Those around me would describe me as curious, inquisitive: a lifelong learner. Reading any book I can get my hands on, bleary-eyed from browsing blogs late at night, with fingers stained from newspaper print and eavesdropping on everyday conversations, I am a person who appreciates different intricate avenues for obtaining information and learn. I would say that I am “just nosy”. My first steps along these paths went far beyond the normal curiosity that children show about the world around them, because growing up as an African-American woman in a working-class family increased the intensity of my feelings. requests. Why, even though both my parents worked 40+ hours a week, was the rent sometimes late? Or, during one particularly harrowing conversation, why did Lisa insist that I use the black crayon to color my skin when it's clearly brown? Age-appropriate answers never quelled my need to know, and my ploy of playing silent in an attempt to hear family gossip was often exposed. So, at every opportunity, I turned to libraries and books. There I accessed resources for my questions and also found that knowledge informed and shaped the context of my and everyone else's existence. The power of access to knowledge and the impact of information, however, didn't truly come together until my senior year of high school: reading, asking questions, and thinking undoubtedly led me to something more: college acceptance . Studying English and anthropology allowed me to learn about worlds, both real and imagined. More importantly, Amherst helped me develop a stronger framework for analysis and emphasized the intersections of different fields of study. Some of my most memorable days as a college student were those of ... middle of paper ... programs and systems that increase accessibility and sophisticated use, particularly for those living in underserved communities. As information consumption methods change, digital librarianship and information seeking habits are what I would like to study. Reading about the School of Information's research projects investigating inequality of access, I am excited about the opportunity to contribute. Flexible and quick to adapt, I know I have the ability to motivate myself and others in this ever-advancing field. My personal experiences pursuing higher education as a first-generation college student have made me no stranger to adversity or creating my own path, qualities that I believe add much to leaders in the field of librarianship. My commitment to reading, learning, and questioning makes me the outgoing, accomplished candidate the University of Washington needs.