I have served as a vice president and creator of the Global Health club at my college to serve students and act as an advocate for their mental health needs. I hope to bring awareness to students of color and those from the LGBTQIA community so I have taken initiative to create bulletin boards and set up mental health awareness programs to help students learn about what resources there are to best meet their mental health needs. These were critical as many were unaware that an online telehealth service was available and had multiple language options and opportunities to speak with a mental health professional from the LGBTQIA community and one who was BIPOC. I found many students benefited from this resource as they could feel safe and validated which was often lacking in my local community. I have also started a project in the collection of used and new bras to support victims of sexual assault by providing economic freedom and education opportunities. This was a unique project as I became a leader within my community engaging the entire campus and the local community to come together and promote suitability by donating old bras that would then support a woman of color in providing her economic stability and work to remove health barriers to mental health and access to sexual health services. This was challenging as I had to coordinate alone the drop-off locations, ship off bras to the US location, and work with various offices on campus to approve this project alongside advertising this project to involve students and staff to support these women. Additionally, I have served as a resident assistant on my campus to serve as an advocate for my residents when speaking to other college staff members and or officials. I served as a resource guide, mental health, and peer advisor for my residents to educate them on academic success and ensure my hall was safe for all students to learn and grow. It allowed me to be a peer leader and take charge of the environment I wanted for my residents to be successful at College. I was challenged to further my leadership role in assisting the hall director in all hall programs and finding ways to engage the students within my hall in various cultural and academic events within my community. I am also the fundraiser coordinator at Luther college Habitat for Humanity and I have used this position to promote my residents to engage with their local community to volunteer on home building projects, fundraise for these projects and overall learn about the impact of Habitat for Humanity has within our local community in supporting economic freedom and wellbeing through affordable housing.

One of my favorite books is Vicious by VE Schwab. This book resonated with me as there multiple great representations of LGBTQIA characters who are often misrepresented. For instance, the main character Victor is asexual; he struggles with his romantic feelings for a girl but cannot understand why he is not sexually attracted. Often asexual people are seen as incapable of having romantic feelings and are not accepted in the LGBT community for not being sexual beings. I am asexual, and this was very impactful to see myself represented in the book. I also appreciated the moral grayness presented throughout and how morality is entirely subjective; even if people supposedly have good intentions and are deemed moral by society, their actions do not always portray that. A key plot point is how another main character tries to kill those deemed as exordinaries when he himself is a part of that group but made himself that way. He is sent to hunt and kill those EO, and I can tie them back to history where people have been victimized and killed for a specific identity when the person committing the crime is also a part of that group but hides it. The story tells readers how the choices we make, rather than our abilities, can determine the course of our lives.

Elderly people are often a stigmatized group, especially in my community, and I realized while they want proper medical care, they want to be treated as people. I have joined and volunteered with an organization called Resounding voices, where anyone is welcome to sing alongside those living with dementia and Alzheimer's. It has such a profound effect on the people living with dementia in Alzheimer's. It allows them to no longer be marginalized and sing in a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment. For many, they can connect and laugh with other members of the community, strengthen their minds, and I can be a part of this beautiful and impactful unification. I help select music that can challenge and strengthen their minds and choose songs they would be familiar with to engage with long-term memory. Seeing their smiles and facilitating a positive social environment where they can engage with other members of their community allows them to no longer be isolated, and singing has so many other positive effects that largely improve their day-to-day lives. Social time is a crucial component as many are isolated from their families. Bringing a smile to their face primarily helps to improve their memory and, more importantly, allows them to feel like a person again. Music is a great way to get people to socialize and give them a meaningful support that brings pure joy to their lives while improving their mental and physical health.

I would pay off my student loans if I had a thousand dollars. I would also use it to pay for graduate school applications which is a current barrier for me as I can't use extra money for that as I have other bills to pay for. I am always worried about my ability to pay for my loans on top of my tution so this would relieve a great burden off my shoulders as I am a first generation student financing most of tution on my own. A thousand dollars could also mean the difference for me to find an internship locally or do an abroad program to broaden my skills and focus as I am a global health major. I had to turn down multiple opportunites abroad to work in clinic and develop critcial skills as I could not afford to take time off of work and then have to pay for a flight and the added tutition fees. This would change my dreams in a positive manner and allow me to pursue these amazing opportunities.

