The community at Howard University is unique in how students come together around shared experiences as Black individuals in a world that continues to undermine our efforts. On campus, students embrace their culture, identity, and individuality, building a powerful sense of Black confidence and pride. Speakers like Stacey Abrams, Kamala Harris, and other transformative leaders challenge students to use this pride and HBCU education as a tool for advocacy. Yet despite this, many students remain hesitant to engage. While we are encouraged to collectivize, we are still deeply divided within a space meant to unite us. Internal tensions surrounding colorism, elitism, sexism, and intracommunity violence often hinder collective action, raising questions about what it truly means to build a unified Black community. These divisions are not accidental. They are shaped by dominant white narratives and institutions that seek to divide and disempower, encouraging us to fight ourselves rather than the structures that subjugate us. Within this power structure, privilege reinforces these divides while obscuring the need for shared consciousness.

I first confronted this reality at the start of my junior year. I was facing a mental health crisis that led to my hospitalization, an experience that reshaped my understanding of healthcare and has now shaped my career and research passion. During my time in a psychiatric facility, it became clear that mental health challenges are deeply tied to the environments in which people are raised. Many patients came from under-resourced communities and unstable home environments, growing to hate the place they called home. The facility itself often felt less like a place of healing and more like a jail, prompting me to question how systems designed to support individuals can instead perpetuate harm. It became evident that safe, stable environments are critical to mental health, yet the healthcare system frequently overlooks these realities. Watching patients cycle in and out of care showed me that individual treatment alone is not enough. Healthcare must begin within communities, requiring an understanding of the unique social, cultural, and environmental factors that shape each patient’s lived experience. These disparities are especially large among Black youth. While white youth in the United States are more likely to access mental health services due to greater resources, Black adolescents face lower access, inconsistent care, and higher rates of unaddressed mental health crises, often leading to repeated institutionalization.

Ultimately, my experiences at Howard and within the mental healthcare system are deeply connected. The same systemic forces that create division within Black communities also shape inequities in healthcare. By connecting community-based research with policy, I plan to examine how public policy and social determinants contribute to the repeated institutionalization of Black adolescents in psychiatric systems. Only by reclaiming the power to define our own existence, and recognizing its shared significance, can we begin to dismantle the systems that seek to conflict Black communties. Spaces like Howard make this awareness possible, but they also remind us that community requires continuous effort. We must seek deeper connection, engage different perspectives, and listen to every voice. That is how awareness becomes action, and action becomes lasting change.