As a young girl it was my dream to attend an HBCU. I desired to experience what it was like to be immersed into a sea of beautiful black peers, who were striving to be the professional I envisioned myself to be in the future. I longed to have a teacher that I could see myself in and be taught by. A teacher that did not overlook me, but saw my potential.  Well, in 2007, that day came as I stepped onto the Campus of Thee Elizabeth City State University. For the next four years I would swim in that sea with black scholars, being taught by teachers who looked liked me and pushed me to succeed. I would be chosen to be apart of scholar programs that allowed me to travel as far as South Africa to conduct research for two months. As you read this I want you to understand why this was so special to me. I was a student who for most of my life was deemed as having behavioral problems. Who was happy when she would see a C on her report card (and those came far and few). It was not until high school that I began to sprout, but it was my beloved HBCU that watered me to bloom. To bloom into the author, speaker and entrepreneur I am today. I tear up as I write this. Reason being, is I know it was being around young black scholars, taught by professors who didn't allow me to settle for anything less than a B and the many words spoken into me  while attending my HBCU that gave me the confidence to go into the world and blaze the trails I have.

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