LGBTQ Scholarship: What Defines Who You Are?

LGBTQ scholarship
Name
Institution
Date
LGBTQ scholarship
What Defines Who You Are?
I have always admired people who use their careers to draw international attention to a specific population who suffer repression and abuse. It has been my dream to be among the people who will make a difference in my community using my career. I believe that using my career, I can advocate for a safer environment for the LGBTQ communities in Africa as a whole. Advancing my career as a nurse will enable me to achieve my dreams of giving back to my community. Nursing is a call, and it defines who I am.
It's my dream to inspire LGBTQs to make them feel safer and also become productive individuals in the society. That is why I want to work as a missionary nurse in Africa. My experience in Uganda, where I stayed for a while motivated me to find a better solution to help the LGBTQ communities in Africa. Like several African countries, in Uganda, any LGBTQ act is punishable by law. Rejection and stigma affect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, making them feel like outcasts.
My main goal is to become a psychiatric nurse and help the LGBTQ community who constantly undergo severe trauma. I want to use my career to advocate for LGBTQ rights. After completing my studies, I hope to reach out to the marginalized LGBTQ s to provide basic health care services.
I am currently studying nursing at Washington state university; I want to pursue my degree in nursing and become a psychiatric nurse practitioner. My goal is to go back to my home country and uplift the living conditions of the LGBTQ community who live in constant fear and cannot access basic health care services. After completing my studies, I plan to work in the US as a psychiatric nurse practitioner with the LGBTQ community and to seasonally work as a missionary nurse in the rural parts of Africa including, my country. While living in the US, I plan to actively engage in creating a non-profit organization in Eritrea to assist the LGBTQ community. I want to educate my parents and my community about homosexuality for them to understand issues of sexual orientation and sexual identity.
I was born in one of the third world countries, Eritrea where any LGBTQ act is punishable by law; I went through difficulties. I was disowned by my own family, forcing me to flee to a neighboring country for safety. I was only 15 years when I moved to Uganda to live with my aunt after being disowned by my parents. Living in a foreign land, I was ridiculed, and this affected me emotionally. Having no one to turn to, I ended up dropping out of school and almost committed suicide by then.
The LGBTQ community in Eritrea has no chance of surviving because they are regularly prosecuted by the government. The group faces serious stigma among the general Islamic population. In countries like Uganda, being openly gay requires an astounding amount of courage which is not possible due to the hostile environment most LGBTQ live in.
One of my friends took me to a hidden place, a youth center for LGBTQ in Kampala where LGBTQs could meet, share their experiences and support each other. It was during these regular meetings that I was motivated to review my life. This became one of the defining moments in...