My Chosen Path by Melina

My Chosen Path by Melina - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

One thing that I have always enjoyed doing is to help people around me. So, when trying to figure out the career I wanted to go into, I knew it had to be something that I would not only enjoy doing and be passionate about but also something that would involve helping people or giving back to the community at large. Reason why when I enrolled in college, I selected Criminal Justice as my major. My thinking was that I would work my way into a federal agency as a criminal investigator and help stop crime while bringing justice and closure for the victim or the victim’s family. However sordid the crime, or for that matter, how difficult it would be to be successful as a criminal investigator, I had made up my mind that this would be the best way for me to help others. Anyone who knows me well enough will tell you that once I make up my mind to do something, I pour in all my energy to be successful at that. I soon realized that this was pretty simple thinking on my part and was not based on reality. Just because I wanted to be a criminal investigator, and that too in a federal agency, didn’t mean that I would be hired as one. After all, there are thousands of other candidates vying for the same positions that I wanted. This got me thinking about working towards increasing my chances to realizing my dream. I would need more than just good intentions and a prayer. I needed to have a strong resume, even if it took me a different route. So, to better my chances of achieving my goal, I have decided to add Security Studies as a major in addition to my original choice of Criminal Justice. Now you may be wondering “How will this help me serve my community?” As I said, this may take me a different route, but it is giving me more knowledge and skills to be able to help people better. The people are communities, our country, and other nations. I do not know at which level I will ultimately reach at this point, but I know I will be helping others at any of these levels.
Within the Security Studies major I have been learning a lot about legal aspects of many different fields of law, ranging from civil and criminal law to international and environmental law. While taking a lot of different classes I have been able to figure out which part of the law I would want to go into. For the longest time, I was torn between international and criminal law and soon came to the realization that I would like to work directly with individuals. Since I do enjoy the criminal investigation aspect, I wish to focus on Criminal Law. Another reason that I came to this realization was because of my Criminal Law professor. She used to be a defense attorney and I was able to see that while she is now a professor she is still extremely passionate about Criminal Law and the way that she taught the class made me even more passionate and engaged about it.
From a very young age, my parents demonstrated they were fully vested in my success but more importantly, they have stressed my character mattered more. They have stressed the importance of helping others. My brother and I would always hear stories about how we have everything we need and that we needed to share and help others. Honestly, I got irritated at times hearing it, but it never left me. I have so many memories of how we would help just one person or just one family even when we did not need to because others could easily step up to do it. My parents stressed that it was our responsibility to do whatever we could and not wait for others to step up. I remember filling up shoe boxes with gifts while volunteering for ‘Hope for the Holidays’ and the simplicity of my actions would always have a tremendous impact on me. While I was filling out the box with small trinkets and knick-knacks, the child on the receiving end would be opening the same boxes with hope, joy, and a smile on their face. This imagery has stayed with me and made me realize the potential even a small gesture can have.
I have no disillusion that I can change people’s thinking or single-handedly change the way things are, but I do know that I will take each occasion to make a good impression as the last occasion of being able to do so. This means I will do my best the very first time and in doing so, I will perhaps stand out and do good to and for the community.