It doesn’t matter where you start, but where you finish that counts. Aubrey Perry heard this often from her father, Marc Perry, growing up. But those words didn’t really “click” until embarking on her senior year in high school.Aubrey Perry was pretty much like any other high school kid. She loved to have fun, laugh a lot, go to the mall and the movies with her friends, listen to music and her favorite pastime – tweeting and texting her friends.
Always a good student and active in the varsity Pom team at school, Perry realized that in order to go to her “dream” school, she’d have to do more.
“The summer between my junior and senior year, I really got serious. Though I was in the National Honor Society and The Link Crew, I knew that if I wanted to go to a major university like Michigan State, I’d have to start participating in the type of activities that matter to admissions directors – and especially scholarship selection committees,” said Perry.
In NHS and Link Perry did some community service and leadership activities, but her Pom practices kept her from doing more. “When I found out that getting accepted into college was very competitive – and so expensive, I made up my mind to do whatever it took to get where I wanted to go. My parents told me that if I wanted to go away to school, I had to find my own scholarships because they didn’t have money for a college career like Michigan State.”
Because Perry’s parents had been entrepreneurs, over the years they had to invest back in their businesses. But as the economy turned down, they had to file for bankruptcy and lost a lot their investments – including savings for college tuition.
“It was a very sobering and emotional conversation when my parents told me that there was no money saved for college. That day, I made up my mind that it’s not too late to go after my dreams. I put full focus on winning scholarships,” said Perry.
Source: Black News
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