I am a junior Global Health major with an emphasis in Policy and systems. I plan on using my skills and degree to bridge the health inequity gap within my local community. Through research within the community I can begin to examine what health concerns there are and what the barriers there are to people's acess to healthcare. In the same manner I want to create a positive impact by using an intersectional lens to properly address social, economic wellbeing and mental health as well as mental health. I am a woman of color and one thing of concern is access to menstrual products. Often times there are regions , cultural and financial barriers that leave women feeling less confident, unprotected and at risk of falling behind in their education. I believe education is a key part to reducing health barriers as women often are able to make more informed choices and are able to stay in school longer than can then help these women support themselves. A large scale change I would strive to achieve is making menstrual products more accessible to women especially of color and those of the lgbtq+ and trans community. I would look at partnering with local women's domestic or homeless shelters to provide free access . I would also want to look at how help schools particularly community schools that serve underprivileged students that could be at risk of missing school due to lack of access. It would also be able to aid the growing immigrant population that may face various stigmas surrounding menstruation. This is an important project to me as when I was younger I was uneducated about menstruation and was not prepared for it. My school could not give me anything and my only option was to miss school. I felt ashamed for having to miss school and I wanted to be able to find ways to change this and work at taking away this barrier to health.

Simple pleasures in my life is cooking dinner with my friends as we are usually so busy with work and college that we do not take the time to sit down and simply enjoy each other's company. It is a rare moment where we do not have to think about the stresses of school, bills and tuition but we can laugh and have fun making a meal together. It is a moment I truly enjoy where we explore new recipes and share with each other what makes us happy. I often get homesick and us being able to make homecooked meals especially of those from back home always brings a smile to my face.. Another simple pleasure is being to meet with my peers from my major Global Health . When we started out Covid 19 had just turned our worlds upside down and we could not really meet each other over zoom. Now a year later they are some of my closest friends and we have even started a GH club to bring awareness of the major and bring guest speakers related to GH and health equity. These women who are also women of color like me bring such joy and hope knowing we are going to make a difference within our communities around the world. I know that no matter how much I am struggling these girls will always help me out, make me smile and we will make sure that no woman is left behind. I struggled in college but after I choose this major and met these brilliant, and beautiful women I never felt happier than being surrounded by intelligent women of color knowing I was not alone in my struggle as first gen woman of color.

My daily sources of motivation is my mother. Every day I am reminded of why I want to help others using my global health major. She has struggled through an abusive marriage and is not working on finishing her degree. I often feel I am not worthy enough to be at college and feel like I'm behind compared to my peers but my mother reminds college is not a completion. I gain strength from her words that tell me I am enough and no matter how badly I think I'm doing , I must look towards what I have accomplished and not beat myself up. I often forget that I am almost halfway done, almost secured an internship and have been on the deans list for 1.5 years which she could not have imagine happening once she was pregnant with me. My mother serves as my motivation to work harder but allow myself some grace for when I make mistakes and to not take them too seriously. I know I can stress too much about assignments but she reminds me to think about the past and what I've done and to future in what I'll become.

My best skill is empathy and I excel at building trusting relationships with others and being able to perceive how others are feeling. I am working to improve this by putting myself in uncomfortable situations which will challenge my abilities to appreciate others and contribute to stay humble. I also am working to improve my sense of self advocacy and communicating with others what I am struggling with as I can get easily overwhelmed by always wanting to feel for a person and help them while I am not doing the same for myself. In this being able to redirect my focus and while emotions are a key part not letting them overrun me to stay present and engaged with the person I am with. I make sure to take time for myself to process my emotions and what I have taken in from others through a mindfulness journal which I often neglect but is a key part I am working to have myself improve on. Often I adopt others' emotions which are as painful or joyous as my own and be able to compartilize them and allow myself to set boundaries in how much I allow in and take time to be alone and where I can be at ease .

