My name is Kaycee Westfall I am a 33 year old college student and I am an aspiring Speech Language Pathology major. I am currently pursuing my undergraduate degree in Speech Language Pathology at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton California. I was an aspiring nursing student and doing my internship as a CNA at a nursing home when I met the Speech Language Pathologist one day on the job. The Speech Language Pathologist was an inspiration to me and I enjoyed listening to her about how much more Speech Pathologist professionals are desperately needed in the field. A few years before I went down the nursing path I had my first son who ended up needing speech therapy due to a language delay, it was during these years accompanying him to speech therapy that I realized I was interested in the health field. I enjoyed watching my son blossom. At the time I did not know what I wanted to pursue and I felt like nursing could fit me because I am a kind and caring person. I enrolled in the CNA program to get experience while taking nursing classes on the side. I had a hard time not thinking about speech language pathology the whole time. Meeting the Speech Language Pathologist at the nursing home felt like another sign to head in that direction. After completing the CNA program I decided to take a leap of faith and apply for the Speech Language Pathology Assistant program at Delta college in Stockton California and I was accepted. I decided it was best to become the assistant so I can get hands on experience in the field while I work towards my bachelors and masters. It has proved to be difficult being a single mom, working, and going to school. I still get up every day with a positive attitude to get the job done. My hope for the future is to be a positive light in every persons life I enter. I plan to serve my clients with the upmost purpose and give them all the best care I can provide. I also plan on helping the parents and caregivers understand and process the diagnosis of speech disorders. My goal is to learn as much as I can and serve my field with dignity and honor. There has been a steady rise in autism cases that have been happening over the years and I really want to hone in on that area of study in my grad years. I am very eager to help autistic children thrive in a way that is neurodiversity affirming. I plan on doing all this and more all while being the best mother I can be. If I win the money will be used for books and gas for transportation to get to campus which is a four hour drive in total, two hour drive there and two hour drive home. Thank you for considering me.

Mental illness and mental health has really stepped into the spotlight in recent years. We see the devastating effects that mental illness has on ordinary people and celebrities alike. Mental illness does not discriminate. I was one of the unfortunate victims to mental illness. Back in 2014 I was depressed and anxious and my psychiatrist prescribed me Xanax. I unfortunately grew dependent on the medication and abused it regularly. This addiction pushed me even deeper into my depression and it eventually pushed me to the edge of an attempted suicide. After my failed attempt at suicide I agreed to go to a facility for help. My mother and father brought me to a behavioral center on a 51/50 order. I spent 3 weeks in the behavioral center where I was weaned from the medication I was addicted too. I was around quite a few individuals who were in there with similar problems like I had and others who had conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. It was an eye opening and terrifying experience. I received the help I needed and got out of rehab and I promised myself I would never end up back in the behavioral center again. To my surprise, healing was a really rough journey. Even though I was completely sober I started to develop a severe case of paranoia and anxiety. Being sober I was able to replay the bad life choices I made in a continuous loop that haunted me. I tried to find a good counselor that would just talk to me but I couldn’t find one that was the right fit for me. One day at work I acquired a client through my coworker and she was an angel in disguise. She was a high school counselor and ended up being the best thing that happened to me. Every 6 weeks she would show up to get her hair done and we would just talk and she would listen to me and give me good advice. I began to look forward to her appointments. It’s now been 11 years since my attempted suicide. I have made a conscious decision every single day to try to be positive and focus on what’s good. I unfortunately still have anxiety and OCD but the paranoia is gone. Every single day I wake up with the intention of making the choice to keep moving forward and keep trying. I was accepted to the SLPA program at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton California. I was sitting with my client Cathy, the high school counselor yesterday at her hair appointment and she told me how proud of me she was. She told me how much of a blessing it has been to watch me grow this last 11 years. She has kidney disease and her last transplant was denied by her body so this appointment was slightly more somber than most but she did tell me something that means the world to me. She told me that 11 years ago she could tell I needed a shoulder to lean on. She told me she would see me looking so down in the salon and it was her sign to leave her other hairdresser and come to me. I had never knew she came to me because I needed help. I feel so lucky and blessed to have her in my life. I hope we have many more years together and I hope she can watch me walk the stage in two years. She’s the light I needed in my life.

