Blogpost about Grad School
Terrell Williams
It’s astonishing how much can happen in five years. I can remember my teachers asking me as a youth, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”. While that question has always been hard to answer, it felt impossible to answer after a narrow escape from death.
On a warm spring day in 2017, I left my car running as I quickly ran in a convenience store. I was in the store for less than one minute. Upon my exit, I was confronted with a thief attempting to steal my car. As I realized what was happening, I pulled out my gun, loaded the chamber, and pointed my gun in the direction of the thief. Little did I know, the thief had multiple people across the street looking out for him. As soon as they saw my gun, they started firing their own weapons. As a result of the attempted carjacking, I suffered two gunshot wounds. One bullet entered my chest, drove through my right lung, and then exited my body after striking my spine. Another bullet pierced the right side of my neck and became lodged in the left side of my chin.
In that moment, I knew I was going to die. There was no way I could survive such a significant injury. Before I took my last breath, there was one last thing that I needed to do, pray. I vividly remember pleading to God, saying the same words over and over, “God, please take care of me”. As I write these words today, it is clear he did more than take care of me. God strengthened, guided, and propelled me to a level I never knew was imaginable.
I grew up in a neighborhood where the options seemed limited, however, I now see that is far from the truth. The truth is, we rarely see all our options due to a toxic smoke bomb of uncertainty, fear, and disinformation. While this is the case for many others like me, defying the odds, overcoming adversity, and navigating unforeseen circumstances are attributes we are all capable of developing. However, trying to accomplish this alone is 10x harder.
Over the past five years, I’ve been blessed to have the support and guidance of family and friends, but today, I specifically want to acknowledge the impact Whitney/Strong has had on my journey. When I first met Whitney, we were at a trauma survivors’ event at University of Louisville Hospital. We’re in a club that nobody ever wants to join, but I’m extremely grateful that our paths crossed. Through gun violence, we developed an unbreakable bond that has led to more than I ever could have expected.
For starters, I was introduced to an amazing group of people that I otherwise wouldn’t have been introduced to. At first, it felt like I came from a different Louisville than many of the people I was brought into contact with. Gun violence was a part of everyday life for me, and the people I met had only recently been impacted by gun violence. However, working with the board and other W/S supporters, I saw and felt their support to not only end mass gun violence, but various types of gun violence, including the form I was most familiar with. This showed me that people from outside the neighborhood do genuinely care about the well-being of people like myself, which, in my eyes, meant that change isn’t just possible, but it is imminent.
The story doesn’t stop there. As I get older, I realize that continuously developing personally and professionally is a must if we want to make the biggest impact we can before our short time on Earth is over. W/S is providing me with the opportunity to do just that by gaining real-world experience in a field that I love. Through W/S, I have not only been able to develop accounting skills that will aid me in succeeding in an ever-changing industry, but it has also helped me build a resume like no other. A resume that has led to my enrollment in grad school.
In the Spring, I will be graduating from the University of Louisville with my bachelor’s degree in accounting. In the Fall, I will be starting the Jenkins MAC program at North Carolina State University. To make things even grander, I received a firm-sponsored scholarship from RSM US that ensures grad school is paid for in full and provides me with a full-time position upon graduation!
If someone asked me five years ago where I thought I would be today, it sure as hell wouldn’t be the reality of my situation. But that’s what is so rewarding about staying persistent, open-minded, and surrounded by loved ones. You look up, and BOOM, the fruits of your labor are more than you ever could have imagined. Even though we all will have different paths in life, anything that can be dreamed, can be achieved. I’m beyond grateful that W/S has contributed and will continue to contribute to the success of my journey through opportunities, friendships, and love.
A New Year Message
Whitney/Strong Family,
The past three years have been a whirlwind. First, with my miraculous survival and recovery. Second, with the building of Whitney/Strong. While I look back on all that we have been able to accomplish together with great pride, I know that our story is just beginning.