I love helping others by doing small little things that will bring a smile to their face. Often times we are so focused on issues such as reducing health barriers, improving housing etc. which is a key part of my work but I realized when working with these communities people are often denied a key part of their humanity which is to be treated as a person. In this I like to remind those in low income communities they are still allowed to be humans, treat themselves and not feel bad for not saving each penny for rent/food. When I am volunteering on a project that targets an issue I make sure to get to the know the people I am helping, listen to their stories and exchange food and gifts that often bring joy to their faces. People judge others for buying things not deemed necessary but life and happiness has more to do than just basic survival, people want to feel and be treated with dignity as human beings. I try to not just complete the project and move on but to ask what is one thing I could do to make them feel loved or beautiful. I also come from a low income household and while people helping us relieved a lot of stress what made my parents happy was when people treated us like humans and not that they had to give us things but it was nice that they cared to get to know us.

"If your compassion does not include yourself it is incomplete ". This is important as I want to devote my self to helping reduce/ break down health barriers to increase health equity but how can I do that when I am constantly doubting myself and my ability to accomplish my goal. I want to make sure I am compassionate, empathetic and putting others before myself but when I always give there is nothing for myself. It is hard to take time for yourself and not feel selfish or say well others have it worse and that could be true but how can one give to others when they are not giving to themselves to replenish their energy. Within the global health field which is my dream job I know there will be challenges in getting angry at the injustices and putting in all of my energy to help break down the many socioeconomic barriers which will drain me. If I do not take time for self I can not be fully present to commit to whatever health concern I am working on and to be there for the people I have promised to help. Compassion is so such a key part and many forget that when we want to help others, no is really able to help one but themselves. We cannot rely on others nor can we be present to those we want ot help if we do not take time to rest and renew ourselves.

One thing I have learned about my self if that I had put too much pressure on myself in college and I never allowed myself to acknowledge and celebrate my strengths. I took the strengths finder test and discovered what I thought was my weakness i.e empathy was truly my strength and what drove my to want to succeed in my major. I realized I had a passion to inspire change in the lives of other and that I know is a valuable attribute. My sense of empathy allowed to connect with others on a deeper level and I realized I wasn't be too emotional but that I wanted to be there for those whose voices often went unheard. This was a pivotal moment as I knowing this was one of my strengths I could not work to leverage that strengths throughout my major and into my future career as a health care worker.

My residents at my college make me so happy being able to be their mentor and see them grow throughout the year is a wonderful feeling. I often feel as if I am not enough , I have not applicable skills but when I am called to help them at their lower moments I see that I make a difference in their lives. I can see from their faces and when they wave and talk to me that I am important to them and they love to share their lives with me. I love talking and connecting with other so being able to meet others that I have even just a small impact on their lives truly makes me happy. My passion in life is to help others but I never thought that simply letting them know that at least one person really cares about them would bring such joy. For a moment I can forget about my own worries and be able to have fun conversations about the cool projects they're involved in or what music they're listening to. They give me a purpose and reason to make sure I am taking care of myself so that I am able to be there for ever life throws at them. Every day I am so happy I choose to be an RA and seeing them succeed and have fun at college never fails to bring a smile to my face.

When I was 11, I spent a month with my Korean grandmother where I got to experience my culture on a new level learning about my Korean heritage. I remember eating our favorite huckleberry ice cream, looking at photos of her childhood during the Korean war and being able to try on a traditional Korean Hanbok for the first time. This memory brings up images of sunshine and warmth , a moment where I have never felt happier and more loved. It was one of the last time I saw her before she passed so it was a happier memory.

Being independent means having the free will and choice to life by one's own means. It is being able to be strong and also having support to allow for growth rather than being hindered. This is crucial as I have not felt independent having to make choices based on limited resources and having financial burdens. Now as I graduate I am discovering what Independence means and being able to choose what work environment and career path I want to take rather than just pleasing my family. I have felt pressure being a first generation student being independent is being able to express myself as a proud mixed woman who loves and is not ashamed of herself. Independence is power that is found from within where I decide what and how to pursue my dreams. It is the ability to have health relationships with others and oneself and not being co dependent so that I do not need others validation or approval to feel I am worth something. I decide my own worth and what I can and want to contribute to world. It isn't easy but for me being independent is having control of my finances and have goals/plans currently and for the future that I am working on achieving. It is accepting all of my flaws as strengths not seeing them as weakness I can't overcome. Independence is speaking one's truth, they are compassionate but assertive in ones mannerism in not allowing others to dictate my life.

