A Fathers Protection: My Path to Forensic Psychology by Keylin

A Fathers Protection: My Path to Forensic Psychology by Keylin - April 2025 Scholarship Essay

When I was nine, I learned that monsters were real. They didn’t hide under my bed or lurk in the shadows. They lived among us. They looked like normal people, but they were capable of things I couldn’t begin to understand.

Every night, I’d wait for my dad to come home from work. After dinner, we’d change into our pajamas, settle onto the couch, and press play on Forensic Files. Other kids had bedtime stories. I had true crime. Case after case played out on the screen. Families torn apart. Lives lost. Questions left unanswered. At first, it terrified me. I’d clutch my blanket as detectives pieced together the details of a murder, my mind racing with the same thought over and over. Why?

My dad never let fear win. He always told me “knowledge is protection”. If I had questions, he answered them. He’d pause the show to explain how investigators followed the evidence, how forensics helped make sense of the unthinkable. He showed me that understanding crime wasn’t just about catching the person responsible. It was about giving victims a voice, helping families get closure, and making sure justice actually meant something.

That’s when I knew. I didn’t just want to watch these stories. I wanted to be in the room. I wanted to sit across from offenders, look them in the eye, and figure out what made them do what they did. Not to excuse it, but to understand it. I wanted to be the one standing in court as an expert witness, helping families get the answers they deserved. I wanted to be the person who could explain the “why” when no one else could.

Crime doesn’t end with a conviction. The people left behind the victims, the families, the ones who never get to hear I’m sorry carry it forever. Forensic psychologists help carry that weight with them. Not by undoing what’s been done, but by making sense of it. They stand in the space between the past and the future, between those searching for justice and those who need to be understood.

What my dad did for me, I want to do for others. He showed me the dangers of the world, not to scare me, but to prepare me. Now, I want to take that knowledge and use it to help people. The ones who have suffered. The ones who have lost. Even the ones who have caused harm. I want to bring understanding where there is none. And maybe, just maybe, stop the next tragedy before it happens.