Living with two mental health conditions lead me to my chosen career path- and it’s not what you’d expect. My story… I did not physically attend most of the sixth grade because I have two disabilities, both of which were diagnosed that year. My school gave me allowance for a home-bound learning program but did not recognize my need for an IEP due to the (invisible) nature of my disabilities. When my parents were threatened with legal action due to attendance delinquency, my mother removed me from the school and placed me in a private program that balanced my learning and healthcare. Over the past decade, my disabilities have made me more empathetic with others, connected me to new communities, and opened the door to a line of work about which I am passionate. The purpose I have found in life is to help children who struggle the way that I did. Most families do not have the ability to pull their child out of school when the school refuses to offer further accommodation, and many do not even know they may have legal recourse (we didn’t even know at the time). It is my hope that through a career in education law and children’s rights, families will have access to accommodations that are conducive to a learning environment suitable for their child. As a Law Student… Currently, Vanderbilt Law School does not have a Disability Law Society. As such, I plan to petition the opening of a new group during my second year. The main tenets of the group will be, (a) discussions of disability law from an interdisciplinary focus, (b) creating a platform for disabled law students, while fostering discussion with abled students, and (c) promoting mental wellness (such as through seminars, partnerships with yogis, etc.) and the use of counseling for all students. As a Member of the Legal Community… One of my major goals as a lawyer is to make the legal community more inclusive for lawyers with disabilities and normalize counseling and other mental health services for all lawyers. In a study from 2018 (Roth Port), the ABA found that lawyers are 3.6 times as likely to have depression than other professions yet less likely to seek counseling due to fear of career repercussions such as disbarment. Anecdotally, many friends who I know successfully live with mental health disorders did write essays recounting their journey, for fear of discrimination. Although it is illegal to discriminate based on disability, the increasingly competitive law school admissions process makes it difficult for applicants to prove such discrimination and easier for law schools to fill the spot with a comparable applicant. (My point, however, is that these applicants are not comparable because it is important for mental health disability representation in the legal field). Why Me? By awarding me this scholarship, the committee is investing in a healthier future for the legal community and assisting in the fight for equal access to education. I look forward to serving children and families struggling with the public education system, and improving working conditions in the legal community by breaking down mental health stigma. Works Cited https://www.abajournal.com/voice/article/lawyers_weigh_in_why_is_there_a_depression_epidemic_in_the_profession#:~:text=A%20lawyer%20with%20a%20substance%20abuse%20problem%20or,deal%20with%20their%20problems%20privately%2C%20if%20at%20all.

“Don’t borrow more than you need.” Again and again, law schools and the Federal Government (FAFSA) remind students to be conservative in their borrowing amount. But what does that truly look like? How do you know how much you need to borrow? My advice is to keep track of your finances down to the smallest spending habits. Knowing where you spend your money and how will help you learn where you can cut costs and assist in responsible loan borrowing. Programs like Excel or Google sheets often have preset templates for budgets. From rent to shopping to food, I suggest keeping a close eye on how you spend your money. You may notice there are areas where you can spend a little less in. For example, if you are going out a lot, consider staying in a cooking more. Or if your utility bill is high, have you and your roommates been leaving the lights on and/or AC on while you are gone? Small considerations like these will save you the money you may need in the long run. As a graduate student, the advice not to borrow more than I need is important due to the loan system. When taking out loans, there is both an interest rate and an origination fee (both are often higher for Grad PLUS loans). I was able to return to my budget to see my spending habits and using loan calculators such as AccessLex, I took out a very conservative loan. To sum up, keep track of your budget. It is a benefit whether you are in school taking out loans or are in the workforce trying to put aside rainy-day money.

“Don’t borrow more than you need.” Again and again, law schools and the Federal Student Aid Department remind students to be conservative in their borrowing amount. But what does that truly look like? How do you know how much you need to borrow? My advice is to keep track of your finances down to the smallest spending habits. Knowing where you spend your money and how will help you learn where you can cut costs and assist in responsible loan borrowing. Programs like Excel or Google sheets often have preset templates for budgets. From rent to shopping to food, I suggest keeping a close eye on how you spend your money. You may notice there are areas where you can spend a little less in. For example, if you are going out a lot, consider staying in a cooking more. Or if your utility bill is high, have you and your roommates been leaving the lights on and/or AC on while you are gone? Small considerations like these will save you the money you may need in the long run. As a graduate student, the advice not to borrow more than I need is important due to the loan system. When taking out loans, there is both an interest rate and an origination fee (both are often higher for Grad PLUS loans). I was able to return to my budget to see my spending habits and using loan calculators such as AccessLex, I took out a very conservative loan. To sum up, keep track of your budget. It is a benefit whether you are in school taking out loans or are in the workforce trying to put aside rainy-day money.