One thing I love about myself is how much I have grown these past years. I love how I am no longer afraid to ask for help and to be my true self. I love my quiet but also bubbly personality. I love that I can be quiet but I am not afraid to stand up for my self and call out injustices whether or not they affect me. I love that I am mixed, I used to be ashamed but I am proud to be Mexican, Korean and white. It was never easy to love that fact that I never seemed to fit in but now I love that I stand out and that I love being my unashamed self. I love my presence and I do not care that people cannot put me into a box. I love my flaws and how I am always willing to admit when I messed up. Most importantly I love myself at my worst and best moments and that I never allow my flaws to define who I am.

In 2019 I entered my university as 1st generation nursing major. I felt excited but also extremely nervous for the journey ahead the weight that was on shoulders to excel and graduate with a bsn. I quickly found out the courses needed to enter the major were much more difficult than anticipated. I struggled with classes and had many identity crises about who I was in a racial sense. I was failing one of my classes and felt on the verge of breaking down every single day with each failed test. However I found strength through my college's catalyze program who did not let me give up on myself. In all of this I did not let the bad grades keep me down and I used the emotional and academic support from catalyze to find ways to improve my grades and my mental/emotional health. They helped me switch my major and quickly I was able to bounce back and excelled in my new major. I learned how to persevere and find meaning in my academics and to do self introspection and figure out what are my motivations to give better meaning to my life. I learned how to create meaning and give purpose to what I wanted to accomplish at college.    I would quote daily affirmations and take each at a time not worrying about what one bad grade would do in the future.  Staying optimistic isn't easy but I found that each bad grade did not  define my worth and could not hold me down. I learned I am so much stronger than I thought I could be. Also that it is okay to ask for help and that reaching out makes one stronger and does not mean that struggling to be optimistic makes one weak.

Never too late - Yuna Lee( family name) Not the End - Highlight 2 kids- Taemin Big Chance- Super M Can't stop me- Twice Best of Me- BTS Life Goes on-BTS Not alone-NCT 127 Don't know what to do- Blackpink

One personal financial lesson I found to be incredibly useful was how to understand my loans as I was often confused about which what the difference between the ones from the government and my school. I learned that certain loans would cost me more for instance if I took out a private loans versus a federal student loan might cost me less in the future. There are key lessons such as the legal obligations I have to pay them off eventually which is easy to forget and to always create a plan to pay them off on time. Another key lesson learned about loans is to always keep documentation of the agreements signed for a loan and make sure one understands the terms and conditions especially if a life change happens and that degree is never finished or if you no longer are considered a full time student or any major life changes that can potentially affect your student loans. This has benefitted me as I am a first generation student who is navigating this college process alone so I had to make sure I found the resources to better make sure I am well prepared financially after college.

One way I try to have a positive impact on the world is through sustainability. It can be difficult as growing up we often couldn't choose the organic more sustainable options as it was more expensive. In college however I found numerous ways that I and my peers can positively impact the world. One way is to provide education around campus and within our community about renewable energy, buying less items that create waste and eliminating fast fashions from our wardrobes. Fast fashion alone constitutes for 10% of all carbon emissions and many in lower socioeconomic countries are the ones working in this unethical conditions, which is why I feel not supporting and changing this industry would provide a positive impact to the world. In that being more mindful of what I wear and throw away as that thought often leaves my mind but someone else is forced to live with the effects of my choices. As a global health major I couldn't ignore how negatively something like fast fashion could impact the health of a country. In that starting eith the pollution, the toxic waste that ends up in their water and the blatant exploitation of women's and children's rights. Although it seemingly impossible to take down a Multi billion dollar industry, thrifting, shoping from eco friendly companies, donating and simply not supporting fast fashion can one incredibly effective way to create positive and long lasting change to our world.

