I have always believed that the most meaningful moments in a person’s life are not the ones that come easily, but those that demand resilience, adaptability, and growth. One of the biggest challenges I faced was a sharp decline in my academic performance during my undergraduate years, which nearly derailed my dream of pursuing a career in medicine. What initially felt like a devastating setback eventually became a transformative experience that changed my perspective on persistence, purpose, and how my career goals connect with each other. In my first two years of college, I maintained a strong GPA and felt confident in my ability to balance academics with extracurricular activities. However, in my junior year, personal stressors and overcommitment caught up with me. I was juggling multiple responsibilities, working long shifts, taking on heavy course loads, and trying to meet the high expectations I had set for myself. Despite my efforts, my GPA dropped sharply from a 3.7 to below a 3.0. For someone who had always taken pride in academic success, this was a crushing blow. I began questioning whether I was capable of pursuing medicine and if I could recover from such a setback. The turning point came when I decided to stop viewing my situation as a permanent failure and instead saw it as a challenge I could face through deliberate action. I sought guidance from professors and advisors, who helped me reassess my study strategies and time management skills. I began restructuring my schedule, prioritizing self-care alongside academics, and setting more realistic goals. I also leaned into my curiosity for the subjects I enjoyed, especially biology, public health, and ethics, reminding myself why I chose this path in the first place. Through these changes, I gradually regained my footing academically, demonstrating that setbacks may slow progress, but do not have to define the outcome. This experience not only helped me bounce back academically but also reshaped my long-term outlook. For the first time, I understood that medicine is not just about intellect or perfect performance, but about resilience in the face of difficulty. I realized that patients often face seemingly insurmountable challenges, and that my ability to empathize and support them would be strengthened by the obstacles I had overcome. My own journey of recovery gave me a deeper sense of humility and reignited my desire to serve others facing their own struggles. Most importantly, the challenge expanded my view of my career goals. As I worked to rebuild my academic path, I became increasingly aware of the systemic barriers affecting people’s access to healthcare. Through my work as a scribe and in public health research, I have seen how issues such as financial hardship, language barriers, and systemic inequalities significantly influence patient outcomes, just as much as biology or medicine. I started imagining a career that would not only allow me to treat patients but also advocate for systemic change. This realization ultimately inspired me to pursue a dual degree in medicine and law. By combining medical training with legal expertise, I aim to position myself at the intersection of clinical care and policy. My goal is to advocate for reforms that improve access to quality healthcare, especially for marginalized communities who too often fall through the cracks. The same resilience that helped me recover from my academic difficulties will serve me well as I navigate the challenging path of dual-degree training. What once seemed like a stumbling block has become the foundation of my commitment to a career rooted in resilience, advocacy, and service. Looking back, the GPA decline that once felt like the end of my dream was actually the beginning of a deeper, more meaningful journey. The challenge forced me to reflect, adapt, and reaffirm my goals with a clearer vision. It taught me that growth comes from difficult moments and that setbacks can serve as catalysts for change. Today, I am more determined than ever to pursue medicine and law, not just as separate paths, but as interconnected tools for healing and justice.

She sat across from me, speaking softly in Spanish, her words carrying both exhaustion and resignation. She told me about her excessive vaginal bleeding, so heavy that she wore industrial-grade menstrual pads every day, going through several just to cope. Months earlier, she had undergone a uterine biopsy and received a brief course of treatment, but after that, the hospital never called her back. No follow-up. No explanation. No plan for next steps. She was left to manage a debilitating condition on her own. As an immigrant with a gold card, her healthcare options were limited to county hospitals, where resources are scarce and overextended. She had done everything right: sought help, followed through with care, and waited for guidance. Yet the system failed her. What struck me most was not just her medical condition, but the quiet way she described it, as if she had already accepted that her suffering was invisible. Her story is not unique. Across communities, patients are left in limbo because of barriers rooted in cost, access, and systemic neglect. Some forgo treatment altogether because they cannot afford it. Others receive partial care that addresses symptoms but fails to provide long-term solutions. These injustices are not due to a lack of medical knowledge or technology, but rather to inequities in how healthcare is delivered and who is deemed worthy of consistent, quality care. It was this patient, and others like her, that solidified my desire to see a world where healthcare is accessible to everyone and affordable for all. Healthcare should never be determined by someone’s immigration status, income, or the type of insurance card they hold. It should be a universal right, as essential as food, water, and shelter. However, we know that some find this debatable too. When healthcare is inaccessible or unaffordable, the consequences extend far beyond the individual. A parent unable to treat a chronic illness may be unable to work, destabilizing an entire family. A child who cannot access routine care may struggle in school, shaping the course of their future. An elderly person forced to ration medication may face avoidable complications that strain both families and already overburdened healthcare systems. These are not isolated tragedies; they are systemic failures that ripple across society. True change requires addressing both access and affordability. Expanding coverage means little if the cost of medications, procedures, or follow-up care remains prohibitive. Likewise, lowering costs is not enough if patients are restricted to overburdened systems that cannot provide continuity of care. To build a just and equitable future, healthcare must be both universally accessible and realistically affordable. The world I envision is one where no woman has to silently endure preventable suffering because her insurance card dictates where she can seek care. It is a world where language barriers do not lead to lost information or missed treatment. It is a world where hospitals are not overwhelmed to the point of neglect, and where compassion is embedded in both practice and policy. That is the change I wish to see: a world where healthcare is no longer a privilege for some, but a right for all. A world where no one is left waiting months for answers, or forced to live in daily pain because the system designed to heal them has forgotten them.

