Jamilah Beene, a super senior at The University of Texas-Austin, at first glance will give off a giddy, and very outgoing persona, but behind that smile there’s pain and emotional scars that she will never forget. Five years ago, she arrived at UT, motivated and full of life, ready to begin a new journey, but after traumatizing personal experiences, her grades began to take the hit and unfortunately got placed into Academic Probation. Problem on top of problem, she fell into a deep depression and left school for a while, only to be taken to jail and experience more conflicts that she could not escape. One of her solutions was to strip; she states that her bills were getting behind and overdue and she needed the quick money in order to get everything taken care of. Nine months later, she has a daughter named Zala, and after she is born, it didn’t take Jamilah long to realize that she needed to be a role model for her daughter and change her ways to become a better person. She was accepted back into the university and finally dedicated more than enough time to her studies, nevertheless, she does leave time to socialize and take a breather in order to remain sane in the midst of being a single mother, and a working student.

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