Going the Extra Mile
Lanique Williams
Lanique.williams12@gmail.com
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Determined to go to New Zealand for an internship to study psychology Deshon Floyd started out by calling different people he knew to ask for assistance with paying for the trip. When that didn’t work out as expected Floyd knew he would have to find a different approach.
Remembering when his aunt raised money for a baseball trip for her son by making donation flyers, Floyd thought maybe that could work out for him. He went to his aunt first as a helping hand in creating the flyers. Then he reached out to the governor’s office, where he previously interned, and they were more than willing to make sure that the donation flyers were perfect. Once the flyers were out in local businesses he began to get a good response from the community.
“The citizens of Frankfort were really supportive and responsive to what I was trying to do.” Floyd said.
Born and raised here in Frankfort, Ky Floyd explained that he chose to come to Kentucky State University, because he really wanted to play college football but many of the schools that he looked into passed on him as a football player because he was not big enough for their liking. KSU however was different they didn’t care about Floyd’s size and that ultimately made his decision. As a freshman his plan was to study criminal justice and attend law school upon graduation, but after taking a few psychology classes he realized that the field of psychology was more interesting to him.
Floyd decided on the internship in New Zealand after doing research on different psychology internship programs. He explained that the only places that stood out to him were Australia and New Zealand but as he began to look further into the two places he felt that New Zealand would be a better fit for him.
“It wasn’t so much as I wanted to go to New Zealand, I wanted to go to the best place for psychology.” said Floyd
Floyd continued reaching out to the community in hopes that he would meet his $ 5,000 goal. He admitted that the whole process was a learning experience and he kept thinking of different things he could do as he went along. After posting the donation flyers, Floyd thought it would be a good idea to seek help from The State Journal, a local newspaper here in Frankfort. He went to the paper just hoping that they would put out a small article about what he was doing to raise money, but the State Journal actually ended up making it a huge news story. The story was so huge that it reached Kentucky State University’s President, Dr. Raymond Burse, who then decided that he too wanted to help Floyd by donating the rest of the money that was needed to fund the trip to New Zealand.
When asked about how he felt the day President Burse told him he would be giving him the rest of the money to fund his trip.
“I was excited and plus it was my birthday, really it was one of the best days of my life for real because I had worked so hard and now I didn’t stress about it anymore,” said Floyd.
Now that his New Zealand trip is paid in full, Floyd is focusing on finishing up his last semester at KSU. He will graduate with a double major in criminal justice and psychology in December and the student athlete will began his next journey in February of 2015 when he leaves his hometown of Frankfort to start his internship in New Zealand. Floyd also expressed that he is very interested in furthering his education after he receives his undergrad degree. He is currently applying for a scholarship for a master’s program psychology and he one day hopes to gain a Ph. D.
“If I had to give any advice to someone trying to reach a set goal or dream I would simply tell them to stay persistent, because you’re always going to think about giving up when something gets hard but you have to focus on your goal until you meet it,” said Floyd.
