This scholarship would change my life, I am currently an undergraduate student at SUNY Albany I am studying criminal justice with a double minor in sociology and social welfare. I grew up in a small town just north of Albany which is trapped in a cycle of poverty. Many kids grew up wondering where their next meal would come from, if they would have the supplies they needed for school, or if they would even have a secure home to go to. For this reason I entered the workforce at age 14 washing dishes at a small diner called Bensons. I'm thankful to have started working at a young age because it helped me develop a very hard work ethic, which I notice many of my peers in college do not have. I washed dishes for a few years and was eventually moved up to a bussing position, which I absolutely loved. Being able to talk to people and manage a variety of different tasks at once made me thrive. I stayed an employee there up until I went to college and held the honorary title of "the dependable employee", in the summers when I am home I still work at the restaurants dairy bar. I have a job during college as well, I work as a busser at Outback Steakhouse and am in the process of being moved up to To-Go orders, much like Bensons I am often praised for my hard work and dedication. I have a variety of community service experience as well, my senior year of high school I had an unpaid internship at an adult care home, where I took care of multiple residents at a time. Some of my duties included filing records, administering medication, feeding, and playing games with them. I was also apart of two community service organizations including National Honor Society and Key Club, which held events such as Christmas Wish and Toys for Tots, as well as work at our local food pantry. In high school I also ran Cross Country receiving multiple ribbons and awards until covid took away my running opportunities. Currently I am researching different community service sororities or organizations I can join to continue my journey in the fall. This scholarship will help me continue to pay for my undergraduate degree and be a stepping stone in me reaching my goal of attending law school to become a defense attorney. I want to be able to give a voice to the thousands of victims taken advantage by our justice system every single day, and be a inspiration for the millions of children who are currently stuck in cycles of crime and/or poverty.

I never felt like I had a voice growing up, I grew up in a small town just north of Albany with residents who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. Many kids grew up wondering where their next meal would come from, if they would have the supplies they needed for school, or if they would even have a secure home to go to. A handful of kids including myself entered the workforce at 13 or 14 to help pay for basic necessities such as food and clothing, giving up the last few years of their childhood. This town will always feel like home to me, however I also see it as a trap, a broken system with generation after generation repeating the same lives, and I came to realize the only way out was college. For this reason, despite my financial struggles I decided to begin my educational career at Albany University as a criminal justice major with a sociology minor. I will be returning to Albany in just a few weeks for the start of my sophomore year, while there I will be a full time student while also working 20- 25 hours a week for just $10 a hour. Balancing my education as well as my career while also attempting to enjoy my time at university is a struggle, but I feel the sacrifice is worth the outcome of what I am trying to build. I chose to get a criminal justice degree because our justice system is broken, crime continues to rise as people get more desperate for things such as money, or basic necessities, and many times these people are victims themselves and their voices and stories are never heard. I recently decided I want to continue my career and go to law school as I feel I could make the most systematic change and ultimately help those in need. This will also allow me to continue my love for learning and better my intellectual mind and problem solving skills. I want to build a world where those who are struggling aren't continuously pushed down, a world where we can trust our justice system, not fear it, and ultimately be a face of inspiration for the millions of kids who are stuck in a system of poverty. My whole life has been dedicated to working to making sure we live in a world where everyone can have a voice, and I want to be living proof that cycles of crime or poverty can be broken. For my photo I submitted a photo of my home town that I wrote about, it inspires me to never stop working towards my goals, and is a reminder of what can happen if I do. I also submitted a photo of the house I grew up in.

