As a first-generation in many ways, I have always experienced life with the connections to others’ dreams and motivations. Because of this, I view a life lived on one’s own as not a life worth living. Our connections our what create our sense of self and motivate us to reach the next milestone. However, while I maintain many of these connections, there are those who have fundamentally impacted me who are no longer here for me to thank, due to taking their own life. Because of this experience, I was pushed into the field of psychology as a way to improve myself to better recognize the signs so I could better help or, at a minimum, direct them to those who could. Over time, with research and further experiences, I’ve fallen in love with the field of psychiatry and its long-term positive impacts that can be brought about via medication combined with therapies. Yet despite this knowledge of the effectiveness of medication in helping manage these debilitating conditions, such as MDD, anxiety, ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, and all of the other dizzying array of conditions found in the DSM-5. Studies as recent as 2023 found median wait times for a psychiatric appointment were between 67 and 43 days. However, this figure excludes the many clinics that were not admitting new patients, meaning this number is likely even higher. To me, this situation is entirely inequitable without even considering the number of bad practitioners or negative experiences suffered by patients with severe mental disorders that we know unfortunately occur. The fact that this life-saving medical care can be gatekept by these long wait times and even high costs is something I aim to change by eventually opening up a holistic private practice. I have 3 major goals for this practice. Firstly, I aim to take various insurances such as Medicaid, which, as someone from a rural county, finding a psychiatrist within driving distance can be hard, but finding one that takes a specific insurance can be even more difficult. Secondly, I am aiming to replicate a holistic model seen in Mohammad Baig LLC, where they’ve hired various medical specialists to better ensure patients can have all areas of their life treated or at least helped to stabilize. Thirdly, I want to offer both virtual and in-person services. This allows patients who cannot leave their home or are further away from the clinic’s location to still receive services while also creating a physical space for more face-to-face interactions. This is to say, I aim to create a practice I wish were available when I was younger for my friends, to honor their legacy while preventing their outcomes for others. The current state of affairs across the country, I cannot say, will be changed by my involvement, but I am a firm believer that it only takes 1 ripple for long-term change to appear. I aim to be that ripple in my rural community.

I chose to go into the field of mental health, specifically psychiatry, so that I wouldn’t be up late into the night wondering if I had done all that I could to help my friend. At first, this was looking into what psychology was at all, which is where I discovered my love for the subject and saw firsthand how it helped me not only to help others but also when to seek more serious help than myself. However, with time, I began to look deeper into the services and systems meant to help them and was deeply dissatisfied. My largest gripe with psychiatry is its waiting times and lists; according to research done by ScienceDirect in 2023, many families wait to see a psychiatrist between 43 to 67 days, depending on location. They also noticed many psychiatrists weren't even accepting new clients, which was excluded from the data set. No word fits this issue more than unacceptable, especially with how many benefits and services are dependent on patients getting formal diagnoses or even just getting scripts for the medication, which can improve their quality of life. This is even further exacerbated as this process of medication can be lengthy due to finding the most fitting prescription or dosage that works to treat any debilitating condition they may have. For me, becoming a psychiatrist is a small part of the solution in improving these waiting times in rural areas, such as where I grew up, where these services can be even more difficult to access. Something I’ve already done to address this issue while I worked as an RBT and dealt with clients who required a diagnosis to continue services was compiling lists of available psychiatrists and giving copies of this list to local providers and help organizations such as the RACSB. Additionally i’ve begun to talk to larger bodies such as the American Board of Psychiatrists, and my local political representatives, to help seek change in creating more opportunities for people who wish to go into psychiatry or adopting policy such as the RxP movement in more states, which allows psychologist to complete 2 more years of schooling to gain the ability to prescribe lower classes of medication. In states that have adopted this policy, patients have been able to receive better help in managing symptoms while also freeing up psychiatrists to see patients who need more serious medications to manage symptoms. I want the conclusion of my story to be one of reducing this barrier to life-saving care so that not only can lives be saved by providers such as my future self, but so that individuals with these harmful mental health disorders can have a similar quality of life as those without these disorders, as we all rightfully deserve.

