I’d like to start my educational journey with my very first experience with the American school system. I immigrated to America when I was 4 years old from a small village in Ukraine; a lucky grab at a better life my parents thought. My first days in school were really tough, almost no English, no friends, and a foreign environment. As a child, I didn’t understand why my parents would do this, but I knew that there was no going back so I needed to get acclimated. My relatives and my parents were my biggest motivation as I knew I couldn’t give up on their dreams and hopes. Jump to a time a bit more recent, some of my toughest yet most eye-opening years were my last years of high school. I took very hard AP classes and the hardest of them all was AP Chemistry. It was a very rough year. A lot of sobbing nights from a 30 on an exam and studying until morning for a test. But in the end, I realized that all my efforts paid off. I got a 4 on that exam and this was the first time that I felt challenged yet still saw that what I put in, was what I got. This may not seem like a very important moment but it was the first time I felt anger, stress, frustration, and upset with myself. Then in the following year, I applied to many colleges hoping to get into my top two schools: Columbia or NYU. Unfortunately, I had to face reality and the letters I got was that they considered my above a 4.0 GPA, my 600+ hours of volunteer work, my leadership roles within my community and abroad, all my high school activities yet the one factor that didn’t land me a spot was that I came from a low income family and they didn’t have enough resources to cover my education. To be completely honest, I was devastated. Nonetheless, I knew that I had to find a way to continue my education; for my dreams and for my parents’ dreams. I made the best out of it and proceeded to go to a public university in New York City. Although it may seem that this option would be cheaper, my housing and tuition still place a heavy load on my shoulders, on top of all my hard classes. This scholarship would not only help me with my Bachelor’s degree but also help me cover most of my ABSN degree, which I aspire to get within the next 2-3 years. It would be a dream to complete all my education and not worry about the way I will be paying off my future debt. All my education and achievements are a result of a promise I made to myself when I just came here, that no matter what happens or what obstacles I face, I will succeed, because I passed the biggest obstacle: getting to America.

My favorite book is “Charlotte’s Web” by E. B. White. Although it may seem like an ordinary children’s book, it holds a much deeper meaning for me. It was the first book I read in its entirety after coming to America. It wasn’t just a story about Wilbur and Charlotte; it was more a realistic depiction of what I was going through at the time. It became a symbol of a new beginning, a way for me to connect with a new country, and something that helped guide me through an important time in my life. When I first came to America, everything felt unfamiliar. I was surrounded by a new language, a new culture, and a completely different environment from my home country, Ukraine. Learning English was one of the biggest challenges I faced, and reading was a major part of that journey. Teachers were telling my mom that I wasn’t reading enough and that my English was suffering due to a lack of vocabulary. “Charlotte’s Web” was the first book that helped me feel comfortable with English; it inspired me to read and not to be afraid of longer and a bit heavier texts. The words, characters, and emotions in the story gave me confidence and showed me that even though I was learning something new, I could succeed. What made the book special to me was the way Wilbur viewed the world. It made me relate to his experiences and his curious and a bit lost nature. While Wilbur was struggling to fit in, I felt the same. It was very hard making and keeping friends because by the time I moved to America, most of my peers had their own groups and I felt like an outsider. Throughout this time, I managed to befriend another Ukrainian girl and she, in my head, made me feel welcome and belonging, similarly to how Charlotte made Wilbur feel. This book also speaks on changing and evolving yourself to adapt to new environments and challenges. I remember thinking to myself that if Wilbur could overcome loneliness and the fear of a new environment, then I could too. The messages that this book carried were so relatable and so real to 8-year-old Anastasiya that it just made me adore this book and feel empowered to create a life in America where I felt comfortable and at peace with myself. Looking back, I realize that “Charlotte’s Web” was not just the first book I read in America—it was one of the first experiences that helped me feel like I belonged here. It introduced me to the joy of reading and encouraged me to continue improving my English. After this experience, I was more open to reading longer books both inside and outside of school, reading classics like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Dork Diaries”, “The BFG” and many many more. “Charlotte’s Web” will forever hold a special place in my heart because it taught me a lesson that has evolved over time with me and recalling this book I can see where my journey started from and how far I’ve come and how specifically this book instilled within me a passion for reading.  A cool fact I know is that most of the cells in your body are able to replicate and renew themselves but the neurons in your body are actually extremely slow/not possible to renew therefore if there is any trauma to them, neurons die which leads to many neurologial illnesses we see today.

Firstly, I think that the healthcare system is always evolving, ever changing and dynamic. Doctors and nurses are constantly undergoing training to better the system and provide better and more comprehensive healthcare to all individuals. I was first introduced into the medical society when I lived in Ukraine. Most of my family members are doctors or nurses back there. I would shadow them at the hospital, help them take care of patients and organize medical cabinets. I loved the opportunity this provided for me to interact with people and make them feel better. From those wholesome moments, I knew that I wanted to be a doctor. I loved the heartwarming feeling when I saw patients coming in with illnesses and injuries and then leaving with a smile on their face. It really makes you feel accomplished in life as if we omit everything, true happiness and joy comes when you are healthy, and bringing people back to that sense of stability is so rewarding. When I came to America in 2010, I was dragged from doctor to doctor to get caught up on my vaccinations and examinations. Unfortunately, my parents did not have insurance nor could they afford to pay for those services. This hindered my ability to start school on time and from that moment I knew that I wanted to change the way the system works. I had to move back to Ukraine for a year to get all those immunizations where the healthcare system covered them all. And this wasn’t the only experience when I had to self treat. When I was five, I tore a ligament in my elbow. As we were without insurance, I didn’t have the opportunity to go to a doctor to get it checked out. I had my arm bandaged for a few months and then six years later (when we were eligible for Medicaid), the doctor said my ligament didn’t grow back properly resulting in my elbow being very vulnerable and my whole arm rotated 5 degrees. These experiences really shaped my view of the system and how I would like to better it and make it more accessible. Currently, I am working towards a degree in Human Biology in order to continue onto medical school. I would like to shadow and work alongside pediatricians and cardiologists in order to pinpoint exactly which career I am most interested in perceiving. I find working with children very easy as I currently work as a swim instructor and have this experience. Yet, I find it more interesting to learn about the heart and how it functions and nourishes the whole body. I want to open up my own practice in New York City and allow families who are immigrants or who are just in the lower socioeconomic class the opportunity to comprehensive healthcare by working with insurance companies covering Medicaid, Medicare and other cost-free or low fee programs. I hope to be able to make a step towards bettering the community by providing the opportunity for children, adults, and seniors the ability to feel that they don’t need to cancel appointments once they find out the price of their service. All healthcare should be priced and serviced at a reasonable price and I firmly believe that every person should have this opportunity and I hope to be able to provide them with this.

