Since I was very young I have always planned to attend a wonderful and great college that would be best suited for me. When I learned that most of my family including my parents did not get past a high school diploma or a GED, I was motivated with the perseverance to succeed in my life and with the ambition and desire to receive a master’s degree in the medical field for Forensic Nursing. I have not experienced the greatest childhood a kid could ever hope for in life, but I know that I am not the only one that has encountered that experience or feeling. Beginning at the age of six, I began the painful journey of being switched back and forth between parents and going to custody hearings every year to every two years or, even sometimes, every few months. I was switched from many different schools between three different states and every school I attended had different curriculum requirements and expectations. I would usually be behind in the new school, and because of so many new moves in such a short period of time, I always thought and believed that I would never be able to catch up to the new level of curriculum and expectations. While going through all of these complications I started frustrations, and self doubts for school or my education from moving, but yet I was able to still keep a median grade average to move onto the next grades.
Since seventh grade at the age of 13 to now being a senior in high school at the age of 18, I have been living with one parent and have been attending one school without being switched back and forth from parents, states, or schools like I used to be. AS a result I have greatly improved in school and have made my education my number one top priority in life to get where I am today and where want to be in life in the future. There are so many things that have given me the incentive to excel to a new standard and those things include cheerleading, college, fellow teachers and friends that never gave up hope in me, family and of course looking at the things that would best benefit me and my future , I decided to take the risk of challenging myself by being part of higher skill set level classes (Advanced Placement) and attend a votech program at the college near my school district in the medical professions program. Currently I am my Senior Class Secretary, and I have been ranked in the top five of my class as the fifth person out of forty seven students graduating. That has brought me great joy and pride, by showing me that although I may have had some downs in the past and wanted to give up, I was able to keep moving forward and bring my downs up and be successful in the best way possible even with some obstacles that may be in my way.
My future plans and goals are to graduate with honors at the end of my high school career and attend National Park College in the fall semester of 2016 where I will receive my general education requirements for two years and then transfer to the University of Central Arkansas in Conway to receive my master’s degree in Forensic Nursing while being part of the nursing program and studying in forensics. While studying in Forensic nursing, I will have the opportunity of receiving medical terminology, performing medical procedures such as intravenous shots (IV’s),procuring specimen samples from patients, and more. This will then lead me into the preparation to receive my master’s degree where I will be able to witness crime scenes to make reports on the crimes that have been committed to a patient/ victim, perform autopsies to see the cause of death on the victim, the insertion points of objects if any that may have been used in this tragic outcome. If the patient is still living I would be looking at the exterior of their body to find any abrasions or insertion points caused from a harmful object, then if I have to move to the anterior extent of the patient’s body to find any specimen samples or find any internal injuries if the patient has been sexually assaulted, then after performing autopsies and performing procedures to collect evidence for the crime scene, I would provide some results to the victim/ patient to give them a sense of closure in the action they had to forcibly partake in, then if requested by the coroner or law enforcements I would convey the evidence to the jury and the judge in a courtroom while testifying for the victim and the ways we were able to find justice for them and hopefully find the perpetrator who committed the crime upon an innocent person. Perhaps the elaboration of these details of Forensic Nursing reveals my utter passion for this career. I truly “want” this career even knowing the commitment to education it is going to require. I “know” I can do it.
I plan to further my degree in the future after working in Forensic Nursing with a master’s degree for a few years and go back to graduate school to receive a doctoral degree. This scholarship money would help me with being able to pay for tuition and fees, books, utensils needed for a certain class, lab usages, lab equipment, medical books, medical equipment such as lyophilizers and freeze drying equipment as well as other items that can help me conduct my research and studies into cell-growth and various chemicals. The money will even help with meal plans, possible residence fees for a dorm room, and many more things that are needed to help me with furthering my education.