For the last 12 years, I have woken up every day and went into the salon and made other people feel good about themselves. For 12 years, I have been a hairdresser, but I have really been so much more than that. I have been a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear, and a supportive friend. Being a hairdresser, I have met so many people and have touched many hearts. After having my son I learned what love really meant. Having my son opened so many new doors for me. I was able to relive my childhood through the eyes of my son. We have had the best time making memories! When my son was diagnosed with a speech delay at 2 we had to turn to a speech therapist to help us navigate the diagnosis. It was during my son’s speech therapy sessions that I found my true calling. Every time I would attend a speech therapy session I would watch my son interact with the speech therapist and I just knew thats what I wanted to do with my life. I did quite a bit of volunteer work at my son’s preschool and loved every second of it. I knew that working as a speech language pathologist I would be able to help children and adults reach their full potential in life. I developed the skill of being good with kids by having a child of my own and spending a lot of one on one time with him. I developed the skills of being able to manage many children by volunteering in the preschool. I developed the skill of being a good communicator by being a hairdresser the last 12 years. I realized that I love to help people of all ages and in the Speech language pathology field I will have the opportunity to help many different people with many different disabilities who need my help. I was accepted into the Speech Language Pathology Assistant program at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton CA. I start tomorrow! I plan to work on developing the skill of teaching children with speech disabilities to learn to communicate in a way that is comfortable for them. I have spent a lot of time researching Neuro affirming practices for children with disabilities and I plan to develop skills that align with that so that I can teach children to speak or communicate in the way that is neuro affirming for them. I know that there are people in this world who have disabilities of all different kinds, and they feel left behind, I want to make sure that I am making the people who need me feel like they are not left behind and that I will be that shoulder they can lean on the whole time. I want the children that I am helping to know that I will be there every step of the way and I know that the skills that I develop through my program will help me do just that. Thank you very much.

Being in college and becoming a mother are two of the hardest and most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had in my life. One has to be strong willed both mentally and physically to be a parent and a college student. I was in college and got pregnant with my son and decided that I needed to take some time off from school to raise him because when he was an infant, I did not feel as if I could give enough attention to both school and him. I’ve decided to come back to school now that my son is three years old. Luckily, my son helped me choose my new major and I feel like it was supposed to be my path this whole time, but I just didn’t know it until he came along. When my son was two years old, he was diagnosed with a speech delay. He really didn’t say any words at all. He pretty much only babbled. We were sent to a speech pathologist to help us navigate the diagnosis. We attended four speech therapy sessions each month and it was at these therapy sessions that I started to develop a love for helping children learn to speak. As I would watch my son interact with the therapist I would catch myself thinking to my self that I could do this. This ended up being the best decision I had ever made. I finished some prerequisites at my school and I decided to give it a try and apply for the program and luckily I got in. I’m a low income single mother who relies on financial aid and my part time job to make it through school. The biggest challenge I have faced so far this go around is financials hardships. It is very expensive to live in the state of California and with inflation just surviving has gotten really hard. The other hardship I face is mental health, mental health has always been a factor for me in life, and it made my choice to go back to college significantly harder. I refuse to let my anxiety hold me back from finishing school. My school is one hour and fourty five minutes from my home and I make that commute for all my classes. I was definitely worried about the length of the commute, but I’ve convinced myself that this is all temporary and my hard work will pay off. I’ve made a promise to myself that every single day until that diploma is in my hand that I will wake up and I will strive to finish, I will strive to walk that stage and once I’m done walking that stage, I will wake up and thrive and provide the life for my son that I dream about every single day. Thank you.