I grew up in a small town just north of Albany with residents who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. Many kids grew up wondering where their next meal would come from, if they would have the supplies they needed for school, or if they would even have a secure home to go to. A handful of kids including myself entered the workforce at 13 or 14 to help pay for basic necessities such as food and clothing, giving up the last few years of their childhood. This town will always feel like home to me, however I also see it as a trap, a broken system with generation after generation repeating the same lives, and I came to realize the only way out was college. For this reason, despite my financial struggles I decided to begin my educational career at Albany University as a criminal justice major with a sociology minor. I will be returning to Albany in just a few weeks for the start of my sophomore year, while there I will be a full time student while also working 20- 25 hours a week for just $10 a hour. Balancing my education as well as my career while also attempting to enjoy my time at university is a struggle, but I feel the sacrifice is worth the outcome of what I am trying to build. I chose to get a criminal justice degree because our justice system is broken, crime continues to rise as people get more desperate for things such as money, or basic necessities. I recently decided I want to continue my career and go to law school as I feel I could make the most systematic change and ultimately help those in need. This will also allow me to continue my love for learning and better my intellectual mind and problem solving skills. I want to build a world where those who are struggling aren't continuously pushed down, a world where we can trust our justice system, not fear it, and ultimately be a face of inspiration for the millions of kids who are stuck in a system of poverty, as living proof that the cycle can be broken.

The biggest success for me would be achieving my goal of attending college and studying to become a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with, which will hopefully reduce the chances of them taking out their grief through violence, suicide or any other harmful actions. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist residents who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair or painted their nails. Many residents didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend quality time with them. I would spend time after my internship taking them for walks around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot to them. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of grief, however it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work. Over time I noticed my grief slowly began to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. I will use this scholarship to help me through college while I earn a bachelor's degree in social work. While in college I also plan to participate in victim advocacy internship programs until I eventually graduate and begin my career.

“Say goodbye Jordis,” my mother said softly as tears ran down my face. I looked into my dog's eyes, the same ones I've looked into for the last 14 years of my life. They were cloudy and glossed over and I knew this would be the last time, they slowly closed, and she was gone. This is the first time I've felt completely helpless. Who knew my dog's death would lead me toward my dream of pursuing social work and victim advocacy? I currently participate in an internship at my school cafe and have a part-time job at a local diner. The skills I've acquired from these fast-paced jobs have taught me how to thoroughly communicate and multitask while still completing the duty at hand. I also volunteer at the Danforth Adult Care Home through an unpaid internship. I've learned about how to recognize the needs of residents and the many different ways to step up and solve problems. I have also seen loss during my time there, with families saying goodbye while surrounding their loved ones during their final moments. Through these experiences and my loss, I have realized how beautiful it is to be allowed to say goodbye surrounded by support. As a student, I have tasked myself with helping people. With the help of this scholarship, I plan to continue this by offering support and resources to those suffering during my career and make sure no one feels completely helpless.

The biggest success for me would be achieving my goal of attending college and studying to become a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with, which will hopefully reduce the chances of them taking out their grief through violence, suicide or any other harmful actions. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist residents who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair or painted their nails. Many residents didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend quality time with them. I would spend time after my internship taking them for walks around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot to them. The biggest adversity for me would be moving on after a resident passed away. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of grief, however it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work. Over time I noticed my grief slowly began to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. I will use this scholarship to help me through college while I earn a bachelor's degree in social work. While in college I also plan to participate in victim advocacy internship programs until I eventually graduate and begin my career.

