Any financial scholarship will continue to help me grasp my dream of becoming a paralegal, and then hopefully an attorney at law. I have dedicated my life to helping young people in developing communities, urban communities, and even my own community in Lansing, Michigan. I grew up going to East Lansing Public Schools, I faced adversity at a young age trying to manage my mother who has had to learn to cope with bipolar depression. I saw her struggle with mental illness, I also had to try to help my father with his own illness, as I saw him battle one of life's uglies diseases, cancer, for fifteen years. I held my father's hand while he took his last breath in my Junior year of high school. I was alone after he died, my mothers' mental illness got worse, and I started struggling to manage things in my household as things started getting physically and mentally abusive with my mothers' behavior. I finally had enough at 16 years old and ran away from home, dropping out of high school halfway through my junior year. I started couch surfing and found an abusive man I was convinced I could change to be a better man and he showed me a pathway I took and got addicted to drugs and alcohol. After all of this, I tried to take my own life, I called my best friend and said my goodbyes. While I attempted suicide for the first time, I was rescued by my cousin, and I thank God she was able to rescue me from my poor choices that day. After this event, I decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I went to a "second chance program", for high school dropouts, and I was able to graduate and get sober that year. I found Christ, and I also found a wonderful family who treated me like their own. I became a mission teacher and chaplain in a third-world country the following year in the Marshall Islands, while I was there I made a friend with a wonderful man and ended up marrying him. I have decided to go back to school and pursue legal studies, because now as an adult working with at-risk youth, youth that looked like me, I want to be able to help them out of difficult situations, I want to create change in the world and find justice for people who need help navigating the legal system. As I continue my journey in self-growth, I have realized the importance of education, and the power it brings to communities and people who use that to make changes, to better communities, the help I receive now will create a positive impact in the future and today anywhere I go.

Any financial scholarship will continue to help me grasp my dream of becoming a paralegal, and then hopefully an attorney at law. I have dedicated my life to helping young people in developing communities, urban communities, and even my own community in Lansing, Michigan. I grew up going to East Lansing Public Schools, I faced adversity at a young age trying to manage my mother who has had to learn to cope with bipolar depression. I saw her struggle with mental illness, I also had to try to help my father with his own illness, as I saw him battle one of life's uglies diseases, cancer, for fifteen years. I held my father's hand while he took his last breath in my Junior year of high school. I was alone after he died, my mothers' mental illness got worse, and I started struggling to manage things in my household as things started getting physically and mentally abusive with my mothers' behavior. I finally had enough at 16 years old and ran away from home, dropping out of high school halfway through my junior year. I started couch surfing and found an abusive man I was convinced I could change to be a better man and he showed me a pathway I took and got addicted to drugs and alcohol. After all of this, I tried to take my own life, I called my best friend and said my goodbyes. While I attempted suicide for the first time, I was rescued by my cousin, and I thank God she was able to rescue me from my poor choices that day. After this event, I decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I went to a "second chance program", for high school dropouts, and I was able to graduate and get sober that year. I found Christ, and I also found a wonderful family who treated me like their own. I became a mission teacher and chaplain in a third-world country the following year in the Marshall Islands, while I was there I made a friend with a wonderful man and ended up marrying him. I have decided to go back to school and pursue legal studies, because now as an adult working with at-risk youth, youth that looked like me, I want to be able to help them out of difficult situations, I want to create change in the world and find justice for people who need help navigating the legal system. As I continue my journey in self-growth, I have realized the importance of education, and the power it brings to communities and people who use that to make changes, to better communities, the help I receive now will create a positive impact in the future and today anywhere I go.

