Hello, My name is Julissa Torrez, a first-generation graduate student who is currently at Adams State University earning my Masters's degree in School Counseling. How my experience with mental health influenced my beliefs, relationships, and career aspirations is mentioned below. How my experience with mental health influenced my beliefs; the trauma connected to my experiences of poor mental health not only brought me close to religion as I am considered Baptist. This has helped me as a starting point to find healthy and creative ways to cope when my own life has turned for the worst. I engaged in multiple activities my whole life such as choir, praise team, and the church student leadership group that initially supported programming for the young adults in our church with mental health support, college scholarships, and volunteer opportunities. How my experience with mental health influenced my relationships; I've struggled to bridge the gap with my parents who suffered tremendously with mental health. My father who is currently fighting cancer and my mother who struggles with healthy coping skills being able to build a healthy relationship have been hard. Due to this disconnect, I've struggled to build romantic and personal relationships. I've never seen a successful relationship or friendship. So I often struggle or hesitate to build with others in the fear that I will be hurt or "mess up". The hope is to provide my own self with consistent therapy and healthy coping skills to overcome this obstacle to obtain healthy relationships. How my experience with mental health influenced my career aspirations; My whole upbringing I was exposed to substance abuse and poor coping skills. These experiences came from my Father who was heavily addicted to drugs and multiple family members who were alcoholics. My current career choice as a high school counselor stemmed from the lack of resources in my community that could have saved me from multiple traumatic events in my life that included domestic violence between my parents and the death of multiple family members. The goal is to continue to provide underserved communities like the one I grew up in with resources not only for mental health but community resources for growth. If more resources were available it could have provided me with more opportunities and offered my parents better skills to advance out of poverty and provide me and my 7 siblings with skills for the real world. I hope to be a candidate to receive this scholarship as it would help tremendously with tuition even though it is a small amount. Anything helps! I am the first person in my family to enroll and push towards obtaining my Masters's degree. I am doing this for my community, my family, and my three children. This is the beginning for all of us to take on mental health in our own lives, within our family, and in the communities within Denver, Colorado. If I win, we all win. This is for us! I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Hello, My name is Julissa Torrez, a first-generation graduate student who is currently at Adams State University earning my Masters's degree in School Counseling. I would like to tell you about a teacher who helped me pursue higher education. As well as discuss how this person impacted my educational journey. The teacher who greatly impacted my educational journey is Kyler Jackson. At the time, I was enrolled at Manual High School in Denver, Colorado Kyler was not only the Spanish teacher but he also was the baseball, softball coach, and led the student council. The many hats and little pay were much respected. That's where I learned poor boundaries working in education. He was able to impact students in multiple capacities. For most, he was not only a teacher or coach but a father figure. Who he was: Caring, consistent, authentic, honest, trustworthy, outgoing, life-long learner, and adventurous. The list can simply go on. I learned so many of my own great qualities learning, watching, and engaging with Kyler. My best memory was Kyler helping me strategically plan how to face my bully. He gave me the confidence and pep talk to overcome such a rough obstacle as a teenager. He never judged, laughed, or ignored my needs. Fast forward, how Kyler has impacted my educational journey was through providing me with resources for success such as college and career readiness. Alongside, he provided me with the needed support to re-enroll back into school after I dropped out of high school my senior year. I've not only graduated with my Associates in Medical Specialities but my Bachelors in Psychology. Now that I am enrolled as a first-generation graduate student. He is still actively involved in my life and provides me with tutoring and guidance to continue to keep pursuing my dreams of being a high school counselor. I decided to pursue a degree in School Counseling to continue to support young people of color in underserved communities and in school systems that don't offer all opportunities to our young people. I never had a successful counselor in my life the initiative Kyler put forth made me realize the gap that needs to be filled in underserved communities. My goal is to provide resources and guidance for more kids of color that lack at home or in-school supports to create a platform of pushing perseverance and excellence for our young people. I am excited about the future and owe it all to Kyler Jackson. I hope you consider my application as this scholarship would assist tremendously with the completion of my Masters's degree. Thank you for your time!

Hello, My name is Julissa Torrez, a first-generation graduate student who is currently at Adams State University earning my Masters's degree in School Counseling. How my experience with mental health influenced my beliefs, relationships, and career aspirations is mentioned below. How my experience with mental health influenced my beliefs; the trauma connected to my experiences of poor mental health not only brought me close to religion as I am considered Baptist. This has helped me as a starting point to find healthy and creative ways to cope when my own life has turned for the worst. I engaged in multiple activities my whole life such as choir, praise team, and the church student leadership group that initially supported programming for the young adults in our church with mental health support, college scholarships, and volunteer opportunities. How my experience with mental health influenced my relationships; I've struggled to bridge the gap with my parents who suffered tremendously with mental health. My father who is currently fighting cancer and my mother who struggles with healthy coping skills being able to build a healthy relationship have been hard. Due to this disconnect, I've struggled to build romantic and personal relationships. I've never seen a successful relationship or friendship. So I often struggle or hesitate to build with others in the fear that I will be hurt or "mess up". The hope is to provide my own self with consistent therapy and healthy coping skills to overcome this obstacle to obtain healthy relationships. How my experience with mental health influenced my career aspirations; My whole upbringing I was exposed to substance abuse and poor coping skills. These experiences came from my Father who was heavily addicted to drugs and multiple family members who were alcoholics. My current career choice as a high school counselor stemmed from the lack of resources in my community that could have saved me from multiple traumatic events in my life that included domestic violence between my parents and the death of multiple family members. The goal is to continue to provide underserved communities like the one I grew up in with resources not only for mental health but community resources for growth. If more resources were available it could have provided me with more opportunities and offered my parents better skills to advance out of poverty and provide me and my 7 siblings with skills for the real world. I hope to be a candidate to receive this scholarship as it would help tremendously with tuition even though it is a small amount. Anything helps! I am the first person in my family to enroll and push towards obtaining my Masters's degree. I am doing this for my community, my family, and my three children. This is the beginning for all of us to take on mental health in our own lives, within our family, and in the communities within Denver, Colorado. If I win, we all win. This is for us! I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Hello! My name is Julissa Torrez, current Graduate student at Adams State University majoring in School Counseling. My desire and motivation to pursue a mental health career to serve the Latinx community is aligned with my current decision to enroll in Graduate school. The desire and motivation stemmed from my own personal experience. I grew up in a single-parent household with 6 other children. Not only did I experience the impact of poor mental health from my disabled mother but from family and within myself. Growing up I was exposed to substance abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse by those who loved me due to a lack of professional support for mental health concerns. We merely did not have financial means and bucket of resources. Fast forward to 30 years later, I've worked in education for over 10 years working with high-risk and underserved communities in Denver, Colorado. My passion to create opportunities for growth in my community has been the target goal. I've worked in multiple capacities in my community as an educational advocate for students who dis-engaged from school, an Adult Ambassador for the Mayor's Youth Commission to tackle Youth Mental Health in the city of Denver, and as a Mental Health/Academic Counselor in 2 Charter Schools. My work surrounds around not only being a resource for the Latinx community but to bring more awareness around resources that are available. I hope you consider my application as the scholarship money would account for a whole school year tuition at Adams State. This opportunity would bring me closer to graduation to continue to serve the Latinx community with the resources to tackle mental health, substance abuse, and higher education within our community.