Personal Narrative: Welcome To The ABC Center

At the age of nine, I watched my uncles lowering my father into the ground and what took his life was addiction. All my life I have watched addiction take over the lives of people, I love. My father's side of the family, besides my grandparents, has always faced addiction. Although, addiction runs through my blood, I will not take the same path I have watched people take all my life. I will be the one to end the cycle. Watching the majority of my family waste their life has motivated me to change the direction and better myself from living a life of addiction and misery.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

Over my years of school, one big influence on me has always been sports. Ever since a young age, I have always enjoyed playing and watching sports. In my four years in high school, I have fell in love with the sport of lacrosse.

I woke up and took one bite out of my pop tart but that one bite was all I could eat. My legs were shaking, and my heart was pounding. My dad told me, “It is a true honor to even make it this far so go out there and have some fun.” Once I heard this statement, I knew I was ready to go. I arrived at school and boarded the bus. The car ride was an hour and fifteen minutes of hearing the squeaking of the wheel on the bus. My teammates were getting their heads ready for the big game.

As my high school years were coming to an end, all anyone could talk about was college. Where they were going, what state they would be a resident in, and what they would major in, what campus they would be visiting that weekend. I, however, thought I had it all under control. I thought that when my Senior year came by it would all fall in to place. That's crazy, right? The shows that I grew up watching did not have to deal with this. That is when expectation went out the window and reality kicked me in the butt. I had five months left to start applying to colleges and looking in to different campuses that offered my dental hygiene program. Lucky for me, my community college had a two year program.

Being at the Chief’s Academy has been a great experience for me. I have learned many things during my time here that I will take back to my unit and apply to my day-to- day work. In the following paragraphs I will talk about three things specifically. The first thing I will take back will be my dedication to working out and my overall fitness. I will take what I have learned about fitness and share it with my subordinates. Secondly, in relation to the generations class, I will think about how people are different and how they come from different places and how I need to adjust my self to those differences. Lastly, I will take what I have learned about coaching and use that to better understand my people by listening and asking thought provoking questions. Even though I have learned many things, these are the three that I believe I will

My study at Howard Community College has helped me pick out a major that I know I will love pursuing for the rest of my life. HCC was a great way for me to learn the introductions to pertaining to my major. Although HCC was a considerable start, it had limited programs and resources that could have guided me in the long run.

As the famous Eleanor Roosevelt Once said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” This is very true to my story. When I was little I thought that I would always go to my charter school, LCCS until I graduated to high school. I never thought that I would change schools, that thought never entered my mind until I heard about the Advanced Enrichment Program. Then all my visions of what it would be like to stay at LCCS were thrown out the window and I transferred all my effort into preparing to take the test to get in. This the story of how I tried my best to get in, even though I thought I couldn’t do it.

“Oh, my goodness,” “Wasn’t it so funny when Mr. Speranza split his pants in class today?”

Last summer I wanted to work and earn a little cash and distract myself and not be home all summer. I didn't know where to apply so I applied everywhere I was even open to working in the fields my parents told me that the fields were the last place they ever wanted me to work. My mom and step dad Raul always told me that field work wasn't easy and that it was not for me but I didn't listen.

From my first engagement with John until now, I maintained the MI spirit by honoring and accepting his autonomy, providing support, evoking hope, and by recognizing my crucial role in supporting a client's journey of change. I also provided a supportive and welcoming environment, while maintaining a sense of neutrality and equipoise, and being cognizant of my role as a clinician (as opposed to a teacher, confronter, or mentor), and the effect it has on the establishment of our collaborative therapeutic relationship. Throughout most of my interactions with John, I used the cardinal OARS (Open-ended questions, Affirmations, Reflective listening, Summarizations) techniques commonly used in MI (Miller

Life is a process. From the day we are born to the day we pass away, we go through experiences of happiness and sadness. Every day in between, we work on ourselves to make ourselves the best versions possible. This is similar programming. When programming, we go through a series of trials to make the program the best possible version of itself. Once something new is discovered, that program continues to build. I am applying to this Stevens Program because my curiosity drives me to learn more even during the summertime. Ever since my brother, Kenny, explained to me his experiences of coding, I was inquisitive about coding since. It seemed like people created something out of nothing. They would begin with a simple, miniscule idea and turn this

Coming into this training environment I felt like I knew what to expect. Boy, was I wrong. The Chief Petty Officer’s Academy introduced me to some unique and thought provoking ideas that, if proposed the right way, could potentially push our unit in the right direction. The Staff ride to historic Marin Headlands National Park and concepts such as LPI 360 and physical fitness are great examples of new and exciting techniques we can use to drive our unit forward.

The environment i was raised in was a diverse environment.The people who had shaped me

Our center includes classrooms for infants, toddlers, preschool age children, and school age. Each room is filled with qualified staff.