The recipient of our 2020 McKenna's Rae of Hope Foundation Mental Health Field Scholarship of $1,000 is Miranda Moore of Kearney, Nebraska. She is currently attending Pacific University in Hillsboro, Oregon, and ultimately will receive a PsyD (Doctor of Psychology) in Clinical Psychology with a focus on Child and Adolescent Psychology in August of 2023. She is in her 2nd year of the 5-year program and will earn my Masters Degree in August. Congratulations to Miranda from all of us at McKenna's Rae of Hope Foundation. Thank you for being a Rae of Hope for those around you.
Here is what Miranda wrote in her application:
Explain what type of Mental Health field you are going into and why you want to go into that field:
I am currently in a doctorate program for clinical psychology and am focusing my clinical attention on working with adolescents dealing with anxiety and depression. I have taken a special interest in LGBTQ+ and racial and ethnic minority youth, which are populations severely affected by suicide. Many factors have motivated me to pursue this line of work, some of which stem from my personal struggles with mental health. Throughout middle and high school, I experienced undiagnosed anxiety and depression, with frequent thoughts of suicide and self-harm behavior. I truly believed that things would never get better. But they did: I graduated high school in the top 10% of my class, received great scholarships, and found myself loving life. However, my mental health struggles never went away; I saw how many around me were dealing with similar issues. I threw myself into psychology, desperately searching for what I could do to help others dealing with this. Then, the world held its breath as we grieved the loss of another life taken by suicide. I recognized that it could have been me. I had been there, feeling that overwhelmed, hopeless. That was the final push I needed to pursue a mental health degree. To help the people who don’t feel heard or understood, who don’t see another way out. The Mirandas. The McKennas. My time in graduate school has only strengthened my belief that this is what I am here to do: to help, to make a difference any way I can.
Additional Comments:
There is insufficient access to mental health care in our community and the surrounding areas. Nothing would make me prouder than to return to the Kearney community upon completion of my degree and serve those that need it most. I know that McKenna would be so proud of her family for what they are doing to help others battling depression. It is hard, in the moment of loss, to see anything good in the world. The Johnson family was, and still remains, the good: to take a tragedy and turn it into a beacon, a Rae of Hope. McKenna and her family inspire me every day to keep going, to finish my degree so that someday, I can help children and adolescents dealing with mental health issues. I am dedicated to this field and am excited to be pursuing a doctorate degree in clinical psychology.