Being the first always comes with its own difficulties. For me, it was being the face of my family’s wishes and dreams, and not having a clear pathway to answers. While my family tries not to impose these wishes onto me, I carry them with me as I do something no one in my family has. But it's important that I do it despite that fact because it means showing my two younger brothers that they also have options, and it increases my ability to help others, something I have always known I would dedicate my life to. For me, that's now pursuing a career in psychiatry, which right now looks like majoring in psychology and pre-medicine with a heap of extra-curriculars and time spent working to save up money for medical school. Currently, I work as a resident advisor and receptionist at my university’s gym, while also taking maximum credits for my double major and being in a research lab. I began to pursue this career because I saw struggles in my family, friends, and community in getting adequate psychiatric help with the high barriers of costs and wait times. With research showing median wait times to be 47-63 days to get an appointment, with many clinics not even having openings. I find that barrier unacceptable for life-saving care, as I’ve seen the effects it has, knowing you cannot get the medicine which would drastically help or improve your quality of life until you can eventually be seen. Due to this, I’ve dedicated myself to doing my small part to make a difference. More specifically, my goals are to become a general psychiatrist, likely specializing in substance abuse or mental health diagnosis., This would allow me to reduce local wait times and give me the ability to do more philanthropic work within the field, such as going to smaller clinics once a week for testing purposes. However my ultimate goal would be to open my out-patient practice, as while I can organize with other clinics to provide services in smaller or more rural areas, I would have less autonomy in deciding my rates to cover both the out-patient or in-patient office i’d be under, as well as still leaving incentive for the clinic itself. Running my practice would give me more freedom to work proactively in helping my community through my services, such as assessing my rates or taking on more insurance options.

Mental health is a fundamental aspect of who I am as a person. I have interacted with poor self-esteem, perfectionism, and communities that regularly suffer through periods of stress, thus impacting their mental health, such as children in unstable homes. It has vastly influenced who I am through my beliefs, my view of obstacles, and my aspirational career choice. Firstly, mental health has affected my beliefs through pervasive experience. Primarily based on how I think and the biases it leads to, for example, the fundamental attribution error. It is the error of prescribing external faults to your failings and internal character faults to others' failings. But it has also shown me how viewing things from many angles is necessary, anything can be good and bad at any given moment. All we can do is strive to be unbiased and thoughtful in others' situations. But we are imperfect, and it is okay to accept that. Secondly, my experience with mental health has caused me to more deeply value my relationships with others, from family to a stranger. I've experienced how impactful it can be to have my existence acknowledged and recognized in a supportive way through personal experience and through my work as both a domestic violence support group coordinator and as a registered behavioral tech working with children with autism. I've also experienced how quickly struggles with mental health can be lost, and I've begun to be more open and outward with my appreciation of others, as I never know when I'll receive a letter saying goodbye. Thirdly, through personal experience, I've seen how important it is to receive medication and therapy when dealing with mental health, and have seen how badly it can affect others when there are barriers to either one. Yet despite this, barriers seem to have increased in recent years, with studies showing an average of 3-4 month-long waitlists and rising costs for psychiatric appointments. Because of this, I've devoted myself to the field of psychiatry so that I can make what difference I can in reducing these barriers. I've worked various jobs to save money, while volunteering on the side to create opportunities and support others within my community. While this has changed in recent years with now being at college, I still make time to forward my ultimate goal of helping others through my research with terror management labs and volunteering with various local organizations. For me, my career is another strong way to help and make a long-term change for the better. In conclusion, my experience with mental health has opened my worldview up in many new and novel ways that have made me a more understanding individual, which I hope will allow me to better aid the people around me. This scholarship will help me develop further in my desired field of psychiatry through a college education, allowing me to follow my career aspirations in promoting the education and support of mental health for individuals. I want this because mental health has vastly influenced who I am through my beliefs, my relationships, and my aspirational career choice.

