Brooke Hall was 15 when she was placed into foster care. Her foster home was unfamiliar, strict, and uncomfortable. For the following 8 month placement, Brooke slowly got used to the house rules and actually enjoyed spending time with her foster siblings. This short, yet influential time in Brooke’s life had everlasting effects.
“ I used to have a negative outlook on life. I was really depressed and didn’t really care about what happened to me. When I was in foster care, I gained self esteem, made friends, learned how to be more responsible, and got better grades. After I was released, I had better coping skills… I would say that being in foster care changed my life in a pretty amazing way.”
One of the game-changers for Brooke was a class for adolescent anger management. She took the class and not only completed it, but voluntarily took it again, then even again! There began her interest in helping teens gain control of their anger and thus their lives. To that end, she currently is taking classes to achieve a bachelors degree in Psychology. She hopes her future after University of Utah will include graduate school or law school so that she can eventually be a police officer, a lawyer or a counselor. Brooke Hall is proof that the length of time in care is not the only measure of the impact that being put into foster care can have.
