Bethune-Cookman senior donates $1K to Boys & Girls Club through Cricket Wireless

Sabrina Petit-Homme describes herself as a go-getter.

The 23-year-old is the daughter of Haitian immigrants and a sister to 10 siblings. She was the first in her family to graduate high school, and this May, she will also be the first in her family to graduate college.

The Fort Myers native said she has always valued education, and even at a young age she wanted to attend college.

“What you learn and what you know, you’re never gonna lose,” Petit-Homme said. “You can lose money everyday, but you can’t lose what you’ve learned.”

Petit-Homme took high school seriously and involved herself in many activities — basketball, track and field, student government association and community service. Her experience at East Lee County High School prepared her to excel at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach.

But even still, college life posed its obstacles.

Like many young adults, Petit-Homme struggled to choose a major, switching from nursing to psychology just last year.

And when she first moved to Daytona Beach, she was homesick. It took her nearly a full semester to adjust to her new surroundings and lifestyle. Prior to starting school, Petit-Homme had never visited Bethune-Cookman. She didn’t know anyone at the school or much about the university’s history.

It wasn’t until she joined Club Kreyol — a Haitian student organization of which she is now president — that Petit-Homme felt truly connected and comfortable at her university.

“It’s like home away from home because this organization is of my ethnicity … when you find somebody who has the same ethnicity as you, it’s kind of like y’all grew up the same type of, you know, from the same place and stuff, so it just reminded me of my home, and I grew very fond of it,” she said.

The organization allowed Petit-Homme to educate others on Haiti and also to serve the Bethune-Cookman campus and Daytona Beach area through various volunteering endeavors.

Petit-Homme has also impacted the community through her work with the Cricket Wireless HBCU Campus Ambassador program. In this position, she collaborates with Cricket executives and authorized retailers to plan events and develop marketing plans. Her campus serves as her target audience.

Being a Cricket Wireless campus ambassador has exposed Petit-Homme to the world of marketing, a subject she didn’t realize she was so passionate about. Now, following her undergraduate graduation, Petit-Homme aspires to pursue a master’s degree in business, with a focus on marketing.

Additionally, through Cricket Social’s yearlong giveback program and the company’s 12 Days of Cricket holiday giving campaign, Petit-Homme was able to donate $1,000 to an organization of her choosing. She chose the John H. Dickerson Club Daytona Beach Boys & Girls Club because she was a part of the Boys & Girls Club growing up.

“I’m really happy that Cricket Wireless was able to, you know, let me give back to the organization of my choice, and I chose them because I feel like they needed it,” Petit-Homme said. “That was probably the best thing this year that I did.”

As she approaches her final semester of college, Petit-Homme said going to school at Bethune-Cookman University was one of the “biggest blessings.”

“It made me the woman who I am today because I probably could say that I’ve been through everything that a college student could possibly ever go through, and I’ve gotten nothing but being a better woman out of it,” she said. “So even though those experiences of being broke and, you know, having money, and filling out scholarships and not getting scholarships, and, you know, failing classes and passing classes — all of those lessons just really molded me into the woman I am today ..."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Bethune-Cookman senior donates $1K to Daytona Beach Boys & Girls Club