A dream transformed into a reality by Branda

A dream transformed into a reality by Branda - February 2019 Scholarship Essay

Since I was a little girl, I knew the job I wanted had to be involved with helping people. Whether it be physically, emotionally, or mentally, all I wanted to do was aid.
My entire life, up until my senior year of high school, I thought I wanted to be a doctor. I shifted from being a pediatric, to a trauma surgeon, to an oncologist. I had a plan for it and everything. A few months into the year of 2018, I had a life changing experience that completely transformed my perspective on how I viewed people and their behavior. I ended up getting very involved in psychology and soon after, combined my interest of psychology with criminal justice. The way some humans dragged out their crimes was interesting to me and I wanted to learn more about how their minds worked. I did so much research, going back and forth with being a criminologist, a forensic psychologist, or a criminal psychologist. I learned about the differences and similarities of each. Until finally, I figured out my dream job, a criminal psychologist. I was so ecstatic because it was the first time I had a for sure decision on what career I wanted to follow. So, you better believe I went straight into figuring out what it would take me to achieve this occupation. I knew that eventually, I was going to have to pay for my own college so if I wanted to create the best options for my circumstances, I was going to have to start off in a community college. After my first year there and acquiring in-state tuition, I plan on transferring and attending Florida State University and from there, work on my bachelors degree, focusing on my psychology and criminal justice studies. I plan to take classes in human behavior, psychoanalysis, crime detection, forensic science, and criminology in order to be prepared for graduate school. Generally, criminal psychologists must obtain a masters degree in order to be successfully licensed and have certification requirements, so I intend to work hard for either my master´s degree or Doctor of Psychology in order to achieve my goal. I am currently on the path of beginning this journey, I have applied to State College of Florida and got accepted. In 8-12 years of pure hard work and effort, I will have attained my dream of becoming a criminal psychologist.