What started off as me searching for a safe-haven within my community, first led me to positions as a volunteer/mentor, and ultimately employment for a variety of community programs. My experiences included providing tutoring for school aged children, friendly visits and shopping for the elderly, engaging in community service projects and conducting educational workshops. These were the driving forces in my pursuit of a career in psychology. My ambition, motivation and commitment to service evolved from those programs and experiences. Since early adulthood, my goals have been to address human needs through an interdisciplinary perspective. Focusing on prevention as well as remediation of problems, and maintaining a commitment to improving the overall quality of life for a variety of populations. …show more content…
My education focused on family relations, aging, nutritional planning, child development, social work and counseling. A relocation to Texas continued to develop my passion for serving others. I spent four years working with an organization providing home-visits, case management services and parenting education to pregnant teens, at that time I decided to get a Master of Arts in Counseling. During the years spent working on my master’s degree, I continued to provide direct services to the community, which were the most influential and impactful years of my life. It is then I started to visualize and understand my purpose. I soon realized the practice of psychology would involve the application of both a scientific knowledge and creativity and by applying both I would be a better clinician. The knowledge and experience I gained from my graduate program, inspired me to purse a doctoral psychology program, the first in my