When I was young I used to pull on my hair when I got stressed, at the time I thought it was something everyone did, however as I got older it only got worse. I would start to have heavy breathing spells at random moments, I had trouble sleeping and was often kept up at night with my mind racing. This made me very untrusting of others and thus it made me very isolated. When I was 13 my mom took me to the doctor to take some tests. There I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. They gave me medication and tips to control the intrusive thoughts I had been having my whole life. It has been four years and I am now excelling mentally. I work as a busser at a local diner, I joined the National Honor Society and Key Club and I've made lifelong friends. Childhood me would never imagine being as outgoing as I am in life, at work I can converse with up to 300 people in a single shift. Going from an isolated kid with few friends to a waitress was a big success for me. I think mental health is extremely important, young me had no idea that what she was feeling wasn't normal, and as I aged it would only get worse. I feel that mental health and mental illness should be more spoken about, it should be taught in schools to children and those children should be reassured that mental health is not a dirty topic. We lose thousands of people every year due to poor mental health, and I'm sure many of the victims think that they will feel that way forever because that's exactly how I felt. Medication isn't the only answer, although it personally helps me. I also maintain my mental wellness by reading, eating healthy, and making sure I get a decent amount of sleep at night. Something that also helps me is helping other people. Currently, I participate in an internship at the Danforth Adult Care Home. There I file residents' charts, manage their medications, monitor activities, assist during meal time and build relationships with them. By doing this I successfully give back to my community and it makes me feel as if I make a positive difference in the world. This is part of the reason I plan to go to school to become a victim advocate, not only to help people but to also give them resources to help their mental state after a traumatic event. These experiences have inspired me to pursue my dream of becoming a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I remember what it felt like to be alone during a mentally hard time, and I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. Without my personal experiences with mental health, I may have never discovered my passion for giving back.

My name is Jordis Harrington and I am a 17 year old Highschool senior. My dream is to attend college and study to become a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with, which will hopefully reduce the chances of them taking out their grief through violence, suicide or any other harmful actions. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist residents who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair or painted their nails. Many residents didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend quality time with them. I would spend time after my internship taking them for walks around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot to them. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of grief, however it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work. Over time I noticed my grief slowly began to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. I will use this scholarship to help me through college while I earn a bachelor's degree in social work. While in college I also plan to participate in victim advocacy internship programs until I eventually graduate and begin my career.

Music has affected my life greatly throughout my years in high school. I listen to many genres including pop, rap and country with a variety of artists including Taylor Swift, Zach Bryan, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey and Tilian. In April of this year, I took an educational trip to Costa Rica with my school. There we did a variety of things aside from learning such as community beach cleans, surfing, zip-lining and more. It was there that I met a boy I grew to fall in love with. Music bonded us, we first began truly falling for each other on a boat ride to a private island. The members of the boat voted for me to hook my phone up to play music and the Mason- the boy- sat next to me. Together we bonded over the songs we both knew and made a massive inside joke about the Weezer we both had on our playlists. On the plane ride home we kept begging classmates or strangers to switch seats with us so we could sit together and listen to music. On one flight he was assigned the seat right behind me and we both made each other playlists of songs we wanted the other to listen to. When we returned to the States we began dating and he went to prom with me, there we danced and shouted songs we both loved until we both lost our voices. On many of the long car rides we took, we would take turns arguing over who got the aux, he expanded my music taste so much by introducing me to bands such as Dance Gavin Dance and Pierce The Veil, which I still listen to to this day. As time went on me and Mason ended up parting ways, and he went to college. When we broke up I used music to help me feel less alone, by listening to 'Dear John' by Taylor Swift, or 'The Haunting Of December' by Taylor Thomas. Sometimes I'd even listen to 'We Own The Night' by Dance Gavin Dance and cry while I remembered all the times we would scream-sing the song together. Music has always been able to paint a photo for me, whether it be made up or memories I wish I could go back to. It makes painful things I find hard to think about easier to grasp and be happy about, and whenever things would be too much to handle I could escape to my beautiful world of music. Music has affected my life more than anything else ever could, it led to me falling in love, and when everything fell apart it was there to help piece me back together. Without it, I do not know who I would be as a person, and for that I will always love it.

The biggest success for me would be achieving my goal of attending college and studying to become a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with, which will hopefully reduce the chances of them taking out their grief through gun violence, suicide or any other harmful actions. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist residents who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair or painted their nails. Many residents didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend quality time with them. I would spend time after my internship taking them for walks around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot to them. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of grief, however it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work. Over time I noticed my grief slowly began to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. I will use this scholarship to help me through college while I earn a bachelor's degree in social work. While in college I also plan to participate in victim advocacy internship programs until I eventually graduate and begin my career.

