I have eight days left as a student. I also have three papers to turn in and one final exam, and then I will walk away from eight and a half years of education with never so much as a summer off. When I first returned to community college in 2004, I decided to take summer classes because I was so far behind in college relative to my peers that I felt I could never catch up. I was twenty-three, and most people my age were either establishing themselves in their careers or going on to graduate school.

Thursday, I had the privilege of attending a student government sponsored talk at Harvard Business School. This new student series, named MyTake, gives individual HBS students the chance to share their personal stories. Each MyTake has a theme, and the theme of this particular talk was resilience.

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As a child of a low-income family and former welfare mother, I have overcome tremendous adversity to achieve exceptional success. At sixteen, I was a legally emancipated minor supporting myself on just a GED. By seventeen I was married, and by eighteen I was a mother. I struggled with poverty, homelessness, and single motherhood for years before enrolling in community college in 2004.

While attending community college, I joined the honors program, captained the National Academic Quiz Team and debate team, became a member of Phi Theta Kappa and Phi Beta Lambda Honor Societies, and participated in an intensive week-long international study program in Salzburg, Austria. In 2006 I became one of just 38 students worldwide to win the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, which provided me with $30,000 a year to complete my undergraduate studies. I received my Associates Degree with Highest Honors and Honors Diploma in 2006, and matriculated to the Honors College at the University of Central Florida.

While at UCF, I founded the Lighthouse for Dreams Financial Literacy Project, a nonprofit program dedicated to helping teens and foster children learn how to manage money. My strong desire to effect positive social change inspired me to research empowerment-based antipoverty initiatives, and in 2008 I authored a one-of-a-kind guidebook for teaching financial education classes to the poor. This work, coupled with extensive community service with organizations like Junior Achievement, became the basis for my recognition as UCF’s first Harry S. Truman Scholar. I graduated from UCF in 2009 with dual degrees in accounting and finance. With a perfect 4.0 GPA, I was recognized as the College of Business Administration’s Top Honor Graduate. I also received the UCF Alumni Association’s Distinguished Student Award. My other undergraduate accomplishments include interning for a member of the United States Congress, my selection as one of Glamour Magazine’s Top Ten College Women of 2008, and my receipt of the Governor Leroy Collins Distinguished Community College Alumni Against the Odds award. Shortly after graduation, I was awarded a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship, which provided me with $50,000 a year to pursue my graduate studies. To date, I have been awarded over half a million dollars in merit-based scholarship funding, which has allowed me to pursue my passion for public service completely free of burdensome debt.

In the fall of 2009 I matriculated to Harvard University to pursue joint master degrees in public policy and business administration through Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School, where I focused on Leadership Studies and Social and Urban Policy. In addition to receiving first-year honors at HBS, I was named a Rubenstein Fellow, Rappaport Policy Fellow, George Fellow through Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, and a Harvard Business School Leadership Fellow. In 2010, my accomplishments were featured in the segment The American Spirit on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Through speaking, coaching, consulting, and advocacy, I have dedicated my life to empowering others to achieve their full potential and manifest their greatest dreams.

I currently reside in Medford, Massachusetts with my twelve-year-old son Kieren and my husband, Benjamin Brown.