One hungry, disheveled, stranger after the next came before me. Each soul with a face weathered and tired. I would extend my small hand across the table to each one in line offering either a banana or orange. These fruits were the most agreeable for so many of those with dental ailments. In all seasons of weather, I would stand with my mother at the homeless missing on the fourth Sunday of every month at the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission. Since the age of eight, I remember purchasing fruit with my mother and serving the homeless. I always had questions throughout the years about the people that would come through the serving line. My mother would answer my questions as she felt was developmentally appropriate. Several years ago after a day of serving, I told my mother that I did not want to go anymore. She finally shared with me her passion for volunteering at the mission was due to her own battle with food insecurity as a child. From a young age, my mother influenced and encouraged me in so many ways. Her history of overcoming childhood poverty, divorce, and caring for a special needs child, has influenced me to be strong, independent and pivotal. For every lesson of resilience I have learned from her, there is another equally important about being kind, forgiving and true. The example of her life has been both a quiet nod to the feminine side of who I strive to be but also a scream to the fighting nature that inherently lives inside of me. The value of education and hard work are the core of how my single mother influences me every day. She encouraged me throughout my school years to work hard and do my best each day. My mother often shared her belief that education creates opportunities that aren't possible with out it. I've often been inspired by what she overcame growing up to obtain a Master's degree and have her own mental health practice. Her professionalism with her colleagues, employees, and patients gives me overwhelming pride. It's as if no one would ever suspect all she balances in a day and all of the problems she tries to solve for so many. All the while, she is full of laughter and love for us all. The mother, person, and professional she is inspires to me also become a mental health professional. Hundreds of discussions in my childhood, I now know, are flavored by her mental health education. She has been kind, consistent, open-minded, fair, and honest. Despite the topic, she has been the type of mother that any conversation was open. Of course, she would get upset with me or my siblings, but she was always fair. Teaching us the self-imposed consequences of our behaviors was a smart tactic that provided us necessary critical thinking skills for life. As a single mother, my mother often had to be both mother and father for me and my siblings. She has always shared we are no less or no more because of our father's absence. A core value for our family she provided for us is "a family is anything that defines itself as such". This lesson has influenced me to see diversity, inclusion, and self-acceptance. My own desire to be a mental health professional is influenced by my mother. I want to serve others as she has taught me to do since I was a young child. My personal, educational, and familial ambitions are because of who my mom has influenced me to be in life.

Wide halls with large wooden locked doors created a fearful mood deep in my spirit. I had never experienced such a place before that day. I was told this was a hospital, a place of healing for people who were "too sad to want to live anymore". As a middle school child, I understood the words that were being spoken to me but I could not understand what it meant to be in a psychiatric hospital. The experience of visiting my cousin in an inpatient psychiatric unit was the moment I realized I wanted to become a mental health professional. My cousin is only three years my senior. We grew up together and she always was full of laughter and fun every time we were together. I had no idea the emotional pain she was enduring. I was confused and sad when my mother told me she was in a hospital to keep her safe and to get mental health treatment. In the weeks that followed my cousin's journey to recovery, I wanted to support her and inadvertently fell in love with mental health. Seeing my family struggle ignited the flame in my heart to pursue mental health as my dream career. All I truly want is to make people feel better and to take care of them in whatever way I can like with my cousin. Since she began her treatment for depression, I have started shadowing mental health professionals in my hometown. With each experience shadowing a nurse practitioner or group therapy session, I continue to thirst for more knowledge. I dream of being able to have my own practice as a psychiatrist. I envision being part of a world in which there is no more stigma for people of all races and cultures who seek mental health treatment. I want to encourage the medical community to treat patients "holistically." The only way we can reduce the number of suicides and untreated mental health issues is to begin seeing the connection between the mind and body. I am passionate about being a part of a medical community that is founded on collaboration between medical and mental health treatment. I believe that assessing for depression should be just as routine as for diabetes and heart disease. As I continue to grow in age and maturity, I see mental health struggles all around me. People everywhere seem to be hurting in a way conventional medicine is not enough. It feels as though there just are not enough mental health professionals to meet the need. Because of this, I look forward to learning as much as I can in the mental health field to join the front lines of mental health treatment. Although I may just be one person, I feel my voice is enough to light a flame in any community. Maybe, I will be fortunate enough in my life to save people from suicide, alleviate emotional suffering, or be to be a force in reducing stigma. Either way, I am eager to offer my life with a servant's heart to those who are walking in the darkness of mental illness. Just like the mental health professionals who saved my cousin's life and inspired me, I hope to one day in the future inspire little girls in the same way.