I stay true to myself by doing things that a younger version of myself would not have done out of fear or insecurity. Honoring myself in ways my inner child longed for is the purest way of staying true to the person I am throughout all of my seasons. For example, standing up for myself in situations I would have shied away from in the past like a job opportunity I feel “unqualified” for, even so much as saying no to something I don’t want to do, but would of said yes to appease the people around me instead appeasing myself. Today staying true to myself has lit a fire in me that allows me to go after all that I want. It’s pushed me in my courses, made me go after job opportunities in my field of study (and get them.), and ultimately has and continues to forge me into a woman I love to be. Twelve year old me is astonished by who I am presently and I will remain true to making sure that never changes.

Optimal mental health for the Black community is consistently joyous. It looks like being able to step outside and be unapologetically carefree while being safe in our communities, in our homes, in our schools, or just walking down the street. Optimal mental health for the black community is like a breath of fresh air, sun-kissed smiles, and the warmth of security knowing our lives are blessed and protected. Optimal mental health in the black community is the enrichment of our youth with the truthful education of our people. It is a sense of wholeness and belonging in our communities and the outer world. It is a celebration and unrestrained joy, unconditional acceptance, and an unbreakable bond built on the foundation of promoting wellness in our communities. Our communities are torn apart daily by oppressive systems and unfortunately by each other due to the internalized societal structures dowed upon us. It is very common for the black community to view mental health care as strange. The generations before us did not have time to consider whether or not they were in a good mental state before facing the rest of the world. Perseverance and hard work were at the top of the to-do list for many black individuals and that ultimately led to a diminished view of what a healthy mental state could look like. This has manifested into many black families using the church, Bible, or just turning a blind eye to mental health complaints within the home. Resources like therapy are demonized as being weak and in turn the individual seeking it is weak as well. Slowly reforming this way of thinking with the advocation of mental health care and educating the masses on the signs, symptoms, and healthy remedies or outlets for mental health are key ingredients to achieving optimal mental health in our communities. We have to be willing to educate and uplift one another to prioritize our mental wellness. Being an advocate for the mental health of the black community is especially important in a time where there is unlimited access to the torment of black individuals at our fingertips. We live in a world that so openly degrades the black community, we must help find solace in one another. For example, as a community the summer of 2020 was devastating. A shift occurred that truly shook the foundations of what we thought social justice could look like. People used their minds, voices, and bodies to advocate for those who couldn't anymore, and some changes were made. That is true power. When we collaborate we become an unstoppable force demanding to be heard and seen. When we are out on the front lines being loud and empowering one another it puts societal change in motion. As a community, we decided to be there for one another in mind, body, and spirit to progress social justice. Continuing this in our communities will surely bring the change we desperately need and desire for communities of color.

