From Darkness to Light: M’Niya’s Extraordinary Journey of Resilience

June 24, 2025 | By NRCF Recip­i­ent

Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) is com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for LGBTQ+ stu­dents, many of whom encounter dis­tinct chal­lenges in pur­su­ing and com­plet­ing col­lege. Through schol­ar­ships and the sup­port of ded­i­cat­ed vol­un­teers, NRCF builds a vibrant and affirm­ing com­mu­ni­ty around its stu­dents.

In human resilience, some sto­ries rise and tran­scend: M’Niya’s sto­ry is just that – where each hard­ship became a cor­ner­stone for some­thing beau­ti­ful and unbreak­able.

While many chil­dren were wor­ried about home­work and friend­ships, M’Niya was nav­i­gat­ing home­less­ness, clin­i­cal depres­sion, and the bewil­der­ing maze of fos­ter care. Yet with­in the chaos of her cir­cum­stances, she dis­cov­ered some­thing extraordinary—an inner light that refused to be extin­guished, no mat­ter how fierce the storm.

“I cre­at­ed a world that I could live in dur­ing the years I lived apart from my mom in a res­i­den­tial fos­ter home,” she reflects with the wis­dom of some­one who has trans­formed pain into pur­pose. “It is a place you stay while waiting—waiting to be reunit­ed with your birth fam­i­ly or adopt­ed. But I refused to just wait. I found peo­ple I could con­nect with and began to build up myself and my mind.”

The Foun­da­tion of Strength

Through it all, her moth­er remained a pro­found influ­ence, ensur­ing M’Niya learned to play mul­ti­ple sports—a gift that would become foun­da­tion­al to her heal­ing. “I’ve always had sports in my heart as a result,” she shares. But as M’Niya grew, her jour­ney took a deep­er turn toward under­stand­ing the intri­cate dance between mind and body.

“Over time, I start­ed to get more into psy­chol­o­gy. I worked with myself to find bal­ance and peace, and learned I could bring some­thing to my own men­tal health through mind­ful­ness, med­i­ta­tion, jour­nal­ing and yoga.” Now study­ing kine­si­ol­o­gy at CSU San Mar­cos, M’Niya has dis­cov­ered her call­ing in the inter­sec­tion of phys­i­cal and men­tal well­ness.

“I have a pas­sion for health, and in par­tic­u­lar, the study of kine­si­ol­o­gy because it brings the mind and body togeth­er. The chal­lenges I have faced have made me want to become an ath­let­ic con­di­tion­ing spe­cial­ist for youth who are oth­er­wise unable to access that type of sup­port. I want to help fos­ter youth learn how to recon­nect mind, body and soul—to adapt to dif­fi­cul­ties and come out stronger.”

The Men­tor Who Changed Every­thing

Dur­ing M’Niya’s dark­est period—battling clin­i­cal depres­sion, endur­ing hos­pi­tal­iza­tion, and fac­ing home­less­ness when reuni­fi­ca­tion with her moth­er fell through—a men­tor appeared.

“When my mom was strug­gling, I had a men­tor at the res­i­den­tial fos­ter home who allowed me to see my poten­tial and my pas­sion. She made me real­ize who I am. She made sure I was on the right path,” M’Niya empha­sizes. “This is what formed my life goals.”

That men­tor did­n’t just see M’Niya’s potential—she helped M’Niya see it too, plant­i­ng seeds of pos­si­bil­i­ty that would bloom into a vision of ser­vice to oth­ers.

Anoth­er Chal­lenge

The tran­si­tion to col­lege brought unex­pect­ed tur­bu­lence for some­one who had already weath­ered so many storms. Despite dream­ing of high­er edu­ca­tion since age nine, M’Niya found her­self strug­gling in ways she had­n’t antic­i­pat­ed.

“This is a whole dif­fer­ent type of envi­ron­ment than liv­ing in res­i­den­tial fos­ter care. It is a real shift of mind­set,” she explains. “I thought the tran­si­tion to col­lege would be a breeze. I was used to being around a lot of kids at the res­i­den­tial fos­ter home. But things at col­lege are so dif­fer­ent. I got lost in my thoughts. Things became dif­fi­cult. I dug a hole and was jug­gling my class­es and my san­i­ty.”

But true to her nature, M’Niya refused to sur­ren­der. When her grades began to slip and per­son­al chal­lenges mount­ed, she drew upon the same well­spring of resilience that had car­ried her through home­less­ness and fos­ter care.

“It felt so hec­tic. But I just kept going. I reached out to my pro­fes­sors, and even though my grades start­ed to drop, I fin­ished. Hav­ing hope is how I do it. Hav­ing hope through home­less­ness and through­out my life, has kept me going. One step at a time. One by one. The next day. The next assign­ment.”

A Rain­bow

Today, as a Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund schol­ar­ship recip­i­ent, M’Niya con­tin­ues her stud­ies with unwa­ver­ing deter­mi­na­tion, sup­port­ed by her schol­ar­ship, SNAP ben­e­fits, and an unshake­able belief in her mis­sion. Her dream extends far beyond per­son­al success—she envi­sions open­ing a clin­ic where she can trans­form the lives of oth­er young peo­ple who have walked sim­i­lar paths.

“I have found my pur­pose. I want to bring hope to fos­ter youth,” she declares with the qui­et con­fi­dence of some­one who has alchem­ized suf­fer­ing into strength.

The Rip­ple Effect

M’Niya aspires to become a role mod­el for oth­er fos­ter chil­dren, but the truth is more profound—she already embod­ies what a role mod­el should be. Her sto­ry illu­mi­nates a fun­da­men­tal truth about the human spir­it: that our great­est wounds, when met with courage and hope, can become our most pow­er­ful sources of heal­ing for oth­ers.

In the end, M’Niya’s jour­ney reminds us that resilience isn’t about avoid­ing the cracks—it’s about under­stand­ing that the cracks are exact­ly where the light gets in. And once that light finds its way through, it has the pow­er to illu­mi­nate not just our own path, but the paths of count­less oth­ers walk­ing through their own dark­ness, search­ing for their way home.

Her sto­ry con­tin­ues to unfold, one day at a time, one assign­ment at a time, one life touched at a time—proof that some­times the most beau­ti­ful lights in this world are born out of dark­ness.

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