I have been passionate about pursuing a career in the medical field since the age of 6 when my 2-year-old little brother was diagnosed with leukemia. I had spent the majority of my childhood in the hospital, observing the marvelous work of the doctors and nurses around me. By the time I was in junior high school, I received the greatest pre-algebra teacher of all time. She did not teach us the new math, which involves 18 steps to solve a simple multiplication problem. She taught us math in such a way, that I enjoyed it to the extent that I would go home after school, and do the math for fun. This sounds absurd, but my confidence after I corrected one of my dad's coworkers (a civil structural engineer) on their Pythagorean theorum only skyrocketed from there. I grew to love math so much, that every time I would complete a math class in high school, my transcript would say 100, but my actual grade in the class would be between 105-110, depending on how high up the teachers would offer extra credit on exams. I took calculus and dual credit college-level math courses in high school, to try and see if I could get tired of it, but it just got more and more interesting. When I became a biology major in the pre-medicine track in college, to become a pulmonologist, this same interest sparked in my intro-level biology II class when I once again had a professor that taught in such a way that I always wanted to learn more. I would say the course I am looking most forward to taking is cancer biology next spring, as it not only interests me because of my younger brother's past, but also because as a pulmonologist, we will have to identify cancerous nodules on the lungs and know what causes this to happen, so we can attempt to find a way to stop it from happening. I am currently in my second year of undergrad, and I am majoring in biology. I have such affection towards the research I am in, doing metagenomic analysis of mosquitos, with all of the exciting lab equipment we work with! There is something so amusing about doing DNA and RNA extractions, running them through gel electrophoresis, and getting the results back from BLAST, which tells us what viruses the mosquitoes carry. We also capture the mosquitos and separate them based on their sex and species (we mostly get Aedes and Culex mosquitoes). I am studying for my MCAT that I will take this summer, and have shadowed a pulmonologist for 40 hours, which was so interesting as I even got to have a one-on-one question-asking session with the sleep specialist. This specialist explained to me the difference between CPAP, BiPAP, and AutoPAP machines, as well as nasal masks, full face masks, mouth and nose masks, nasal pillows, and different types of sleep studies, as well as problems patients will have, and how he fixes them. This person is a real genius, and I would like to shadow more doctors to get some experience in all fields, although the lungs are what I am most interested in. I am the secretary and events coordinator for the Biological Honor Society and the secretary for the Pre-Health Professions Society at my school. I am so appreciative to have these positions, as they enable me to share my passion for biology and the health field with those around me. I look forward to seeing what new innovative technology and information the future has in store.

At the young age of 5, I knew I wanted to work in the medical field, as I spent most of my childhood in the hospital, watching and interacting with doctors everyday, for years. I watched the way they worked fast, but stayed sharp and attentive, on lengthy organized schedules. I knew this was what I wanted to do, and knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life helping people, who like my brother, were close to death. When I was little, my 2-year-old brother was diagnosed with leukemia. 80% of his body was already covered in cancer, and his life was severely at risk. Our priest brought the holy communion to the Texas Children's Hospital for my brother to receive this most holy blessing, in case he dies. Thank God, a miracle was performed that day, and the percentage of my brother's body covered by the cancer went from 80% to 8% in an hour, and he was able to fully recover after years of chemo treatments and checkups. I have many family members that currently suffer from either asthma or sleep apnea, so I decided I wanted to be a pulmonologist to help with problems in the lungs and respiratory system. Unfortunately, in medical school and the medical industry, women are greatly discriminated, and are often told that they'll never make it, and that we should just go get married, and never even bother getting a degree. I myself have been told by many family-friends that I am pretty and will be married before 20, which appalls me, because can a woman not both be pretty and smart? I have also been told by other friends of my parents that I should not go to college at all, and that I should look for a husband, because the role of a woman is to get married and have 7 kids. We do not live in the 1800s, nor am I a baby boomer. These remarks towards my dream of becoming a woman doctor, have only pushed me though. As I have spent some of the hardest years of my life attending one of the most GPA competitive high schools, and now being a biology major and joining HPAC (a society for future health professions) at University of St. Thomas, I have become a very competitive student and take these remarks as a motivation for more of a reason to prove myself and to give inspiration to all the women of the world, that women do not belong in the kitchen, but belong leading in the most critical fields of human intellectual development. I will not stop pushing myself to my limits, until death. And I say this not as a question in hope of achieving this, but as a statement: I WILL, become a woman lead pulmonologist in the largest medical center in the world, here in Houston, TX. Through my career, I wish to aid people no matter their gender or race, and even do research to find a cure to sleep apnea and asthma, without needing to use a CPAP machine or inhaler. I wish to accomplish the impossible, with rising medical technology and the motivation that women are meant for so much more than what has been perceived in the world for so long. We can make a change. We (the future generation of women) are the change.

At only 5 years of age, my 2-year-old little brother was diagnosed with leukemia. 80% of his body was already covered in cancer, and his life was severely at risk. Our priest brought the holy communion to the Texas Children's Hospital for my brother to receive this most holy blessing, in case he dies. Thank God, a miracle was performed that day, and the percentage of my brother's body covered by the cancer went from 80% to 8%, and was able to fully recover after years of chemo treatments and checkups. So, at the young age of 5, I knew I wanted to work in the medical field, as I spent most of my childhood in the hospital, watching and interacting with doctors all day, everyday, for years. I watched the way they worked fast, but stayed sharp and attentive, on lengthy organized schedules. I knew this was what I wanted to do, and knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life helping people, who like my brother, were close to death. Many of my family members currently suffer from either asthma or sleep apnea, so I decided I want to be a pulmonologist to help with problems in the lungs and respiratory system. But, unfortunately, in medical school and the medical industry, women are greatly discriminated, and are often told that they'll never make it, and that we should just go get married, and never even bother getting a degree. I myself have been told by many family-friends that I am pretty so therefore I'll get married before 20, which appalls me, because can a woman not both be pretty and smart? I have also been told by other friends of my parents that I should not go to college at all, and that I should look for a husband, because the role of a woman is to get married and have 7 kids. We do not live in the 1800s, nor am I a baby boomer. These remarks towards my dream of becoming a woman doctor, have only pushed me though. As I have spent some of the hardest years of my life attending one of the most GPA competitive high schools, and now being a biology major and joining HPAC (a society for future health professions) at University of St. Thomas, I have become a very competitive student and take these remarks as a motivation for more of a reason to prove myself and to give inspiration to all the women of the world, that women do not belong in the kitchen, but belong leading in the most critical fields of human intellectual development. I will not stop pushing myself to my limits, until death. And I say this not as a question, but as a statement: I WILL, become a woman lead pulmonologist in the largest medical center in the world, here in Houston, TX. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to receive an MD degree. Can you imagine the discrimination that she received, if she was the only one pushing for that goal? And, that was in 1849! That means there have only been woman doctors for 173 years! She has been so inspirational for me, because if she was able to reach her goal, when no one else was pushing for it with her, and everyone was against her, what am I complaining about? I have so many fellow women in the biology department who are pushing to pursue their doctoral dreams, and we all motivate each other, to one day, become woman doctors, that lead!

When the pandemic started halfway through my junior year of high school, everyone was sent home to continue the school year online. And to be honest, I don't think I would have passed my AP Physics class if we hadn't moved online. I was overwhelmed with all of my AP classes in junior year (the hardest year of high school), but moving everything online allowed so much more time to complete all of our work. We only had 1 assignment per class, each week! If it wasn't for the pandemic starting when it did, I would have had a terrible grade on my transcript, and probably would not have been able to end up at the wonderful private university I am at now!