Jennifer T. / Believe in yourself and remember you are resilient

"The instability and not having a safety net has been anxiety-inducing for me."

Jennifer faced many challenges as a former foster youth from lack of support system and not having a biological family to financial instability, housing and food insecurity. she experienced severe trauma, mental health challenges to all the statistics that we hear about the population of former foster youth. The biggest challenge she faced is not having stability and a solid support system and the void of not having biological family support.

"The severe trauma and mental health impacts that foster youth face is at a much higher rate than those that hadn't been impacted by the foster care system."

Jennifer navigates through college and life challenges. She considered friends as family and was fortunate to become close with some of her professors, supervisors, and mentors from her undergraduate and Masters in Social Work Program who really supported her. She is most proud of getting through her masters in social work program with all 4.0 straight A's. All four semesters while going through a difficult time. Then getting into her post-masters fellowship afterward for her experience to work as a clinical social worker / therapist at UC Berkeley were two of her biggest and proudest accomplishments.

Believe in yourself and remember you are resilient and strong and capable of anything you put your mind to. Also that you also deserve happiness and the world."

Another advice is that life will always have its ups and downs and don't give up during the downs.

"After the storm is when the flowers bloom" I also got this flowers tattoo with this quote after the challenging time during my masters program with my life challenges. It is a reminder that like a flower, you will also bloom as well."

She hope to have made it out of survival mode. She would love and hope to see herself with a stable living situation and life. She hope to have achieved her goal of being an Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and to work in a nonprofit as an advocate for foster youth/former foster youth. As a mental health therapist for youth from foster care and youth with mental health challenges.

Her life mission and passion is to advocate and support youth from the foster care system and youth with mental health challenges. She graduated with her masters in social work and is currently doing her hours at a post-masters fellowship at UC Berkeley. To obtain her license as a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) so she can give back and help this population. She hope to work with foster youth in a nonprofit and work as an advocate and a therapist for youth from foster care.