“Other people have it worse.” “Stop being selfish.” “Mental health isn’t a real thing.” “What are you even depressed about?” These are the weighty comments that people with a mental health disorder might hear at least once in their life from others in response to simply speaking up about their struggles. From a personal standpoint, I’ve heard these comments all too well being unfairly uttered to friends, family, and myself growing up. Being raised in Nairobi, Kenya from a young age, mental health was always a hushed topic of conversation. My friends, family and I grew up with the common African mindset that, instead of discussing our hardships and mental health struggles amongst one another, we must remain silent and deal with our pain alone. Anyone who tried to reach out to a mental health professional was met with harsh judgment and often labeled as “weak” or “crazy.” As a result of such stigma, along with lack of proper mental health facilities, has caused an epidemic crisis with Kenyans experiencing higher rates of poor mental wellbeing. From a personal standpoint, it’s hard seeing the young men and women in my country use alcohol and other drugs as a way to cope with stress and depression. It’s hard seeing families being unable to properly comfort one another through hardships. It’s hard having to watch the local news to hear how yet another friend, child, parent, sibling to someone commit suicide due to feeling such unimaginable mental pain and suffering. I always told myself that when I grew up, I needed to try to make a difference within my community from suffering any longer from mental health stigma by choosing to major in psychology to become a clinical psychologist. The Schmid Memorial Scholarship would assist me greatly in achieving my goal of aiding individuals who encounter mental health struggles by helping lower my tuition cost as I transition to being a transfer student to a four-year university from a community college student this fall of 2024. It is of the utmost importance for me to work hard in my studies so I can strive to give back to people who struggle with their mental health with lack of support. In addition to this, after studying to get my bachelors, masters, and PHD in order to become a clinical psychologist, one day I would also return to Kenya to provide better access to mental health resources and reach out to those who have experienced mental health stigma in their communities to help them understand that they do not need to suffer alone. I want to help break the stigma of mental health as a weakness. By doing so, I hope to help Kenyans shift to being more open to seeking support, speaking with one another more comfortably about their struggles, and improving their mental health as a whole.