Strength and grit are two qualities my mother instilled in me at a young age. I watched my mother and father get divorced over my fathers drug addiction at a very young age which led to me being raised by my mother by herself. The hardships a single mother faces are unimaginable and now as an adult I understand everything my mother went through and I am so thankful for everything she did for us. My mother and I moved around for about 3 years after the divorce until she landed herself an entry level job at the hospital which allowed her to be able to barely afford a small apartment. We enjoyed our small apartment. We mostly survived off cheap foods and didn’t have many vacations but our lives were full in a different way. We were best friends and we lived a life that we were proud of. Our tiny apartment was the dream home of the homeless, our boxed dinner was a dream of the hungry, in a way we went without so much but we also had so much to be grateful for. Growing up my mother sacrificed her dreams to make sure I had what I needed. She couldn’t afford to go to school until I was well into high school. She decided to get her medical assisting license through a community college and worked as one for 20 years. What really inspired me as a young mother is watching my mom still pursue her dreams at the age of 45 she decided she was going to start for her associates degree in medical administration and then she went to get her bachelors degree in medical administration. Watching my mother achieve her goals fully by the time she was 50 was such an inspiring thing for me to watch, it ended up kickstarting my desire to go to school. I had my own mental health problems that held me back from going to school for a long time and watching her achieve her goals made me realize that I too can achieve the goals that I set out for and my son was an inspiration for the major I had chosen. My son had a speech delay as a young toddler and I had to go to his speech therapy sessions with him. I was so inspired by the work the speech therapist would do that it led me to really wanting to pursue a career in speech therapy. Fast-forward two years later, I’m here trying my hardest to work part time and go to school full-time to get my associates degree in speech language pathology. After I get my associates degree I would like to earn my bachelors degree and then my masters degree so I can be a speech language pathologist. I have a desire to help children communicate because I have seen the devastating effects not being able to communicate can have on a child and their families. I want to be a light for these kids and their families. I believe everyone has the desire to unlock their full potential, they just need that initial spark to kickstart it. For me, my mother was my spark and I make sure she knows that. Thank you.

Recover to me means life. I have struggled with mental health problems that led to misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis. Having been misdiagnosed so many times led me to trying many different prescription medications to try to fix myself. After 10 years of different antidepressants that did not work, I was put on Xanax. Xanax was the start of my demise. It controlled my life for two years straight and led me to making some very poor choices and ultimately almost committing suicide. I really thank my lucky stars for my family putting me in rehab and helping me get back on my feet. Today I am a college student, a mother, and proud to say I am 10 years clean and sober. I amaze myself everyday. I still struggle with mental health issues but I choose healthy coping mechanisms and have adapted self discipline as a daily practice. Overcoming genetics, substances, and society has come to be quite the challenge but I can confidently say I have won that battle. I am in school studying Speech-Language Pathology and I hope to help many children who suffer from Speech-Language disorders. My heart goes out to all who suffer with pain and addiction. Most of us have a family history, but we don’t all have to follow that path! We can make our own path with dedication and grit. I believe in us.

Mental health awareness has really come to light in late of recent events such as school shootings, suicides, over-doses, and many other unfortunate situations. I believe the work we do with children can help shape their future’s in very positive ways. Many children are misunderstood and misdiagnosed from a very young age. I am studying Speech Language Pathology in hopes of helping each child I come into contact with. In the Speech Language Pathology field we see a lot of children with other disabilities that accompany a Speech Language disorder. I have an intense passion to find ways for these children to cope with their disabilities and teach them ways to communicate their needs in a healthy way. I was a troubled child myself and I spent years with multiple diagnosis’s and many different medications. Mostly what I needed in my childhood was someone to talk to. I needed someone who understood me and supported me. I want to be that supportive shoulder to lean on for any child that needs me. I have ADHD, OCD, and anxiety and I choose to use it as my super power instead of my demise. I hope to show children that if I can do it, so can they! My partner in life suffers from ADHD more severely than I do, I try to be a helping hand and a listening ear to him at all times. I try to give grace to everyone around me. I work downtown in the City of Modesto and come across many homeless people on a daily basis, instead of turning away I always interact with them if they interact with me and I step into their world to do it. I don’t make them feel any less, I treat them as a human being and none the less. I was born to help people, I was born to accept people and I will do that until I can’t anymore! The way I help people daily with their mental health is by being a hairdresser, I have been a hairdresser for 13 years. I have listened to hundreds of peoples stories and been a listening ear through their darkest times. Everyone needs a helping hand from time to time, they can always count on me.

