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Houston Law Firm Awards Scholarship To TSU Student

Here at The Amaro Law Firm, the largest Hispanic-owned and award-winning personal injury law firm in Houston, we’re honored to serve our community by providing  representation for injured individuals and families in the Houston, Sugar Land, Clear Lake, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Corpus Christi areas as well as throughout the state of Texas.

Our mission has always been to focus on providing value through the quality of our work, winning at trial, attending to our clients’ needs, working as a team, and giving back to the community. In many ways, we believe college students are a vital part of our community, who can use a hand when it comes to paying for their education and bettering their lives.

For this reason, The Amaro Law Firm decided to invest in our community’s future by offering a $2,500 scholarship to the winner of our recent essay contest. We asked students to submit essays or videos based on our selected topic. We received many well-crafted and thoughtful essays, which made choosing just one winner a challenge. Ultimately, the winning essay impressed us with the author’s insight, humanity, and their plan for their future.


We’d like to present the winning essay of our 2019 scholarship contest, submitted by Texas Southern University student Brittney Sheppard.


Essay Prompt: The essay or video topic will discuss what success means to you and how you intend on embodying that definition throughout your life.

The only good thing about hitting rock bottom is that the only other way to go, is up.

– Unknown

Success is commonly defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, but this word has more meaning than its face value. Often times we pair success with accomplishing a goal, popularity, or earning an exorbitant amount of money. Success is none of those things. Success is living nightmares, then defying all odds. Success is in fact learning from failure.

Success is one of many terms that I have and will continue to embody. Life comes with many struggles. Financial instability, health complications, education, and lack of well-being are struggles that will occur in a lifetime. Though my life has been accompanied with every single one of these terms, I don’t let these words define it. In many circumstances we often find ourselves in unforeseen situations that are just unpredictable. We don’t understand how it happened or why, but it still happens. Success is centered around how we react to those situations. Success is the product of determination and action. In circumstances where our luck runs out, time does not stop. It may feel as if the Earth has lost all gravity and is falling, but the clock is still ticking. Reaching success means you overcame every hurdle that stood in your way. Success means your desire and determination was more powerful than your limitations.

I will continue to embody success with my desire and determination. I will continue to work my hardest at my lowest. I will not reach the face of an obstacle and stop. My desire to create opportunities for others in the legal system overcomes my financial limitations. My determination to make change is stronger than any struggles that I’ve encountered. I have defied the double minority stigmas. I have overcome the statistical product of poverty. I have persevered through illnesses that I did not think for one second, would destroy me. I embody success because my failures become my determination to keep trying. I embody success because I conquer instead of being conquered.

Success is only the product of determination and desire, which are the best qualities of repeated failure and disadvantages. The amount of success that is received is measured by the strength of your desires, and how you deal with the disappointments. Though wanted by many, success is not easy, which is why the definition is so complex. If you could ask Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez, etc. they could fill an entire novel with the obstacles they’ve faced while trying to achieve justice. From incarceration to financial burdens, these figures and many more have faced worse challenges beyond imagination. Yet they enabled change. They still strongly advocated for others. Their determination and desire did not stop until death, and still then their courageous work inspired many to continue their dreams.

Success comes with stumbling, and you can’t stumble while sitting. In the words of Booker T. Washington “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed. Sometimes we go through what we consider a catastrophe, for some people it may be a consistent occurrence. It feels as if you’re stuck in the same loop, and there is no promising way out. You may feel as if the Universe is somehow stacked against you, and there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of a long dark road. But the truth is, you won’t know unless you start walking. And that is the meaning of success.


ABOUT BRITTNEY

Brittney Sheppard is a second-year student at Texas Southern University where she is majoring in Administration of Justice. Her plans are to go to law school and become a Civil Rights, Family or Criminal Defense lawyer. She is also involved in debate with the “Illustrious Texas Southern University Debate Team,” which has won many awards and accolades since its inception.

Watch Brittney speak about the scholarship, her goals and what winning this means to her in the short video below.

https://vimeo.com/362789220

Congratulations Brittney, and we wish you the best in your studies. Keep up the great work!

We would also like to thank Texas Southern University and Mr. Louis W. Edwards the Director of Donor Relations for coming out and being part of this event.

Stay tuned for a follow-up blog post where we feature the best highlights from a selection of the many other great responses we received as part of our 2019 essay contest. Thank you to all who applied and keep up the good work!

Also, be sure to visit our Scholarship page soon for our next essay contest.