McGovern Legacy Scholarship

When I was five years old, I was placed in foster care. My parents were both struggling with substance abuse and I went through a major family situation that no child should ever have to go through. It has made me a strong person today but, even at the age of five, broke me down. I went through two different homes during my time in foster care and thankfully was blessed with amazing foster parents and foster siblings. I learned so much from all of them. I felt so alone for the first year at least. I, like many other kids, was told that I would be returning to my family soon. However, almost four years later, I was still in care. The Lord led an amazing family to me soon after and they eventually adopted me. That was such a turning point in my life. I am now on the road to academic success. Throughout that first year, as I mentioned before, I felt so lost. Even though I had amazing foster parents, they just felt like strangers to me. However, the schools in the area offered me so many opportunities. My teachers became like my moms. They took me under their wings, knowing my situation. One of them even went above and beyond to help me make a smooth transition to a new school. I was being transferred in the middle of my first-grade year and my current teacher happened to have a sister who taught first grade at the school where I was going to be going. So, my current teacher took the morning off and came to my new school to walk me in and make sure I was situated. She even came several times during the rest of the year to check on me and make sure that I was doing well. She became the person that I wanted to be. I am now planning to be a middle education math teacher. I want to be the person that I needed throughout my childhood. I want to make a career out of loving kids and helping them prosper in their own lives no matter their home lives. Home situations can make some kids just want to get a job and live their lives and not pursue further education. I intend to break the cycle in my family and become the person that my younger self would have looked up to.