By Sydney Goitia-Doran, The Seattle Medium
Kyla Marks is on track to become a dentist at 25 — and she will graduate debt-free after securing more than $700,000 in scholarships to fully cover her undergraduate and dental school education.
It began when her mother, Trinity Chandler, compiled what would eventually become a thick binder of local scholarship information after Marks decided to pursue a degree in the medical field.
For Marks, entering the medical field was not only driven by her desire to help others, but also by personal experience after witnessing her grandmother’s struggles with access to health care.
“Knowing she came from a small town in Mississippi, where health care isn’t really accessible and there’s a lot of people who have similar stories like her,” Marks said. “They don’t go to the doctor or get health care in general unless they actually are in pain.”
Aware of rising college costs, Chandler was determined to help her daughter identify and pursue scholarship opportunities, keeping her on a strict schedule to meet deadlines.
“Back then in high school, I was young, so I would stay up late at night. I would come home, take a nap, and then I would be up late at night studying,” Marks said. “My mom would send me the essay prompt for the scholarship and she would give me a due date.”
Marks bolstered her applications by volunteering extensively and documenting her experiences on LinkedIn. During her junior and senior years, she focused on applying for scholarships early and often to maximize her chances.
“We would try to make sure we applied for any particular scholarship a month before it was due so we wouldn’t miss any deadline,” Chandler said.
The strategy paid off. Marks’ undergraduate tuition at Washington State University was fully funded by scholarships from local organizations. She received so much scholarship money that she had a surplus of $80,000, which she used to study abroad in Italy one summer and to pay for school supplies. She later earned a full ride to Meharry Medical College’s School of Dentistry.
“There’s a lot of money out there that people aren’t claiming or don’t know is available,” Chandler said. “We had about three essays that we did when she was in high school and we just tweaked them because they pretty much all say the same thing, like ‘What do you want to be when you grow up,’ ‘Who was your inspiration?’ There are maybe three main categories.”
Chandler found scholarships by asking people in her network. She said applying is more time-consuming than difficult and believes it should be part of all high school curricula. She compared her approach to playing the lottery: everyone plays well-known lotteries like Powerball, but the odds are better in smaller, lesser-known lotteries. Scholarships, she said, are similar.
“Very rarely did I apply for something national. And even if we did, we didn’t get it. But we got the local scholarships — the Esquire, The Links, the AKAs, the Deltas, Boys and Girls Club,” Chandler said. “We even got a book scholarship one time for $100. I had no shame. They add up.”
Recently, Marks was elected Miss Meharry 2025-26, adding to her list of achievements. She echoed her mother’s sentiments about hard work paying off and emphasized the importance of consistency during challenging moments.
“I feel like I’m a very big proponent of everything happening for a reason and in due time. So even in the times where you’re scared, I really feel like you just have to keep the pace and keep pushing because you can’t give up on yourself in the end,” Marks said. “I’d rather sacrifice my time right now so that later on in life, I’ll be fine.”
It didn’t just take sacrifice from Marks — both she and Chandler spoke about the family sacrifices that allowed her to attend school for free.
“I truly feel blessed that I’ve been able to go to school for free because for a long time, it was just my mom, my grandma, and me, so I know my mom made sacrifices,” Marks said. “I didn’t want to be a financial burden on my parents because I wanted to go to school. Granted, I would have taken out the loan, but I didn’t really want them to do it on my behalf. Just to be able to say that I don’t owe anyone anything, I know it’s very rare.”
For Chandler, the motivation behind her sacrifices was simple: she wanted to provide Marks with opportunities.
“I didn’t want my daughter to be in a position where she didn’t have options,” Chandler said. “And scholarships, I feel, give you options to go and be wherever you choose to go and be.”
Since 2019, Marks and Chandler have been paying it forward by providing scholarships of their own to help other students pursue their dreams.
Click here to view the list of scholarship opportunities compiled by Trinity Chandler.
© 2024, Tiloben Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.