Any financial scholarship will continue to help me grasp my dream of becoming a paralegal, and then hopefully an attorney at law. I have dedicated my life to helping young people in developing communities, urban communities, and even my own community in Lansing, Michigan. I grew up going to East Lansing Public Schools, I faced adversity at a young age trying to manage my mother who has had to learn to cope with bipolar depression. I saw her struggle with mental illness, I also had to try to help my father with his own illness, as I saw him battle one of life's uglies diseases, cancer, for fifteen years. I held my father's hand while he took his last breath in my Junior year of high school. I was alone after he died, my mothers' mental illness got worse, and I started struggling to manage things in my household as things started getting physically and mentally abusive with my mothers' behavior. I finally had enough at 16 years old and ran away from home, dropping out of high school halfway through my junior year. I started couch surfing and found an abusive man I was convinced I could change to be a better man and he showed me a pathway I took and got addicted to drugs and alcohol. After all of this, I tried to take my own life, I called my best friend and said my goodbyes. While I attempted suicide for the first time, I was rescued by my cousin, and I thank God she was able to rescue me from my poor choices that day. After this event, I decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I went to a "second chance program", for high school dropouts, and I was able to graduate and get sober that year. I found Christ, and I also found a wonderful family who treated me like their own. I became a mission teacher and chaplain in a third-world country the following year in the Marshall Islands, while I was there I made a friend with a wonderful man and ended up marrying him. I have decided to go back to school and pursue legal studies, because now as an adult working with at-risk youth, youth that looked like me, I want to be able to help them out of difficult situations, I want to create change in the world and find justice for people who need help navigating the legal system. As I continue my journey in self-growth, I have realized the importance of education, and the power it brings to communities and people who use that to make changes, to better communities, the help I receive now will create a positive impact in the future and today anywhere I go.

Any financial scholarship will continue to help me grasp my dream of becoming a paralegal, and then hopefully an attorney at law. I have dedicated my life to helping young people in developing communities, urban communities, and even my own community in Lansing, Michigan. I grew up going to East Lansing Public Schools, I faced adversity at a young age trying to manage my mother who has had to learn to cope with bipolar depression. I saw her struggle with mental illness, I also had to try to help my father with his own illness, as I saw him battle one of life's uglies diseases, cancer, for fifteen years. I held my father's hand while he took his last breath in my Junior year of high school. I was alone after he died, my mothers' mental illness got worse, and I started struggling to manage things in my household as things started getting physically and mentally abusive with my mothers' behavior. I finally had enough at 16 years old and ran away from home, dropping out of high school halfway through my junior year. I started couch surfing and found an abusive man I was convinced I could change to be a better man and he showed me a pathway I took and got addicted to drugs and alcohol. After all of this, I tried to take my own life, I called my best friend and said my goodbyes. While I attempted suicide for the first time, I was rescued by my cousin, and I thank God she was able to rescue me from my poor choices that day. After this event, I decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I went to a "second chance program", for high school dropouts, and I was able to graduate and get sober that year. I found Christ, and I also found a wonderful family who treated me like their own. I became a mission teacher and chaplain in a third-world country the following year in the Marshall Islands, while I was there I made a friend with a wonderful man and ended up marrying him. I have decided to go back to school and pursue legal studies, because now as an adult working with at-risk youth, youth that looked like me, I want to be able to help them out of difficult situations, I want to create change in the world and find justice for people who need help navigating the legal system. As I continue my journey in self-growth, I have realized the importance of education, and the power it brings to communities and people who use that to make changes, to better communities, the help I receive now will create a positive impact in the future and today anywhere I go.

Any financial scholarship will continue to help me grasp my dream of becoming a paralegal, and then hopefully an attorney at law. I have dedicated my life to helping young people in developing communities, urban communities, and even my own community in Lansing, Michigan. I grew up going to East Lansing Public Schools, I faced adversity at a young age trying to manage my mother who has had to learn to cope with bipolar depression. I saw her struggle with mental illness, I also had to try to help my father with his own illness, as I saw him battle one of life's uglies diseases, cancer, for fifteen years. I held my father's hand while he took his last breath in my Junior year of high school. I was alone after he died, my mothers' mental illness got worse, and I started struggling to manage things in my household as things started getting physically and mentally abusive with my mothers' behavior. I finally had enough at 16 years old and ran away from home, dropping out of high school halfway through my junior year. I started couch surfing and found an abusive man I was convinced I could change to be a better man and he showed me a pathway I took and got addicted to drugs and alcohol. After all of this, I tried to take my own life, I called my best friend and said my goodbyes. While I attempted suicide for the first time, I was rescued by my cousin, and I thank God she was able to rescue me from my poor choices that day. After this event, I decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I went to a "second chance program", for high school dropouts, and I was able to graduate and get sober that year. I found Christ, and I also found a wonderful family who treated me like their own. I became a mission teacher and chaplain in a third-world country the following year in the Marshall Islands, while I was there I made a friend with a wonderful man and ended up marrying him. I have decided to go back to school and pursue legal studies, because now as an adult working with at-risk youth, youth that looked like me, I want to be able to help them out of difficult situations, I want to create change in the world and find justice for people who need help navigating the legal system. As I continue my journey in self-growth, I have realized the importance of education, and the power it brings to communities and people who use that to make changes, to better communities, the help I receive now will create a positive impact in the future and today anywhere I go.

