DTH Mag Vol 5 - Flipbook - Page 7
Who is Alicia? And don’t leave anything out! LOL
I am a Jersey girl, born and raised. I am the youngest of four to a single mom whom I watched work
very hard to not only provide for us but to also achieve her goals. My mom didn’t let being a single
parent stop her from obtaining several degrees and going from being a special education teacher to a
guidance counselor. So I believe that's where a lot of my hustle and drive to go after whatever I wanted
probably came from. As a young girl, I always loved playing with dolls and of course, doing their hair. So
much so that I taught myself how to braid at a very young age. From there hair was just a fun hobby
until I got to my high school and found out they had a cosmetology program. One of my best friends
was in the program and I used to go over there and visit it all the time so the teacher knew me well.
When it was time to apply to be in the program the teacher came at me about not submitting my
application, but the thing is, I did submit my application to my guidance counselor. Come to find out he
chose to not send it in. Well, that didn’t go over well with me and my mother. We wrote a letter to the
principal and the board of education on how he was not only trying to stifle and prevent me from going
after one of my dreams but that it was a form of discrimination to assume that because I was an honor
student who had intentions on going to college that learning how to