A Year of Growth: My Hopes and Motivations by Kayla

A Year of Growth: My Hopes and Motivations by Kayla - August 2025 Scholarship Essay

I've had one consistent goal for every academic school year and that would be to have a successful startup. I started a cosmetics business when I was in high school and my main goal was to create a community ofyoung women that could uplift and motivate each other. I would accomplish that goal by creating products and motivational journals/prompts. I'm currently majoring in entrepreneurship and innovation. I knew I wanted to be my own boss since I was a freshman in high school and at the time I didn't know what I wanted my business to be. I struggled with my identity a lot in high school up until my junior year. That's when I finally was able to grasp who I was and what I wanted. Now don't get me wrong I'm still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm definitely figuring it out. Since I started college it's been way more challenging for me than the average college student. Last year alone I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression after being hospitalized for an anxiety attack and straining my chest wall. This came as a result of registering late for classes due to me not being able to pay an overdue balance of $174. I was loaded with 16 credits and even though I communicated with my professors some of them weren't as understanding. So during my doctors visit they recommended that I drop two of my classes which I did, but by that time it was already so much on me. So It was required that I go to therapy and I was put on antidepressants. Which didn't help me at all and had a terrible affect on my body. Which resulted in me being sick for about 2-4 weeks. I missed a lot of class which caused me to fall even more behind. My point in saying this was that if I had an outlet or a community of people who looked like me or who were experiencing the same things that I was. I had friends yes and even though my mom and sisters lived three hours away they still pushed me to get better, but it's different being in it and experiencing it. So my goal for this academic year is simple continue to push towards the same goal and dream that I had in high school. I want to continue to go to therapy and create more ways to deal with anxiety and depression. How to prove to others that you deserve to be there while being one of the only black female in your class. It was a difficult first two years of college, but now that I'm transferring to another university I have the chance to start over and do it right this time.