I am sitting on the couch armrest in a small apartment in Israel, leaning over my great-grandmother’s shoulder as I watch her flip the pages of a medical textbook, carefully explaining to me all of the diagrams and illustrations. I listen eagerly, trying to absorb as much of the information as possible, knowing that later I’ll silently stow away with those textbooks to see if I could discern some more new tidbits of information on my own. This is my favorite memory of my great-grandmother (or as I liked to call her, Baba). Baba and I would often lose ourselves in conversations about her experiences in the medical field. Her captivating stories of diagnosing illnesses and transforming lives became the sparks that ignited my own aspirations. Baba’s own ambitions and journey began in Lithuania, where she lived her childhood years among a vast Jewish family. Her family was made up of doctors, all of whom had a passion for learning and exploring the world around them, which only made Baba determined to follow in their footsteps and become a doctor as well. However, her childhood and dreams were cut short as World War Two started and the Holocaust cast its dark shadow over her life, thrusting her family into the clutches of survival. Forced to escape to Siberia in Russia, she and her family fled with nothing but cutlery in their hands, as soldiers started to invade the outskirts of their hometown. From there, she went from one challenge to the next, starting with the Russian pogroms that scarred her family in the aftermath of World War II. I heard firsthand from her how hard it was for Jewish people to get jobs, get an education, and even feel safe in their homes. Despite all of these obstacles, Baba stood resilient—a Jewish woman confronting adversity, she remained resolute in her pursuit of education, finishing medical school at the age of 18. With unwavering determination, she shattered expectations, carving a path to college and a medical degree. Her brilliance eventually crowned her the chief neurologist at a local hospital. When Baba passed away suddenly while I was about to embark on my high school journey, it caused me to re-evaluate my future and my educational path. Baba had always encouraged me to pursue science from the scientific textbooks she shared with me to the robotics kits she sent me on my birthdays. But it was at this moment that I resolved not just to honor her memory, but to seamlessly weave her legacy into the fabric of my life by taking a path where the gears and circuits of engineering would find harmony with the medical field. That year I decided to apply to the MIT/Biogen biotechnology program to learn more about the neurological conditions my great-grandmother studied and how technology was used to help people affected by those conditions. Sitting in the lectures, I felt as if I was back home at her apartment, listening to the knowledge she had imparted to me. I became further determined to improve my education using my own means which led me to apply to the topmost STEM school in the state that provided its students with the opportunity to go to college for a year. It was at my new high school that I was fully able to experience my potential and explore classes I never would have otherwise. Today, with each step I take within the bioengineering realm, I feel Baba beside me, an invisible hand guiding me through challenges and giving me the resilience to keep on learning.