June 23, 2024
My name is Amber Tindal and on behalf of all of our scholarship recipients, I would like to welcome all of you to the 2024 Meeting Street Scholarship Fund Celebration Summit.
I am extremely grateful to be standing before you all today and representing Claflin University. Any future Panthers in the house?
If someone would have told me two years ago that I would be on this stage addressing a room full of 700 people who I have never met, I would have called them crazy. Who would have thought the shy girl from little ole Clarendon County could do something so courageous?
It’s amazing how God places us in situations that challenge and transform us, guiding us to discover our true potential. That’s why the Meeting Street Scholarship is so important. It opens the door for hardworking young people to achieve their dreams. I know because I am one of them.
I grew up in Manning, SC, a small, rural town right off of Interstate 95. My grandparents were farmers and custodians who could barely read, but did their best to provide. My Mom and her twin sister were the youngest of 12 children. They grew up in a small three-bedroom house, and my Mom and her eight sisters shared one of those bedrooms.
My Mama went on to earn an associate’s degree and open her own hair salon, Janice’s Beauty Salon in Manning. She was a hard-working single mother of two girls when she met my Dad.
She wasn’t interested initially but he persisted, and it didn’t take long for them to fall in love.
At that point, my Dad had retired as a sergeant from the Army. They got married and then became pregnant with me.
My Dad was so excited to have his first child. He prayed over my Mama’s growing belly, and after I was born, he showed me off to anyone he met. I was “his baby.”
I wish I could remember more about him, but I can’t. He had congestive heart failure and passed away shortly after my first birthday, but my Mom did her best to keep his memory alive.
My mother always made sure I knew how much my father loved me and how he was watching over me from heaven.
It was this that motivated me to work hard in school; I wanted to make my daddy proud. My mom pushed me so hard in school because she wanted my sisters and me to have more opportunities than she or my father had.
Luckily, school always came easy to me and I was always the student to get good grades – mostly because I was fearful of what my mama would say if I brought home anything less than a “B” – but I saw how some of my classmates were not as fortunate.
As far back as elementary school, I enjoyed group work and explaining concepts to my peers. Seeing the relief on their faces after finally understanding a concept they struggled with always brought me joy. When I was old enough to finally have a job and help my Mom financially, the COVID pandemic hit. I thought about how much I liked helping others with school and decided to open my own tutoring business. It was that experience that solidified my passion for teaching and desire to become an educator. I knew that to achieve this goal, I would have to attend a good college. But I had no idea how I would pay for it.
I had watched my Mama work hard at the hair salon to provide for my sisters and me. I knew that things in life would not simply be handed to me and anything I wanted I would have to work hard for it. I knew the only way I would be able to attend a good college without burdening my mother would be through obtaining scholarships or massive student loans.
As my senior year of high school began coming to a close, something amazing happened. I was walking in the hall toward the senior parking lot when my guidance counselor stopped me and told me I was about to miss an important meeting in the library for seniors who planned to attend college. Reluctantly, I walked into the library in the middle of a Meeting Street Scholarship Fund presentation by Senior Program Director Mr. John Huber-MacNealy. Honestly, it all seemed too good to be true. After all, I had never heard of anyone offering a $40,000 scholarship to students from Manning.
After seeing that I qualified, I submitted my application. I know some of you remember instances where you’ve applied for a scholarship and kind of just forgot about it afterward because you just knew you weren’t going to get it. Well that was me. I really thought that would be the last time I thought about the Meeting Street Scholarship until a few weeks later when I saw that I went from being a finalist to actually receiving the award. The first person I told after I found out was my Mama. We both started jumping up and down while she screamed, “Thank you, Jesus!” All of her prayers had been answered. Her baby girl could attend college without a single student loan.
This was only the beginning of an amazing journey with the Meeting Street Scholarship. Not only did they help me prepare for college, but they also guided me through my first year.
I had been accepted into my top three schools – Claflin, Clemson and the University of South Carolina.
I chose Claflin because it seemed like the best place for me. It wasn’t a huge campus, its class sizes were smaller and as a HBCU, there were so many people who looked like me.
Claflin requires all students to take a class called “Freshman Experience” that orients you to college life, and all of my classmates were Meeting Street Scholarship recipients. Through this class, I’ve met some amazing students who share similar stories and ambitions as me. We’ve held study groups together, done community service projects, and supported one another throughout our first year at Claflin. I’ve been able to build strong bonds with the scholars I have connected with, creating a network of friends who have become like family.
These relationships have been instrumental in my personal and academic growth. We’ve navigated the challenges of college life together, celebrating one another’s successes and providing a shoulder to lean on during tougher times. The Meeting Street Scholarship has not only facilitated our academic development but has also fostered a sense of community and belonging that has made Claflin feel like home.
My experience at Claflin as a Meeting Street Scholarship recipient has taught me the value of collaboration, resilience, and the importance of giving back to the community. The support and camaraderie I’ve found among my fellow scholars have inspired me to aim higher and dream bigger. Together, we’ve learned that our potential is limitless when we support and uplift one another.
As I look forward to the future, I am filled with gratitude for the opportunities the Meeting Street Scholarship has provided and the incredible people I’ve met along the way. I would like to thank the donors of this scholarship for believing in us and helping transform all of our dreams into reality. I am confident that the lessons and relationships we’ve built will continue to shape our paths and empower us to make meaningful contributions to the world. Thank you, Meeting Street Scholarship Fund, for being the foundation of this transformative journey and believing in our potential to change the world. Let us continue to strive for excellence and make a positive impact in everything we do.
Lastly, thank you parents, friends, and family for believing in us and encouraging us to make it this far.
To my Mama, who’s sitting here today, thank you for your unwavering support, your boundless love, every sacrifice you’ve made and every moment you believed in me. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you. I love you, Mama.
© 2024 Meeting Street Scholarship Fund|Policies