I am proud, but I will never be too proud when the number of shootings and firearm deaths in America continue to climb. Numbers drive me, and gun violence statistics over the last two years have been abysmal for our country. The overall firearm death rate in the U.S. reached the highest level ever recorded in 2020, claiming the lives of more than 45,000 Americans¹. This number is a 14% increase over 2019, and is largely driven by an increase in homicides of nearly 5,000. There is a reason 2020 was deemed the most violent year in decades by the Washington Post.
2021 data is not yet final, but initial results show the raw number of firearm deaths as comparable.
We have political and cultural factors that make progress on reducing gun violence in America seem impossible. It is easy to believe that change will never come. I get it, but I don’t buy it.
You may wonder how I can have hope for a future with less gun violence in the face of these challenges. To truly answer that question I would need more time than you can spend reading this email. So simply put, I have hope because of gratitude, your support, and strategy. Let me share with you why I have hope for 2022.
Gratitude
I have a well filled with gratitude. I often imagine it is even too deep for me to see the bottom of it. I will keep returning to the well for the sustenance I need to keep going. My New Years’ wish is for you to find your own well, and visit it often for the energy you need to make a difference in the lives of others.
Support
In the last three years of building Whitney/Strong we have seen our supporter network across Ohio and Kentucky increase to 5,000+. This is a giant leap from our early days in late 2018 as we celebrated reaching 100 followers on social media!
I could list many examples of your loyal support. Helping us meet our fundraising goal to unlock a $50,000 grant from the Gannett Foundation. Generously participating in Cincinnati Gives to ensure we secured first place, and an additional $12,000 in prize dollars. I doubt you recognize what these gestures mean to me and the Whitney/Strong team. Your support is not only the vehicle to ensure a future with less gun violence, it is a steady message of encouragement to our small and mighty team.
Strategy
We talk a lot about strategy at Whitney/Strong and I want you to be a part of those conversations. The root causes of gun violence are vast: poverty, under-resourced public services, lack of opportunity and perceptions of hopelessness, and easy access to firearms by high-risk people just to name a few. Whitney/Strong alone will never be able to tackle all of them.
From the very beginning we have set a strategy that prioritizes what we have in common, not our differences. Our carefully-considered solutions are not only rooted in common ground, they are evidence-based. We understand that when progress is limited, we must only spend energy on solutions that will work.
We know the importance of setting short- and long-term goals. Right now, we are focused on training as many people as possible on ways they can reduce gun violence and funding research so we are better prepared to advocate for policy change in the future. In the long term, we will continue to build a coalition of elected officials willing to embrace bipartisan legislation to reduce gun violence. Legislative change will take time, but it will be worth it.
When you understand that we are simultaneously creating change now, and greasing the political wheels for it in the future, hope is much easier to come by.
There is strong evidence for hope with Whitney/Strong.
Thank you for being a part of our story. 2022 is going to be a big year and I am happy to kick it off alongside you! I encourage you to follow along with our work through email and social media. Throughout the year, we’ll be sharing ways that you can get involved with this important work. We need your help to continue creating change.
With you by our side, we enter 2022 with renewed energy and hope for a future with less gun violence.
Gratefully,
Whitney
¹Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A Message from Whitney Austin
In case you are unaware, an alleged TikTok challenge promoting school violence is trending today. The threat is so real that at some schools across the country, increased police presence is necessary and parents are choosing to keep their children home.
As parents and guardians, we accept certain risks when we send our children off to school. For example, we accept that they may not be treated fairly by their peers, or that they might not make the team.
What we cannot accept is gun violence within our schools.
This alleged trend did not develop in a vacuum. It is a symptom of how broken we are as Americans. It is a glaring sign that our children are desperate to be loved and supported.
If you aren’t ready to accept the risk of gun violence within our schools, please join us @whitstrongorg. We seek common ground to end gun violence through education, legislation, and research.