My mother walked into my bedroom door, looked at my bedridden self, and declared, “you need to go to the ER.” I was hysterical, but there was no fight left in me. It was three months into my first year of middle school and I had missed half of it due to chronic migraines. We had tried what seemed like every medical procedure to no avail. When it seemed like I had reached rock bottom, I developed an anxiety disorder and had a major depressive episode. Although I am happy to be able to plan daily activities nowadays without worrying about my disabilities, I greatly appreciate how they have shaped my life. I think my greatest struggle "overcome" was my perfectionism; everything I accomplished was flawless. I hated turning in subpar work. With my disabilities, I did not always have the energy to work or the ability to submit my best work. Rather than give up, I doubled down: I worked when I felt good and improved my organization skills so that I could better manage the “brain-heavy” tasks. My disabilities drove me to connect with professors more often and on a more professional level. I emailed them when I missed school and worked with them to catch up. Before middle school, I saw myself as a normal child. I’ll admit, a bit of a loner who wore printed shirts but that was the extent of my issues. My perspective of life and its hardships was surface-level. Over the past decade, my disabilities have shaped my life by making me more empathetic with others, connecting me to new communities, and revealing a passion for a line of work I had never before considered. My mental health revealed my career goals. My school did not recognize mental health as a reason for an IEP. Thus, my parents were threatened with legal action when my absences neared delinquency. My mom pulled me out of public school and placed me in a private program that balanced my learning and healthcare. Most families do not have the ability to pull their child out of school when the school refuses to offer further accommodation, and many do not even know they may have legal recourse (we didn’t even know at the time). The unfortunate truth, revealed to me in part because of my own experiences and the path they sent me on, is that school systems fight accommodating students of every disability every step of the way. A few years ago I decided to go to law school to help children like me. It is my hope that through a career in education law and children’s rights, families will have access to accommodations that are conducive to a learning environment suitable for their child. It is dangerous to believe that everyone is now accepting and understanding of mental health conditions. I am entering a profession where the entrance (bar) exam still asks mental health questions on the character and fitness portion of the test. I am willing to trudge into a workforce that is comparatively worse off in mental health outcomes than other professions. And I refuse to sit down and do nothing about it. One of my major goals as a lawyer is to make the legal community more inclusive for lawyers with disabilities and normalize counseling and other mental health services for all lawyers. In a study from 2018 (Roth Port), the ABA found that lawyers are 3.6 times as likely to have depression than other professions yet less likely to seek counseling due to fear of career repercussions such as disbarment. Anecdotally, many friends who I know successfully live with mental health disorders did write essays recounting their journey, for fear of discrimination. Although illegal to discriminate based on disability, the increasingly competitive law school admissions process makes it difficult for applicants to prove such discrimination and easier for law schools to fill the spot with a comparable applicant. (My point, however, is that these applicants are not comparable because it is important for mental health disability representation in the legal field). I could not tell you which is worse- suffering from mental health or believing that mental health stigma no longer exists. What I can tell you is that my mental health is part of me. I did not overcome anything. I embraced it, made it mine, and will make a career out of it so that future generations will suffer less than my generation does.

Growing up with chronic medical conditions, my path through the education system was non-traditional. I missed approximately half of my sixth-grade year and a few months of my seventh-grade year in middle school due to chronic migraines. After my home-bound program came to an end, I still needed to miss school because I was still suffering from my disabilities. The school did not recognize my disabilities as qualifying me to go through the IEP process and threatened me with legal action if I missed another day of school. Though my family was able to place me in a private learning environment to accommodate me in the way that school would not, most families do not have the financial resources to do the same. Including ourselves, most families do not understand the legal recourse they can take to ensure their child is properly accommodated. The IEP process, for those who do go through the legal steps, is an uphill yearly battle with the school system. It should not be this difficult for a parent to attain proper accommodations for their child. Five years from now, I hope to work in a firm working directly with children and families. It is my hope that through a career in education law and children’s rights, families will have access to accommodations that are conducive to a learning environment suitable for their child. Ten years from now, I hope to either be litigating these same principles on a larger scale or be counseling at an advocacy group. I look forward to serving children and families struggling with the public education system.