When I was young I used to pull on my hair when I got stressed, at the time I thought it was something everyone did, however as I got older it only got worse. I would start to have heavy breathing spells at random moments, I had trouble sleeping and was often kept up at night with my mind racing. This made me very untrusting of others and thus it made me very isolated. When I was 13 my mom took me to the doctor to take some tests. There I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. They gave me medication and tips to control the intrusive thoughts I had been having my whole life. It has been four years and I am now excelling mentally. I work as a busser at a local diner, I joined the National Honor Society and Key Club and I've made lifelong friends. Childhood me would never imagine being as outgoing as I am in life, at work I can converse with up to 300 people in a single shift. Going from an isolated kid with few friends to a waitress was a big success for me. I think mental health is extremely important, young me had no idea that what she was feeling wasn't normal, and as I aged it would only get worse. I feel that mental health and mental illness should be more spoken about, it should be taught in schools to children and those children should be reassured that mental health is not a dirty topic. We lose thousands of people every year due to poor mental health, and I'm sure many of the victims think that they will feel that way forever because that's exactly how I felt. Medication isn't the only answer, although it personally helps me. I also maintain my mental wellness by reading, eating healthy, and making sure I get a decent amount of sleep at night. Something that also helps me is helping other people. Currently, I participate in an internship at the Danforth Adult Care Home. There I file residents' charts, manage their medications, monitor activities, assist during meal time and build relationships with them. By doing this I successfully give back to my community and it makes me feel as if I make a positive difference in the world. This is part of the reason I plan to go to school to become a victim advocate, not only to help people but to also give them resources to help their mental state after a traumatic event. These experiences have inspired me to pursue my dream of becoming a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I remember what it felt like to be alone during a mentally hard time, and I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. Without my personal experiences with mental health, I may have never discovered my passion for giving back.

When I was young I used to pull on my hair when I got stressed, at the time I thought it was something everyone did, however as I got older it only got worse. I would start to have heavy breathing spells at random moments, I had trouble sleeping and was often kept up at night with my mind racing. This made me very untrusting of others and thus it made me very isolated. When I was 13 my mom took me to the doctor to take some tests. There I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. They gave me medication and tips to control the intrusive thoughts I had been having my whole life. It has been four years and I am now excelling mentally. I work as a busser at a local diner, I joined the National Honor Society and Key Club and I've made lifelong friends. Childhood me would never imagine being as outgoing as I am in life, at work I can converse with up to 300 people in a single shift. Going from an isolated kid with few friends to a waitress was a big success for me. I think mental health is extremely important, young me had no idea that what she was feeling wasn't normal, and as I aged it would only get worse. I feel that mental health and mental illness should be more spoken about, it should be taught in schools to children and those children should be reassured that mental health is not a dirty topic. We lose thousands of people every year due to poor mental health, and I'm sure many of the victims think that they will feel that way forever because that's exactly how I felt. Medication isn't the only answer, although it personally helps me. I also maintain my mental wellness by reading, eating healthy, and making sure I get a decent amount of sleep at night. Something that also helps me is helping other people. Currently, I participate in an internship at the Danforth Adult Care Home. There I file residents' charts, manage their medications, monitor activities, assist during meal time and build relationships with them. By doing this I successfully give back to my community and it makes me feel as if I make a positive difference in the world. This is part of the reason I plan to go to school to become a victim advocate, not only to help people but to also give them resources to help their mental state after a traumatic event. These experiences have inspired me to pursue my dream of becoming a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I remember what it felt like to be alone during a mentally hard time, and I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. My struggles with mental health have only positively impacted my academic performance and without my personal experiences with it, I may have never discovered my passion for giving back.

