First, I want to commend Cat Zingano for sharing her story with us and paying it forward to those who share similar experiences. I know I am probably not the only person to deal with multiple losses over the past year or so, and it is with empathy and compassion my heart goes out to those that resonate with this experience. We do our best to self-care, push through, and keep going. I lost my Mom a few months before my first college semester began, so I've never had the chance to share my academic successes with her or hear how proud she was of me. This has inspired me to focus on what matters to me, my three adult children. Losing both of my parents has inspired me always to make sure I encourage them, tell them how amazingly proud of them I am, and let them know they are loved and not alone. In January this year, I lost my best friend since high school to a rare lung disease she suffered from for four years. She left behind a husband and five children with whom I'm very close. Knowing they began suffering the grief of her tragic loss way before she left this world, it truly breaks my heart. The hand, her children, were dealt has not served them well. Each of them suffers from grief and poor mental health that is apparent in their daily life. My passion for psychology and mental wellness, coupled with the desire to serve her children and others who experience traumatic hardships, has encouraged me to fight against the stigma of mental illness and disorders. I want to make a difference in the lives of people who were never taught coping skills, struggle with PTSD and suicidal thoughts. Being a beacon of light in the darkness for others and showing them how to find their own light is somewhat of a life purpose for me. I would consider my academic success a 'fight for others' to achieve optimal mental wellness and a better quality of life. This scholarship would help ease my financial burden and allow me to focus on doing my best work to reach those goals. No matter who is chosen for this scholarship, it is sure to bring abundant gratitude and recognition for what Cat intended. I love her reasons and compassion. I hope and pray one day that I will be offering a scholarship on Bold to pay it forward too. I know in my heart that Cat's loved ones are so very proud of her and the life she has built for herself and her son. Thank you for this opportunity. It will truly be a beacon of light for someone in need.

After years of spiritual work and self-development, I have created a passion for staying true to myself. I do this by not shrinking to fit anyone else's agenda, creating boundaries, and speaking my truth. It has taken much delving into my shadow work to find the places within me where this is most needed, and I will always be a work in progress. Staying true to myself allows me to follow my own path, not my parent's ideas and not my friend's advice about who I should be and how I should live my life. I learned how to say no when I need to and to stop being a people-pleaser. When I make decisions, I use utilize the new skill I have acquired in my coursework of thinking critically, and I choose what is in my best interest and what serves my highest good and those I surround myself with. This is a daily practice to consciously be aware of my own energy and how other people's energy affects me in my life. I have also come to understand that while I have emotional support from friends and family, I am ultimately the person I can count on. At the end of the day, staying true to myself will get me further than being a follower of anyone else and serves to be the path of the most joy. Not to say there is not much left to learn from others, but to take leadership of my own life using the learned skills and wisdom I have gained along the way seems to be my truest path.

The memory that stands out most to me and drives my "why" for my academic and professional success is being a single parent and struggling to make ends meet. I wasn't able to help the two of my children that wanted to go to college with their tuition, but they did it anyway. Life was hard as a young single mother and they will never understand until they have their own parental struggles. I only ever wanted to give them a better life than I had myself. Pregnant at 16, there wasn't much time for me to pursue a college career while supporting my first child. I want to use this effort and my degree to have a career that will afford me to give my adult children some financial support and stability when I leave this earth. Of course i want to liive comfortable while I am here of course , but my why is primarily about giving them what i couldn't as a young single mother. I enter to win scholarships every week. I have recieved scholarship money from Capella University for my academic standing, but I have never won any. Every effort I make towards paying for college will help me have less debt when I finish my academic career and more I can save. This is the memory that keeps me pushing and working hard. It has always been about my children for me.

Independence could mean a lot of different things to different people. To me, independence means standing on my own two feet, confidence in my own stability, and not having to worry about depending on others financially, emotionally, or any other way. Non-attachment, if you will. It helps me to better believe in myself and what I am capable of. Independence has made a huge impact on my security because I was taught to find a man to take care of me because that is the only way those females knew how to survive. This was a deeply rooted generational teaching in my family and obviously not the truth. It means that I was able to teach and show my own children that they're complete and independently whole, and are capable of being whoever they want to be in their lives if they put in the effort to do so. It has been important to me to sever those idealisms with my own children and teach them self-efficacy. I am happy to say that all three of my adult children are doing wonderful as independent adults and I hope my academic career leads to me eventually providing them with some financial independence in the future.

One practical solution for helping more people who struggle with mental health is increasing societal acceptance. The negative stigma around mental illness is still apparent in the world we live in. More activism towards the acceptance and care for mental health issues may encourage more people to seek the help they need, gradually allowing that stigma to fall away as more people are taking control of their mental health and intentionally working to gain mental wellness. Getting involved and creating public events surrounding the topic of mental health has the ability to educate and inform your community, as well as to show the members of that community who struggle with mental illness that they are supported locally and are not alone. Taking action towards this one practical solution has the capacity to change lives for the better. Accepting mental illness and producing access to methods of creating mental wellness and better life quality can potentially reduce symptoms, suicide, and addictions in those who self-medicate due to mental illness and lack of coping skills. I hope to one day be part of this mission in my community and have its effects ripple into other communities throughout the world.

My little cousin committed suicide over a boy right after she graduated high school. Her mother suffers from depression still at every anniversary of Emily's death, every birthday, every holiday. I dated a South Dakota Sioux man who was an alcoholic from a young age because his mother was a drug addict and gave him up for adoption to his aunt and uncle, who put him in a Catholic school where priests sexually abused him. His alcoholism caused him to take financial advantage of me before I realized it was a real problem. I couldn't afford to continue "handling it," so I had to end our relationship. I've known and even dated many veterans who have PTSD. They are closed off, some refuse to talk about it, and have episodes of anger and paranoia. I feel most of society's mental health and wellness have been neglected for far too long due to the stigma it holds. They aren't crazy. They're in emotional pain. I want to be in a professional position to help as many people as possible in my lifetime who are suffering from mental illness. I want to normalize compassion and easier access to treat this human condition so that the stigma may one day fall away. I want to travel to different reservations and volunteer by treating those who suffer from addiction, depression, and trauma. I want to be skilled enough to offer those sufferers a better quality of life, so they don't want to give up on life by suicide or drowning and masking their pain through addictions. I was born to be a helper, a healer, and serve in this way. Thank you for reading my "why" and considering my application for this scholarship.