DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Congratulations  

Katressia Brathwaite

and

Magdalena Oropeza

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

I am a 19 year old freshman studying at the amazing John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I am currently majoring in Criminal Justice but hope to minor or possibly double major in Sociology as I would like to understand the human mind. Ever since I was a little girl, I was always fascinated by detective and police shows such as criminal minds, law & order, NCIS and my all time favorite, CSI: New York. The work they did was simply amazing in my eyes. I wanted to be just like them. 

 

I was born here in the U.S but one would not think that once I begin to speak. I was raised in Barbados by my grandmother, Cynthia, from the age of two, so now I have a Bajan accent. Oftentimes, I am asked consecutively to speak just for an individual to hear my accent. Many think it is adorable, funny, and unique. I rarely felt the same, having people mimic me as I speak, but going through four years of High School with these incidents, I got accustommed to it.

 

I have been asked numerous times by different people, "Who are you? What makes you unique?" I am a very intellectual, dedicated, committed and ambitious individual, with high hopes of becoming successful in life. Though I may appear to be a tough and bold person, I’m really not. Despite my exterior, I’m a really shy, vulnerable person. I’ve been through hell and back, but I’ve always managed to keep a smile on my face. Oh that’s another thing. I love to smile. I’m always smiling or laughing. I hate being mad or sad so I always try to hide the pain with a good laugh. I express myself best through writing rather than speaking out loud. 


Though I may have many objectives for the near future, my present goals are focused merely on my academics. For the rest of my years at John Jay, I want to be able to see the growth, maturity, and intelligence in myself fully develop. I want to be able to prove to those that doubted me that I will continue to strive for excellence and that I can do anything I put my mind to. I want to make a difference. Through my keenness, hard work, dedication, intelligence and motivation to be successful in life, my goals will become attainable.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

My name is Magdalena Oropeza and I am eighteen years old. In the span of four months, I went from being a senior at Brooklyn Technical High School to a freshman in John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and majoring in criminology. In that short span of time, so much change had occurred in my life.

 

In late August of 2014, I was hospitalized; I just randomly woke one morning off balance and with half of my face numb. Once in the hospital, it took days before they even knew what I had. At most, they had told me I had a lesion in my brain which may have either been caused by a past infection or it could be the beginning signs of Multiple Sclerosis. To this day, they are still unsure what it is that I have.

 

Throughout my stay in the hospital, only one thing ran through my mind: what will happen to my future dream of becoming a lawyer? What if I do end up having Multiple Sclerosis, how will that affect me? It seemed rather selfish at the time but the more I thought about it, it made me rediscover why I wanted to become a lawyer in the first place. I wanted to become a criminal prosecutor for the sole reason of helping people. I want to help people who have been victims of a crime seek justice. I want them to feel safer because the person that did them harm and caused them to feel fear is locked away behind bars. I want to be able to wake up every morning and know that I am working hard to help someone who needed help. That is the sole reason I have wanted to become a lawyer ever since I was a small child and that thought will stay with me as I finish these four years of college and head off to law school in the future.

 

I guess the whole hospital stay, although scary, was able to bring my future goals into perspective, and that is exactly how I have designed my ePortfolio. Although you might see one moment as just a singular thing, if you think about it, it does affect you in the long-run. I am going to keep this mentality for years to come. With that, I hope whoever is reading enjoys this website. Happy reading!

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.