Spring 2024 Scholarship Winner

Jasmine Keith

Jasmine writes a wonderful essay about how she challenged herself and broke out of her comfort zone for a fresh start. She is full of motivation and determination, and we are proud to award her with one of the two Fresh Start Scholarships for the Spring of 2024.

Read Jasmine's Essay:

How will obtaining a college education help me start fresh? I am genuinely glad you asked me this question. I come from a very small reservation in New Mexico, with a population of 2,000 people. It is a small town in the middle of nowhere and the nearest city is about an hour and a half away from us. Everyone knows everyone and we don’t have much here. It is very different from the “city life.” The biggest thing we have here is a Family Dollar. In my high school there would only be a total of 130 kids max every other year. So, as you can probably tell, there aren’t a lot of opportunities and there isn’t much to do. It is also rare for someone to get out of town. It isn’t impossible but most of us either just stay here or we do get out, but we always end up coming back. My hometown is so small everyone is related to each other! So, by obtaining a college education, it is helping me start fresh by allowing me to live life and keep me from coming back. I plan to attend the University of Arizona in Tucson. And where I am from that is about 6 hours away by vehicle. So, in a few months I will be living a very different life. I lived on this reservation my entire life so I know my transition will not be easy and it will take some time getting used to. I am excited because I finally get to see the world I never knew existed. I get to see things I didn’t see back home, and I won’t see the same people I am used to seeing every single day. I will get to experience a lot of new things, meet new people and build relationships. However, I am also terrified. As I mentioned earlier, I will be living a very different life and sometimes that can be both exciting and terrifying. But sometimes, you just have to go for thing that scares you the most. I will be far from my family and friends, and I will miss the country. I will miss the silence, going on country cruises, seeing a lot of nature, riding horses, native homecooked food and our native traditions. But this is my opportunity to get out and start fresh. I know I said there wasn’t much here, so technically I wouldn’t be missing out on anything back home but, it is still my home. It is where I grew up and honestly had the best childhood. My family was extremely proud of me when I got accepted into colleges especially knowing the education wasn’t the best here. So, for me to get into college meant the world to my family. I was given this amazing opportunity to make something of myself and live a totally different life. I am aware college is not easy, but I am determined to make the most of it and finish. My family is my biggest supporters so of course they only want the best for me and if that means taking this huge risk to do whatever it takes and drive 6 hours at least once month then so be it. Getting an education is very important to me because I want to be able to help my family in any way I can. I want to give my mother the chance to get out and see what life has to offer. Not only that, I grew up thinking I would never be able to leave but now that it is happening, I want to show our younger generation that no matter where you come from, anything is possible.