There hasn't been a moment in my life where I doubted that I wanted to achieve something big in my life and help the community around me. I'm an immigrant from Ukraine and me and my family came here in 2010. As soon as I saw the opportunities available here, I knew that I wanted to be a doctor in America. I have been striving towards this one goal and working diligently to achieve something better in America. Since I came here, I've always done exceptionally well on exams and just in general I really like learning new things, especially things that have to do with the medical field. In 2014 my parents had a hard time making ends meet, so they had to send me to Ukraine in order to work here. While I was living there with my aunt who is a gastroenterologist, I went with her to work on night shifts when she couldn't leave me by myself and I saw a lot of people who were in desperate need of help and they couldn't afford to pay the hospital bills and so my aunt would treat them for free. This really inspired me to want to do something like that in America. She not only showed me kindness to others but also the idea that everyone deserves the same treatment, no matter their financial status. Since that year, I have fallen deeply in love with medicine, and currently, as a senior in high school, I aspire to go to schools like Johns Hopkins to study medicine and become a cardiologist. In my last three years of high school, I have taken biomedical classes every year in order to better immerse myself into the medical field and get a head start on my studies. I felt that I always had adversity in my way of becoming something better because of course as immigrants my parents couldn't afford to send me on trips where I could learn something more about medicine or I just felt that sometimes because I'm a woman that is an immigrant, organizations would ignore my applications for financial help when applying to such trips. I feel that the money would be put towards my education because my parents dream that I become a doctor, an aspiration I have been talking about for years, and I surely will not give up on my studies and achieve my end goal. My family is very much a low-income family even though my parents both work a bit. I would be a first-generation student because neither of my parents attained a bachelor's degree, although my mom got her associate's degree back in Ukraine. I hope to use the money to gear my way through a long bachelor's degree and then medical school to achieve my dream of becoming a doctor here in America. I also would like to mention that I feel that the money put towards my education is a great motivator for me to continue with my studies, despite any obstacles in my path. I feel that seeing the precedent my aunt has set for me in my heart, I will continue to strive towards that goal of becoming a helping doctor here while also maintaining my kindness and caringness towards others. Thank you for your consideration of my application.

I see myself as a strong leader-who can overcome and not stress about any challenges that comes my way- while also achieving my dream career: a cardiologist.

Similarly to Malgorzata’s challenges and changes in life, I moved to the USA with my family at 4 years old from Ukraine. It was a tough choice however my parents always wanted to find the best life for me. In school, I was always a bit more intellectually sharper than my peers and I took and continue to take challenging college classes. I also value my sciences classes greatly because I feel that I love learning more things about the environment around me and my own body. My goal, since many of my relatives in Ukraine are doctors, is to become a cardiologists. And ever since that I have strived to that dream. Similarly to Maggie, when I arrived in the USA it was very hard both financially and socially because I didn’t speak the language and my parents had to both work to make ends meet. Thus my first few years before school I spent in Special Education classes where my main goal was to catch-up on the language and overcome that barrier. I too love to spend time outdoors as well as pursuing my interest in swimming, horseback riding, cycling, hiking, and ballroom dancing. Currently, I’m on the varsity swimming team at my school and I also aspire to join the diving team next year. The challenges that Maggie went through are very understandable. I feel that every immigrant who comes into the US has to face many obstacles before reaching their imagined life. As an immigrant at an early age, I saw how hard my parents worked and so I told myself that I want my future to be more seamless and just more carefree than that of the first people to immigrate here. My dream job: cardiologist. Although a long way of studies awaits me, I told myself from the beginning that I want to be in the medical field no matter what. My character guides me to only strive for challenging positions and so my choice would have to be a doctor. Although I have not experience cancer, in the past 5 years I have had 4 relatives in Ukraine for from cancer despite a very long battle. My grandma who was the general surgeon for my village, battled lung and kidney cancer for 14 years and unfortunately passed away in 2018 and that really changed how I appreciate life and how much I live life to its fullest each and every day. Therefore I too am not afraid of any challenges intellectual, physical or social because not many people in the world have the same background story as me, a young immigrant from Ukraine.

I value the most my perseverance and determination because no matter what obstacles lie in my path I try really hard to overcome, with an end goal of becoming a cardiologist. I’m very caring for people, I don’t leave people without help ever. I seem to enjoy the feeling after just helping somebody. Another characteristic that I feel is very valuable is my sense of humor and my positive outlook because many times situations in life can be very stressful and hard and when a person has the ability to brighten someone’s day or better yet their own day, I feel that then it makes life and whatever is going on in it a bit better. My loyalty towards people builds up trust and thus makes my relationships last long and continue to stay healthy. I feel that these are the most appealing and the most prevalent traits that are found within me that can guide me and possibly help others to achieve their personal goals.