My mother was a young, fun, and lively person until she met my father. What seemed to be the perfect marriage ended in turmoil as my father chose drugs over his family. By the age of 3 my father started abusing drugs and my mom started taking notice. She gave him a few tries and he failed her. She decided to leave him when I was five and navigate the world on her own. My mother lost her home she owned because without my father’s help she couldn’t afford it. Through my young eyes I watched my mother struggle with no child support and a family who lacked emotional support towards her. My mother worked countless nights at the hospital to make ends meet while I spent countless nights with grandparents so she could make money to feed us. My mother is my hero. She is the strongest person I know. Even though we struggled I wouldn’t have changed my life. I felt all my mother’s pain through my childhood. I know she tried to hide her pain but we were so connected I still felt it all. My mother and I were the best of friends throughout my childhood. We went through our normal battles in life when I went through the teenage years. We ended up stronger than ever in my young adult years. Growing up with a single mom has taught me grit and resilience. I refuse to let anything hold me back. I wake up with a fire to provide for my son everyday, even though I find myself in her position as a single mother. I never expected to be a single mother but I wear my title with pride. I will show up every day like my mom did. I am currently working and going to school and raising my son. I am proud of myself. My mother is even more proud of me. Making my mother proud is the best feeling in the world. My mother overcame her struggles and got her associates degree at 48 and her bachelors degree at 51. After my mother pursued her education later in life I realized that I can do anything I want too, no matter the struggles. With my mom and my son by my side I can accomplish anything. I am currently going to college and working towards my associates in Speech-Language Pathology. After I get my associates I plan on working as a Speech-Language Pathology Assistant in a school district. While working as a Speech-Language Pathology Assistant I plan on getting my bachelors and then my masters. Helping kids is what I was born to do. I really look forward to helping children reach their highest potential.

Throughout my life my mental health has changed. From one stage to the next it grew in its intensity. As a child with a father who was a drug addict I faced anxiety at a young age. Living life without my father sent me through a world wind of emotions in my childhood. My mother struggled to do what she could to feed, dress, and keep a roof over our heads. I admire her, I watched her struggle through my young eyes. As a teenager the typical hormonal problems came but were intensified with my pre-existing mental health issues. I started counseling by age 14. I was diagnosed with ADHD and later on depression. I started medications at 16 that unfortunately didn’t help me. Self harm became soothing, self medicating became regular. In my young adulthood I suffered from the worst depression, anxiety, and OCD. The OCD didn’t develop until my early 20’s, I am not sure where it came from but it came with a vengeance. One of my therapists told me it was from having such bad anxiety. I found myself doing daily rituals before leaving the house and suffering from intrusive thoughts. OCD and anxiety have been a powerhouse that has rocked my life in the worst way. By the age of 29 I realized it was time for me to try to get my life together. Me and my significant other decided to try for a baby. I didn’t want to let my mental health hold me back from the family I longed for. I had a blissful pregnancy and all my mental health problems subsided during pregnancy. Shortly after having my son the black cloud crept back in. I suffered from postpartum anxiety and depression and the OCD from prior years still lingered. I masked my mental health so my son couldn’t see it, but I cried in silence. I love him so much and never wanted him to know there was something wrong with me. I watched as mental health awareness grew around the United States. It made me feel less alone. Knowing that a large portion of our society suffers from mental health issues makes me realize how prevalent it is. I always hope that people truly get the help they need. There has been countless people around me who have either committed suicide or turned to drugs which eventually led to their demise. Having mental health issues has caused me to look at the world with a softer point of view. I don’t judge a book by its cover because I know even the happiest looking people can be the saddest. I try to help people whenever possible and I try to be a shoulder to lean on for my friends and family. Even when I’m hurting inside it’s easy for me to help someone else. I am just a caring person. Every single day I watch my son grown it gives me the power to get through my mental health issues. My son keeps me going. My son needed speech therapy back in 2022 and it really caught my interest. I decided to not let my mental health hold me back and go to college to pursue an Associate’s in Speech-Language Pathology. I wish to work as a SLPA when I graduate. While I’m working as a SLPA I plan on getting my Bachelor’s degree and hopefully my Master’s degree after that. I’m in my third semester in college. Being a single mom and working and going to college poses its challenges, but every single day I get up and I try. Some days are good and some are not, but nonetheless I keep trying. When I see my GPA I can’t believe it. I’m have a 3.9 GPA and I am so proud of myself. I have never in my life felt self worth until now. I am so proud of myself and all I have worked for. This scholarship would help me pay for my tuition, books, and gas to get to class. I wish I could take away all the mental health problems the people of this planet suffer from. The world would be a much better place without crippling mental health issues. I hope everyone finds ways to cope with their struggles and finds their way to a happy life. I’m sorry about the loss of your mother. My condolences. It’s a wonderful thing you are doing in memory of her. Thank you, Kaycee Westfall

