The field of law enforcement is a broad spectrum of responsibilities and experiences. Becoming a police officer requires passing examinations, completing rigorous training, and excelling in the field. However, I believe that becoming a good officer requires much more than meeting those requirements. In today’s society, law enforcement often faces a great deal of criticism and mistrust. I am from California, where becoming a police officer can sometimes feel like turning your back on friends and being viewed as the “bad guy” by the people around you because of the negative spotlight placed on law enforcement. I chose this field because I want to be the officer who works to rebuild trust and strengthen the connection between law enforcement and the community. I want to be the officer who understands that many of the people I encounter will be experiencing some of the worst moments of their lives, while also understanding the responsibility to enforce the law fairly and compassionately. I also hope to contribute to increasing the representation of Latina women in law enforcement. I want to become someone people feel comfortable turning to when they need help. I want to protect others, even when doing so requires courage in the face of danger. More importantly, I hope to plant a seed of hope in every person I encounter throughout my career. I understand that the path ahead will not be easy. I will face difficult training, challenging situations, and moral and safety-related obstacles. However, I believe that every challenge will help me grow into the kind of officer I aspire to become. Someone who protects others, leads with integrity, and never loses sight of the people behind every call for service. My desire to pursue this career is also deeply personal. I have experienced firsthand the impact that law enforcement officers can have on a family during difficult circumstances. When my father was sent to jail and my family had to navigate the process of reporting him, my mother was supported by police officers who treated her with kindness and patience. Because she did not fully understand the process, the officers took the time to explain everything to her and arranged for an officer to translate and break down the information so she could understand. Their willingness to communicate with her in a way that respected her needs made a difficult situation more manageable. I also witnessed the courage it took for my brother to speak about the abuse he experienced. It is not easy to report someone who is also your father and to explain something so painful to people you may not know. The officers involved were there to listen, support him, and help him through a difficult moment. That experience showed me that law enforcement is not only about enforcing laws. It is also about being present for people when they are vulnerable, afraid, and unsure of where to turn. Life presents people with obstacles that they must find the strength to overcome. During those moments, having someone you can trust can make a meaningful difference. My goal in law enforcement is to become that person for others. I want to create genuine connections with the community and earn the trust of the people I serve so that they feel safe seeking help when they need it most. Through my experiences, I have learned that protecting a community requires more than authority; it requires compassion, courage, communication, and trust. I hope to carry those values with me throughout my career and use them to serve and protect others.

Overnight, I lost my father due to his mistakes in life that were unforgivable and led him to prison. Seeing the father I pictured as “perfect” behind bars was unreal. Receiving letters from him frequently, to receiving no letters. This happened when I started to grow up and began to understand the crime he committed. I questioned him and his actions, which led to not receive any more letters. These questions are ones that many 10-year-olds never think about. 10-year-old me was wondering why a person who many thought was a good man became a bad man or why criminals continue their crime knowing it is wrong. 18-year-old me is still wondering these questions and decided to study criminology. I plan to work hard, find answers to my questions, and understand criminals. To make a change to the correctional system by finding ways to avoid having people commit further crimes. However, before I make suggestions to change the correctional system, I want to become a behavioralist profiler. Helping find criminals with their behavior and bringing justice for all. Learning more about criminal behavior and being able to apply my knowledge from college with my experience as a profiler to create a change in the correctional system. For the job of a behavioral profiler, I would be using the knowledge I will gain from my university with the help of this scholarship to lower the cost of my education. This scholarship would help me continue my studies to learn and push me to achieve my dreams of making a change in the correctional system. I would be able to focus on my studies and get closer to finding answers to 10-year-old Angie’s questions. Since I work at McDonald’s to be able to pay for college, the money from this scholarship would lift a heavy weight of worry off my back and lift it off of my single mother’s back. Being a Latina and an underrepresented minority, I became witness to the struggle my mom went through in my life. Seeing her get rejected and ignored for not being fluent in English or by her looks. Those experiences have shifted my view of life and my goals in life. I’ve become ambitious to become successful in my career and take my mom far in life. Give her materialistic items she never had a chance to buy for herself due to her putting me first. Wanting to give her experiences she has never had due to working every day of her life. The concept of getting a college education that she never had a chance to have is my motivation to become great. To become someone in life who will have an impact on society by keeping them safe from criminals on the loose and having an impact on my mother’s life. This money would impact me by helping lower the cost of my school, but the overall impact is knowing that someone else believes in me. Knowing that someone sees the plan I have for myself to make a change in the correctional system with the knowledge and experience I get from my education and behavioral profile job would be the biggest help I get. The struggle my mom goes through in trying to make ends meet financially alone is big and now, with the addition of my college tuition, it has grown. I want to take off as much of the burden as I can, and winning this scholarship money would be a step forward to achieving that and a step forward to achieving change in the world of criminals.