Loretta Webb Green Scholarship

I was born as the product of rape. My biological mother immigrated from Mexico, and was a devout catholic I am told. Therefore at a mere nineteen years old she was not emotionally, mentally nor spiritually prepared to raise a child. Let alone, raise a child, after such a traumatic experience. When I was born she wanted to keep me but she knew she was not prepared to give me the life she thought I deserved. I ended up being torn apart from my biological mother and introduced into the foster care system. I ended up being sexually abused in foster care and by the time I was adopted I exhibited strong signs of such abuse. By the time I was an adolescent I started self mutilating because there was a rage which grew from deep within. I ended up being sent away to a lockdown psychiatric facility where I was stripped of my clothes, and stripped of my dignity. Abuse seems to beget more abuse, instead of ending the cycle I was introduced to five point holds, medical negligence, and being restrained and injected with so much antipsychotics that I could barely function. Having experienced so much abuse makes me uniquely qualified to detect such abuses which exist within these realms. After several years of being locked up like a caged animal I came home to a mother who drank and took out her sorrows on me. I am relaying this story because all the trauma led me to suicide; an attempt where I was on life support. When I woke up I was so upset, I did not understand what my purpose was. Then I realized I was meant to suffer in such a profound way so others would not have to. My goal is to become an attorney who works for a non profit, and works to protect adolescence against such abuses. I realize when a child is lashing out there is so much more going on behind their exterior. I realize there is no justification for what I went through in my life. My only purpose is to protect those who don’t have the ability to protect themselves. I always loved learning yet because of my trauma my education was taken from me. Literally the years of my life where I was meant to be learning I was not allowed to, I was mandated to take medications which were not appropriate for my diagnosis. I was mandated to go to therapy when others were abusing me, which did not solve the issue. I was told I was wrong for getting upset for consistently being abused, instead of being allowed to feel my emotion. This is not just my story, there are many young people out there looking for guidance and support. I want to take the appropriate steps to shine light on what goes on in foster care, in these mental health institutions, in the criminal justice system. I have taken the steps to shadow a handful of attorneys and this is the only way I can find meaning out of my painful past. My education has very little to do with me and has everything to do with who I can stand to serve. My life was saved so I can save others, so I can inspire others, and so I can relay to others they are worth something!