Culture by Shannon

Culture by Shannon - January 2018 Scholarship Essay

When reflecting on why I want to pursue my educational goals and what that means to me I think about culture. Specifically, on two scenarios: how I can affect it in a positive way and how certain issues or situations arise due to lack of resources for different cultures here in the United States but also in the world.

I wish to attend college because of culture. I feel it is a moral duty of mine, as an African American female to become excellent, to feed my mind and open myself up to different ideas and manners of critical thinking so when I am released into the world I can contribute to society in an articulate and substantial way. I don't want to live along the typical lines of what society might think a young black female should be to be considered successful. I don't want to contribute money to programs or foundations and think that is the only way I can help. I want to be involved, I want to be present in the change and impact on the world. My intention is to pursue a career as a physician, I choose to study human biology and society so that way I can bridge to scarcely explored gap between medical care and its impact on societies and different cultures and value systems.

I want to be able to provide something valuable and necessary to the people who I would be helping, curing, educating, and mentoring. I want to be necessary and exemplary to my culture. My culture is what shaped me, educated me, guided me to be strong in this life where I was looked at as inferior, un worthy or invaluable. I owe it to my family, the young black girls that are to follow me and to the entire African American culture to add to the many powerful, heartbreaking, and brave contributions that our former black leaders put forth for us to be in the position we are now, which is to propel us as a people a head of our oppressors and lead as we are destined to do.