Personal Statement

My journey with mental health advocacy began in high school when I found myself surrounded by the effects of mental illness in my community, family, and myself. Having been personally affected by the consequences of mental health, I began to focus more on education and prevention than post-incident damage control. Shortly thereafter, I sought opportunities to break down the stigma of mental illness. Projects in high school and my first two years of college focused on prevention, education, and treatment, culminating in my work as a Mount Vernon Leadership Fellow in Washington D.C. Mount Vernon prepared me for the Newman Fellowship by helping me to create, revise, and test a capstone project about mental health on the Drury campus. Since then, I have worked with faculty members, students, and mental health professionals to address mental illness. I have advocated for additional resources in my on-campus involvements, as in my sorority, and have been working on a presentation for the university with the Dean of Students. I am also involved in the legislative side of mental health, specifically the issues of gun control and prescription drug prices, as mental health does not discriminate and is interconnected in current political issues.