Being a first-generation college student is seeing your family struggle financially without the degree to get a higher paying career or get securities many others with degrees take for granted. I will never forget being sat down and explained that we needed to "tighten the ship" since my father was fired from his welding position, even though he was already being paid less due to not having a trade degree or certificate. While he did then secure a position as a school maintenance worker, it took him years of gaining education through paid night classes before he reached his current position as an electrical engineer at Stafford County Schools. While my father's story may be more specific, because I've seen this trend of being limited by what you know and the credentials behind it, I've always known I'd go to college to gain an education to help my family and others in lower socioeconomic statuses. With age and experiences of friends taking their lives due to various mental health complications, and seeing these very trends in my own family, I began to research the field of psychology to try and find a way that I could help the people around me while I volunteered at a local domestic violence agency and worked as a registered behavioral technician helping kids with autism. I was shown the importance of medication in tandem with therapy in treating conditions, and began to stumble on the lack of psychiatric providers. Huge barriers of costs, but also time, with wait-lists for appointments being 3-4 months or longer. I saw something that could be changed, and I am now on the path to obtaining my MD so that I may pursue psychiatry. Education is my key to seeking out a career I've fallen in love with in its unique ability to help and support people from a holistic standpoint.

I have seen people gaze into the abyss due to poor mental health, who were unable to then look away. For me, it is why I view mental health as important due to how deeply it affects how we feel, think, and act. Helping people with poor mental health is what I strive to aim my life towards as I navigate gaining my medical doctorate so that I may become a psychiatrist. Following my why, I began to use the golden circle as described by Simon Sinek, which attributes the process of success to finding your why, discovering your how, and developing your what. In this, I have found multiple methods for tackling mental health for myself and the people around me. Most important for me has been maintaining social connections by doing a little bit more at the moment to incorporate these important relationships into my life. This can mean when making myself food, offering others to come with, or making enough for multiple people. This has greatly increased the strength of my relationships with others, which were often strained by my not making that extra step in reaching out to others. The great part of this method is that it snowballs, by facilitating an environment where I essentially enable people to more freely invite others out, I now am more readily asked if I want to go hang out with friends. But this isn’t all I do, I also make sure to take time for myself. This is something I’ve struggled with in life, as I always feel I’m behind and need to catch up to some idea of what I should already be doing. A simple song that has helped me, which I like to share with others who have similar issues, is Everything Stays. It's a song from one of my favorite comfort shows, Adventure Time, and its message is that everything is going to change, things might get discolored, and we may not even recognize things from our past, but it's always right there where we left it. It's changed, even if it's ever so slightly, but at its core, it's the same. I’ve taken this as acceptance to not overburden myself trying to maximize every opportunity. As an example, if I want to go read a book, but I need to do some more work so I can stay ahead, that work isn’t going anywhere. I can come back the next day with a refreshed attitude and get it done. Even if I might lose 5 points for being late, it's still going to be okay to take that extra time for myself. Ultimately, these are just some of the ways I help self-regulate my mental health, and they do help, but as a college student, I’ve struggled with academic achievement and the stress of finances. Because of this, I have gone to therapy, and regularly go to affinity groups and check in with friends to ensure I get the support and help I need. As much as I enjoy throwing myself into work and helping others, hence my career path, it's important to slow down and appreciate ourselves for who we are, and there is always one more way to do that, so to share my personal goal, try new things and take what works.