When I was young I used to pull on my hair when I got stressed, at the time I thought it was something everyone did, however as I got older it only got worse. I would start to have heavy breathing spells at random moments, I had trouble sleeping and was often kept up at night with my mind racing. This made me very untrusting of others and thus it made me very isolated. When I was 13 my mom took me to the doctor to take some tests. There I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. They gave me medication and tips to control the intrusive thoughts I had been having my whole life. It has been four years and I am now excelling mentally. I work as a busser at a local diner, I joined the National Honor Society and Key Club and I've made lifelong friends. Childhood me would never imagine being as outgoing as I am in life, at work I can converse with up to 300 people in a single shift. Going from an isolated kid with few friends to a waitress was a big success for me. I think mental health is extremely important, young me had no idea that what she was feeling wasn't normal, and as I aged it would only get worse. I feel that mental health and mental illness should be more spoken about, it should be taught in schools to children and those children should be reassured that mental health is not a dirty topic. We lose thousands of people every year due to poor mental health, and I'm sure many of the victims think that they will feel that way forever because that's exactly how I felt. Medication isn't the only answer, although it personally helps me. I also maintain my mental wellness by reading, eating healthy, and making sure I get a decent amount of sleep at night. Something that also helps me is helping other people. Currently, I participate in an internship at the Danforth Adult Care Home. There I file residents' charts, manage their medications, monitor activities, assist during meal time and build relationships with them. By doing this I successfully give back to my community and it makes me feel as if I make a positive difference in the world. This is part of the reason I plan to go to school to become a victim advocate, not only to help people but to also give them resources to help their mental state after a traumatic event. These experiences have inspired me to pursue my dream of becoming a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I remember what it felt like to be alone during a mentally hard time, and I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. Without my personal experiences with mental health, I may have never discovered my passion for giving back.

The biggest success for me would be achieving my goal of attending college and studying to become a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist residents who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair or painted their nails. Many residents didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend quality time with them. I would spend time after my internship taking them for walks around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot to them. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of grief, however it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work. Over time I noticed my grief slowly began to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. I will use this scholarship to help me through college while I earn a bachelor's degree in social work and eventually positively impact victims and their families.

If I could have anyone in the world read just one book it would be “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart. This is because the plot twist at the end of the book will make people question every decision they make for the remainder of their lives. This book begins by following a wealthy family who spends every summer on their private island. The main character Cadence suffered a head injury during the previous summer and could not remember anything about it. As Cadence begins to slowly remember the details of the summer before it becomes difficult to put the book down. The book can seem very confusing as you read it, but once you get to the end every confusing detail falls into place and it feels as if your heart stopped for a moment. Cadence finally remembers that the previous summer, in an attempt to save their family from breaking apart she and her friends got stuck in a house fire and Cadence was the only one to survive. She discovers along with the readers that her cousins and her friends whom she'd spent all summer with were not there, they were dead. We Were Liars focuses on the consequences of one's mistake and teaches people to grow from their mistakes and reach out for help. This book helped me realize my dream of becoming a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, mental health and legal connections. This book helped me discover so many things about my life, the struggles I've faced and mental health in general. It taught me to be thankful for everything I have. I will never stop recommending this book in hopes that it impacts someone's life as positively as it impacted mine.

The biggest success for me would be achieving my goal of attending college and studying to become a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist residents who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair or painted their nails. Many residents didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend quality time with them. I would spend time after my internship taking them for walks around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot to them. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of grief, however it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work. Over time I noticed my grief slowly began to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. I will use this scholarship to help me through college while I earn a bachelor's degree in social work, eventually making the world a safer place for victims and their families.