After achieving my highest degree, an M.D. in Psychiatry, I hope to match to the UCLA psychiatry residency program. Once I complete my residency, I plan on working at a Kaiser Permanente or one of the many local hospitals in the Los Angeles area to build my experience. This specific area is important to me due to the high volume of the homeless population that suffers daily from a lack of resources and medicinal care. Los Angeles is unfortunately known for skid row and I know that I can be of service to those both professionally and on a philanthropic basis. I know I can do that in my field of study. Depending on where life takes me, after about 7-10 years of working in a hospital setting, I want to branch out into a private practice working with families and children, while keeping the relationships I built in the communities I have served. By branching out into a different sector of psychiatry, I will be able to broaden my professional experience. Another goal of mine is to open my own private practice that can cater to underserved communities pro bono or accept an amount this specific clientele can pay. I think many families and communities go without help to the point their needs become dire and sometimes deadly. It will never be fair that a family can't seek medical help whether it be physical or mental because they can't afford it. If they can't pay does that mean they are not worthy of help? I want to change that and provide a service for all. I know there are going to be particular guidelines that need to be put in place that maintain order and structure within my plan, but the ultimate goal is to be of service to whoever needs it. An achievement I will consider a full-circle moment for me is writing a book or script of some sort that details my experiences in my life leading me to where I am. It will detail my hardships, my visions, shortcomings, and will overall be a testimony to the trials and triumphs in my life. I tend to journal my thoughts and experiences because it keeps me present and aware of how life is treating me and I think I can use this as a tool in my psychiatric practices. Whether I use it as advice for a patient or I use it personally, in a note-taking manner, to better help a patient, I know journaling is a great way of understanding where you are at in the present moment. My end goal is to make an impact through my work and to be of service to many communities along the way.

My volunteer experience has been mostly with the black and brown children and adults in homeless communities and underfunded communities of small towns. While serving these communties issues arise that made me realize just how much help, concrete, financial help and attention. During a community mission trip in Madera, California, a group from my church and I went to a local Catholic church and soup kitchen to give supplies of socks, toothbrushes and toothpaste, snacks, hand sanitizer, etc. to the homeless community of that area. The majority of the homeless population that showed up were hispanic families with small children, and black women and men. It felt as if they had been completely left behind. What stood out to me the most though, was there being an armed guard standing with us and telling us who we could give supply bags to. Particularly families with more than two children. Whenever the guard would look away, we would run after families to give them a bag. This event made me realize two things: the homeless population is deemed untrustworthy due to stereotypical societal typecasts and even when homeless, black and brown people are still the most underserved. This perspective has shaped a significant part of my world view in regards to people who look like me and it has become increasingly urgent to make changes.As a black woman going into the medical field, a field that underserves black and brown people, it is my duty to provide a safe space for minority women and men and to provide the best care for all communities.

I hope to master inner peace and create a legacy through my work and wisdom. I hope to lead others through example, remain in a state of gratitude, and to help others discover themselves in the way that helped me. There have been many instances in my upbringing where I didn’t know when an undisturbed day would come. There always seemed to be something going on that disrupted my life and would seemingly try to throw me off my course. I lived in a cycle of internalizing a degrading and toxic environment without really getting to know who I was or what I was truly capable of. I felt lost and drowned by ugly words and actions towards me, but there is a reason why these things never broke my spirit. This has all been a part of my preparation for my future. With everything I have endured, I have come out of the other side with a renewed sense of self. I have worked endlessly to release things that no longer serve me, including ingrained thought patterns and beliefs about myself. I work hard to overcome everything thrown my way to stop me and most importantly, I have implemented the peace in my life I had previously longed for. With this came a recognition of my purpose. As I cater to myself in ways I wished people would have for me, I made a promise to myself to do the same for others in my career as a psychiatrist and everyday life. So far, my journey has made me realize how much I have to offer the world. I am someone who is finishing her associates in the summer of 2021, the woman who has run her own business and been an assistant manager for a multimillion dollar corporation, someone who is now preparing for the MCAT, and is most importantly, the happiest and most sure of herself than ever before. Around this time two years ago, I had to leave a university I thought was a perfect fit for me, was a victim of domestic violence, and fleeing from an abusive home. Nowhere during these events did I think I would accomplish as much as I have , let alone discover my calling. This life has taught me that being broken down only allows you to be built back up again stronger and wiser than before. I want to help people recognize their inner truths and to strengthen their relationships with themselves so they can feel at peace within, just as I have. Studying neuroscience and eventually medicine will give me a deeper insight to the functions of the human mind in relation to enduring and overcoming trauma. Being an MD will allow me to provide further help, medication, if necessary that can potentially increase someone’s quality of life. I realize more and more everyday that my life was not meant to be any other way. I learned early on that my adversity was my fuel. Every time I reflect, I never see any part of my past as unfortunate because each step on my path was divinely orchestrated to lead me to who and where I am today. I want to share this thinking with people. I want those who feel like they are drowning in their own minds or environments to know that there is help and there is someone who understands where they are currently, but also know there is another, happier, healthier, and much more peaceful side to where they are in life. People need a safe pace that provides viable solutions for their peace of minds. I want to create that space, but for now I prepare for this by showing up for myself and making calculated steps along my path.