30 Days of Reflection: Day 15 (An Excerpt from my Grad School Application Essay)

Continuing from my previous post about my MBA application journey, I want to share a direct excerpt from my personal statement/essay as a reflection on not only my journey but the journeys of others who “went the distance” so I could achieve my dreams. I am beyond grateful.

Passion for education runs deep in my veins.

Born in 1932 in rural Mississippi, my maternal grandmother earned a bachelor’s degree in a time and place where it was not common for a Black woman to do so. Despite her grandfather having a day job farming his land, he took pride in driving a school bus to take children from neighboring farms to school — a revolutionary thing to do in the early 1900s. My other maternal great-grandfather marched in the Civil Rights Movement, risking his life for the possibility that his progeny would be able to pursue freedoms like attending quality schools.

My father traveled 8,000 miles to receive an education, leaving coup-bound Nigeria to plant seeds for a better future in the U.S. My mother returned to school in her thirties, me in-hand, to receive her bachelor’s degree and became an IT instructor. Like my great-grandparents, my parents went the distance, both literally and figuratively, to obtain an education. At least three generations that preceded me understood the inherent value of having an education.

This value borne deeply within me couldn’t be shaken, even through my own tribulations. At sixteen, I struggled to stay in school as my family grappled with hardship. Being forced to support myself financially often pulled me away from my education. Against all odds, I was accepted to one of the most prestigious public universities in the world, UC Berkeley.

My struggle continued under the crushing pressure of failing health and finances, when I made the pivotal decision to put my undergraduate education on hold; taking a job to change the world through tech. Now, after persisting personally and professionally, I’m pursuing an MBA to amplify my impact and advance my family’s fight for quality education.

Throughout my career, I’ve remained committed to enabling others to become empowered agents building their own futures, primarily through education. I’ve led professional training in hospitality, diversified learning spaces in technology, administered early childhood education in preschools and museums, and fostered equitable access in higher education. Teaching in various settings allowed me to witness student challenges firsthand, while serving on the Leadership High School Board allowed me to guide school policy, strategy, and finance. From the classroom to the boardroom, I’ve become intimately familiar with problems facing education.

Educational justice is a long-term imperative to affecting widespread social change. My goal is to build an educational nonprofit or school offering a rigorous, culturally-relevant education that pairs praxis with theory and employs innovative pedagogies. While I have a breadth of education experience, an MBA is critical to honing the business acumen necessary to sustain an educational institution. I left school to change the world, and now I see education as a vehicle for driving that change. An MBA will help me develop the tools to bolster my impact, stretching beyond my community and into the world on a larger scale.