Mental health is a fundamental aspect of who I am as a person. I have interacted with poor self-esteem, perfectionism, and communities that regularly suffer through periods of stress, thus impacting their mental health, such as children in unstable homes. Mental Health has vastly influenced what I want to do through my beliefs, my personal experience, and my aspirated career choice. Firstly, mental health has affected my beliefs about its pervasive effects. I have seen the effects of mental health that many people do not give due credit to. It has destroyed connections with people I will never be able to speak with again and has wasted the potential of phenomenal people throughout history. I have experienced it more with age, through recent events such as our pandemic lockdown, a period of time when mental health was as low as it could get for some. It upsets me how it is currently looked at in the modern day, even to the point of being seen as an excuse by some people, though this view has improved. I want to further my understanding of this field through a degree in psychology to better serve and educate others. Secondly, mental health has influenced my own life. I have often struggled with an absent father in the home, bringing with it the general issues of self-esteem and a lack of a role model. When I was younger I felt anxious to prove myself and was crushed when unable to reach this high level that not only I had put on myself, but also by the people around me. It created this unhealthy cycle of trying and falling over and over, and during COVID-19 it caught up with me. For the first time, I felt defeated and as if nothing I did would matter. The ability to be there for people with poor situations that severely affect mental health, to be that difference for someone, holds a form of sacredness to me. Thirdly, mental health has influenced my dream career and desired field of study unlike anything else. My experience with it has given me a semi-unique understanding of how I can help others going through difficulties, along with my insight into how people suffering from mental illnesses witness therapeutic help and intervention. Who see the field as overwhelmed by bad-faith practitioners. Situations such as this have given me a powerful drive to become a psychiatrist where I can help people and hopefully give my patients a positive experience rather than the negative ones many others have experienced. I have always wanted to help those who cannot help themselves. However, this dream is difficult due to my current economic status, which is why this scholarship could help. This aid would also support my goal of opening an outpatient facility where I can support disadvantaged people through free or discounted services, allowing them to receive better treatment when most cannot afford it. In conclusion, my experience with mental health has opened my worldview up in many new novel ways that have made me a more understanding individual which I hope will allow me to better aid the people around me. This scholarship will help me develop further in my desired field of psychology through a college education, allowing me to follow my career aspirations in promoting the education and support of mental health for individuals. I want this because Mental Health has vastly influenced what I want to do through my views, my personal experience, and my aspirated career choice.

Mental health is a fundamental aspect of who I am as a person. I have interacted with poor self-esteem, perfectionism, and communities that regularly suffer through periods of stress, thus impacting their mental health, such as children in unstable homes. Mental Health has vastly influenced what I want to do through my beliefs, my personal experience, and my aspirated career choice. Firstly, mental health has affected my beliefs about its pervasive effects. I have seen the effects of mental health that many people do not give due credit to. It has destroyed connections with people I will never be able to speak with again and has wasted the potential of phenomenal people throughout history. I have experienced it more with age, through recent events such as our pandemic lockdown, a period of time when mental health was as low as it could get for some. It upsets me how it is currently looked at in the modern day, even to the point of being seen as an excuse by some people, though this view has improved. I want to further my understanding of this field through a degree in psychology to better serve and educate others. Secondly, mental health has influenced my own life. I have often struggled with an absent father in the home, bringing with it the general issues of self-esteem and a lack of a role model. When I was younger I felt anxious to prove myself and was crushed when unable to reach this high level that not only I had put on myself, but also by the people around me. It created this unhealthy cycle of trying and falling over and over, and during COVID-19 it caught up with me. For the first time, I felt defeated and as if nothing I did would matter. The ability to be there for people with poor situations that severely affect mental health, to be that difference for someone, holds a form of sacredness to me. Thirdly, mental health has influenced my dream career and desired field of study unlike anything else. My experience with it has given me a semi-unique understanding of how I can help others going through difficulties, along with my insight into how people suffering from mental illnesses witness therapeutic help and intervention. Who see the field as overwhelmed by bad-faith practitioners. Situations such as this have given me a powerful drive to become a psychiatrist where I can help people and hopefully give my patients a positive experience rather than the negative ones many others have experienced. I have always wanted to help those who cannot help themselves. However, this dream is difficult due to my current economic status, which is why this scholarship could help. This aid would also support my goal of opening an outpatient facility where I can support disadvantaged people through free or discounted services, allowing them to receive better treatment when most cannot afford it. In conclusion, my experience with mental health has opened my worldview up in many new novel ways that have made me a more understanding individual which I hope will allow me to better aid the people around me. This scholarship will help me develop further in my desired field of psychology through a college education, allowing me to follow my career aspirations in promoting the education and support of mental health for individuals. I want this because Mental Health has vastly influenced what I want to do through my views, my personal experience, and my aspirated career choice.

