Sarah Crowder

Hello, my name is Sarah Crowder. I am a sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill studying computer science and math. I have a 1550 SAT score, a 4.0, a full merit scholarship, and an internship at Google. I want to give people hope.

I grew up my entire life in Prince George, Virginia, in the middle of nowhere from a military family. I'm mixed, black and white. I never felt that different from my hometown friends. I believe that any one of them could have had my life in my position.

I went to a public magnet high school, a "hard" school, Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International studies. Typically, students from Prince George do not excel at this school. I felt invisible, but I had a resolve that I was going to do well at math. I went from being too stupid to pass the math placement test to getting an A in the hardest math class offered, Multivariable Calculus.

When I got to college, everything felt "easy." Despite being in a "hard" school with a "hard" major, I didn't struggle, while my friends did.

For a long time, I thought that my success was because I was special. But I changed to believe that my circumstances were special. If I hadn't gone to that high school, I would have struggled with my friends.

After achieving what I did, I experienced a psychotic episode after being told that I was fine multiple times over a month with no treatment by therapists at school. I was finally treated at a hometown hospital. I was involuntarily sedated, restrained, and committed for seven days despite not being a danger to myself or others. I had gone voluntarily for physical treatment, and was feeling weak. But still, I was treated this way.

I'm telling my story because I believe that so many of the barriers that divide us, "smart" people, "dumb" people, "lazy" people, yes, even "good" people and "bad" people, are largely imaginary, used to justify why some people have power and others don't. I am one person -- black, white, rural, dumb, smart, student, threat, and I feel a responsibility to share my story.

I don't believe in "bad" people, really, well, maybe a few, but very few and far between, and we as humans all want the same things -- safety, security, stability, joy, happiness, and we all can work together to achieve them.