My name is Skylar Fortich, and I am a senior at Knoxville Catholic High School. I will graduate in 2024 and I have the desire to major in psychology and continue to medical school to pursue my dream goal of becoming a child psychiatrist, so I can contribute to the world of healing through mental health. I want to ensure the mentally ill of all genders, ethnicities, and ideologies are treated with the upmost care and kindness that this world needs. I come from a small town where growing up, mental health wasn’t a priority, or a focus and its providers were few and far between and I never saw a Latina like me. However, growing up with my mother as a compassionate social worker and my own siblings having special needs, my heart yearned to make a change and I knew that if I wanted it; I’d have to do it myself. My experiences with my siblings, the stories my mother shared, and experiencing the unawareness of mental health and disrespect to the people with mental illness in my family throughout my whole life only fueled my desire from a young age to help those like my siblings and work like my mother did to help her town, one person at a time. Going through high school gave me more access to exploring my dream career and a sense of urgency to help my community even more. 300,000 children in my own state of Tennessee were diagnosed with a mental illness each year. Suicide rates became the highest they’ve been in five years and having school shooting threats every other week, I wasn’t scared or upset, all I could think of was how I could help. I started to serve my school and my community with everything I had. One weekend at the church day care serving disabled preschoolers turned into my Sunday routine. A one-time soup kitchen event I attended with some friends turned into becoming a core volunteer with “Mission Under the Bridge” serving the mentally ill homeless people of my town. Doing what I could to serve my sister and make sure she was happy during Halloween inspired my idea to lead a project called “Trick or Treat for Little Feet”. On Halloween I created an event for disabled families to enjoy their holiday in a sensory reliving, no-judgment environment for their kids to have a Halloween just like everyone else. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours and before I knew it by this year, including research with nurse practitioners and psychiatrists, I’ve completed over 450 service hours serving my beloved town and its type of people who I wanted to care for the rest of my life! I am pursuing this scholarship to help with the costs of my college to further my pursuit of serving the mentally ill and disabled. My home and the world are obviously hurting in a way physical medicine is not helping. I want to address that hurt as a psychiatrist. I appreciate your consideration and I hope that you can help me purse a career in psychology. Mental health is not only my passion, but a very personal part of my life, and I have a clear plan to turn that passion into my life long career to make the most impact I can in my home.

My name is Skylar Fortich, and I am a senior at Knoxville Catholic High School. I will graduate in 2024 and I have the desire to major in the Science of psychology and continue to medical school to pursue my dream goal of becoming a child psychiatrist, so I can contribute to the world of healing through mental health. I want to ensure the mentally ill of all genders, ethnicities, and ideologies are treated with the upmost care and kindness that this world needs. I come from a small town where growing up, mental health wasn’t a priority, or a focus and its providers were few and far between and I never saw a Latina like me. However, growing up with my mother as a compassionate social worker and my own siblings having special needs, my heart yearned to make a change and I knew that if I wanted it; I’d have to do it myself. My experiences with my siblings, the stories my mother shared, and experiencing the unawareness of mental health and disrespect to the people with mental illness in my family throughout my whole life only fueled my desire from a young age to help those like my siblings and work like my mother did to help her town, one person at a time. Going through high school gave me more access to exploring my dream career and a sense of urgency to help my community even more. 300,000 people in my own state of Tennessee were diagnosed with a mental illness each year. Suicide rates became the highest they’ve been in five years and having school shooting threats every other week, I wasn’t scared or upset, all I could think of was how I could help. I started to serve my school and my community with everything I had. One weekend at the church day care serving disabled preschoolers turned into my Sunday routine. A one-time soup kitchen event I attended with some friends turned into becoming a core volunteer with “Mission Under the Bridge” serving the mentally ill homeless people of my town. Doing what I could to serve my sister and make sure she was happy during Halloween inspired my idea to lead a project called “Trick or Treat for Little Feet”. On Halloween I created an event for disabled families to enjoy their holiday in a sensory reliving, no-judgment environment for their kids to have a Halloween just like everyone else. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours and before I knew it by this year, including research with nurse practitioners and psychiatrists, I’ve completed over 450 service hours serving my beloved town and its type of people who I wanted to care for the rest of my life! I am pursuing this scholarship to help with the costs of my college to further my pursuit of serving the mentally ill and disabled. My home and the world are obviously hurting in a way physical medicine is not helping. I want to address that hurt as a psychiatrist. I appreciate your consideration and I hope that you can help me pursue a career in psychology. Mental health is not only my passion, but a very personal part of my life, and I have a clear plan to turn that passion into my life long career.

