The career path which I have decided to commit to is pediatric psychology/therapy. I plan to pursue this career path in an effort to assist children and young adults with issues such as mental health, grief, and trauma. I wish to provide an outstretched hand for the future leaders, change - makers, and visionaries of the world. Regarding the path I am paving for this future, I am only just getting started. This journey however, does have to begin somewhere. This story starts during my junior year of high school. Junior year is always the busiest, with tests, finals, and college planning/preparation. Despite being busy with these things, I chose to sign up for Advanced Placement Psychology. I originally had no intentions to add a more difficult class to my schedule, but I had an empty spot in my schedule and a propensity to learn new things. As a student in this class, I learned a lot of really interesting things. From the sections of the brain and how they direct the rest of the body, to the stages of development throughout one's life and how even the smallest things can impact this time of development. Though I came into this class with a simple bit of curiosity, I had grown to love the subject. As a basis for the whole human body, the brain is not only important to learn about, but beneficial to our every person on the planet. This is why I was directed to continuing my learning on the topic as through a career in this field, I could assist others and explore a topic I genuinely enjoyed learning new things about. Helping people and the goal of being someone others can look up to as a leader is not a new goal for me however. As a little kid, I would always reach out to be helpful. Whether it was assisting my mom making dinner or participating in my schools yearly food and coat drives. This continues to be true as I frequently volunteer throughout my community and participate in many volunteer/community service organizations throughout my school and outside of school. I plan to use this drive of becoming a leader and mentor, to help others to truly make a difference for those in my community who are often ignored despite needing the most attention and aid. Through this career pathway, I do not only want to help others, but I want to make an impact on ways in which mental health and its resources are distributed and implemented throughout my community and potentially even nationwide.

Since a young age I have been a helper. Whether it was assisting my parents with household chores or participating in volunteer activities throughout my school, I made sure to help as many people as I could. This trait stays true for current day me as I volunteer regularly throughout my community in an effort to help those who deserve support. On the topic of support, I will be using my community involvement experiences to become a mentor and advocate for the children in my community as a pediatric therapist. While this group of individuals is the most susceptible and easily impacted by mental illness, they are often the most overlooked and disregarded. I wish to stand up against this ignorance and be someone that can support the children who will one day be president, fill our city council's, and protect our cities, towns, and communities'. After graduating from college I plan to open my own pediatric therapy clinic. Throughout this clinic I intend on putting a large amount of effort into creating an atmosphere that facilitates comfort for each and every one of my patients. From my experience taking care of and working with children and young adults, a space without a sense of comfort and understanding, brings any parties involved, who are trying to trying to communicate, to a standstill. So, part of the way in which I want to streamline the processes of assisting youth suffering from the effects of negative mental health and bullying is to establish my clinic as a space to come to for support as well as to simply receive mentorship and acknowledgement. I want each of my patients to remember my clinic as a place that is open to help them get back on their feet. The second part of my plan to more effectively and efficiently assist youth throughout my community, is to provide alternative options of counseling during each therapy session. For example there are many individuals who, due to experiences at school (bullying and harassment) or mental illness, feel uncomfortable directly interacting with adults as they feel it will not help their situation. This makes providing therapy to these children and young adults a little harder, so when considering options that could work I had to think a bit outside of the box. An alternative I want to try and incorporate to fill this gap in communication is an art and expression break. Not only does art positively develop creativity in children and young adults but provides the child an outlet to express things their going through and things that provide them joy. While things like making sure my clinics environment is especially comforting and providing alternative therapy options takes a significant amount of work, it is worth it for me as I get to help those in need who often do not receive the treatment that they are deserving of. Regarding my future endeavors in advocating for both progress and social change over bullying and harassment in grades k-12, I intend to participate in local city council meetings by which my voice can be heard on this subject. Additionally, I plan to run for a position on my towns city council after graduating from college and the establishing my pediatric therapy clinic. If given the opportunity to be on this council my platforms would focus on the mental health and support systems throughout schools as well as making schools safer places for the children of the future.