When I hear the word "scholarship" the first word that pops into my head is opportunity.
It's a gift, it's given to you and people have invested in you.
People believe in you.
It's something that empowers you to, you know, focus on academics and focus on the
things you're passionate about.
It meant that I was gonna get to go to the school of my dreams.
I saw no way of financing that education.
If it wasn't for scholarships, I probably would not have been able to even go to college
at all.
I would not be here.
I'm from a very unique background.
My father's African-American, my mother's Mexican.
But I was also raised by a stepfather that's from Eastern Kentucky.
Getting here was very challenging.
Sometimes we didn't have money for school supplies.
If it wasn't for scholarships, I probably would not have been able to even go to college
at all.
It was really rewarding to know that I had tuition covered.
So, scholarships have helped with taking a burden off my shoulders where I can focus
more on academics.
Social Work is a noble profession.
You never make enough money.
You'll never make enough money, but you'll always be helping somebody.
I think that for me, my passion is to make sure that everybody is able to get resources,
get the help that they need.
And that's my passion.
I go out every day and I'm always looking for someone who may need help.
You don't see a lot of, especially for me, you don't see a lot of people who look like
you in a lot of fields.
You don't see a lot of you.
I didn't see a lot of myself growing up on TV, especially being in the south, especially
being Latina and African-American.
You don't see a lot of that.
And so, what made me persevere was just making sure that I wasn't another statistic, to
be able to give other little girls or boys someone to look up to for representation,
to be like "hey she did it.
She's like me, she has the same background as me.
If she can do it, maybe I can do it."
And so, I'm always a person that likes to give back, who takes my own experiences and
uses it and try to give back through it and so eventually I would love to participate
and either have my own scholarship or participate in another scholarship like giving in or helping
with it and stuff like that.
It's shaped my entire college education, scholarships have.
My passion is serving people in whatever way I can.
Growing up in Lexington, being born here and lived here my whole life, I always felt very
connected to the community but I think a lot of times that may not be the outside perception.
When somebody sees me, somebody hears my name or whatnot, I always get that "where are
you from?" and I'll say "Lexington," and they say, "but where are you really from?"
Right, so that's something that I encountered growing up, elementary school, middle school,
high school, I was in, I think, fourth grade when 9/11 happened.
For me as a Muslim, that was a very tough time and kind of something that made me reassess
identity.
I think that shaped my decision to go into medicine, my decision to do some of my, kind
of, community service, things that I do.
That played a big part in that.
Knowing that I had earned a scholarship, it was…it was a huge deal for me because I
knew I wanted to go to UK, I was convinced that I wanted to stay here because it was
a great, great college to go to and that really validated my decision and started me off on
the right foot.
My parents are really really happy.
They were very relieved obviously.
I knew that medical school was going to be very expensive no matter where I went and
that there was a lot of years ahead of me after undergrad that, you know, there's
gonna be money to be spent there.
So to kind of get a leg up early on so you're not just compounding the issue, that was a
huge..it was a huge advantage for me and made things a lot easier, I think financially and
otherwise.
When I hear the word scholarship, for me, really, liberation comes to mind.
It's something that empowers you to know you, focus on academics and focus on the things
that you're passionate about.
I would like to say to those people who donated scholarships, thank you.
Thank you and, you know, we appreciate your sort of forward thinking and your ability
to see beyond just this moment and just the money right now.
I was raised by a single mother.
I've been homeless before, I've been homeless twice, and I'm a first generation college
student.
So I applied for about 40 scholarships, got denied for each and every one of them.
So, I got an email from Sandy Copher and it said, "Congratulations."
Finally a congratulations instead of unfortunately.
So, "Congratulations, you have been selected for the Carl F. Pollard Scholarship," which
is a $40,000 renewable scholarship.
Once I read that, I ran downstairs and I got on my knees and I was just thanking God because
I knew how hard that was… and what that meant to me…. it's just, a relief.
Earning those scholarships meant that I could stay focused on my studies and just focus
on preparing myself for the workforce.
My passion is sustainability.
With the scholarships, I was enabled to attend professional conferences such as the President's
United to Solve Hunger, and that's at the United Nations in New York City.
The scholarships helped me even with little things like, what am I gonna wear?
I can't just go in there with jeans, I can't just go in there with sweats, and so I need
a suit or just something that looks professional.
And so that helped.
