Joshua Willis '22 Recruiting Profile

Throughout my life, I have had many STRUGGLES. I have handled some of them in a good, healthy way and some that have led me to where I am today on my journey.

When I was 7.5 months old, I was placed in foster care. My parents, my second and only real family adopted me at age 3. My parents are different from me. Throughout my life, I have been constantly reminded of this. My mom is Filipino and my dad is Caucasian. Growing up in a predominantly WHITE neighborhood was hard for me. I was made fun of for being the odd one out and sometimes even called the "BLACK" sheep. This caused what is called a collusion cycle in my brain. It led to increased self-doubt and feeling insecure. For a while, when I looked at my adoptive parents I did not see them for who they were because they did not look like me. Society influenced me to think that they could not feel what I felt. Up until high school, I was made fun of and didn't know how to communicate my feelings with my parents.  My main insecurity was the feeling of ABANDONMENT. I thought that because my parents and I had differences, they couldn't be there for me. As a consequence, I felt ALONE in the world and began to spiral over the next couple of years. At this point, COVID-19 was in full effect and I injured my elbow playing my primary sport baseball. My grades then started to slip and I became unfocused on my priorities. My grades dropped from a 3.0 average to Ds and Fs. My failed communication with my parents caused our relationships to plummet. Our bonds became nonexistent. I felt that everything was being stripped away from me piece by piece. This was where my treatment journey began.

On March 1, 2021, I was sent to a wilderness program. This is the anniversary of the day I was placed into foster care, 16 years prior. My first few weeks there were extremely difficult. I once again felt stuck and truly believed there was no way I could overcome such a challenge. A staff member there then gave me a book called Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish their Adoptive Parents Knew. While reading it, I finally felt that someone else had experienced the same pain that I did. This book put my thoughts into words and motivated me to be better. It took me 73 long and hard days of consistent work, but I finally mastered the program. After wilderness, my parents and I decided Diamond Ranch Academy would continue to assist me on my path.

At Diamond Ranch, I have taken advantage of the credit recovery system and improved my GPA from 2.6 to 3.20. The best part is that I am still working hard to get a higher GPA. My relationship with my parents is the best that it ever has been. My elbow has recovered at Diamond Ranch and I even got my senior year baseball season back. At first, I was skeptical about how my previous injury would affect my performance, but I have moved past that and excelled. I led the state of Utah in the 1A division with a .625 batting average, a slugging of 1.250, OPS of 1.912, and my biggest achievement of 114 strikeouts over 10 games of pitching. If given the opportunity, I plan to try out for your baseball team. I desire to be an influential part of your college atmosphere. I would love to attend your institution and be a part of an ever-growing community that embraces differences. I believe your school will challenge me to be a better person and student. By attending your school, I will contribute to the culture by creating an adoptee club to process and find healthy ways to cope with our trauma.