“I was adopted, like, straight from the hospital. My mom had me when she was very young, and she knew she couldn’t take care of me. And she wanted me to have all the things she could not give me. So that was her main reason for wanting me to get adopted, so that I can have a better life. The hard part that I used to struggle with was that she had my sister, and she kept my sister.

I used to struggle with understanding why I was given up, but she wasn’t given up. But I realize now that my mom was in a totally different space when my sister was born. So it ended up not bothering me after we had that conversation. My adopted parents are great. They support all of my decisions. They allow me to take whatever path I want. They’re behind me 100 percent. I love the endless love and support, and the fact that, even though my mom had to make a hard decision, she ended up blessing another family that ended up blessing me. So it’s like now I have even more family.

“Well, I would have to say, the hardest obstacle in my life was my lack of confidence. In elementary school and middle school, I was bullied a lot. I never thought I was good enough, or that I looked nice enough because I was a little overweight at that time.

I had a lot of issues with my confidence. But Jackson State has brought a lot out of me, to the point where now, I know who I am. I know that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. Certain people and certain organizations have made me realize that I am good enough and that I can succeed in life.

I would tell anyone who’s struggling with confidence to remember that the things people may say about you don’t define who you are. Even though you may be going through tough times, always remember that the things you go through will help build you in some way, and help get you to a goal that God has for you.”

– Darrian, junior physics, pre-med major from Jackson, Mississippi

“I came here because of Army ROTC. I’d been doing ROTC for four years. Half of my family is in the military. It’s just something that I love.

During my senior year in high school, I became the first multicultural female battalion commander for the ROTC program at my school. The school is predominately white, and I transferred there my junior year. They take the ROTC program very seriously. Someone else was supposed to get the battalion commander spot, but I was really competitive and got the spot. He would say racist jokes, and he had the whole program against me trying to get my rank and trying to get me fired. They used to text racist things, but some people would screenshot them and send them to me. I would show it to my colonel.

“My major is accounting. I want to be a CPA, but I am also really passionate about financial literacy, especially in the black community. I don’t feel that we get the same resources, same education or same knowledge regarding our finances, budgeting, investing, entrepreneurship or retirement.

So I’m passionate about bringing more of that to the black community – tools of success as opposed to tools for failure. We have so many (payday and title) loan businesses in the black community. You don’t see those in other communities. So, I want to teach people more about what to do with their money and how to be successful.

I’m most proud of coming to college in Mississippi. That was a big thing for me. My older sister was the first person in our family to complete college, but she went to school in Virginia. We’re from Maryland and Mississippi is 16 hours away. So it was a big adjustment.

My freshman year was really hard, but not because of academics. It was hard because I was in Mississippi by myself. I didn’t know anyone here. My first time coming to Mississippi was during the freshman orientation.