Mental health is a fundamental aspect of who I am as a person. I have interacted with poor self-esteem, perfectionism, and communities that regularly suffer through periods of stress, thus impacting their mental health, such as children in unstable homes. It has vastly influenced who I am through my beliefs, my view of obstacles, and my aspirated career choice. Firstly, mental health has affected my beliefs through pervasive experience. Primarily on how I think and the biases it leads to, for example, fundamental attribution error. It is the error of prescribing external faults to your failings, and internal character faults to other's failings. But it has also shown me how viewing things from many angles is necessary, anything can be good and bad at any given moment. All we can do is strive to be unbiased and thoughtful in other's situations. But we are imperfect, and it is okay to accept that. Secondly, mental health has influenced my view of obstacles through my share of them. I have often struggled with an absent father in the home, bringing with it the general issues of self-esteem and a lack of a role model. When I was younger I felt anxious to prove myself and was crushed when unable to reach this high level that not only I had put on myself, but also by the people around me. It created this unhealthy cycle of trying and falling over and over, during covid, it caught up with me. For the first time, I felt defeated and as if nothing I did would matter. So diving into my habit of escapism through books, I found a series of characters based on the idea of being undaunted, those who saw obstacles as chances to grow. It helped me to better my view of obstacles with greater positivity, allowing me to rediscover my motivation. Thirdly, mental health has influenced my dream career and desired field of study. It has given me a semi-unique understanding of how I can help others going through troubling times and gives insight into how people suffering from mental illnesses witness therapeutic help and intervention. It is overwhelmed by practitioners using outdated methods with little consideration of the detriment versus benefit of medications for each case. Situations such as this have given me a powerful drive to become a psychiatrist where I can help people and hopefully give my patients a positive experience rather than the negative ones many others have experienced. I have always wanted to help those who cannot help themselves. Going to college to gain the skills to follow through on this is my current goal. However, this dream is difficult due to my current economic status, which is why this scholarship could help. This aid would also support my goal of opening an outpatient facility where I can support disadvantaged people through free or discounted services, allowing them to receive better treatment when most cannot afford it. In conclusion, my experience with mental health has opened my worldview up in many new novel ways that have made me a more understanding individual which I hope will allow me to better aid the people around me. This scholarship will help me develop further in my desired field of psychology through a college education, allowing me to follow my career aspirations in promoting the education and support of mental health for individuals. I want this because mental health has vastly influenced who I am through my beliefs, my view of obstacles, and my aspirated career choice.