My past year could easily be expressed through Taylor Swift's newest album 1989. For starters, the songs on this album have helped me get through one of the hardest breakups of my life. At the beginning of the year I lost someone very important to me, for this specific reason I would correlate January, February and March to the song “New Romantics”. Specifically the lyrics “We’re all so tired of everything”, “We cry tears of mascara in the bathroom”, and “The rumors are terrible and cruel”. I thought these months of my life were the hardest I'd ever have to go through, I couldn't have been more wrong. In April I went on an educational trip to Costa Rica with my school. It was my first time out of the country and to this day I would still describe it as the best experience of my life despite everything that happened after. We had a curfew of 9 pm, but many of us would travel out of our hotel rooms and sit by the pool, explore the roof, or spend time with other students in the lounge. I would describe these moments of my trip with the song “Shake it off", specifically the lyrics “Can't stop won't stop movin’”, “I'm lightning on my feet”, and “I keep cruisin’”. This is because these experiences were the all-time high of my life. While on this trip I met a boy, we'd gone to the same school all our life but we had never spoken before this trip, and slowly we fell in love. We spent mornings and evenings in the pools, sat together on boat cruises, cleaned the beach together and many nights we would sneak out of our rooms to see each other. One specific night around 1 am, we were lying on the couch in one of the lounge rooms. It was so hot and we could see monkeys in distant trees illuminated by the stars. We had been up for hours just talking and we kissed, it felt like time stopped. I would describe the love I felt with the song “This Love” or “Wonderland”. Specifically the lyrics “You showed up just in time”, “This love is glowing in the dark”, “Didn't they tell us don't rush into things”, “You and I got lost in it” and “Too in love to think straight”. I fell absolutely in love with this boy, he came with me to prom when we got back home and we spent nearly every day together. However he was a year older than me and would be leaving for college in September, so eventually we had to part ways. The breakup was bad, and I was completely heartbroken, although we have reconnected multiple times throughout the past few months he was never ready to get back together. Not having him absolutely broke me, the things I learned about him were bad, and worst of all I still love him. I would describe this time of my life using “All you had to do was stay '', “Say don't go”, and “Is it over now”. Taylor Swift's music has been through every experience with me, the good and the bad. Without it I don't think I'd be where I am today, and for that, I will always be grateful to her.

The biggest success for me would be achieving my goal of attending college and studying to become a victim advocate. This career entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist residents who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair or painted their nails. Many residents didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend quality time with them. I would spend time after my internship taking them for walks around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot to them. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of grief, however it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work. Over time I noticed my grief slowly began to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. I will use this scholarship to help me through college while I earn a bachelor's degree in social work and eventually reach my career goal.

When I was young I used to pull on my hair when I got stressed, at the time I thought it was something everyone did, however as I got older it only got worse. I would start to have heavy breathing spells at random moments, I had trouble sleeping and was often kept up at night with my mind racing. This made me very untrusting of others and thus it made me very isolated. When I was 13 my mom took me to the doctor to take some tests. There I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. They gave me medication and tips to control the intrusive thoughts I had been having my whole life. It has been four years and I am now excelling mentally. I work as a busser at a local diner, I joined the National Honor Society and Key Club and I've made lifelong friends. Childhood me would never imagine being as outgoing as I am in life, at work I can converse with up to 300 people in a single shift. Going from an isolated kid with few friends to a waitress was a big success for me. I think mental health is extremely important, young me had no idea that what she was feeling wasn't normal, and as I aged it would only get worse. I feel that mental health and mental illness should be more spoken about, it should be taught in schools to children and those children should be reassured that mental health is not a dirty topic. We lose thousands of people every year due to poor mental health, and I'm sure many of the victims think that they will feel that way forever because that's exactly how I felt. Medication isn't the only answer, although it personally helps me. I also maintain my mental wellness by reading, eating healthy, and making sure I get a decent amount of sleep at night. Something that also helps me is helping other people. Currently, I participate in an internship at the Danforth Adult Care Home. There I file residents' charts, manage their medications, monitor activities, assist during meal time and build relationships with them. By doing this I successfully give back to my community and it makes me feel as if I make a positive difference in the world. This is part of the reason I plan to go to school to become a victim advocate, not only to help people but to also give them resources to help their mental state after a traumatic event. These experiences have inspired me to pursue my dream of becoming a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I remember what it felt like to be alone during a mentally hard time, and I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. Without my personal experiences with mental health, I may have never discovered my passion for giving back.