I got business cards and just little things like that.
I appreciate those scholarships.
My experience with receiving scholarships, it has proven to make me more generous, just
more gratitude in life and I'd say it makes me want to do that for others, too.
My senior year of high school, I had an accident that I had to overcome a great deal of obstacles
such as a brain injury.
I had had a lung laceration and many other things and I would have to go through rehabilitation
at Cardinal Hill Hospital.
The University of Kentucky, I remember, had sent me like a loads of notes and support
and they offered to hold my scholarships.
I decided that I was going to go to college regardless of my current situation.
There's been a lot of up's and down's, granted my situation, but through everything, I've
been able to stay happy and really center in on my education.
My passion is seeing people grow better in their own lives.
Kind of like in my situation, I remember having to work really hard just to find some kind
of peace or happiness or success, and my real passion is medical administration, especially
in the trauma or rehabilitation unit.
I really want to open up a way for people to heal mentally, physically, and spiritually
so they have not only a means to keep going, but a reason in their heart that they want
to keep going.
My scholarship has been completely priceless because then it meant that I was going to
get to go to the school of my dreams.
I saw no way of financing that education, but now, even more so, it's like a second
chance at everything that I ever wanted to do.
I think everyone starts from somewhere and a scholarship can create a way for students
to ultimately get to the position where they can, too, give back, and just that kind of
chain of goodness will change the world around us.
I'm passionate about human rights.
I'm passionate about criminal justice reform.
I'm passionate about refugee and migration study issues.
My first goal is to become a human rights lawyer, and then after that career is launched,
I want to start my own philanthropy organization that helps underrepresented students.
Winning a scholarship meant a lot to me.
The William C. Parker Scholarship pretty much changed my life because instead of thinking
about how I'm going to be paying for school or you know, what career do I have to pick
so that I could pay off my loans as quickly as possible, I was able to think about what
I wanted to do and what career I wanted to go into and the life that I wanted to pave
for myself.
In today's world, it's extremely difficult to be able to attend university if you don't
have previous financial means set up for you to be able to go.
Thinking about how much it costs, not just to pay for your classes but for your books,
your food, your transportation, your housing.
That's an incredible amount of burden to put on one person and I think every single
student who wants to obtain an education deserves to.
So I came up with the idea for the Bilal ibn Rabah Scholarship, which is a scholarship
for students from diverse backgrounds who are going to become the change makers of our
world.
The idea behind it was not only to provide a source of financial help but it was also
to break these barriers.
It was also o get the Vice Mayor's office and the mosque and the University of Kentucky
working with one another.
It was also to build fellowship and friendship between these different parts of the community
and the hope is that the Bilal ibn Rabah Scholarship will end up being its own little community.
The majority of the support for the Bilal ibn Rabah Scholarship comes from the Muslim
community, but it is by no means just for Muslim students.
It's open to underrepresented students, it's open to students who have gone through
maybe a specific obstacle that they've overcome.
Just because you're born with certain financial needs, that shouldn't prohibit you from
taking advantage of all of the amazing opportunities that the University of Kentucky has to offer.
I don't ever want a donor to give money without believing in the cause of the scholarship.
I think that if you genuinely think you could help pave a path for someone else or you can
help change their life, donating would be a way for you to give back to the community.
You're allowing somebody to purse a dream that they probably otherwise would not have
been able to pursue because of financial burdens that have been put on them.
We intend for every single Bilal ibn Rabah scholar to become a change maker in society.
So not only would you alleviate financial burdens from deserving students, but you would
also be contributing to the future Bilal's of the world.
With the help of scholarships, I've been able to come here, get done what I need to
get done, and be able to go out there and do everything that I can possibly and potentially
be able to do.
And that's really all to the thanks of donors.
The University of Kentucky is creating a way for students like me who never saw a way to
have a future, to have that future that they have always longed for but couldn't really
see that they could grasp, and I think that you could ultimately be the change you wish
to see in the world.
You have impacted my life in such a positive way and you continue to do it for many more
students.
I want to encourage you to keep donating, because it's not in vain at all, and so
I thank you so much.
The scholarship is gonna affect lots of lives and it's gonna affect those lives for a
long time after college.
Thank you for your willingness to donate and I'm sure you will be extremely proud to
see that a future Bilal Scholar will end up being a catalyst for amazing change in the
world.
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