My dream life looks like I am free from any financial burdens, racial discrimination and inequalities. Where I am no longer forced to choose between certain activities I am interested because I have to save every cent I earn for college. I have always wanted to play professionally as a clarinetist but deep down I know it cannot really happen. Realistically I have to choose a major that will pay off my loans. I want to give back to my single mother who gave me everything to put me through college which she was something she could do for herself. The dream life for me is one where I can readily give back to my community, have a stable home life and pursue my true passions. In all of this I want to be able to pursue and earn and PhD and show other young girls Mexican girls that were are capable and deserve to have that chance. That we are more than the stereotypes and disadvantaged that often pose as barriers to higher education. I want to be able to look at my colleagues and see other faces like mine and not just of the dominant group. A life where diversity and equity are not just fought for but already exist so that the workplace is no longer a safe space but already a brave space that embraces both the comfortable and uncomfortable moments.

Being a first-generation student has fueled my passion to become an advocate for underserved populations. I have overcome numerous financial and academic barriers to enroll myself as a student of global health. I often moved as we could seldom afford the areas we were living in. I never had consistent and proper health care and being mixed only served to make that further difficult with constant experiences of microaggression at school. I often felt discouraged and that I had to work twice as hard as my white and monoracial peers. I always dreamed of working as a health care worker to provide better care for people such as myself who never felt understood or respected. Even now I face constant stress of how I am going to pay for each semester while balancing academics and extracurricular/my job. I have observed the impacts of underrepresentation of first-gen students in health care and that often means those communities are left underserved and left with increased health disparities. I am passionate as a first-gen student to reducing the health disparities by creating more trust within my community that could lead to better understanding and incorporation of different cultural perspectives into one's Healthcare practices. I am no stranger to financial and health insecurities but through my global health education, I am determined to utilize my experiences and education to give back to my community by listening to them and working to create solutions that can positively impact and improve the health of those often forgotten. Health equity is a key part of my philosophies and what I am striving to work towards after college. One thing I hope to do in school is a study abroad and experience what it is like to be a community health worker in an underserved community. I would use my experience as a first-gen student to utilize my skills of critical thinking, reliance, and empathy that can allow for a deeper understanding of the culture I am learning from to become a more empathetic health care worker. It is easier for me to step into someone else's shoes and see the value of being able to learn from someone else that I could use to improve the health of my community rather than being stubborn and ignorant to their ideas. With those experiences, I hope to create experiences for other first-generation students to pursue their academic/ work goals within the health care community to force our voices to be heard in how our ideas can create powerful and long-lasting change.

As a global health major, health equity is only my key goal. I am a firm believer as a student to focus more on letting the world teach me rather than trying to force my ideas on the community I am working with. It is about letting the world change me and my viewpoints which is why I want to study abroad to further enrich my education. The country I would like to travel to is Uganda. I have done research on Ebola and Aids in Uganda and how cultural and socioeconomic policies and traditions impact the health of the various communities within Uganda. As a citizen of the world, I am desiring to be an advocate for marginalized groups who face a variety of barriers to proper healthcare. As a student studying abroad in Uganda would serve to broaden my understanding of the powerful effects global and national partnerships can do to empower a community. I have a specific program in mind that would be mutually beneficial where I would learn from the community health workers and apply what I learned in the classroom. The fees would be given to that community and I would be able to learn from them more about my strengths and weaknesses and how to work through and challenges within the healthcare system. I am eager to immerse myself in Uganda to get away from the classroom and gain real-world experience about how healthcare workers navigate the social/ cultural and political issues surrounding health corners in their country. As a member of several intersecting marginalized communities, I am passionate to work with one and see how the world of community health workers has a greater impact on society, culture, and the environment. I am also interested in learning how to create policies/ health programs that would identify solutions to promote prevention to improve the overall health of a population. I am eager to be immersed in a study abroad program that focuses on the underlying causes of health concerns at the root rather than overlooking them to focus on secondary or tertiary care that only fixes the issues at a surface level. I am also interested in broadening my understanding of how global health has been colonized and that the partnerships between many middle to low-income countries are deeply rooted in colonization. I am passionate to see how this experience allows for further growth in my intercultural skills and serves to help me be an equitable partner in health that works to challenge the colonial paradigms in global health