Ethan To Scholarship

In mental health fields, you often hear how hurt people hurt people, however, I prefer the maxim that healed people heal people. That has been my motivation and support throughout my own healing journey. I grew up in a broken household with my parents divorcing before age 2 due to my father's struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. Both of my parents remarried, meaning I had two biological parents and two step-parents. To many, this would be great to have four role models to lean on and look up to; however, for me, all four of these figures were struggling with mental health concerns that increased their dependencies on addictions. My father and stepmother struggled with alcoholism and meth addictions, which landed my father in prison for the first 12 years of my life. My mother and stepfather struggled with alcoholism and a dependency on illegal pain killers, which ultimately depleted all our resources, leaving me houseless at age 14 through age 18. In high school, there was a moment in my mental health struggled I nearly turned to addiction, but a whisper in the back of my head told me if I just made it to college, I could break the familial pattern and things would get better. I made it to undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara at age 18, which was the first step in my healing journey. My mental health was struggling from a mixture of abandonment issues, post-traumatic stress disorder from child abuse and sexual abuse, and feeling alone in navigating all that turmoil with no support system. During this time, at age 19, I lost my father to addiction when he suffered a massive heart attack. It opened my eyes to not only the severity of addiction, but the severity of mental health concerns that increase our dependency on these substances. At age 21, I lost my oldest sister, who was only 31, to alcohol and drug addiction as well, stemming from her underlying mental health struggles. These people were not addicts because they wanted to be, in fact, I know they all wanted and needed help. They were hurting. Hurting so bad that they needed anything to dull some of that pain, even if just momentarily. While I was surrounded by this addiction from a young age, I did not want it to be my story too, or the story I passed on to my children if I decide to have them. I knew I needed to make different choices. I reached out for support for my mental health and was motivated to work through my trauma, and the trauma my parents passed down to me when they were too hurt to look at it. I made it through undergrad by consistently making choices that differed from my parents, yet it was their guidance that allowed me to see my own path more clearly. I love my parents and I know they did the best they could. Hurt people do not want to hurt people, but healed people want to heal people. I am in graduate school to earn degrees that will allow me to heal people struggling with mental health and addiction dependencies. I do not want to condemn these sufferings, but rather, demonstrate that each person is worthy of being healed, loved, and cared for. On my healing journey, I only see it fit to assist others find their way too. Finally, while navigating these healing modalities, it was obvious how they can be inaccessible to marginalized communities. It is my goal to provide accessible and equitable mental health services.

My name is Tina Pinedo. I was born in Peru and immigrated to Oklahoma when I was 4 years old. I came to the United States with my mother and my father. Both of my parents did not graduate high school. There were times when they felt that their lack of education was limiting their progress in the United States. Due to this, they engraved in me the value of an education. As an undergrad, I chose psychology and forensic science as my majors because I noticed the lack of representation for minority populations within these fields. After graduating with my bachelor's, I was offered an opportunity to join the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System as an investigator in the Capital Trial Division. My role as an investigator for the Capital Trial Division has emphasized to me the lack of diversity and knowledge of mental illness in the justice system. I decided to pursue a master’s in counseling psychology to grow my knowledge of mental illness and apply it to social reform. My time as an investigator for a government agency has emphasized to me the need for more attainable mental health care in the United States. I have worked with clients that were being charged with criminal offenses that were caused by their mental illness. These clients are low-income and rely on government resources for medical care. Unfortunately, mental health care is not heavily funded by our government and the care they need is not provided until they are incarcerated. It truly is gut-wrenching to watch individuals that are struggling with severe mental illnesses be neglected and ultimately lose their freedom. I aspire to pursue a doctorate in counseling psychology and work within the justice system to provide better care for the minorities that are labeled criminals in the system. I believe that informing others about mental health is the only way to combat the stigma that surrounds the topic of mental illness. It is especially important, that mental health care is endorsed as preventive care rather than solely emergency care. I am passionate about my goals and have worked relentlessly to reach them. I have had the privilege of having my parents' emotional support through college. However, financial support has not been easily available. My father passed away in 2020 and my mother has been unable to work because of health issues. Due to this, I have worked full-time while being a full-time student throughout college to support myself and my family. Although financial burdens have been present throughout my academic career, I have not let this weigh down my progress. I was able to continue striving academically, accomplishing my bachelor's degree(s) with a 3.8 grade point average, and receiving a 4.0 grade point average in my first semester of graduate school. It must be emphasized that my academic accomplishments would not have been possible without financial support from financial aid and scholarships. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities I have gotten in life and am dedicated to my academic progress.