Success in my eyes is having the opportunity to change at least one person's life for the better. My future dream, and thus my vision of success is to become a victim advocate. This career entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they were supposed to take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending more quality time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, help the residents paint, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist the patients who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair, helped them get ready, or painted their nails. Many of them didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend extra quality time with them. I would spend many hours after my internship taking the residents for walks outside around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of intense grief, however, it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work seemingly unaffected. Over time I noticed my grief would slowly begin to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. This opportunity will help me with achieving my dream, with the help of this scholarship I will put myself through college to earn a bachelor's degree in social work. While in college I also plan to participate in victim advocacy internship programs until I eventually graduate and begin my career.

When I was young I used to pull on my hair when I got stressed, at the time I thought it was something everyone did, however as I got older it only got worse. I would start to have heavy breathing spells at random moments, I had trouble sleeping and was often kept up at night with my mind racing. This made me very untrusting of others and thus it made me very isolated. When I was 13 my mom took me to the doctor to take some tests. There I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. They gave me medication and tips to control the intrusive thoughts I had been having my whole life. It has been four years and I am now excelling mentally. I work as a busser at a local diner, I joined the National Honor Society and Key Club and I've made lifelong friends. Childhood me would never imagine being as outgoing as I am in life, at work I can converse with up to 300 people in a single shift. Going from an isolated kid with few friends to a waitress was a big success for me. I think mental health is extremely important, young me had no idea that what she was feeling wasn't normal, and as I aged it would only get worse. I feel that mental health and mental illness should be more spoken about, it should be taught in schools to children and those children should be reassured that mental health is not a dirty topic. We lose thousands of people every year due to poor mental health, and I'm sure many of the victims think that they will feel that way forever because that's exactly how I felt. Medication isn't the only answer, although it personally helps me. I also maintain my mental wellness by reading, eating healthy, and making sure I get a decent amount of sleep at night. Something that also helps me is helping other people. Currently, I participate in an internship at the Danforth Adult Care Home. There I file residents' charts, manage their medications, monitor activities, assist during meal time and build relationships with them. By doing this I successfully give back to my community and it makes me feel as if I make a positive difference in the world. This is part of the reason I plan to go to school to become a victim advocate, not only to help people but to also give them resources to help their mental state after a traumatic event. These experiences have inspired me to pursue my dream of becoming a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I remember what it felt like to be alone during a mentally hard time, and I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. Without my personal experiences with mental health, I may have never discovered my passion to give back.

My future dream is to become a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. To begin preparing for this I have started an unpaid internship at the Danforth adult care home. Although this is different from advocating for victims, I still provide resources and support for residents. I started this internship by filing and sorting patients' charts, through this I learned residents' names, the medications they take and the allergies they have. After a few weeks, I began monitoring floor activities and spending time with the residents. I would call out bingo numbers, read trivia questions, make sundaes for birthday parties, and host the fan-favorite karaoke nights. Since I learned all the resident's medications and allergies I would help the nurses while they administered the pharmaceuticals and assist residents who needed extra help during meal times. Over time I began to grow bonds with my residents. Many would tell me stories of their youth while I did their hair or painted their nails. Many residents didn't have any family left to visit them so I would make sure to spend quality time with them. I would spend time after my internship taking them for walks around the building or watching television with them, and I knew my company meant a lot to them. When losing a resident we would all feel a sense of grief, however it was a part of the job and we would need to continue our work. Over time I noticed my grief slowly began to turn into gratitude. I was thankful that the residents were not lonely in the last moments of their life, and they had me and my co-workers to help them. My experiences at this care home assured me that I want to continue helping people in my adulthood and that the work I was doing was helping me prepare for my future. I will use this scholarship to help me through college while I earn a bachelor's degree in social work. While in college I also plan to participate in victim advocacy internship programs until I eventually graduate and begin my career.

