Personal Statement

1.Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have

positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group
efforts over time
My name is Alaiyah and the leadership I always had was influencing people to do the
better for themselves. I say this because everyone i have always hung out around have
always bettered they self in any kind of way it could have been taking showers daily,
cleaning daily, getting dressed more or positive things they have not did before. And i
personally think that because even people around me have noticed that others or just
them have been getting better with their hygiene and so on. I also Motivate people when
they feel like they can't do something. I always tell them they can do it and they always
do it even after they felt like they couldn't. I didn't really have any responsibilities in this
but to keep myself up and going because when i was able to see and notice that
someone is getting better or doing better in anything just by them being around me, it
motivates me to keep going and going so others can also keep pushing and going and
ever since i have been making more and more people happier, healthier, cleaner, and so
much more year by year and day by day. Another influence I've been doing for people is
making them do better in school. I say this because even if I was not fully motivated, I
always motivated others to get good grades even though I didn't have some and I was
struggling myself. I also love motivating little kids to do better while they have the time. I
tell kids “I wish i was your age still don't grow up fast because there is no rush everything
will come to you in a blink of an eye” , alot of kids would think i just be talking but i hope
they take my advice and take their time and focus on school because it's more important
than everything and anything else school is what gets you far in life.

2. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in

ways:problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and
sarcastically to name a few. Describe how you express your creative
side.
Some ways i express my creative side is doing hair or finding out clues as in very hard clues.
This creativity means alot to me because for one, doing hair is like a free therapy I get paid for
and my clients always tell me I'm creative when it comes to my job. A Lot of my clients like to tell
me to freestyle just because they know I would never let them down. My other creativity means
alot to me is because of my thinking. I feel like if i was trapped in a very hard escape room or if i
was having or being in the need of solving anything would be able to because of my thinking
skills. I can find a lot of things out just by looking at the smallest thing. I would use my thinking to
solve my problems by for one, if i'm running out of money i would do hair to get more money
and if someone needed a thinking brain i would help them. The steps I took to solve my
problems are for braiding hair. I just started to practice until I got better. I would practice on
family and friends and when i was good enough to start taking clients i started and since then i
have been growing and getting money since, i solved my problem with my thinking for example
if someone is lying to me i would know just because they cannot keep up with their lie.my
creativity influence everywhere in class and outside. And yes it does relate to my career. It
relates to my career because that's what I'm gonna be doing when I succeed in my dream of
being a nurse. I hope I do . I need to because I come from a poor family so I wanna be the
golden child to help everyone that didn't make it to my class.

3. What would you say is your great talent or skill? How have you
developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
One of my talents is again doing hair and dancing, even my flexibility. I can even do alot
of doctor related things like I can tell people what's wrong with them just by them telling
me symptoms. And everytime they went to the hospital, I was always right. My dancing
talent, I am very very good at that. I mean it takes me some time to get used and
comfortable with dances but once i am i never disappoint! I have been cheering and
dancing for alot 11 years now and I just get better as the days go by and I would want to
open my own team of dancing on day that would be my plan B just in case plan A
doesn't work out. I would open it in atlanta. My dancing I worked to get as good as I am
now like I would practice moves I see more advanced people doing and I would try and
try until I get it down. And when I do , I try to learn another move. My doctor brain has
come naturally. I never studied to be one. I just always knew what to diagnose people
with. People always tell me “you should be a doctor” and I get happy because it was
something i always wanted to do as a little girl so for people to tell me that i get very
happy and feel even more motivated to continue to follow my dreams. And with dancing
I'm very good at it. I even surprise myself sometimes with my dancing so that's
something else I would want to go far in life with, including hair because I was good at it
the very first time I tried it and I have been doing it for 2 years now.

4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a

significant educational opportunity or worked to
overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

The only education I have taken advantage of is my freshman year and junior year. I
wouldn’t say I took advantage of junior year I was just going through my own problems at
that time so I was not fully motivated to do anything or any work. I also feel like social
distancing learning got in the way of my freshman year because I ended that year with
straight F’s and I could say I got better at my work and everything else as in staying
focused and staying on top of my grades I check them everyday js to make sure they are
okay. I overcame me not feeling motivated by surrounding myself with the right people
and I started to motivate myself as well I would always tell myself that “I need to
graduate I need to graduate “ and I am gonna graduate. It helped me become the
person I am today because now I am always on task and I am on top of my grades! I
have straight A’s now . I'm gonna continue to be a Straight A student for the rest of my
senior year because i am way more happier with myself. The reason why i was so un
motivated is because i gotten raped 3 times and lost my dad at the same time so i felt
like my life was going down the road and i fully wanted to give up on everything but
instead i kept going even tho my grades was really bad i still tried while i was grieving
and healing from my dad and getting seaxually assaulted. I finished with passing grades
but I do have to take some classes this year to get my credits up more from my
sophomore and senior year because I've been through alot those two years and so far
I've been happier and I hope I stay that way.

