Christina Ross, a 19-year-old computer science major, is bound to chase her life dreams despite a rocky childhood. Ross currently resides in Sayreville and commutes to Brookdale Community College. Growing up she lived In Monroe Township, but it was not the ideal childhood. Her parents filed for a divorce when she was seven, which she said became very messy and lasted eight years.

As the divorce went on, she grew more exhausted and started having serious struggles in school where she was placed in special education. She was given an IEP, which stands for Individualized Education Program. Ross was not getting help with schoolwork at home due to these family issues which means she suffered by not doing well.
As she approached middle school, the divorce just got worse and harder to deal with. Ross said she was hit with depression and anxiety, which is typically common when entering the teenage years with everything she was going through. Fortunately, she was able to find a therapist that would be able to help her.

“I felt very depressed, and my anxiety got worse because of everything going on with the divorce. I did not feel like I had a stable home environment. I did not have any family or friends I could talk to about it, which led me to getting a therapist. It was always back and forth with who had custody of my sisters and me.”

At 15-years-old Ross decided she wanted to try and get her life together when it came to school by being a better student. The depression she once felt was not as strong and she was able to focus on what she wanted for herself. After years of chaos, her family life became more stable and she was able to gain more structure and support at home.

The support and confidence that Ross had within herself would help her become the student she wanted to be. In junior year of high school, she pushed herself to start taking honors and AP classes, which was a huge accomplishment for her. The resource room was not for her and as things started looking up, she knew she wanted to have a career for herself and even go to college after graduating high school.
Ross loves studying computer science and hopes she can transfer to Rutgers University when she is finished at Brookdale.
“I think my biggest goal is to get a career that is safe but also is something I’m going to wake up happy and be able to do my job every day,” Ross said.