My body laid flat on the yoga mat, arms at my sides, palms down. The only sound in the room is the slow rhythmic inhale and exhale as I control my breathing. It's all about focus. I start at my toes, focusing all of my attention on my left big toe and the sensation in it. I can feel it more now that my attention is on it. After a few seconds, I move on to my other toes, trying to individually focus on each one. (I find that the fourth toes can be difficult to distinguish sometimes, but still, I focus). Moving my way up my calf to my knee all the way to my hip before switching sides. This mindfulness practice keeps me in the present moment. If I find myself thinking about something other than the body part I am supposed to be focusing on, I simply redirect my attention to the present task. Mindfulness practices like this one are healthy ways to relax your brain and de-stress. It is not healthy to always be "on," to always to be thinking about the "next thing." Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is not think. That's what I do to relax.

Growing up with chronic medical conditions, my path through the education system was non-traditional. I missed approximately half of my sixth-grade year and a few months of my seventh-grade year in middle school due to chronic migraines. The school refused to assess me for an IEP and instead threatened to take me to court if I missed another day of school. I vividly remember my mother walking me into the front office of my middle school to withdraw me. I wouldn’t see the halls of a public school for five more years. Once upon a time, I did not dare dream of completing high school. Three months ago, I graduated college a semester early with honors and special honors in psychology. Three months from now, I will start law school. I plan to work in education law (e.g., advocacy groups, Title IX, FAPE). I will be able to make a positive impact on underserved and overlooked communities that do not have the same access to legal knowledge and resources that I had in the public education system. It is my hope that through a career in education law and children’s rights, families will have access to accommodations that are conducive to a learning environment suitable for their child. I believe that my representation as an educational and research success coupled with my determination to succeed in the full-time workforce will help alleviate some of the invisible disability stigmas which remain pervasive in professional communities. I look forward to making a change in my profession, and in the lives of the clients with whom I work.

My study habits changed for the better when I first encountered Google Keep. For most of my life, I had been using notepads and the iPhone notes app to stay organized. The notes app does not have a user-friendly or well-structured interface. And needless to say, I couldn't take my notepads everywhere. When I was training for my Event Operations job at UT, my co-worker showed me Google Keep, which has color-coding, calendar integration, pinning capabilities, and so much more. I use the app to keep track of my weekly progress, jot down daily progress, and pin notes within emails to professors. It's helped me manage my time efficiently and hold me reliable for getting tasks done. As a future law student, papers are a huge part of my work. Before I begin working on a paper, I need to make sure I understand the material. I often work through concepts and what I think about them out loud because I can better identify if I understand the concept. Furthermore, it helps get the creative juices flowing and often leads to me "word-vomiting" on my computer (i.e. free-writing everything that I just worked through without edits). Word-vomiting is a great paper-writing strategy in that even if I don't use the material at that point, I might need it later on in the paper. If I am able to grab a friend who isn't in the same class and talk to them, I will do that. It's a great practice to discuss what I am currently learning in class even in informal settings (i.e. outside of a study session) so that when a test or paper deadline is coming up, the information is already reinforced.

Depression, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders are prevalent among licensed lawyers, alarmingly so when compared to other professions. According to an ABA study conducted in 2018, lawyers are 3.6 times as likely to be depressed as people from other professions. Yet lawyers are less likely than the average person to reach out for help concerning their mental well-being. The same 2018 study conducted interviews with lawyers to unveil why it is that lawyers struggle so much with mental health. Two common themes include the lack of work-life balance and the requirement to report mental health concerns, including substance abuse, to the state bar. The result of both themes has disallowed and deterred lawyers from seeking mental health counseling. Attacking each of these themes, along with working to reduce mental health stigma, is the practical way forward. State bars could work with counselors to ensure the mental health of lawyers, in effect promoting their use and decreasing suicides and the high prevalence of mental health disorders. Larger firms can adopt mental well-being programs. Unfortunately, I am unsure of a path to better working hours for Big Law firms, but they can start by incorporating mental health well-being programs and encouraging ALL employees to go to counseling regardless of diagnosis. Destigmatization of mental health is just the first step to helping more people, but it is an important one. Creating an environment where people's struggles are validated, and where those who do not struggle with mental health understand what those struggles are and how to help is a true step forward to a healthier working environment for everyone. In this example, it is personal to me, and I look forward to making those changes. Source: https://www.abajournal.com/voice/article/lawyers_weigh_in_why_is_there_a_depression_epidemic_in_the_profession#:~:text=A%20lawyer%20with%20a%20substance%20abuse%20problem%20or,deal%20with%20their%20problems%20privately%2C%20if%20at%20all.

