Lauren H

Lauren H is a student at Pittsburg State University, studying for a Bachelor of Science of Nursing, with a brilliant 3.86 GPA, and a minor in Spanish. She is 21, and has her determination geared towards working in a surgical department of a hospital, and with infants in an Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). To further her abilities in working with the public, Lauren studied her minor abroad in Spain, the summer of 2011. Lauren H is an amazing woman with her aspirations held high, and deservingly so. She has outstanding records of volunteer service, academic awards and scholarships. Her high achievements include the Dean’s Honor Roll at Pittsburg State University, and while holding the Honor List every year in High School, she also [ranted] on the Honor Roll at Johnson County Community College. For three years she received and held the Presidential Service Gold Award, serving 100 hours per year, voluntarily in her community. She has accomplished qualifying for many scholarships and aid; the RR Osborne Scholarship, for her aspirations into the medical field, Academic Scholarships from Pittsburg State University, the Harriet Hayes Austin Scholarship for nursing, the Kansas Foster and Adoptive Children Scholarship, Alumni Scholarship based on her academics, a Pearson Prize Finalist for her community service, an OSCAR Prize Finalist for community service, and the Dell Scholar. Lauren continues her volunteer work while in school, helping with running a local Resource Center for new foster children and parents. She also has been a volunteer for years, and continues, at Kansas Foster and Adoptive Children. She finds amazing satisfaction in helping others who are in positions she herself has been in. She was in foster care for six years, from the age of 9 until she was 15. She gives credit to this for her independence and ability to make good decisions and is always willing to share with other foster children, that there are good things that can come out of bad situations. She is aspiring to share her foster experience as a good one, proclaiming it is the best thing that could have happened to her. She states that from her nursing education she has learned that only the patient knows how much pain they are in. She likens this to being a foster child, and would feel it an honor to share her experience, and make a significant difference in the foster care system, promoting ideas that are for the childrens’ best interest. Lauren H was one of eleven siblings in a home, put into foster care in 2000. Lauren and her younger sister were place with the same foster parents. Her memories of the nightmare she was removed of, consist of constant abuse and neglect and very unhealthy living quarters. She never wanted to go back and she never did. Her foster parents decided they would adopt her and her sister, in 2006. Ms. H has been living independently while furthering her education, for the past three years. With the help of scholarships, and working since she was 16, she now works at a hospital, and also waitresses. With three semesters to go before achieving her nursing degree, she plans on working and living independently in the Kansas City area. Her transition from her past life, into foster care, then being adopted by parents who adore her, and now setting foot into a life of higher education, success and of helping others is remarkable. “Foster care made me the independent successful woman I am today,” states Lauren, while also accrediting her parents’ love and belief in encouragement which gave her the tools to grab on to live, and give it all she has. She truly wants to give back to the foster care whatever she can, in her way of being thankful for the live and attitudes she now possesses. Lauren H is a very positive woman, who is well on her way to achieving her goals, academically, socially, and personally. She is a remarkable success story in the foster care program.