My name is Shaniya. I am a Higher Achievement Scholar. I live in Baltimore, Maryland. I’m 13-years old and I’m in the 8th grade. I live at home with my mother and brother.
I am talkative, selfless, respectful, and adventurous.
I want to go to college because I was raised by a lot of strong women, especially my mother, who didn’t get the chance to go to college. When I graduate, I’m going to print a lot of copies of my diploma so all of the women that raised me can have one and know they raised someone good, someone that’s going to make something of herself.
When I graduate college, I want to become a pediatric nurse and travel to different countries to open up medical clinics where people are struggling to access medical help. I know there are places in the world that have it way worse than I have it. I want to show kids that it’s going to get better, starting right here in Baltimore. There are a lot of kids going without here, and they don’t always know when you’ll get their next meal or the next time they will get to see their parents. I want all kids that are going without to know that people care about them and they want a future for them. The sun will always come out tomorrow.
If I could change one thing about the world I would end the violence. Every day on the news we hear about kids getting killed or going missing, it just feels normal now. It’s like everyone is a target and no one is safe. You never know who is going to show up at school with a gun or if you’ll be shot walking home. That’s just the reality here.
Higher Achievement is a family for life. In Baltimore schools, we’re experts at losing teachers. They walk out on us every single day. I don’t know if we did something wrong or they just don’t love us anymore. It makes it really hard to learn when the teachers walk out and I plummeted in math. Higher Achievement was there for me when I didn’t have a consistent teacher.
Higher Achievement is hard on me and pushes me academically, but that’s how I know they love me. They push me because they see something in me that I don’t always see in myself.
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