The poster board boasted my final thesis poster. A year's worth of research neatly displayed for family, friends, and colleagues to see. As I stood there gazing at one of my greatest accomplishments, a sense of nervousness overcame me. Not only was my poster on display, but so was I. Short five-minute presentations for the next two hours were expected of the researchers. I had a history of shaky presentations, and this was my biggest one yet. Then I reminded myself that I was the master of this knowledge. I did not have to do it perfectly; I needed to speak through trip-ups and learn from my mistakes. The first few presentations were rough, but I get better and better as time passed. I even improvised on presentations depending on the level of knowledge of the audience. Confidence is the courage to fail. Confidence is the courage to rise again with new insight, knowledge gained from that failure, and the willingness to face the same or similar situations. Confidence is a science- doing the same thing over and over expecting the different results will get you nowhere. It is breaking outside your comfort zone and recognizing how you can improve in your weak areas and in your strong areas. In law school, I look forward to pushing my comfort zone in the public speaking arena by joining moot court, and by strengthening my writing by competing in the law review write-on.

Living with two mental health conditions lead me to my chosen career path- and it’s not what you’d expect. I did not physically attend most of the sixth grade because I have two disabilities, both of which were diagnosed that year. My school gave me allowance for a home-bound learning program but did not recognize my need for an IEP due to the (invisible) nature of my disabilities. When my parents were threatened with legal action due to attendance delinquency, my mother removed me from the school and placed me in a private program that balanced my learning and healthcare. Over the past decade, my disabilities have made me more empathetic with others, connected me to new communities, and opened the door to a line of work about which I am passionate. The purpose I have found in life is to help children who struggle the way that I did. Most families do not have the ability to pull their child out of school when the school refuses to offer further accommodation, and many do not even know they may have legal recourse (we didn’t even know at the time). It is my hope that through a career in education law and children’s rights, families will have access to accommodations that are conducive to a learning environment suitable for their child. As a Law Student… Currently, Vanderbilt Law School does not have a Disability Law Society. As such, I plan to petition the opening of a new group during my second year. The main tenets of the group will be, (a) discussions of disability law from an interdisciplinary focus, (b) creating a platform for disabled law students, while fostering discussion with abled students, and (c) promoting mental wellness (such as through seminars, partnerships with yogis, etc.) and the use of counseling for all students. As a Member of the Legal Community… One of my major goals as a lawyer is to make the legal community more inclusive for lawyers with disabilities and normalize counseling and other mental health services for all lawyers. In a study from 2018 (Roth Port), the ABA found that lawyers are 3.6 times as likely to have depression than other professions yet less likely to seek counseling due to fear of career repercussions such as disbarment. Anecdotally, many friends who I know successfully live with mental health disorders did write essays recounting their journey, for fear of discrimination. Although it is illegal to discriminate based on disability, the increasingly competitive law school admissions process makes it difficult for applicants to prove such discrimination and easier for law schools to fill the spot with a comparable applicant. (My point, however, is that these applicants are not comparable because it is important for mental health disability representation in the legal field). Why Me? By awarding me this scholarship, the committee is investing in a healthier future for the legal community and assisting in the fight for equal access to education. I look forward to serving children and families struggling with the public education system, and improving working conditions in the legal community by breaking down mental health stigma. Works Cited Roth Port, D. (2018, May 11). “Lawyers weigh in: Why is there a depression epidemic in the profession?” https://www.abajournal.com/voice/article/lawyers_weigh_in_why_is_there_a_depression_epidemic_in_the_profession#:~:text=A%20lawyer%20with%20a%20substance%20abuse%20problem%20or,deal%20with%20their%20problems%20privately%2C%20if%20at%20all.

My study habits changed for the better when I first encountered Google Keep. For most of my life, I had been using notepads and the iPhone notes app to stay organized. The notes app does not have a user-friendly or well-structured interface. And needless to say, I couldn't take my notepads everywhere. When I was training for my Event Operations job at UT, my co-worker showed me Google Keep, which has color-coding, calendar integration, pinning-capabilities, and so much more. I use the app to keep track of my weekly progress, jot down daily progress, and pin notes within emails to professors. It's helped me manage my time efficiently and hold me reliable for getting tasks done. As a psych student and future law student, papers are a huge part of my work. Before I begin working on a paper, I need to make sure I understand the material. I often work through concepts and what I think about them out loud because I can better identify if I understand the concept. Furthermore, it helps get the creative juices flowing and often leads to me "word-vomiting" on my computer (i.e. free-writing everything that I just worked through without edits). Word-vomiting is a great paper-writing strategy in that even if I don't use the material at that point, I might need it later on in the paper. If I am able to grab a friend who isn't in the same class and talk to them, I will do that. It's a great practice to discuss what I am currently learning in class even in informal settings (i.e. outside of a study session) so that when a test or paper deadline is coming up, the information is already reinforced.