Name: Tysheika Scott
Year Started: Fall 2016
House: Pilot
My name is Tysheika Scott, a first year student at Florida State University. I am a first generation student who came in through CARE. When applying for colleges I did not know how I was going to pay for it. My mother could not afford to pay for anything especially tuition that is thousands of dollars. Of course, she wanted me to go to school and she would have taken out tons of loans if she had to but I did not think that was the best route to go. One day I went to visit my college career coach at my high school and she was informing me on the many scholarships that were out and specifically for kids who were accepted into TCC, FAMU and Florida State. I had just recently received my acceptance letter for Florida State so it was a perfect time to apply for Southern Scholarship Foundation.
At first, I did not know what it was and the more I looked into it the more interesting it got. Free housing sounded so good to me because I could not afford to pay for on campus tuition and a meal plan. I was nervous about living with twenty other girls because I have never lived with so many people. It has always just been me, my mother and my two little brothers. So living with girls was going to be a very different move for me and I did not think I was ready for it. But as I got to know some of the girls in my house I never regretted ever joining SSF because they were always there for me when I needed them, it was like the sisters I never got to live with.
Living under the same roof as people you would’ve never talked to in your life is one of the best things that can happen in college. You’re meeting people from different backgrounds, ethnicities’ and everything but it turns out in the end you have so much in common. Coming in I did not know how to cook AT ALL. I never wanted to actually learn when I was younger but when I got to SSF that is the first thing I learned how to do. I felt so bad that they were putting me on cook crew and I did not know how to cook but they told me do not be nervous most people come in here not knowing how to cook but you eventually catch on. I will be leaving SSF in the summer but the experience has taught me so much especially going into the real world which I feel SSF has prepared me for. I can cook now, I saved money and know how to budget correctly, I know how to share with others and I have learned what sisterhood is which was something I have grown up wanting to be a part of.
