How small Steps Changed a Person's Life by Rudy

How small Steps Changed a Person's Life by Rudy - March 2026 Scholarship Essay

The time in which I helped someone in a meaningful way in my job as a behavior therapist. I got a new client and on the first day of meeting the client and his dad he tells me what his son has been struggling with. He told me how his son struggled with social cues like not making eye contact during conversations, becoming frustrated easily, and not coping with emotions in a healthy manner. I knew that in order for me to be successful I had to gain the boy's trust and so I started by paying attention to his interests like Pokémon, and Legos. I brought Pokémon and Legos to our sessions which helped in gaining his trust in which we also transitioned to doing nonpreferred tasks like homework and reading.

On a cursive assignment he was working on the increasingly became frustrated with the assignment and completely broke down. He told me he didn’t want to do it anymore. He put his head down on the table and completely gave up. I then told him that we could deal with his frustration together and I told him that we could start with taking in deep breaths to calm down. I tried to get him to use these calming techniques, but his frustration got the better of him. Although my first attempt of getting him to deal with his emotions wasn’t successful, I was alright with it since I was still someone new in his life and I knew getting him to listen was still going to take time. As I gained more of his trust, we developed more coping strategies like taking natural breaks, creating a list of appropriate responses and reactions to difficult situations, and expressing what he was feeling and why. Month after month of working with him I noticed that whenever he encountered a difficult situation and his emotions would begin to stir up, he began to take deep breaths, and count to ten. When I saw this, I became elated since he was able to handle difficult situations on his own much better. His dad also told me how he also saw a noticeable difference in how his son's behavior had improved and became less averse to obstacles in his way.

This was one of my first cases working as a behavior therapist and honestly, I only viewed the job as just a way to make money. I wanted to just do my job and get my paycheck. This was my mindset at first, but it slowly changed as I saw how my actions and the effort I put in could positively help the lives of others like the boy and his father. I not only cared about the money but also felt proud at being able to help others. Another big lesson I took with me is the importance taking small steps. To get results with this client it took time and deliberate effort. Some days there weren’t any results and others were far more difficult than I could have anticipated, but over time the small steps began to show. Now I approach obstacles and tasks in my life with plan and small actionable steps I can take on a daily basis. For example, I recently acquired my AWS AI practitioner certification. At first, it appeared like an enormous task, but I broke down my studying into smaller study segments that I would do over a 4-week period, and I gave myself 1-2 hours of studying that I had to do every day. This made it much more manageable and easier to get done. All in all, I learned that I want to continue to make a positive change in other people's lives.