Any financial scholarship will continue to help me grasp my dream of becoming a paralegal, and then hopefully an attorney at law. I have dedicated my life to helping young people in developing communities, urban communities, and even my own community in Lansing, Michigan. I grew up going to East Lansing Public Schools, I faced adversity at a young age trying to manage my mother who has had to learn to cope with bipolar depression. I saw her struggle with mental illness, I also had to try to help my father with his own illness, as I saw him battle one of life's uglies diseases, cancer, for fifteen years. I held my father's hand while he took his last breath in my Junior year of high school. I was alone after he died, my mothers' mental illness got worse, and I started struggling to manage things in my household as things started getting physically and mentally abusive with my mothers' behavior. I finally had enough at 16 years old and ran away from home, dropping out of high school halfway through my junior year. I started couch surfing and found an abusive man I was convinced I could change to be a better man and he showed me a pathway I took and got addicted to drugs and alcohol. After all of this, I tried to take my own life, I called my best friend and said my goodbyes. While I attempted suicide for the first time, I was rescued by my cousin, and I thank God she was able to rescue me from my poor choices that day. After this event, I decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I went to a "second chance program", for high school dropouts, and I was able to graduate and get sober that year. I found Christ, and I also found a wonderful family who treated me like their own. I became a mission teacher and chaplain in a third-world country the following year in the Marshall Islands, while I was there I made a friend with a wonderful man and ended up marrying him. I have decided to go back to school and pursue legal studies, because now as an adult working with at-risk youth, youth that looked like me, I want to be able to help them out of difficult situations, I want to create change in the world and find justice for people who need help navigating the legal system. As I continue my journey in self-growth, I have realized the importance of education, and the power it brings to communities and people who use that to make changes, to better communities, the help I receive now will create a positive impact in the future and today anywhere I go. I abused substances myself, I watched my family die over overdoses, and I would like to continue pursuing education to help solve the problem in the United States, and even one day go back to the Marshall Islands and help solve problems like this with the law and taking on cases one day to help find solutions for families and even convicts who continue to suffer and feel like they have no way out. In conclusion, it is my hope and dream to help communities that helped me, find people who look like I used to, and give solutions to families who don't have the resources for hope, I want to help find that hope.

Any financial scholarship will continue to help me grasp my dream of becoming a paralegal, and then hopefully an attorney at law. I have dedicated my life to helping young people in developing communities, urban communities, and even my own community in Lansing, Michigan. I grew up going to East Lansing Public Schools, I faced adversity at a young age trying to manage my mother who has had to learn to cope with bipolar depression. I saw her struggle with mental illness, I also had to try to help my father with his own illness, as I saw him battle one of life's uglies diseases, cancer, for fifteen years. I held my father's hand while he took his last breath in my Junior year of high school. I was alone after he died, my mothers' mental illness got worse, and I started struggling to manage things in my household as things started getting physically and mentally abusive with my mothers' behavior. I finally had enough at 16 years old and ran away from home, dropping out of high school halfway through my junior year. I started couch surfing and found an abusive man I was convinced I could change to be a better man and he showed me a pathway I took and got addicted to drugs and alcohol. After all of this, I tried to take my own life, I called my best friend and said my goodbyes. While I attempted suicide for the first time, I was rescued by my cousin, and I thank God she was able to rescue me from my poor choices that day. After this event, I decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I went to a "second chance program", for high school dropouts, and I was able to graduate and get sober that year. I found Christ, and I also found a wonderful family who treated me like their own. I became a mission teacher and chaplain in a third-world country the following year in the Marshall Islands, while I was there I made a friend with a wonderful man and ended up marrying him. I have decided to go back to school and pursue legal studies, because now as an adult working with at-risk youth, youth that looked like me, I want to be able to help them out of difficult situations, I want to create change in the world and find justice for people who need help navigating the legal system. As I continue my journey in self-growth, I have realized the importance of education, and the power it brings to communities and people who use that to make changes, to better communities, the help I receive now will create a positive impact in the future and today anywhere I go.