My African-American Dream

I have always been a dreamer, but my reality was confined to my East Oakland neighborhood. My family struggled through an era typified by pervasive crack addiction and socio-economic distress. My most poignant memory is of being homeless. My brother and I slept in the backseat of my mother’s car. In the beginning, I thought that we were on a camping trip so even as I child, I had developed a habit of envisioning a reality that lived up to my fantasies. Over twenty years later, I found myself in that same neighborhood with a child of my own. I have seen this same story unfold a hundred different ways, but the unfortunate ending is always the same: society dictates life’s trajectory in accordance to your phenotype. Because of my age, race, and

That opportunity comes from an education. My passion for higher education comes from a drive for social change. By any measure, I am a non-traditional student. I’m thirty-one years old, African-American, and a single mother of a six-year-old son. I decided to fight for my community, and against the pervasive stereotypes that have impeded my dreams by becoming a sociology major. To be successful for my son, it was imperative for me to stretch myself outside of the standard frame of societal norms. I have pushed myself to cultivate political and social change by sharing my own journey of educational empowerment with others. I decided to be the change I wanted in my neighborhood, thus beginning my journey to academia. During this journey, I have already earned two AA degrees, in Sociology and Liberal Arts. At my home college, California State University-East Bay, I am on the honor's list with a CSU gpa of

As a college counselor, I will be working with marginalized and socially disadvantaged peoples to equip them with the tools needed to empower their own communities. This is my ultimate aspiration. Being able to study sociology in London in a course that focuses on the issues of urban society, will allow me to build a better understanding of social challenges on a national level and international level. The British educational, political and social welfare system has been far more effective at reducing income and educational inequality. I hope get a better understanding of possible ways to import these techniques