2008 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship
for Community Service
Scholarship Winner
Shondra Pruett Miller
UT Southwestern Graduate School
of Biomedical Sciences
4th year
Shondra's Essay on Community Service
As I sat there staring out of my windshield, I squinted to read the writing on the side of the stadium. “Welcome to the Bone Yard,” is what the big black letters read. Needless to say, my nerves that were already causing me to have butterflies in my stomach had now begun to make my bottom lip quiver. I wasn’t sure why I was so scared. After all, I was 24, and they were only 7th graders. I finally got up enough courage to walk to the stadium and purchase my ticket. I walked into the stadium and went to the junior high section. There I saw 7th and 8th graders running around like a swarm of angry bees. I had never been somewhere with so many people, yet felt so alone. As I made my way up the stairs, I noticed a little girl sitting by herself looking rather lonely. I asked if I could sit with her. “Sure,” she replied. Her name was Bree. Bree and I sat for about 30 minutes and talked about school and friends - mostly superficial conversation. When the game ended, she reached over to me and hugged me, and said, “see you later.” That was it. With that hug, I knew that this was an area of service that I was excited to begin.
That was my first experience as a Wyldlife leader. Wyldlife is a Christian outreach program. In Wyldlife, we love middle school kids. They are completely full of life and yet are experiencing the emotional and physical changes that make those junior high years some of the most awkward. Junior high is a time when kids make really important decisions about who they are and who they will become. I consider it a privilege to be involved in a group of Lake Highlands Junior High girls lives. As a leader, I seek to help the girls understand that they are known, loved, and accepted by learning their names, hearing their stories and just being a part of their everyday life. I was a “Big” for Big Brothers Big Sisters in college, and I guess you could say that being a Wyldlife leader to about 90 now 8th graders is like being a “Big” on steroids. I spend a minimum of 10 hours a week hanging out with “my” girls. I go to their choir concerts, volleyball games, football games to watch them cheer, and call or text them on a daily basis. I hang out with them in groups and have dinner with individual girls. It’s a large time commitment, but it is totally worth it to see these girls open up and start to feel valued. I started with my girls in 7th grade and will continue with that group as long as I’m in Dallas. Besides, hanging out with just Lake Highland Junior High girls, I am also involved in organizing an event we call “club” almost every Friday night after high school football games. Club is a place where all junior high kids in the Lake Highlands area can come after the game. This provides a safe place for the approximately 200 kids that show up to be kids.
Although being a Wyldlife leader is by far my greatest community service time commitment, I have also been committed to serving the Dallas community by being a part of several outreach programs. I am involved in the Science Teachers Access to Resources at UT Southwestern (STARS) program. Through this program, I have spoken at seminars for junior high and high school math and science teachers about the possibilities of a career in science. This allows them to understand how and why they can encourage their students to continue to pursue these subjects through the high school years. I have also given lab tours to groups of elementary, junior high, and even college students. I was actively involved in planning the STARS/WISMAC special symposium for high school students and teachers. I have been a sponsor and presenter at the Alliance of Woman in Technology meeting at Fair Park for girls interested in science as a future career. I have been a science fair judge for local junior high science fairs, and presented at the Gooch Elementary Career Day to two groups of 5th grade students about my life as an academic researcher. I actually taught them how to extract DNA from strawberries. I have been involved in the UT Day of Service Health Fair for the community for the past 3 years. I have volunteered for the Carter Center Blood Drive here at UTSW for several years. I have been a builder for Habitat for Humanity for the past two years, and been involved with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I am also a member of Watermark Community Church and serve in the nursery to allow new parents a break during which they can attend the worship service.
I spend a lot of time serving the Dallas community, but I also spend a lot of time as a leader committed to improving the UTSW community. I have been very active in the Graduate Student Government (GSO), serving the roles of GSO Program Representative, Secretary, and President at some point over my 4 years at UT Southwestern. I am or have been a member of the Division of Clinical Science steering committee, the UT systems TASK force, the UTSW Student leadership committee, the UTSW 6-year planning committee, and the GSO Executive Council. I have organized the GSO poster session at which all UTSW graduate students can present their work in a supportive environment. I have also been in charge of organizing a process by which graduate students can apply for and be granted travel awards that will provide funds for students to travel to present their research at a much broader national or even international forum. I have hosted University Lecture Series speakers and organized their schedules so that students and faculty can meet and hear from outstanding scientists from around the globe. I have also volunteered to help with recruiting potential UTSW graduate students. As a volunteer, I have picked up recruits from the airport, taken them to dinner and lunch, and even taken them rock-wall climbing. I have even traveled back to my alma mater, the University of Arkansas, to a career fair to help recruit potential students. I have also been a part of a committee to plan events for Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF).
Thank you so much for the opportunity to apply for the Martin Luther King Community Service Scholarship. I believe as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” I enjoy serving others here at the UTSW community level and at a broader level in the Dallas community, and I am committed to going to the metaphoric “bone yard” or any place that may be uncomfortable for me to enter but that will bring about a greater good.
