At the age of 5, I was adopted. My birth mother struggled with substance use and my birth father was in and out of jail. At a young age, I had to mature quickly to deal with the situation I was in. I remember having a social worker and psychologist at 5 years old to get through that process. I remember the psychologist the most because at the scariest, most anxiety-filled point of my life, she was there for me and with me every step of the way to adjust to my new family and life. Without her, I don't know where I would be today. She helped me so much through play therapy, art therapy and psychotherapy. She was my light in the dark storm. I have now graduated with my bachelor’s in psychology with a GPA of 3.63. I would like to do the same for others as was done for me. I have now been accepted into Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine's MS in Mental Counseling Program. I will be starting this Fall 2025. I hope that this will allow me to fulfill my dream of helping children and adolescents who are struggling mentally to achieve their goals. I feel that my resilience, confidence and intelligence are strengths to obtain my academic and professional goals. I feel that COVID-19 had a positive impact on my professional and academic experiences. I say positive because in 2018, I was attending Misericordia University for their 5 year Master’s program for Speech-Language Pathology. I was enjoying the courses and it was very interesting to learn about the work Speech-Language Pathologists do, but I felt like it was not the right fit for me. I had not come to that conclusion until the students could not live on the campus anymore due to Covid-19. I attended Misericordia from 2018-2020 and when the students had to be sent home to finish up their spring semester, I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to pursue what I felt would be the best fit for me. Psychology. I’ve always been a big mental health advocate and wanted to break the stigma of mental health. Now I have the opportunity to do that. I took a year off to decide the school I wanted to go to for my bachelor’s in psychology. I chose to attend William Paterson University. I graduated January 2024 with my bachelor’s in psychology and I’m ready to make a difference in the mental health field. I am ready to move forward in the next steps of breaking the stigma of mental health and delving into the research aspect of psychology to educate all about the importance of understanding mental health. At William Paterson University I took courses in Experimental Psychology: Applied Statistics and Experimental Psychology: Research Methods, Child & Adolescent Psychology of Lifespan Development, Social Psychology, History and Systems of Psychology, Physiological Psychology and Abnormal Psychology. I feel that taking these particular courses have better prepared me for helping me achieve my career goals. In May of 2024, I started working with The Division of Child Protection and Permanency for the State of New Jersey. With this work, I provide families from all thresholds of life with resources and support to ensure the safety of not only for the children but for the adults' well-being as well. With one of the cases I had, there was a 15 year old who dealt with depression and wanted to get help with it. The child disclosed that trying to get these services has not been an easy process. I talked with them and made sure I was able to provide her with the right resources to guide them into the right direction when dealing with mental health. I used engagement skills and active listening to make sure the child felt heard. I found this had an impact not only for the family I was working with, but for myself. This interaction made me realize that you never know what could be going on in another person’s life, but if you could lend a listening ear and helping hand, it could make a big difference in someone's life. This realization is what I will take with me through life especially when it comes to furthering my education in Psychology. I envision myself making a difference in clinical psychology. I feel that with my own experience of being adopted, dealing with anxiety, dealing with trauma, and coming out stronger through the adversities is the true definition of resilience. With that being said, I find myself having my own practice that specializes in anxiety and trauma. I feel that I can make an impact in this world. There are a lot of children who are in the foster care system who do not have the same outcome as I did. I want to delve into research with adoption and mental health to help agencies and those involved understand the best practices that should be done to ensure the well-being of not only the children’s mental health, but the parents as well. I am particularly interested in research that involves the psychological impact that adoption has on children and adolescents. This scholarship would help me achieve my goals. Thank you for your time.