When I was young I used to pull on my hair when I got stressed, at the time I thought it was something everyone did, however as I got older it only got worse. I would start to have heavy breathing spells at random moments, I had trouble sleeping and was often kept up at night with my mind racing. This made me very untrusting of others and thus it made me very isolated. When I was 13 my mom took me to the doctor to take some tests. There I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. They gave me medication and tips to control the intrusive thoughts I had been having my whole life. It has been four years and I am now excelling mentally, I work as a busser at a local diner, I joined the National Honor Society and Key Club and I've made lifelong friends. Childhood me would never imagine being as outgoing as I am in life, at work I can conversate with up to 300 people in a single shift. Going from an isolated kid with few friends to a waitress was a big success for me. I think mental health is extremely important, young me had no idea that what she was feeling wasn't normal, and as I aged it would only get worse. I feel that mental health and mental illness should be more spoken on, it should be taught in schools to children and those children should be reassured that mental health is not a dirty topic. We lose thousands of people every year due to poor mental health, and I'm sure many of the victims think that they will feel that way forever because that's exactly how I felt. Medication isn't the only answer, although it personally helps me I also maintain my mental wellness by reading, eating healthy, and making sure I get a decent amount of sleep at night. Something that also helps me is helping other people. Currently, I participate in an internship at the Danforth Adult Care Home. There I file residents' charts, manage their medications, monitor activities, assist during meal time and build relationships with them. By doing this I successfully give back to my community and it makes me feel as if I make a positive difference in the world. These experiences have inspired me to pursue my dream of becoming a victim advocate. This entails helping victims of a crime by providing emotional support, victims' rights information, and connections. On top of that, I would be guiding victims through the legal process of pressing charges or going to trial. The experience of surviving a crime, natural disaster, or traumatic event can greatly affect the victim's mental health. I remember what it felt like to be alone during a mentally hard time, and I plan to use my career to not only help victims through the immediate recovery of a traumatic event but also the long-term recovery. I will provide mental health resources and support lines to every victim that I have the opportunity to work with. Without my personal experiences with mental health, I may have never discovered my passion for giving back.

When I was young I used to pull on my hair when I got stressed, at the time I thought it was something everyone did, however as I got older it only got worse. I would start to have heavy breathing spells at random moments, I had trouble sleeping and was often kept up at night with my mind racing. This made me very untrusting of others and thus it made me very isolated. When I was 13 my mom took me to the doctor to take some tests. There I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. They gave me medication and tips to control the intrusive thoughts I had been having my whole life. It has been four years and I am now excelling mentally, I work as a busser at a local diner, I joined the National Honor Society and Key Club and I've made lifelong friends. Childhood me would never imagine being as outgoing as I am in life, at work I can conversate with up to 300 people in a single shift. Going from an isolated kid with few friends to a waitress was a big success for me. I think mental health is extremely important, young me had no idea that what she was feeling wasn't normal, and as I aged it would only get worse. I feel that mental health and mental illness should be more spoken on, it should be taught in schools to children and those children should be reassured that mental health is not a dirty topic. We lose thousands of people every year due to poor mental health, and I'm sure many of the victims think that they will feel that way forever because that's exactly how I felt. Medication isn't the only answer, although it personally helps me I also maintain my mental wellness by reading, eating healthy, and making sure I get a decent amount of sleep at night. Something that also helps me is helping other people. Currently, I participate in an internship at the Danforth Adult Care Home. There I file residents' charts, manage their medications, monitor activities, assist during meal time and build relationships with them. By doing this I successfully give back to my community and it makes me feel as if I make a positive difference in the world. This is part of the reason I plan to go to school to become a victim advocate, not only to help people but to also give them resources to help their mental state after a traumatic event.