I started working with Rachel a couple of years ago, she was experiencing so much trauma from having been brought up in an abusive home. She moved to Vancouver to escape everything and tried to start her new life here.
It took her a while but with help from Covenant House Vancouver and other service providers in the community Rachel was able to secure safe housing, get sober and begin studying at school.
She had many barriers to face, but through regular counseling and other supports Rachel worked hard to become independent. As she studied at school, she became more and more interested in law. Having been forced through the court systems at a young age, this was something she found both interesting and also triggering.
This young woman was so resilient and determined and she worked on herself so much to understand her triggers and past traumas. She was able to transform these experiences into giving her an edge in her studies and in her career. Through the years I have known her she has overcome so much including a lot of grief and many barriers, but as soon as she started studying law, she knew she had found her calling.
She was able to use her life experience to contribute to her degree and will in the next year transfer her prerequisites over to a full-time law program, allowing her to meet her goal of becoming a lawyer. As she was involved in Ministry Care so early on in life, she can study and have her fees covered (youth who grow up in care can apply for grants for post-secondary education).
I was able to take her to UBC to meet with an academic adviser and speak to a few people from the law program to make sure that she would be accepted and given her current excellent grades she is on track to achieve her dreams. It was such a pleasure to walk around the UBC campus with her and for her to see what the next stage of her life might look like.
I have never met such a determined and resilient young person, who has not allowed the pains and trauma of her life to stop her achieving her dreams. She is proof that it doesn’t matter where you come from, and where you are going is only limited to how big your dreams are.
Rachel will keep us up to date with how her journey progresses, and we look forward to seeing what this young woman can do, the sky is the limit!
Lauren, Outreach Worker
