Cassandra is a Norwalk senior with a 3.7 GPA. She has years of volunteer experience at such places as the Norwalk Public Library and the Stepping Stones Museum for Children.
Cassandra is also a Carver after-school student participating in our new internship program at Norwalk Hospital.
Cassandra is looking at several colleges, but right now Iona College will be her likely choice. She received an early acceptance letter. This private Catholic college in New Rochelle offers more than 60 undergraduate programs. What also appeals to her is the intimacy this relatively small campus offers.
Cassandra is interning at Norwalk Hospital with an interest in pursuing a career in psychiatric care. She already possesses the most important skills to work in the mental health field including empathy, compassion, active listening, information technology savvy, healthy professional boundaries, ethics, and a strong desire to help. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing recently reported that 77% of counties in the United States are experiencing a severe shortage of mental health providers. Demand for mental health professionals is projected to greatly increase in the years to come.
She aims to help remove the stigma of mental illness, to show that it is not a weakness. “We should be in awe of the amazing tenacity that many people with mental health challenges display daily. Simply getting through the day often requires huge reserves of energy, determination, and mental strength,” Cassandra shares.
Cassandra wants to be there for those whom teachers, parents, and friends too often cannot reach. She will bring to her studies and eventually to her professional work the unflinching conviction that no person is irredeemable or incapable of having a full life.
Carver has many programs, budgets, a long history, and strategic plans. But it is the individual Carver student, such as Cassandra, who embodies Carver’s significance and promise.
Carver scholars are changing our world and our pride and confidence in them are boundless.