My entire being has been surrounded by mental health since my childhood. I have interacted with communities that tend to suffer through periods of stress, thus impacting their mental health often, such as children in unstable homes. It has vastly influenced who I am through my beliefs, my relationship goals, and my aspirated career choice. Firstly, mental health has affected my beliefs through pervasive experiences with sufferers of poor mental health. Primarily on what causes faults within a person, such as the fundamental attribution error of people assuming external factors cause one's difficulties as internal factors cause issues for others. To clarify this, say you have no employment and attribute it to being due to an unstable job market. But when someone else is unemployed, you think it is because they are lazy or some other personal characteristic. Fundamentally, this attribution is as wrong as it is unjust to evaluate a person based on differing criteria than one would judge oneself. Knowing many people have this inherent bias, along with how much it can affect the treatment of others, has motivated me to strive for a less biased outlook on my fellows. Secondly, mental health has influenced many of my relationships with my family & friends. It has changed how I view my community, from what problems gain importance to what jokes are made, and how they interact with the stigmatisms behind mental health issues. It depresses me how we do not pay the required attention to mental health as is deserved. Unfortunately, many people do not understand the influence of mental health on themselves and others, and I want to be better equipped to educate those willing to learn or listen. Thirdly, mental health has influenced my dream career and desired field of study. It has given me a semi-unique understanding of how I can help others going through troubling times and given insight into how people suffering from mental illness witness therapeutic help and intervention. As you mentioned, it is vastly overwhelmed by dangerous practitioners using outdated methods with little consideration of the detriment versus benefit of medications for each case. Situations such as this have given me a powerful drive to become a psychiatrist where I can help people and hopefully give my patients a positive experience rather than the negative ones many others have experienced. I have always wanted to help those who cannot help themselves and going to college to gain the skills to do just that every day as a career is my dream. But this is hard due to my current economic status, which is why this scholarship could help. This aid would inevitably also aid my end goal in opening an outpatient facility where I can support disadvantaged people through free or discounted services, allowing them to receive treatment when historically those from lower socio-economic statuses have a generally trying time getting official services due to strain. In conclusion, my experience with mental health has opened my worldview up in many new novel ways that have made me a more understanding individual which I hope will allow me to better help the people around me. This scholarship will help me develop further in the field of psychology through college, allowing me to follow my career aspirations in promoting the education and help of mental health for individuals such as your mother, Sheri Rosser. I want this because mental health has vastly influenced who I am through my beliefs, my relationship aspirations, and my aspirated career choice.

To dedicate myself to the pursuit of others. I wish to use this scholarship to help fund my education into my career as a psychiatrist, which would better allow me to help others and create a wave of positivity for people who need outside help by knowing their differences or medication. I would accomplish this through compassion, selflessness, and community service. Firstly, compassion has led me to pursue becoming a psychiatrist. Helping others has always been something I enjoy doing without needing some form of incentive or reward. Incidentally, it does end up with me aiding others during turbulent times in their lives. This results in me gaining experience helping others reach out to mental health resources. Leading me to pursue this career as I have, in effect, already been doing by being compassionate towards others. This career, therefore, is a way I wish to spread positive impacts into the world through compassion. Secondly, through selflessness, I will dedicate my life to helping others. Dedication that with the assistance of higher education would permit me to have more resources to aid others. I plan on doing this through pro bono work for those who cannot afford professional mental help. I find this very important as helping others become their best selves regardless of inner difficulties is especially meaningful to me. Unfortunately, a lot of time and money is needed for this hefty pursuit to gain the required degrees, education, connections, and foundation to deliver this pro bono work. But I am constantly looking for opportunities to help fund myself in this pursuit so I may spread knowledge and clinical aid through less fortunate communities. Thirdly, I actively participate in my community through volunteer work to better help others. Volunteer work is something I'm interested in continuing as it permits me to meet many differing individuals who have drive-in support toward similar issues. It likewise allows me to give what I have been fortunate to have in opportunities, education, and ability to others. As an example, my participation through ROCK mentoring. I supported children with difficulties in behavioral issues, social issues, etc. This particular work allowed me to aid children who didn't have the chances I did, resulting in many of the aforementioned issues. In conclusion, I believe this scholarship would allow me to better impact the world positively through my commitments. I would accomplish this through compassion, selflessness, and community service.

