For the past two years I have had the amazing opportunity to be a part of The Sisterhood Project. This is a club and organization started by my dear friend Blakely Berryhill. The goal of the organization is to bring awareness to struggles that incoming freshman girls go through. As upperclassmen we mentor them and give an open door for advice. We mentors meet everyday during our lunch period and create conversation topics and presentations. Then once a month we present these topics to freshman girls at our school. We are split into groups and get to have one on one conversations with the girls about these issues. Throughout this year we have discussed loving yourself, social media, mental health, body acceptance, and validation. We felt as a group that it was important for these girls to hear about issues from people that have gone through them. I remember being so scared freshman year of all that I would face; I would have loved an opportunity like this. That is one of the many reasons I joined. I wanted to be the big sister that I never had. My presentation topic was social media. I worked with two other girls to cover the pros and cons of having social media. Something we heavily discussed was posting for yourself, and not for the likes and comments. We expressed to them that follower count and like count does not matter in the long run. What matters is the safe connections you make through using social media. We taught them how to make these safe connections and not give into peer pressure from others. The girls that have attended all the meetings have given us great feedback. They say that they have a new found confidence in themselves. Something we strive to teach the girls is loving yourself first. In our most recent meeting we discussed how you should not rely on validation from others, but instead the love from yourself. Beginning high school with set morals on what your worth is extremely important. Finding boundaries for yourself and others will help tackle many situations any of the girls could come across. Not only do we teach the younger girls, but we as a group have grown so much. We have formed a community surrounded by girl on girl support. I am uplifted everyday by this group and could not be more thankful for the encouragement they give me and others.

I cannot help myself but believe that God has put me on this earth for one major purpose: to help people. Ever since I was young, I would take any chance I was provided with to be of service to those around me. I did any task I could get my hands on, without thinking of any job as too small. I have participated in community service all throughout high school simply because I am passionate about serving others. Since my freshman year, I became very engaged in volunteering at my place of worship. I received the amazing opportunity of becoming an Area Lead of the youth volunteer team my sophomore year and a Team Lead in my junior year. Fast forward to my senior year, I am blessed to still be in a leadership role. Apart from this, I have been involved in other acts of service in my community. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted my mental health immensely; I felt an extreme sense of loneliness and a lack of belonging. So, I decided to join Hoover Juniorettes, which is a community service organization sponsored by the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Through this club, I was able to regain my purpose of serving others. I took part in appreciating local firemen for their service, paying respects to veterans with Wreaths Across America, and even helping with the execution of the annual Moss Rock Festival. I have also participated in giving back to good causes through school events. I donated diapers for the Bundles of Hope Diaper Drive, bought flatware to support Grace’s Kitchen, contributed canned goods for individuals in need during Thanksgiving, and assisted in purchasing items for a fellow peer’s Christmas wish list through the Holiday Buc operation. God has given me endless possibilities of serving others, which is what enables me to wake up everyday and keeps me going even in times of difficulty. Assisting others through acts of service and charity does not stop after the end of my high school journey; I strive to strengthen my relationship with God and continue to fuel my passion by seizing every opportunity to serve others and in turn serve Him as well.

For two years, I had the opportunity to work as a construction apprentice for Build-Up Ensley. This project was designed to give teenagers an opportunity to earn their high school diploma and their college certificate in construction, simultaneously. Although, my mom had gotten my siblings and me into a private, Christian school and was content on us remaining there, I looked at this opportunity as a means to at least keep me busy and physically fit during the summer. I didn’t know just how beneficial this experience would end up being for me. We flipped dilapidated homes in the area. I was proud because although Ensley is known for being crime-ridden and poverty-stricken, it has been my home since first grade. It was great learning from men skilled in the trade who really wanted to see us succeed as young, black men. Older pillars of the community would drive or walk up to the homes we were working on, in awe of the transformation that was taking place. I felt such a sense of servitude! As one could imagine, there were youth with diverse backgrounds in the program. Some were easier to manage than others. A construction supervisor felt that my positive attitude and ability to effectively communicate with adult administrators and student peers alike was an asset. Because of this, I was encouraged to take on the responsibility of being a positive leader to and for my peers. Initially, I wasn’t too eager to take on this task because this was my first time in a leadership position. I wondered if I was capable of living up to the expectations. Apparently, he’d seen something in me that I hadn’t seen in myself. I accepted the challenge and it was around this time when I started to notice me. After growing up in church and hearing my pastor talk about how uniquely God made us all, I started to get a better understanding of just what that meant. Yes, it’s easy to understand uniqueness in terms of how we look, but I was given a glimpse into what God had placed INSIDE of me. This emboldened me to seek and be more willing to take on future leadership roles. I realized that the biggest part of leadership was to actively listen, treat others with the same respect which I wanted to be treated with, and to teach by example.

As I sit on the old wooden stool inside the muggy concession stand, I ask myself countless times this very question, “Why am I volunteering for my community?” For the last 3 years, I have been serving as a member of the Gardendale High School Student Council, where I have accumulated roughly 50 hours of service for multiple events for my community. I will be honest and admit that the first 2 years that I would work events, I saw it as meaningless, and time-consuming, and unbearable! Never feeling like I had a purpose. I knew it was “the right thing to do” but I was volunteering for the wrong reasons. But, as my senior year comes to a close, I have figured out my why. After reading Matthew 5:16, I took this verse to heart and it opened my eyes to see helping others in my community to be filled with so much joy. I began to love helping others and doing everything possible. At the beginning of 2021, one of the teachers at my school was diagnosed with breast cancer. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, as the whole school prays that our beloved teacher, Mrs. Jones, will win her battle. She has recently gotten worse as the cancer has spread throughout her body. During a student council meeting, I took it upon myself to take charge of organizing a color run as a fundraiser event for the Jones family. I go back to the verse in Matthew, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven,” and reflect how this is now my reason. I do not volunteer to get a piece of paper, medal, or reward but to spread the love of Christ through my service to others, all while giving the honor to Him. As I continue to execute the fundraiser event for Mrs. Jones and all future service projects that I get to be a part of, my prayer is that the wonderful message of Jesus will change the lives of others and for my life to resemble His selfless unconditional love.