Senior 11

I am an introverted person. I have been an introvert since I was little. I always knew I wanted to change this about me because I wanted to have a voice in high school. I knew I enjoyed helping people, but I never knew how. Link Crew is a program at my high school that enables me to help freshmen throughout their first year of high school. In this program, you are supposed to build bonds with freshmen and be an upperclassman they can rely on. My Junior year was my first year doing this program, and it proved to me that I do enjoy helping people. It proved I can be more extroverted and be the person I have always wanted to be. It taught me how to be a leader to the students I mentored. I know that I struggled my freshman year due to my heavy anxiety, not knowing how high school works, and not knowing most of the people there. Dealing with anxiety is more common than most people might think. I see freshmen sitting in the classrooms I am in, and I can see myself in these people. As a Senior I am still participating in Link Crew. My goal is to be an amazing leader so that Freshman will want to be a Link Crew Leader as well. If we have a school of leaders we will begin to strive as a community. I have connected with these students as not only a leader but as a friend. I do my best to be someone for freshmen to rely on, but I also want to do this on a deeper level. This is what makes me want to become a psychologist. Knowing that some students deal with the same problems I did makes me want to help them. This is how getting my college degree will also help my community. I want to be the person I needed when I was younger. I wish to help my community in an impactful way after high school. I plan to help my community by becoming a psychologist. This has been something I wanted since I was in middle school dealing with my mental illness. I do not wish to dwell on them but to make them something bigger. I wish to help teenagers like me and help my community with their mental health battles by becoming a psychologist. I believe a leader is someone who strives to make a difference and that is exactly what I plan to do with my life. I want to dedicate myself to this matter because it is so important to me. I truly found passion in becoming a leader in the psychology field because of the stigma around it. Some people still think mental health is a joke and do not take it seriously. Other people just hate the fact of therapy. I want to strive to make this more normalized using the leadership qualities I have learned throughout high school.