Since a young age, I have been heavily involved in protecting others, especially gifted children who struggle to do it themselves. My mother was a preschool educator mainly specializing in the rougher cases of special needs, and taught me many of the beliefs I now hold today. To personally foster others' development, I intend on building my career around them, participating in my local community, and sticking up for others. Firstly, I am passionate about pursuing a career as a psychiatrist to help diagnose and support gifted children. My job would allow me a unique position in that I may have face-to-face help diagnosing gifted children which would allow them to better understand their needs, along with being able to prescribe them the medication they might need to function at the level they wish. This scholarship would nicely allow me to step in as a professional that can further nurture the unique gifts they bring to the world. An example of this would be helping form a 504 or IEP plan for my patient, allowing them to receive help if needed. Secondly, I intend to participate locally in pushing for better treatment and help for those with intellectual needs. Many school districts lack the funding or drive to give exceptional care and stimulation to those with mental or physical disabilities. I would focus on changing the mindset of the locale from bringing gifted children up to the base standard, to fostering their growth so that they may better express their gifts. Donating resources that a college degree could help me acquire to parents of gifted children and the school's special needs programs. To do this, I have already begun mentoring children at Sealston Elementary, some of whom have behavioral issues. This tends to also come with the territory of gifted children and give them a person to talk to that they may rely on if needed. Thirdly, I intend to stick up for everyone in my career as a licensed medical professional. Especially for those who have a harder time sticking up for themselves which often happens to be gifted children. I would be able to have a larger say as a professional in my patient's treatment, which would permiss me to create a tailored plan on how each child could best receive help in a mental setting. For example, I could set up a meeting with parents to discuss resources on how to better facilitate the development of their gifted children, or meet with the school's guidance counselor and elaborate on possible issues at school that need to be looked out for. In conclusion, I feel this scholarship would fit me in allowing me to better mentor gifted children's mental health which in turn betters their well-being and developmental needs. As a psychiatrist, I would have many different methods available to me that could meet each child where they are. I would do this by building my career around them, participating in my local community, and sticking up for others.

A year back, a friend of mine, a twelfth grader from another school, went through a bout of MDD, which stands for major depressive disorder. He had a reoccurring condition with this disorder but was barred from medication due to the inconsistency of each episode. But he is no longer with us due to a particularly bad case of MDD. Doing higher education would allow me to attain my dream career of psychiatry, which could help me better reach people like my friend in order to help them. Through higher education, I seek to improve my community, educate myself, and help others. Firstly, I can use my higher education to better improve my community. It will allow me to be in a better place for resources which would allow me to participate more time and energy into giving back to my community and the people within it. It would also give me a better set of skills to benefit my community's mental health, something I find needed. This could greatly benefit my connectedness to my community which has been proven to be beneficial long-term, and giving back to it. This is something that I can accomplish with much more fruitfulness with the help of college, thus making it very important as a stepping stone to reach. Secondly, further education would allow me to better educate myself. It will allow me to better understand my place in the world, my community, and my goals. I understand this due to my limited self-education on psychology and how it has affected my view of the world. Learning about this topic myself has helped me lessen my stereotypical judgments of others going through trying and stressful times and makes me constantly vie for greater things to uplift one another as a community. I currently do this by seeking out organizations and asking if there is anything to which I could volunteer to contribute towards. Giving help to those who can use it, and teaching others why they can use it, are something I find the most impactful lessons from my musings on the subject. Thirdly, higher education would allow me to follow through with my dream career allowing me to better help others. I have a powerful drive to become a psychiatrist where I can help others and hopefully give my patients that I treat a good experience rather than the bad ones many others have experienced. Being able to help those who cannot help themselves is something I've always wanted to do, so being able to go to college and gain the skills to do that every day is my dream. But this is hard due to my current economic status, which is why this scholarship could help. In conclusion, this scholarship can help me afford to go through college allowing me to better achieve my goals and help the people around me through education. I would achieve this by improving my community, educating myself, and helping others.

