My mom got pregnant with me when she was 16 years old and by the time she was 17, she had to enroll in continuation school to finish her high school education. Being a young mother with no real support system meant she missed out on teenage milestones such as prom, touring college campuses, and even walking at graduation. While my mom was determined to pursue a higher education, she ultimately had to drop out of community college after one semester due to the stressors of raising a toddler on her own. Until I was five years old, it was just my mom and I living together in our small apartment and never once did she make me aware of the trials she had to go through and the sacrifices she had to make as a teenager in order to give us a good life. My mom has always been a hard worker which was proven by her giving up her passion to become a nurse and exchanging it for a mundane 9-5 dental office job because it put food on the table. Even now, she is always there for us children and puts her own needs on the backburner even though I constantly remind her that it's okay to ask for help. As a little girl, my mom was a role model to me because never once did she let her spirits fall in the face of adversity or take her attention away from what mattered the most at the end of the day; family. When I was six years old, she met my step-dad and they got married soon after, but my mom's past actions had already left a long lasting impression on my young mind. As soon as I graduated high school I knew that I wanted to pursue a higher education and I enrolled in community college that same fall in 2021. After three years, I earned my associate's degree in psychology, making me the first person in my entire family, and a woman at that, to have a college degree. In the present day, I am now 22 years old and I am closer to my mom than ever. She still works at the same dental office job, but now I have four younger siblings. I work part time and go to school full time in order to earn my bachelor's degree in psychology and criminal justice. My degree is not only for the benefit of my future, but it is also in my mother's honor. I work hard both in the real-world and at school in the hopes of being able to be a fraction of the woman my mother is. Being raised by a single mother has taught me that not only can a woman be kind, nurturing, and warm but she can also be hardworking, independent, and strong. With my degree, I hope to be able to understand human behavior in regards to violence and crime in order to prevent it from happening to other individuals. I want to use my education to make a positive difference in the world by identifying the root causes of deviant behavior and seeing what patterns are being created in society. My main career goal is to work in forensic psychology or in criminal case studies and I am thinking about going to graduate school to earn my masters degree in the near future.

Growing up, I saw how hard both of my parents worked and became inspired to do well in school so I could get a stable job that provided income and self-fulfillment. My motivation was especially abundant because I would be a first-generation college graduate. Psychology has always been of immense interest to me, and I have been interested in human behavior and psychological disorders ever since I could think about a future career. I remember becoming interested in psychology after watching the TV show "Criminal Minds" with my dad as a child when he would get home from work. I then watched criminal confession videos posted by law enforcement agencies as a teenager, and soon enough, I began to ask myself questions. Questions such as "What leads people to commit these crimes?" as well as "Why do they turn to violence?" were in the back of my mind when hearing about crimes on the news. However, at the time I believed that those who majored in psychology were only good for becoming psychologists and teachers. In 2021, when I first began my college career, I decided to major in communications to appease my parents' worries about employment. I was miserable. I spent two semesters studying a topic that did not ignite a spark within me and found that we would be moving from our home state of California to Texas. However, my drive to want to better understand human behaviors and patterns in order to make the world a better place only grew stronger. After two years of hard work, I graduated from community college with an AA in psychology, making me the first person in my family to have a college degree. I then began thinking more intently about what I wanted to gain from my education regarding a career. Further exploring my interest in psychology and criminal behavior, I found that what I was most passionate about was understanding the underlying causes of crimes and an individual's desire to act upon violence, as well as determining what crimes someone would be more likely to commit based on trauma. Ultimately, I want to understand human behavior when it comes to violence and crime to help prevent it from happening to other individuals using early intervention. In the fall of 2024, I enrolled in Texas State University and I am currently earning my BA in psychology with a minor in criminal justice. I am still deciding whether to attend graduate school and aim for a Masters degree when I graduate in 2026. I desire to pursue a career as a criminal or forensic psychologist working alongside law enforcement in order to increase the safety of my community and others.