Carrying the Torch Forward by Zarrah-Jayde

Carrying the Torch Forward by Zarrah-Jayde - August 2025 Scholarship Essay

When I was five, my mother enrolled me in a variety of activities to keep me active and engaged. We tried soccer first, then basketball—mainly because my sister excelled at it. But it wasn’t until we landed on dance that something truly clicked. My deep love for music and movement made dance feel like home. I started with recreational ballet and tap before beginning formal training at age nine. Not long after, I joined my studio’s competitive dance team, where I danced until I enrolled in the performing arts program at Northwestern High School. Midway through high school, my family experienced an eviction, forcing me to transfer to Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts.

At Patapsco, I was met with unexpected challenges: bullying and racism that left me feeling unwelcome and took a toll on my mental health. But rather than allow these experiences to break me, I focused on how I could positively motivate myself and others. I believed that, even in pain, I could make a meaningful impact on my community. Giving back to my community is something that has been ingrained in my upbringing. At an early age, my mother taught my siblings and I the importance of serving others and helping those in need, as we’ve utilized community resources, such as Section 8 and food pantries to supplement our household. We often accompanied her to community service projects, which included distributing gloves and mittens to the homeless and assisting at local food pantries. Although I am a Baltimore transplant, I have made a tremendous impact in my school and within my local community. Specifically, I was a student mentor, organized an event to raise funds for a local shelter for transgender men and women, and served as an instructor who provided dance instruction and programming at Ballet Nouveau School and Baltimore Sports Academy (BSA), a non-profit afterschool program for underprivileged kids.

I began volunteering in 2021 and continued through my high school graduation in 2025. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to provide leadership and mentorship to all my kids, but my experience at BSA was special. There, I found healing, purpose, and connection. Through that experience, I was able to promote physical fitness, self-confidence, and dance programming and instruction that would, otherwise, be inaccessible to my students due to cost. Teaching those young ladies strengthened my empathy, boosted my confidence, and deepened my passion for service. Through every routine I choreographed and every student I encouraged, I found myself—more resilient, more compassionate, and more determined. In the future, I hope to establish a scholarship that would help offset the costs for lower-income students to take formal dance classes or intensives at a studio of their choice.

Now, I’m preparing to take this same energy to Virginia State University, where I plan to major in mass communications and minor in dance. As a dancer, I’ve always been in front of a camera, and my early content creation days on Musical.ly (now TikTok) helped me grow comfortable sharing my story with others. Inspired by characters like Andy in The Devil Wears Prada, I dream of becoming a journalist who amplifies unheard voices and highlights untold stories. My ultimate dream is to use my platform to uplift and empower young Black girls—to show them that their voices matter, their stories are powerful, and their dreams are valid. Receiving this scholarship would allow me to continue making an impact as I grow academically and personally. I will continue dancing after auditioning and being selected as a new member of the VSU Essence of Troy Dance Team, volunteer as a youth dance teacher, and seek service-learning opportunities aligned with my journalism goals. By pursuing higher education, I honor the sacrifices my family has made for me and hope it inspires our future generations to carry on the legacy of college graduates which, ironically, began with my mother.