“I’m here for Julie Martinez.” As our campus security officer, entered fifth period, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach: I knew she had arrived for me. My mom had texted me two minutes before this moment: “Ma, I’m sorry. They’re taking you guys.” I couldn’t believe it was happening again. Orange County Social Services would gather me and my four siblings from school, remove our belongings from the motel where we lived, and place us in a group home. The worst of it: There was no guarantee that we would be in my mom’s custody ever again. Rose guided me to the office. As I lagged behind her, walking through the hallways, tears formed in my eyes. I tried holding them back but couldn’t. Rose asked: “What is wrong?” I blanked, unable to speak. When we arrived at the office, two social workers were waiting. We were taken to Orangewood Children’s Home, ten miles from my hometown of Fullerton. We were all placed (and separated) into cottages with kids our age. We remained at Orangewood for six weeks until Orange County found foster care placement; currently, my siblings and I reside with a young, recently married couple, RJ (24) and Blessings (22); they are just 6-7 years older than I am. This wasn’t the first time that my siblings and I had been removed from my mom’s care. Due to experiencing housing and food insecurities, I’ve spent a lot of time considering the “right” thing to do. Orange County Social Services decided to remove my siblings and me from my mom’s care each of these times as “the right thing.” They took these actions to better our lives, but are they? When my siblings and I were with my mom, our lives were stable. I feared that if people at school knew where I lived, they would think less of me. Witnessing my mother’s struggles to pay for the hotel room was another ongoing challenge. However, we had the most important person in our life with us: our mom. Now, I interact with my community in ways that none of my friends do. Routinely, I’m contacted by social workers, attorneys, and caseworkers, each trying to do the “right” thing. Sometimes, their actions are helpful, and sometimes, they are not. Nonetheless, through my interactions with Social Services, I do what I can to effect change and help others in my family’s situation. My experiences have helped me advocate for myself and my siblings through my attorneys, social workers, and in school as a FGLI Latina student. Through story hours, I have provided care and comfort to younger foster youth at Orangewood. I founded a Fullerton High School club, Helping Hands, to assist the economically disadvantaged in our community. However, in college, I am interested in wrestling with the bigger questions around social responsibility and fostering youth, such as: How do we decide when and how to remove children from their parent’s care? What kind of placements are supportive for children? What systemic inequities make it nearly impossible for parents to regain custody of their children? I want to study psychology and sociology and explore these questions because they connect to my lived experiences. I would be interested in taking courses that would allow me to learn more about a critical issue in my community, along with the social inequities that make these vital issues complex, like foster care. I aspire to be an effective change agent, improving the lives of foster children by helping them graduate from college despite the incredibly low chances(4%), just as I plan to do.