J.R. McMasters Memorial Scholarship

You don't get to choose who gives you life and the circumstances surrounding the event, but you do have the ability to choose what you do with that life for the many years that follow. Eighteen years ago, I was born to homeless drug addicts. I received no prenatal care and they admitted to injecting meth as recently as one day before I was born. It resulted in a brain hemorrhage, sepsis, the inability to eat naturally, trouble breathing and a hospital stay that resulted in being placed in foster care. I consider myself one of the lucky ones because I didn't have to go through life living with people who couldn't take care of me or themselves. I often ruminate on the circumstances that led up to their trajectory of poor choices and almost a dozen kids they've had removed between them over the years. Drug use and abuse, and the criminal actions that often come thereafter, don't just start one day out of the blue. For them, it started in their teenage years and became a lifelong vacuum that drained them of the desire to make real changes to get out of the cycle. What if someone had been there when they were hitting rock bottom in the early stages? What if there was someone who helped them break free of the mental chains that engulf so many, crippling them from believing that they are capable of doing more and being better? That someone will be me. I will be attaining a minor in criminal justice and a major in psychology, so I can work in juvenile corrections, to be the person who gives them hope and steps to break free from the bondage of emotional dependency, chemical dependency and the lifelong cycle of a life of crime. I will be there when they fall to help create a path forward by figuring out where they went wrong so it will lessen the odds of it happening again. Foster children have a higher-than-average likelihood of being incarcerated due to drug use and crime because of their life experiences. I want to be a mentor who will speak the tough truth during those difficult teen years when their friends and their influences mean more to them than common sense. That is why I would like to pursue a degree in psychology along with criminal justice. I already have 15 units in criminal justice completed and only have 3 more classes to complete my minor when I enter a 4-year college next year. I have been taking criminal justice courses through a local junior college during my high school career, and have fallen in love with the career and the ways our law enforcement officials make a difference to protect and serve their communities. I know this career will help add to my life's meaning and I welcome the challenge and the opportunity to serve teens who are in the criminal justice system and who need someone to help turn their lives around.