Trista was born in 1984. She entered foster care one week before her 12th birthday. Child Protective Services picked Trista straight up from school and took her directly to a foster home. In 1997, Trista’s grandparents got custody of her and moved her to Nevada. In 1998, Trista ran away from her grandparents and lived in a runaway shelter for four months.

"I got in a lot of trouble. Vegas is a good place for that. You can get in a lot of trouble. I took advantage of all the opportunities afforded to me. I almost died of an overdose because somebody laced something, and I ended up in the hospital," Trista said.

In 1999, Trista re-entered the Texas foster care system, and during the next six year of her life, she lived in eight different places and attended 10 different schools. In March of 2003, Trista had her last court hearing and aged out of foster care.

One year later, she started to attend college part-time and work full-time.

"I kind of feel like I got the luck of the draw, I had the same judge for a long time, the same caseworker, good aftercare resources. Combined with drive that I have, it really allowed me to be successful," Trista said.

In June 2007, Trista began working for CPS as a Regional Youth Specialist. Her job was to represent youth's interests before CPS officials and lawmakers.

"It confirmed a couple things for me. It did confirm there was a lot of dedication in CPS. The majority of people take that job because they truly want to make a difference for young people, but it also confirmed for me that we have a lot of work to do,” Trista said. “Whether that be in the way case workers think about young people, whether that be in the way they're visiting with them, listening or not listening to them, it showed me we have a lot of work to do, but people's hearts are in the right place."

In September 2009, Trista left CPS to pursue a degree in criminal justice at Texas State University.

"I don't want to be a statistic and I want to help other people. You can always, always, always be something better," she said.

Her take on the system is:

"We have a system right now that is immediate. We focus on the immediate. This person just moved into the home, they're traumatized, let's work on this immediate trauma, then we move you, and we're going to start the trauma all over again. You never get to settle down and focus on being an adult. It's a learning process, and you never get to learn that. So how do you be an adult if nobody ever taught you how to be an adult?" she said. “You're a prisoner because your mom and dad didn't have the tools to take care of you. It's degrading."