Believing in Yourself: Florence’s Story

The day Howard University announced they would be sending their acceptance letters had finally arrived. CSF Scholar Florence started checking Twitter and her email inbox every five minutes, waiting to see that one word from their admissions office. Howard University was her dream school, and as the hours rolled by with her inbox remaining empty, she started fearing the worst.

“Going Out and Slaying It”

Florence always wanted to be a computer engineer. During her sophomore year in high school, she walked into CSF Advisor Tremaine Frazier’s office as a quiet and shy student. Now a senior at Auburn High School, she is taking college courses and doing everything in her power to make that dream a reality.

“Florence had this burning fire in her that was just waiting for the right moment to be let out,” Tremaine says. “She has been really awesome about advocating for herself and just going out and slaying it. Florence will be a force to be reckoned with in technology.”

Choosing a Historically Black College

At the encouragement of Tremaine and her family, Florence applied to dozens of colleges and universities. She applied to 60 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) through the Black Common App and a total of 73 different institutions. Howard University was at the top of her list.

“I thought attending a historically Black college would be great,” Florence says. “Before Auburn High School, I had gone to a school in New Jersey that was predominantly white. I felt like I didn’t fit in. They were racist, and they bullied me. At Howard, it was great to see so many Black people who were there to help each other achieve their goals. It was so inspiring.”

Years of Hard Work

As she waited for word from the admissions office, Florence chatted with other applicants and asked if they had heard anything. They hadn’t.

Finally, as business hours on the East Coast were almost at an end, the university tweeted out that their system had crashed. They temporarily stopped sending their admission letters out. It was a Friday, and that meant she might not hear back until Monday. The stress of that moment was unrelenting.

That moment was the culmination of years of hard work. While in CSF’s Achievers program for grades 11-12, she partnered with Tremaine on SAT/ACT prep, financial aid applications, and the college admissions process.

“I love working with Mrs. Tremaine. She’ll reach out to me when there are opportunities, and she’ll check-in with me,” Florence says. “She’s invested in my education.”

When the time came to write her personal essay during the admissions process, Florence remembers feeling like a lot was riding on this one paper.

“Mrs. Tremaine had all these resources in the Google classroom on personal essays,” Florence says. “I reviewed her resources, I found my own, and I was stressing myself out with that.”

I Can Do Anything

Florence ultimately decided to write about the reaction she got when she shared her dream of becoming a computer engineer while attending the predominantly white school in New Jersey. After she joined robotics and computer clubs, Florence was grilled for being Black and a woman wanting to enter the “manly” field of tech.

“It discouraged me,” Florence says. “After I moved here, I had to remind myself that I can do anything that I put my mind to. That it doesn’t have to be a male-dominated field. And then I talked about researching HBCUs and how that is the reason why I am still doing computer engineering.” 

Moment of Truth

The day she was supposed to find out whether she would be accepted into her dream school came and went. After a restless night, she woke up the next morning and opened her inbox to find an email from Howard University Admissions.

She clicked it open and saw the word “accepted.”

“I was so excited,” Florence says. “I jumped out of my bed, and I didn’t brush my teeth or anything. I told my sister-in-law, and we were just jumping. Then I told my brother and my niece. They were so happy for me.”

Florence is now Howard University bound. While it’s unclear what her first quarter will look like, she is more than thrilled.

“If you put in the work and believe that you can do it, you can achieve anything. It’s very easy to get frustrated and give up. Continue, don’t give up, and surround yourself with positive influences.”