From Surviving to Serving Success by Kayla

From Surviving to Serving Success by Kayla - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

My life-long desire to aid those struggling to manage their mental health and behavioral concerns, initially tended to with volunteer services and mission trips, has heightened my drive to seek a higher education in order to be of service to a wider range of those seeking the assistance. I was raised, primarily, by my mother who suffered immensely from her own battles with substance use and mental health. I later turned my family’s pains into a strength by helping those with similar ailments as my mother and brother, and their families, when I took on a role as a Residential Aide and Youth Counselor. By combining my personal and professional experience, which had extended to several years of case management as well as individual and group therapy, with my education which includes ORAS Certification, Peer Support Certification, my LCDC III and two bachelors in Psychology, I have been able to not only help my patients but my friends and family through their struggles as well. I have also found multifaceted fulfillment through continued volunteer work conducted with both local and international companies. All of these experiences have brought clear focus to my resolve to further my education. With this, I can fulfill my goals of helping others with mental health issues so that they will be able to take the best care of themselves and support their relationships with other.
All things considered, and now having been in practice for about five years, I am convinced that by pursing an advanced degree, I will achieve my goal of being the “best” I can be and further be able to exponentially add to both my school and local community, ultimately taking the advice my grandfather once gave me in that "you can choose to be a victim or a survivor" and choosing to rise above certain circumstances in my life. The aspiration to help others is why I ultimately hope to advance my education and get into private practice, but it’s also why I feel it’s important to do my part to minimize stigmas and discrimination against mental health. Yet another issue that peaked my interest in this field of practice is my personal familiarity with the stigmas surrounding mental health; there were several instances of injury in which I was initially told “It’s all in your head” regarding bodily sensations that were only later identified as things like spinal fractures and nerve damage. Experiences like this, as a woman, undeniably demonstrate the stigma against those who either have or could be more susceptible to mental health concerns, which I further educated myself on through the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Needless to say, I will be doing my part, to the best of my ability, to aid in the elimination of that stigma by helping those who seek to help themselves. In conclusion, I feel that by applying the lessons I have learned through these real-life and personal-life experiences, combined with my education and persistent and optimistic outlook, I am able to confidently say that with niches in family therapy and addiction services I will be able to meet my ultimate goal of tending to the growth of the mental health community by way of aiding fervently in the healing of minds that seek to heal themselves.