Sending Tana to Wake Forest!
Donation protected
Our Story:
Hi,
I’m Meisha, parent of 9-year-old Santana Sowell. If anyone knows us, then you know life didn’t exactly hand us a silver spoon. At the tender age of 17, I got pregnant with Santana. I can’t count on both hands how many family and friends pleaded with me to have an abortion. “You’re throwing away your dreams,” they’d say. Others claimed, “You’ll be stuck working a minimum wage job the rest of your life so you can kiss college goodbye”. It didn’t help that my son’s biological father did not step up to the plate and has not been active in my child’s life. However, this story isn’t to bash him because the beauty in it all? I GAVE BIRTH TO MY CHILD ANYWAY and God made a way.
9 years later I’m not only able to say that I am a graduate school student, blogger, creator of the SimplyMei brand, and more (follow me on Instagram: heysimplymei or read some of my story on heysimplymei.com to learn more), but I am also able to proudly say that my son is NOT a statistic. A black boy born to a single parent (in biological terms) who worked for $7.25 an hour during the beginning years of his life, still defied the odds. HE did that! He made choices in school, in life, and everywhere else when mommy wasn’t around. Those nights I had of no sleep, pawning things to make ends meet, donating plasma to have pocket money, trips to the hospital for exhaustion, limiting my social life, and more paid off. There were sacrifices I made as a teenage girl and even into my adulthood that have been beyond hard (to the point of mental breakdowns), but the day I became a mother I vowed to give my son as much of the world as I could and to teach him how to be the best version of himself that I could. Maybe I couldn’t be a “daddy” because I am a woman, but I could show up for my son and not let the world determine his future for him. Even when you do the best you can, sometimes it still shocks you how amazing your child becomes - - to watch my son flourish has been…humbling, breathtaking. speechless.
So, when I got this paper in the mail that invited my child to join the National Youth Leadership Forum, my heart jumped out of my chest and my tears exploded. I was just that, speechless and overwhelmed. It was an affirmation from GOD for me that no matter what the statistics say, “mama you’re doing something right and that child of yours is the proof!”
About the Opportunity:
I am asking for your help in sending my child off to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime. This is not about me. This is not a fraud. This is about helping a child continue his belief that he TRULY CAN be anything he wants to be. It would kill me to have him work this hard despite what we have been through together in the trenches only to be stopped because… well, “yes son you have an outstanding honor, but no you can’t do this because…money”.
The National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF) offers outstanding elementary school students the opportunity to explore areas such as crime solving skills (i.e. learn how conduct finger print and blood drop analysis), engineering (i.e. program Mbots robots for robotics challenges), medicine (i.e. participate in a dissection to learn about human anatomy), and more! Agnes Scott College, Converse College, and Wake Forest University are the host campuses. Santana, if able, will attend Wake Forest over the summer for a residential stay full of learning.
Santana’s offer letter read, “Santana was selected because his teacher recognizes him as a student that demonstrates exceptional maturity, scholastic merit, and leadership potential even at his young age”.
This program will give my son unprecedented opportunity to acquire the leadership and life skills conducive to academic and career success. Beyond that, he can help send the message to other peers like him that, “YES, little black boys CAN! - - regardless of childhood, life experiences, statistics, and naysayers”
Tuition:
The cost is $2,400 BUT any amount helps.
Thank you for reading our story. Whether you donate or not, please know that from me and my son, you TOO can be anything you want to be in life! It may be hard. It may not look achievable. You still can!
Hi,
I’m Meisha, parent of 9-year-old Santana Sowell. If anyone knows us, then you know life didn’t exactly hand us a silver spoon. At the tender age of 17, I got pregnant with Santana. I can’t count on both hands how many family and friends pleaded with me to have an abortion. “You’re throwing away your dreams,” they’d say. Others claimed, “You’ll be stuck working a minimum wage job the rest of your life so you can kiss college goodbye”. It didn’t help that my son’s biological father did not step up to the plate and has not been active in my child’s life. However, this story isn’t to bash him because the beauty in it all? I GAVE BIRTH TO MY CHILD ANYWAY and God made a way.
9 years later I’m not only able to say that I am a graduate school student, blogger, creator of the SimplyMei brand, and more (follow me on Instagram: heysimplymei or read some of my story on heysimplymei.com to learn more), but I am also able to proudly say that my son is NOT a statistic. A black boy born to a single parent (in biological terms) who worked for $7.25 an hour during the beginning years of his life, still defied the odds. HE did that! He made choices in school, in life, and everywhere else when mommy wasn’t around. Those nights I had of no sleep, pawning things to make ends meet, donating plasma to have pocket money, trips to the hospital for exhaustion, limiting my social life, and more paid off. There were sacrifices I made as a teenage girl and even into my adulthood that have been beyond hard (to the point of mental breakdowns), but the day I became a mother I vowed to give my son as much of the world as I could and to teach him how to be the best version of himself that I could. Maybe I couldn’t be a “daddy” because I am a woman, but I could show up for my son and not let the world determine his future for him. Even when you do the best you can, sometimes it still shocks you how amazing your child becomes - - to watch my son flourish has been…humbling, breathtaking. speechless.
So, when I got this paper in the mail that invited my child to join the National Youth Leadership Forum, my heart jumped out of my chest and my tears exploded. I was just that, speechless and overwhelmed. It was an affirmation from GOD for me that no matter what the statistics say, “mama you’re doing something right and that child of yours is the proof!”
About the Opportunity:
I am asking for your help in sending my child off to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime. This is not about me. This is not a fraud. This is about helping a child continue his belief that he TRULY CAN be anything he wants to be. It would kill me to have him work this hard despite what we have been through together in the trenches only to be stopped because… well, “yes son you have an outstanding honor, but no you can’t do this because…money”.
The National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF) offers outstanding elementary school students the opportunity to explore areas such as crime solving skills (i.e. learn how conduct finger print and blood drop analysis), engineering (i.e. program Mbots robots for robotics challenges), medicine (i.e. participate in a dissection to learn about human anatomy), and more! Agnes Scott College, Converse College, and Wake Forest University are the host campuses. Santana, if able, will attend Wake Forest over the summer for a residential stay full of learning.
Santana’s offer letter read, “Santana was selected because his teacher recognizes him as a student that demonstrates exceptional maturity, scholastic merit, and leadership potential even at his young age”.
This program will give my son unprecedented opportunity to acquire the leadership and life skills conducive to academic and career success. Beyond that, he can help send the message to other peers like him that, “YES, little black boys CAN! - - regardless of childhood, life experiences, statistics, and naysayers”
Tuition:
The cost is $2,400 BUT any amount helps.
Thank you for reading our story. Whether you donate or not, please know that from me and my son, you TOO can be anything you want to be in life! It may be hard. It may not look achievable. You still can!
Organizer
Talmeisha Frontis
Organizer
Concord, NC