My parents divorced when I was about six years old; they both have struggled financially. I was eight the first time I became homeless with my mom, stepdad, and baby sister. We lived in hotels and family's spare rooms. Then, around the same time, my dad started living in hotels with my older sister, who was 13. I lived with my mom primarily at the time and I watched as we were kicked out of apartments due to their drug use. Eventually, my three-year-old sister and I moved in with my dad and his girlfriend. They now lived in her home with her daughter. After they broke up, we became homeless again for about six months, going back and forth between homes and hotels. In my middle school years, we were finally settled down, and I decided I was going to do everything to pursue further education. Once I started high school my main focus has been getting ahead in life. I’ve done small jobs for my family and neighbors along with summer jobs. I now have a part time job and a paid internship; while also juggling two AP classes so I can save money. This is preparing me for my future by saving all my earned money. I don’t spend unless it’s something I need, which makes it difficult to pay for higher education. My parents never finished college so I’m not very supported by them either. I have done so much with my free time to make sure I do the best for myself financially and I will work to continue that in the future. With the money I’ve earned I paid my own AP exam fees and bought myself a car. I know that I missed out on a lot of experiences due to growing up poor, but I’m lucky for what it’s taught me. As a teenager it’s definitely been difficult to not have extra money to spend like my friends all do. They can ask their parents for money and go shopping, but I’ll never buy anything. I always felt embarrassed to tell them or let them see that I’m not wealthy, but I now know that it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, with the kids who had the privilege to use their parents' money. Overall, I’ve worked for all my money and prepared myself for my future due to the past I’ve had, and I’m proud to admit that I’m ready for the next steps in life.

I’m working to gain an education in psychology, specifically mental health; I want to work in the land and do research. I’ll be using this to help others and work with people who can make a change in this world. I believe the first step to a healthy planet is healthy minds. The people are what can make a difference, if I can work to figure out the brain that means I can make plans to help those in need. It’s important to me that children get the resources they need in order to thrive, they are our future after all. My whole life I’ve been interested in how different everyone is from each other. I’m using that interest to pursue a career in mental health. My goal is to study and do research on what we know today in order to come up with new ideas. I want to collaborate with other scientists to get better insight. I believe that the more information we get on the brain and the psychology behind it, the better our society can get. Being able to travel the world and work with people from different backgrounds will help me find perspective and then I can help with organizations to get mental health resources available. Overall, getting this education will help me help others in need. Everyone deserves to be cared for and in a lot of places not only is mental health help inaccessible, but also stigmatized. I will work to get everyone aware of these issues and help prevent misinformation. I want to make a change, and I believe I can do so by helping the minds of others.