In the meantime, please remember to:
Safely store your firearms
Believe someone when they tell you plans of self-harm or violence, and get help from a mental health professional or law enforcement
Sign our petition for Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention
Love the children in your life and advocate for their mental health needs
We can do better together.
Whitney
“In the room where it happened…”
Our family just returned from a vacation that placed us in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July. In all of America there is no better place from which to celebrate our independence.
If you can, take your children to this most fabulous historical wonderland. My hope is that my children never forget being in the room where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed, where the first peaceful transfer of power occurred from Washington to Adams, where Kentucky became a state, and where Congress held debates and passed bills for the first ten years of our early life as a country.
Being there in the exact place these monumental events occurred was powerful. Shivers-up-your-spine kind of powerful. The Founders desire to do something special was guided by this belief.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights among which are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
So noble. So righteous.
Have we always succeeded in this principle? No, not hardly. There are many moments that feel so far from this in my journey to keep us safe from gun violence as the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Whitney/Strong. Even more for our friends that still feel this principle of equality is not within their reach.
Still, I stand by this revolutionary declaration and what it sought to provide. My commitment to ensuring these rights are available to all, the least of which is a country not plagued by gun violence, is still fully intact.
For we do not have access to life if it is senselessly stripped from us by a bullet. For we do not have freedom if we must regularly fear gun violence in public places. And the pursuit of happiness? Well, it seems irrelevant to a country burdened by the epidemic of gun violence.
Visiting Philadelphia was special. This country is still special, but gun violence threatens that. I will continue to work and pray every day that change will come, with your help. Our children deserve it.
Ohio Gun Violence Statistics
Last year brought a lot of changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to major changes in just about every conceivable aspect of our lives, rates of depression and violence were higher than in many years past. This is surprising considering most people were on lockdown for the greater part of the year. Alarmingly, more guns were also purchased in the first three months of 2021 than in any three month period in state history.
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These statistics show that the work to end gun violence is needed now more than ever.
Support the work of Whitney/Strong with your donation today.
Kentucky Gun Violence Statistics
Last year brought a lot of changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to major changes in just about every conceivable aspect of our lives, rates of depression and violence were higher than in many years past. This is surprising considering most people were on lockdown for the greater part of the year. Alarmingly, more guns were also purchased in the first three months of 2021 than in any three month period in state history.
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These statistics show that the work to end gun violence is needed now more than ever.
Support the work of Whitney/Strong with your donation today.
Lucky, Grateful & 40
I am forty and damn if I am not lucky to see it. Or blessed. Use whatever word comes to mind when you think of what I have been through and what I have gained.
Milestones typically prompt reflection. I am no different and have been thinking quite a bit about the immense gratitude I have. When I do an inventory of the last few years, the amount of good is truly unfathomable.
On September 6, 2018 I prayed relentlessly for my life to be spared and it was!
With every surgery and hour of therapy due to my injuries I anxiously awaited results. Would I ever throw a football again? Would I ever gesture “thumbs up”? Would I run again? YES! Yes, I would!
And the single most important question that consumed by brain on September 6th, would I ever see my precious family again? A resounding yes and the single most joyous moment of my life!
And if my family and health were not enough, I am forever grateful for the many ways you have supported Whitney/Strong, my opportunity to make lasting change by preventing gun violence.
The last three years alone give me so much to be grateful for.
There are memories of herculean efforts, like the time my friends threw together the website, the donor platform, our logo, and more, all within three weeks of the shooting.
I appreciate all the very skilled friends turned volunteers who have donated their time to help with the many ideas our team dreams up. Like the time we decided to move A Night for Life virtual… with no production experience… in a pandemic. What a memory!
I am so grateful for friends that believe so strongly in our work that they consistently and generously donate to the mission. Unlike many non-profits during this pandemic, we have been blessed to grow our team and our programs.
I share all this for two reasons.
I want you to know how much you have impacted my life. Please take a minute to pat yourself on the back and say, “job well done.”.
I want to encourage you at this very difficult moment in our history to focus on gratitude and give it a chance to change your life like it has for me.
