I was a Girl Scout from Kindergarten till 12th grade and during my high school years I earned my Gold Award with my project entitled “Ending the Stigma Around Mental Health”. For my project, I partnered with middle and high schools in my area to promote educational material around mental health to help destigmatize mental health issues present in middle and high schoolers.
During my second year at the University of Central Florida, I was selected to serve as a Peer Mentor for incoming first-year LEAD Scholars. I assisted them in their transition to college life, was a teacher's assistant in a first-year LEAD Scholars Leadership Fundamentals class, and got to plan events to allow them to meet more people or get volunteer hours.
While still in High School I applied for and was eventually accepted into the Early College Program at St. Petersburg College (SPC) - Tarpon Campus. During the course of my junior and senior years of high school, I took a full-time load of classes (at least 15 credit hours a semester) at SPC to be able to graduate from high school with my Associate in Arts (AA) Degree with honors.
Communication has always been a priority for me, with effective communication being the end goal. When asked for one of my strongest skills I always say communication but I also use communication as a skill I wish to improve since I believe you can always learn more about communication. I’ve taken workshops on True Colors Communication, DISC Communication, as well as personality type courses that discuss communication.
While this seems like an outlying skill to have, I have always prided myself on my professionalism. Part of being part of organizations like the National Society of Leadership and Success and LEAD Scholars is learning about and growing in your professionalism; from how you look to how you act.
I have always prioritized hard work, both modeling this behavior from my grandfather who is an ex-army man and a lawyer as well as my mother who owns her own consulting company for adult learning. During my later high school and all through my college years I maintained above a 3.5 GPA, clubs and other extracurricular activities, and a job (sometimes two at once).
During my time as a substitute teacher with Pinellas County Schools and as a tutor with Wired for Success, I ended up sitting to take my Florida Department of Education Middle-Grade Math teaching exam. I passed in January of 2023 with my Middle Grade Math certificate and began using it both at the tutoring center as well as in classes I substituted in to be able to give lessons while teachers were out.
During my time as a LEAD Scholar, I had the opportunity to attend enough training sessions and seminars to earn my UCF Cares certification. These trainings included things like title IX training, QPR training, diversity training, etc. This allowed me the opportunity to better understand both the traumas people can and have gone through as well as how both myself and the university can help these people.