surroundings. Each of these lessons are ones that I know personally contributed to my evolution as a motivated college student. As apart of the programs, we take the students to visit various historical sites and colleges to see that there is more to life then what they have may have seen or been told. They would be taken to see motivational speakers, be taught in depth about poverty and how it doesn't have to be generational, and possibly for the first time begin to dream and have vision for themselves. Programs within the program will be both academic and interest based such as medicine, STEM, auto mechanic, and music. These programs would be at very little to no cost to the students and will solely be for the purpose of their personal enrichment. The implementation of the community center will excite the kids so much that they will take the knowledge they gain home to their families and friends outside of the program and may very well incite a revolution for the entire town.

/My hometown seems to be one that has lost its vision along time ago and sadly the children of the communities are negatively impacted by this, maybe to a greater extent then someone on the outside could understand. With the $10,000 grant I earned, I wouldn't just be building a community center, I would be restoring hope for some, and giving purpose to others. One of the most crucial and imperative elements to success is belief but most times if you've never seen it you don't believe its obtainable. This is a long standing passion and vision of mine to pour back into the town that made me who I am but also showed me who I did not want to be. If I were to win a $10,000 grant I would use it to bring hope and vision to the youth of my hometown in the form of a community center in hopes that it will have the same life changing impact of them that it once had on me, and to empower our upcoming generation with the desire to defy the odds and elevate for the betterment of not only themselves but anyone else who once found themselves or will find themselves in their shoes.