My kids and I were watching a movie with a bittersweet ending and I couldn’t help but feel connected to this quote.
“What I mean is, things like that happen. They may seem mighty cruel and unfair, but that’s how life is a part of the time. But that is not the only way life is. A part of the time it is mighty good. And a woman (I changed; I am a woman after all) cannot afford to waste all the good part worrying about the bad parts. That makes it all bad.”
THANK YOU for giving me so much good. I carry it with me as I turn 40 and forever. It will continue to fuel me as we do the work necessary to see gun violence end.
Gratefully,
Whitney
Firearm Statistics Infographic
Gun violence is not “someone else’s issue.” It is an issue that, statistically, affect each and every one of us at some point in our lives. Consider sharing this on social media, or in your blog or your website. The more we can all openly discuss the issues, statistics and solutions - without politics or opinions - we can start to see a brighter and safer future for us all. You can use the provided embed code at the bottom of the infographic for easy sharing!
Share this Image On Your Site
*Click anywhere in the box, when code is highlighted, simply right click and copy or “cmd + c” on Mac & “Ctrl + c” on Windows - Please remember to keep attribution! Thank you!
These statistics show that the work to end gun violence is needed now more than ever.
Support the work of Whitney/Strong with your donation today.
I Am Disappointed
I am disappointed. There are no other words to describe my feelings about the passage of Ohio’s Senate Bill 175, otherwise known as “Stand Your Ground.” For those who may not know, this bill passed the Ohio General Assembly and was signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine earlier this month. Let me explain my disappointment in a way that’s true to my beliefs and the work of Whitney/Strong - with real data and research.
Stand Your Ground will not make our community safer and I shared the following research with Governor DeWine’s team.
With little federal funding, clear, data-driven solutions for reducing gun violence are few and far between. This is why RAND’s 2020 Gun Policy of America Initiative is so important. In 2020 RAND reviewed studies by dozens of researchers investigating the impact of U.S. firearm policies. The initiative aimed to develop a “shared set of facts that have been established through a transparent, nonpartisan and impartial review process.”
In their review, RAND found that “Stand Your Ground” policies had the highest level of correlation - “supportive evidence” - to increases in gun violence. In their words, this law “actually makes people less safe, and instead more likely to the be victim of a firearm homicide.”
This finding is a big deal and should not be ignored. While I can see how people believe that a gun can save you in a moment of violence outside of your home, the data do not support this theory. I am both a gun owner and a believer in data.
Additionally, Stand Your Ground continues to draw criticism from black and brown communities, citing implicit and explicit bias, and the role it plays when someone must determine whether defense with deadly force is warranted. One Texas A&M study found that when whites use the stand-your-ground defense against black attackers they are more successful than when blacks use the defense against white attackers.
Ohio lawmakers and Governor DeWine ignored both rigorously reviewed evidence from RAND and the pleas from so many in communities of color to veto this bill.
I am disappointed.
Sometimes this fight feels impossible. I stood alongside Governor DeWine when he introduced his STRONG Ohio proposal and participated in proponent hearings. Sadly, the bill never made it to a committee vote. It is unbelievably disheartening to see “Stand Your Ground” legislation so easily check off each of the critical boxes necessary for passage, and done so in a condensed timeline, in a lame-duck session, during a global pandemic. It feels like an alternate universe.
I will not be deterred. The Whitney/Strong team will not be deterred. Our focus on responsible gun ownership offers us a large net to cast with many policy opportunities for saving lives. We will keep knocking on the doors of those in a position of power to make good policy. My experience on 9/6/18 drives me to take every meeting, explore every effective policy, and get back up after every punch.
Governor DeWine states that he is not giving up on his larger package meant to reduce gun violence in Ohio. He continues to reiterate his support for improving the national background check system and tougher sentences for violent criminals who illegally possess guns.
I look forward to my next meeting with him to see what effective policy we try next. Change will come to those who persevere.
Whitney