I am a proud Golden Lion alumna of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. As a resident of Pine Bluff, I grew up watching how UAPB brought pride and spirit to my community. It has always been a dream of mine to attend a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). Here, I learned myself, my culture, and how to deal with life through various forms of adversity.

During my sophomore year in undergrad, I lost my sister, Andrika to a rare cancer. I, along with my family, were devastated. To this day, I still have not gotten over the losing her. In order to make a horrible situation better, I teamed up with two of Andrika's long-time friends and created a scholarship in her honor at our high school alma mater.

To show diversity within the geography field, we (Veda Hawkins, Raven Mitchell, and myself) created a geography focused podcast to discuss how integrated this field is in our everyday lives. 

My academic career has spanned over 8+ years. Throughout this time I have: laughed so hard that I cried, stepped out of my comfort zone thousands of times, experienced losses that words cannot describe, doubted myself and my abilities, lacked direction and guidance, and thought about giving up. I said all of this to say, that throughout my academic career, life happened but it did not deter me from my ultimate goal which is to help students who are just like me!