Being a mother has been the hardest and most rewarding job I have ever had in my life. When I had my son I thought I couldn’t go back to school because it would be too hard. He’s turning 4 this year and I can’t make ends meet with the job I have now. I have found a passion for the medical field and have a goal in mind to go through the LVN program and bridge to RN from there. Taking care of my son has caused me to see the amount of empathy I have towards humans and I’d love to share that by helping my community as a nurse. My son has really helped me learn so much about myself and he doesn’t even know it. What a blessing it has been to bring him into this world. I had my son in 2020 during the Covid 19 pandemic, it was a very scary time for our family. I am a self employed cosmetologist and my business took a severe hit due to the pandemic. I was not allowed to work as a hair dresser because the governor of CA shut our state down. I understand why he did what he did, but it meant my family had only one income. One income in CA doesn’t feed a family of four. I ended up applying for state aid to feed my family. It was one of the hardest times in my life that I have encountered. I felt so low and worthless. Time has passed, life has returned back to as “normal” as it can be, but my business is still suffering. I came to the realization that in order to feed and house my son I have to change my career path. He is my motivation and strength. I know I have to do this for us. I am working to pay for him to be in daycare a few days a week so I can go to school. I have a few more classes until I can apply for the nursing program (LVN) and I am so happy. I am nervous for the financial part of nursing school. I do a high school counselors hair and she has guided me into the direction of scholarships. So this is my effort to alleviate some of the financial stressors of school. I know my son will benefit from this career change, so I know in the end it will be worth it. I have tried to keep faith the last few years, I went through postpartum depression and anxiety and I have finally resurfaced from that hole. I am ready to conquer the world for my son and I. I am now a single mother and I know this all lies on me. My motivation calls me “mommy” and I am so blessed.

This hit home with me. I’d love to tell you guys about my best friend and cousin Angelo Bowers. He was the person I looked up to from a very young age, he was the comedian of the family which inspired me to want to make people laugh. He had an amazing heart, he was the light of my life. He was a few years older than me so he treated me like a younger sister most of the time, we were like siblings, best friends and cousins all in one ! What a special time it was. We grew up in a catholic family and when we would go to church we would try to sit as far away from our great grandma as we could because we knew we’d be laughing the whole time ! Making stick figures with our fingers and making them run on the pew and crash into each other. He would make silly faces and we would giggle if the priest would miss a note during his song. ( so terrible I know, I’ve apologized a million times, haha). We also used to go to Disneyland and we would be standing in line for rides and he would tell me “we’re all gonna die” while making funny faces which would in turn freak my 6 year old self out.. and I’d cry and embarrass my mom. One time on the way to Disneyland he decided he was going to flash his butt to a car on the grapevine which ended up making the person so mad that they got road rage over it and followed us around for quite a while. We were scared at the time, nothing ever came of it so we laugh about it now. He used to fart on my head at Christmas before we opened our Christmas presents. I’m telling you guys he was the silliest person you have ever met. We grew up close, really close. I was an only child so he was like a brother and a best friend all in one. We would shoot hoops and play soccer after school, he’d come pick me up and we would go have fun. What 15 year old wanted to play with their 9 year old little cousin. Well, he did. He changed my life. I can’t imagine what life would have been without him. Sadly I had to imagine what life was without him. He moved to LA to pursue a career in comedy back in 2010 and he lived there two years successfully before his life was taken short by a drunk driver in 2012. Months before he had been diagnosed with a lump in his chest. He was treating it and we all thought he was in the clear, just for his life to be taken by a drunk driver. We laid him to rest January 18th, 2012. It’s a day I’ll never forget. I still grieve. I still think of him so often. Little things happen weekly that remind me of him. His father passed about 6 months before his passing, and our grandma we used to embarrass in church passed a few months after Angelo did. I like to take comfort in the fact that they are all up there together watching and remembering all the good times, like I am down here. I think grieving is a never ending process, it changes slightly but never goes away. If you are interested in seeing my cousin go on YouTube and type in “ Road dog Angelo Bowers”. Thank you. Kaycee Westfall