Zoe's Winning Essay for our 2023 Scholarship

Zoe Touray is a student at North Carolina A&T State University originally from Michigan who survived the Oxford High School shooting. Read below for the essay she wrote that made her a recipient of our 2023 scholarship:

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In November of 2021, I was a completely different person. Enveloped in grief after the tragedy at my school. These past 9 months have turned my life around, for the better. It’s given me the opportunity to heal while being able to speak up for my friends and classmates who aren’t able to speak for themselves. Speak up for Justin, Tate, Hana, and Madisyn.

Our schoolmates were used as target practice. As we ran down the hallways, tucked inside classrooms for cover, and quivered in fear as we struggled for a plan to reach safety, the gunman’s bullets annihilated the hopes, dreams and promises of four of my classmates. They were four high school peers who should have enjoyed Baby and Durk concerts, summer carnivals, and grad parties. We are suffocating under an epidemic of gun violence. This shouldn't be OUR fight, but it is.

I started working with March for our Lives, in hopes of helping other survivors, but also in hopes of spreading awareness. Meeting other survivors has been one of the best ways to cope since dealing with our tragedy. Having conversations with others who understand what we've been through, having gone through it themselves makes a world of difference.

S.E.E was created to continue to nurture and give birth to long lasting relationships amongst survivors of school based gun violence. SEE is short for Survivors Embracing Each Other. I wanted to create an initiative that would bring together survivors to give the feeling that I had upon meeting others like myself, to create community among us. My hope for S.E.E is to be an intergenerational community, where we can also help future survivors, become mentors for the difficult journey ahead. Our inaugural event was this past November with the survivors of the Robb Elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. We hope to continue to travel to areas where survivors will need help to cope. Although plagued by misfortune, I won’t let it stop me. We deserve to feel safe.

School shootings have created new anxieties for generations of students. I am committed to working with March for Lives and continuing to build S.E.E. I am committed to do my best to make sure these senseless acts come to a full stop.