My entire being has been surrounded by mental health since very young. I have interacted with communities that tend to suffer through periods of stress which impacts their mental health often, such as Native Americans, children in unstable homes, black Americans, and many others. It has vastly influenced who I am through my beliefs, my relationship aspirations, and my aspirated career choice. Firstly, mental health has affected my beliefs through pervasive experiences with sufferers of poor mental health. Primarily on what causes faults within a person, such as the fundamental attribution error of people assuming external factors cause their difficulties and internal factors cause others' issues. To clarify this, say you fell on hard times, and attributed it to being due to an unstable job market. But when someone is homeless, you think it is because they are lazy. This is fundamentally wrong and unjust to judge a person based on differing criteria than one would judge themself. Knowing many people have this inherent bias without ever understanding it, along with how much it can affect how you are treated by others, has helped me understand the moral need to strive for an unbiased outlook on our fellow people. Secondly, mental health has influenced many if not all of my relationships with my family & friends. It has changed how I view even my community what problems they choose to take on, the jokes made by others, and how they perpetuate the stigmatism behind mental health issues. Laughing over suicidal ideations as I know people who will never speak again after they followed through with such ideations. It depresses and sickens me how we don’t pay as much attention to mental health as is warranted. But sadly people do not understand how much the influence of mental health affects themselves and others, and I want to be able to educate those who are willing to listen. Learning about this topic myself has helped me lessen my stereotypical judgments of others going through trying and stressful times and makes me constantly vie for greater things to uplift one another as a community. I currently do this by seeking out organizations and asking if there is anything for which I could volunteer to contribute towards the educational spread of mental health. Giving help to those who can use it, and teaching others why they can use it, are something I find the most impactful lessons from my musings on the subject. Thirdly, mental health has influenced my dream career and my desired field of study. It has caused me a semi-unique understanding of how I can help others going through troubling times and has given me an understanding of how people suffering from mental illness witness therapeutic help. As you mentioned, it is vastly populated by practitioners using outdated methods with little knowledge of harmful versus helpful drugs for each case. This has given me a powerful drive to become a psychiatrist where I can help people and hopefully give my patients that I treat a good experience rather than the bad ones many others have experienced. Being able to help those who cannot help themselves is something I've always wanted to do, so being able to go to college and gain the skills to do that every day is my dream. But this is hard due to my current economic status, which is why this scholarship could help. To finish my points on a career, my end goal would be to open an outpatient facility where I can help disadvantaged people through either free or heavily discounted services, allowing them to receive treatment when historically those from lower socio-economic statuses have a generally trying time getting official services due to strain. In conclusion, my experience with mental health has opened my worldview up in many new novel ways that have made me a more understanding individual which I hope will allow me to better help the people around me. This scholarship will help me develop further in the field of psychology through college, allowing me to follow my career aspirations in promoting the education and help of mental health for individuals such as your mother, Sheri Rosser. I want this because mental health has vastly influenced who I am through my beliefs, my relationship aspirations, and my aspirated career choice.

Victims aren't always good and survivors aren't always justified. Lessons like these are very important distinctions one can pull from reading the book Maus. A telling of the holocaust straight from the mouth of Vladek, created by his son Artie Spiegelman. It's a book that has profoundly affected my outlook on the holocaust and in turn on life, more than any other book I have read. I believe this due to how it portrays the behavior of people during crises, and how it differs from other books. Firstly, Maus beautifully portrays the behavior of accusers and victims during the Holocaust and in my opinion, can be transferred to most other times of upheaval. People had the belief of it couldn't happen to them, which then became it wouldn't happen to them, denial increasing until it was them. We see this through Anja's rich family still going to therapy retreats, and owning businesses during the first stages of the Holocaust. Refusing to listen to Vladek's concerns about what was happening. While many books show this long-lasting message of denial, many don't show how pervasive it is and how class can affect this idea. Secondly, Maus is a unique book compared to most others. This is true due to it being a graphic novel rather than a regular novel, leading to the book being rife with imagery that novels cannot portray as easily. But it also causes the level of grammar to lower, leading the hoi polloi to be able to read it easily, but still, have substance for higher readers to analyze. Showing troubles much more thoroughly than in other books such as the boy in the striped pajamas through the common people and the wealthier classes. In conclusion, Maus is a good book that I recommend to most people around me. I do this as it can be read by most people with varying levels of comprehension, along with its unique portrayal of the Holocaust that can be attributed to most times of intense crisis. The lessons it teaches are incredibly important.