At Age 29, Nicole Marchman is a resilient, powerful and motivating foster alumni. This is true about Nicole owing to the painful experiences she endured during her childhood.
Being the oldest of twin sisters; Jessica and Melissa who are now 21 years old, Nicole was at an early stage in life forced to take on singular responsibility of a "mother" figure and practically raise her sisters. This role was performed very creditably despite the little experience she has about it until her unfortunate removal from it as a result of continuous physical abuse inflected upon her and her sisters by their biological father, Nicole at this point was at the tender age of 11 years old.
Following the separation which resulted to the splitting up of the sisters, Nicole suffered severe bouts of depression upon Nicole which was mainly brought upon by the fact that she was unable to provide protection to her siblings. To add to her woes, she was also forced to endure seven foster homes and three group homes due to foster parents refusing to or unwilling to provide "long term" foster placements.
Nicole and her twin siblings were eventually reunited when the latter was at the age of 15, this reunion occurred in a foster home. Sadly enough though, the foster mother was both verbally and physically abusive to the sisters. This unfortunate situation once more rekindled Nicole's protective instincts and personality as she ever so often stepped up as the protective sister once again in defense of her younger sisters!
This continued abuse ended up splitting the sisters again. Interestingly enough, all the harsh realities these sisters were forced to endure and grapple with did not break them; it rather built up their resilience and established among them what Nicole herself describes as ''an unbreakable bond of sisterhood". Nicole will do anything for her sisters in a heartbeat and has actually done that on countless occasions.
An example of the above happened when at age 24, Nicole appeared before a federal judge in her quest to obtain legal custody of her twin sisters, who were 15 years old at the time. Nicole knew of the challenges an action like this was going to bring upon her as she sought to play the role of parent to her sisters, yet she was bent on sticking by her guns because to her, parenting was something that came naturally to her.
Today Nicole has proven her skeptics wrong by displaying how strong-willed her spirit is and how so ready she is to stay her grounds in the face of enormous adversities that can easily break others down and rob them of motivation. Nicole has gone on to defy the odds by obtaining her Associates degree in the Arts; Bachelors degree in Social Work from the University of South Florida and is now in hot pursuit of a Masters degree in Social Work with a focus on Child Welfare Policy at the Florida State University. She portrays a true foster alumni advocate by serving in the position of Deputy Intern Coordinator & Child Welfare Associate with the US Senate Committee on Finance in Washington, D.C. where she also dabbles as a policy analyst and researcher with the National Collaboration for Youth in Washington, D.C.
Not stopping there, Mrs. Marchman goes further to exhibit her strong youth advocacy tendencies by working as a relief youth counselor with the National Youth Crisis Hot line with Alternative House, a body championing the cause of disadvantaged and or abused youth. It is obvious to all at this point that Nicole Marchman is, in her own words, ''on a mission to bring reform to the foster care system". She's doing this by among other things completing a Foster Alumni of America advocate leadership training and educating DC, VA and MD legislators about foster care and its current need of emergency help to reshape the system and indeed the entire USA (January 29th and February 3rd). Nicole is also scheduled to travel to Prague where she intends to complete a child welfare international class through FSU, while working in an orphanage (June-July 2011); and completing her field placement in a Trinidad orphanage, for a four month period (January - April 2012). Nicole refuses to allow her past hurts to cripple her present and future mission!
Being the oldest of twin sisters; Jessica and Melissa who are now 21 years old, Nicole was at an early stage in life forced to take on singular responsibility of a "mother" figure and practically raise her sisters. This role was performed very creditably despite the little experience she has about it until her unfortunate removal from it as a result of continuous physical abuse inflected upon her and her sisters by their biological father, Nicole at this point was at the tender age of 11 years old.
Following the separation which resulted to the splitting up of the sisters, Nicole suffered severe bouts of depression upon Nicole which was mainly brought upon by the fact that she was unable to provide protection to her siblings. To add to her woes, she was also forced to endure seven foster homes and three group homes due to foster parents refusing to or unwilling to provide "long term" foster placements.
Nicole and her twin siblings were eventually reunited when the latter was at the age of 15, this reunion occurred in a foster home. Sadly enough though, the foster mother was both verbally and physically abusive to the sisters. This unfortunate situation once more rekindled Nicole's protective instincts and personality as she ever so often stepped up as the protective sister once again in defense of her younger sisters!
This continued abuse ended up splitting the sisters again. Interestingly enough, all the harsh realities these sisters were forced to endure and grapple with did not break them; it rather built up their resilience and established among them what Nicole herself describes as ''an unbreakable bond of sisterhood". Nicole will do anything for her sisters in a heartbeat and has actually done that on countless occasions.
An example of the above happened when at age 24, Nicole appeared before a federal judge in her quest to obtain legal custody of her twin sisters, who were 15 years old at the time. Nicole knew of the challenges an action like this was going to bring upon her as she sought to play the role of parent to her sisters, yet she was bent on sticking by her guns because to her, parenting was something that came naturally to her.
Today Nicole has proven her skeptics wrong by displaying how strong-willed her spirit is and how so ready she is to stay her grounds in the face of enormous adversities that can easily break others down and rob them of motivation. Nicole has gone on to defy the odds by obtaining her Associates degree in the Arts; Bachelors degree in Social Work from the University of South Florida and is now in hot pursuit of a Masters degree in Social Work with a focus on Child Welfare Policy at the Florida State University. She portrays a true foster alumni advocate by serving in the position of Deputy Intern Coordinator & Child Welfare Associate with the US Senate Committee on Finance in Washington, D.C. where she also dabbles as a policy analyst and researcher with the National Collaboration for Youth in Washington, D.C.
Not stopping there, Mrs. Marchman goes further to exhibit her strong youth advocacy tendencies by working as a relief youth counselor with the National Youth Crisis Hot line with Alternative House, a body championing the cause of disadvantaged and or abused youth. It is obvious to all at this point that Nicole Marchman is, in her own words, ''on a mission to bring reform to the foster care system". She's doing this by among other things completing a Foster Alumni of America advocate leadership training and educating DC, VA and MD legislators about foster care and its current need of emergency help to reshape the system and indeed the entire USA (January 29th and February 3rd). Nicole is also scheduled to travel to Prague where she intends to complete a child welfare international class through FSU, while working in an orphanage (June-July 2011); and completing her field placement in a Trinidad orphanage, for a four month period (January - April 2012). Nicole refuses to allow her past hurts to cripple her present and future mission!
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