Yan Scholarship

I was born and raised in a small town in Venezuela, the so-called worst and most dangerous country in the world. Although the lack of opportunities for food/water scarcity did not go unnoticed, one thing I ever learned from my parents by quoting Venezuelan liberator Simon Bolivar "A man without education is an incomplete being" - a sentence that 99% percent of Venezuelans were taught in elementary school. The reason why I wanted to pursue higher education was never in question for me; I was certain that I could not be "complete," and has always been very motivated to pursue my education as it was rooted deep down by the somewhat broken Venezuelan education system my parents as they are professionals themselves - a Teacher and an Engineer. My passion for higher education in Medicine also started by visiting the Hospitals in Venezuela, where the quality of its physicians exceeds expectations. Still, they are immersed in a precarious socioeconomic situation. I grew up surrounded by diseases commonly found in third-world countries, where the least privileged would die to the left and right, and a dormant desire to understand what was happening around me was starting to awaken me. In Venezuela, Doctors knew what to do in each case, but knowledge could not save the agonizing patient in Venezuela; however, sympathizing and caring for them made the difference. I fell in love with the beauty and majesty of the human body but also with the ugly and depressing side of Medicine due to my cultural background. For me, my convictions are rooted in going beyond helping and instructing people on what to do. Instead, I aspire to be like the physicians of my homeland that turn nothing into everything for their patients. Even though I always knew I wanted to pursue higher education, all my plans shattered when I had to move to the US to escape the tyranny and dictatorship of the Venezuelan government. I was 19 years old when the bitter-sweet moment of leaving my country came to life, it was a dream hidden in the worst nightmare. The privileges of living in one's own country were gone, and I became an invisible immigrant with zero opportunities (or so I thought). However, my parents (my greatest supporter) believed in me. They thought I could succeed, so they dropped everything in Venezuela so that I could have everything in the USA as an educated person. My parents worked hard in Venezuela to get their professional degrees, but once we moved to the USA, they put down their diplomas as they did not speak the language to work long hours in factories so I could go to college. Today, three years after moving to the USA, I say with tears in my eyes that my motivation to pursue higher education is my parents and my beloved Venezuela.