5. Describe the most significant challenge you have

faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this
challenge. How has this challenge affected your
achievement?
One of the challenges I had to face is waking up everyday to keep going . I say this
because there are days where I don’t even wanna get out of bed for anything,I am still
working on this challenge I always say I would stay home and so on, but now that I’m a
senior it’s helping me with my motivation and with me having my graduation on my mind.
It does affect my life but I’m a good and bad way like I don’t get a lot of sleep because I
have to wake up everyday at 5;00 and I can change that If I do most of the things I need
to do at night and try going to sleep more earlier. I was never able to sleep well because
of what happened to me but i am overcoming my traumas by telling myself how strong i
am and how i wanted to be a doctor to help my family. There were times where I wanted
to end my life but I didn't because I had to keep going to make my mama proud of me to
show my family I got it. That affected me because again i lost all motivation and i felt so
lost in life that i didn't know what to do with myself i felt trapped depression i lost 50
pounds because i stopped eating and i didnt have anyone to be there for me or to talk
too so i had to keep everything to myself and let it eat me up inside because i felt super
alone and when i tried to reach out i always got left on delivered. But I never stopped
caring and being there for others because of how much of a good hearted person I am.

6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you.

Describe how you have furthered this interest inside
and/or outside of the classroom.
An academic subject that inspires me is nursing classes. That inspires me because it's
something I wanna go forward with in life with it. I wanna be a nurse because I love to
help people and help people see what is wrong with them. I want to be able to work with
older people and feel welcomed. I want to be able to make people feel better about
themselves in life. Another academic subject that inspires me is history. I love to learn
about history and how much the U.S have grown from it because it makes me wanna
continue to try to make the world a better place somewhere where everyone is
comfortable living in. History classes are very fun and interesting to me. I always pay my
full attention in those classes. And I also love english because i love to write and do
journals and learn new things in general. Also every English teacher I have ever had has
always made English very fun and I have always been excited to go to English class!
These classes are all very important to me also economics because it teaches me how
to maintain my money and how to file taxes and all that good stuff they are helping me
get ready for the real world and making me even more comfortable with my adulthood
life because at first i used to very scared to be an adult but as i been in economics, i
learned a lot to get me going and i know how to stretch my money now so i am happy
about that. My economics teacher aso makes the learning fun because of how he
teaches the kids to do things and how much energy he has for the kids everyday he
always keeps me and the class laughing even if I feel like crying.

7.What have you done to make your school or your

community a better place?

Something i have done to make my school a better place is cleaning up whenever i see
trash on the ground because i feel like its very disrespectful to liter anywhere especially
at school where there are thousands of students and only 5 janitors so that would be
tons to clean for them and i would hate to clean a lot after teenagers/ young adults
because they are old enough to know to throw stuff away in the trash. Another way i
make the school a better place is for the students. If I see someone crying, upset etc, I
would go up to them and talk to them even if I don't know them because you can learn
so much about a person just from having one deep talk with a stranger. So I always let
kids know they are not alone because again you never know what kids are going
through at home or anything else so you just have to be their support system as much as
you can. Even if i'm sad i still check on those who are around me. I would make my
community a better place by cleaning around earth and asking anyone who is struggling
if they need help. I am nice like this because i believe if you be nice to someone they
would want to pass the niceness down and i hope it would continue and so on. I
compliment almost everyone i see because i know not alot of people get those anymore
so i would always be that little reminder that “hey your beautiful!!” anyone at anytime
even if i'm feeling insecure. I was also raised this way to always treat others the way I
would want to be treated so I always do that. I have a lot of respect for everyone
because at the end we all bleed the same and we are all humans.
8. Beyond what has already been shared in your application,
what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong
candidate for admissions to the University of California?

Something i believe that make me stand out as strong is me overcoming my life traumas.
I know a lot of people who have given up but not me. I keep going and going because I
believe God put me here for a reason and I have a purpose to be on this earth so I have
to stay alive and stay breathing to accomplish those purposes. There are girls and boys
out there who gave up on their first trauma but me i kept going after being raped 3 times,
sexually harrased multiple times, growing up in a poor family, toxic hosuehold and
mother,loosing my dad after only knowing him for 3 years, and most importantly fighting
for my peace alone and having break downs nobody never knew about. I feel like i stand
out because of that reason. I KEPT GOING!! And i'm still here living and surviving. I was
in a mental hospital for 3 months and 2 weeks and I was still trying to relieve myself but it
didn't work for a reason because God was with me through every step of the way letting
me know not to give up and keep going. I am also the oldest sister out of 4 siblings so
i'm like a mom and bestfriend to them. One thing I noticed about my little sisters and
brother is that they are following in my footsteps and that makes me very very proud
because even though I felt like giving up and I felt like a failure , my siblings were always
there to show me I was helping them in a way by being a good role model for them. I feel
like I am a very strong girl from where I came from and I feel like my mom has gotten so
much better at life herself and I'm looking up to her because she's my motivation
because I wanna be able to pay my mom bills. This is why i think i stand out and i am
strong, this is MY STORY.. I am happy now:).