My name is Skylar Fortich, and I am a senior at Knoxville Catholic High School. I will graduate in 2024 and I have the desire to major in psychology and continue to medical school to pursue my dream goal of becoming a child psychiatrist, so I can contribute to the world of healing through mental health. I want to ensure the mentally ill of all genders, ethnicities, and ideologies are treated with the upmost care and kindness that this world needs. I come from a small town where growing up, mental health wasn’t a priority, or a focus and its providers were few and far between and I never saw a Hispanic woman like me. However, growing up with a compassionate social worker as my mother and my own siblings having special needs, my heart yearned to make a change and I knew that if I wanted it; I’d have to do it myself. My experiences with my siblings, the stories my mother shared, and experiencing the unawareness of mental health and disrespect to the people with mental illness in my family just for how they looked or behaved throughout my whole life only fueled my desire from a young age to help those like my siblings and work like my mother did to help her town, one person at a time. Going through high school gave me more access to exploring my dream career and a sense of urgency to help my community even more. 300,000 people in my own state of Tennessee were diagnosed with a mental illness each year. Suicide rates became the highest they’ve been in five years and having school shooting threats every other week, I wasn’t scared or upset, all I could think of was how I could to help. I started to serve my school and my community with everything I had. One weekend at the church day care serving disabled preschoolers turned into my Sunday routine. A one-time soup kitchen event I attended with some friends turned into becoming a core volunteer with “Mission Under the Bridge” serving the mentally ill homeless people of my town. Doing what I could to serve my sister and make sure she was happy during Halloween inspired my idea to lead a project called “Trick or Treat for Little Feet”. On Halloween I created an event for disabled families to enjoy their holiday in a sensory reliving, no-judgment environment for their kids to have a Halloween just like everyone else. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours and before I knew it by this year, including research with nurse practitioners and psychiatrists, I’ve completed over 450 service hours serving my beloved town and its type of people who I wanted to care for the rest of my life! I am pursuing this scholarship to help with the costs of my college to further my pursuit of serving the mentally ill and disabled. My home and the world are obviously hurting in a way physical medicine is not helping. I want to address that hurt as a psychiatrist. I appreciate your consideration and I hope that you can help me pursue a career in psychology. Mental health is not only my passion, but a very personal part of my life, and I have a clear plan to turn that passion into my life long career bettering the lives of my town, one patient at a time.

My name is Skylar Fortich, and I am a senior at Knoxville Catholic High School. I will graduate in 2024 and I have the desire to major in psychology and continue to medical school to pursue my dream goal of becoming a child psychiatrist, so I can contribute to the world of healing through mental health. I want to ensure the mentally ill of all genders, ethnicities, and ideologies are treated with the upmost care and kindness that this world needs. I come from a small town where growing up, mental health wasn’t a priority, or a focus and its providers were few and far between and I never saw one like me. However, growing up with my mother as a compassionate social worker and my own siblings having special needs, my heart yearned to make a change and I knew that if I wanted it; I’d have to do it myself. My experiences with my siblings, the stories my mother shared, and experiencing the unawareness of mental health and disrespect to the people with mental illness in my family throughout my whole life only fueled my desire from a young age to help those like my siblings and work like my mother did to help her town, one person at a time. Going through high school gave me more access to exploring my dream career and a sense of urgency to help my community even more. 300,000 kids in my own state of Tennessee were diagnosed with a mental illness each year. Suicide rates became the highest they’ve been in five years and having school shooting threats every other week, I wasn’t scared or upset, all I could think of was how I could to help. I started to serve my school and my community with everything I had. One weekend at the church day care serving disabled preschoolers turned into my Sunday routine. A one-time soup kitchen event I attended with some friends turned into becoming a core volunteer with “Mission Under the Bridge” serving the mentally ill homeless people of my town. Doing what I could to serve my sister and make sure she was happy during Halloween inspired my idea to lead a project called “Trick or Treat for Little Feet”. On Halloween I created an event for disabled families to enjoy their holiday in a sensory reliving, no-judgment environment for their kids to have a Halloween just like everyone else. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours and before I knew it by this year, including research with nurse practitioners and psychiatrists, I’ve completed over 450 service hours serving my beloved town and its type of people who I wanted to care for the rest of my life! I am pursuing this scholarship to help with the costs of my college to further my pursuit of serving the mentally ill and disabled. My home and the world are obviously hurting in a way physical medicine is not helping. I want to address that hurt as a psychiatrist. I appreciate your consideration and I hope that you can help me pursue a career in psychology. Mental health is not only my passion, but a very personal part of my life, and I have a clear plan to turn that passion into my life long career.