Throughout my sophomore year of high school my weight quickly dropped twenty pounds despite increased appetite and eating. I had nausea all day, everyday no matter what I was eating. I became extremely weak and had to leave my travel softball team because I struggled with enough energy to make it up a flight of stairs. For weeks on end I would wake up in the middle of the night to excruciating cramps and throw-up for an hour before returning to bed. I reached out to my doctor and received no help in a diagnosis. No matter how many vials and vials of my blood were taken, no consensus was reached. My weight loss was attributed to a mild overactive thyroid and the nausea and vomiting were overlooked. Finally, after switching doctors a blood test came back positive for Celiac Disease. Instantly all gluten was eliminated from my diet. My favorite foods now all toted the “Gluten-Free” label. My journey of learning how to discern what foods were and were not gluten-free was started. While this switch to gluten-free hindered some aspects of my life like the ability to eat at restaurants and traveling, the physical symptoms and pain I had been experiencing for over a year cleared up in months. My junior and senior year of high school I created a routine of eating gluten-free. I had found my favorite foods, gluten-free restaurants, and grocery stores in the area. However, this made choosing a college extremely difficult. I had always dreamed of going to school in a big city on the East Coast but I thought being Celiac would bring this dream to a crashing halt. I really wanted to stay close to my hometown where I had an established routine and knew I had the ability to eat without danger. However, I chose to push myself out of my comfort zone and not let Celiac control me. In the fall of my senior year I applied early decision to Northeastern University and was accepted into the honors program. Now that I have been in Boston for months there is nowhere I would rather be. From campus dieticians to dining hall staff everyone has been amazing and accommodating and I have been able to thrive here. Attending Northeastern has allowed me to continue pursuing passions I have, specifically women empowerment in business. I have always had lofty goals for a career but often found that women were not equally represented in the accounting and finance fields. Northeastern student organizations like Women in Business and Women in Finance have provided tremendous support to my college transition and career growth. From providing a strong community of women to extend my support network here to helping me secure my summer internship, these organizations have been instrumental. Additionally, in just one week I will be attending the Women in Finance New York trek for 3 days in which I have the opportunity to meet with successful women in the finance field from the largest financial services companies in the world. I chose not to let my autoimmune disease control me and instead moved across the country. I chose to take part in organizations created to improve opportunities for women in male-dominated fields. I chose to be a chronic boss.

My sophomore year of high school was the worst year of my life and that is the unfortunate truth. I was rapidly losing weight with no explanations. I was constantly exhausted and extremely nauseous. Throwing up after meals became my pastime. I, of course, connected with my doctor but despite the many, many vials of blood that she took, no results were found. No matter what tests were taken, an answer would not appear. With no determinant, I continued with the same weight loss, exhaustion, and nausea cycle for the entirety of the school year. It got to the point where I would avoid stairs at all costs as I would struggle to make it up without losing all of my energy. Each day was a struggle for me. I stopped playing softball which was a sport I loved because I physically could not make it through my weekly softball practices. The constant running and drills were not something that my body could take and I would throw up regularly at both softball games and practices. Sophomore year was a struggle, to say the least, but I kept pushing to do my best. Over the following summer, I received lab reports from a test that I had never taken before. Celiac Disease: Positive. Everything in my life changed. I took another test a week later to verify and again: positive. Instantly, I removed all of the gluten from my diet and life. From the pasta I regularly enjoyed to my very favorite food of donuts, I rid my diet of them all. Wheat is present in almost everything so a lack of gluten is not an easy task by any means. Gluten is in so many products that many people never even think about. For instance, a large portion of soy sauce is made from wheat and not soy, many soups use wheat to thicken them, and oats are often mixed with wheat. Guten is almost everywhere in life which made my need to avoid it very difficult. I did not feel better immediately but after a month my physical health began to slowly improve. My weight slowly returned and my nausea almost completely subsided. My physical health improved to my pre-celiac levels and I felt so much better. My energy returned as if it never left. However, even a crumb of any food containing gluten would send me back into extreme pain which occurred often at first but after learning more about gluten, cross-contamination is now rare for me. Not being able to eat gluten affected me a lot deeper than just not being able to consume my favorite foods. Food is a way to make friends, experience different cultures, and grow current relationships. My previous days of going out to eat after school with new friends were eliminated. My family’s frequent trips to different cultural restaurants were eliminated as well. Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, Korean: all gone. My usual trips to get fast food and keep up with my best friend dissipated as well. However, I learned to be okay with not getting food when we go out and just prioritize the conversation that everyone provides. My goals for my upcoming future are to take control of my diet and physical health and further understand how to make myself the healthiest I can be. Next year, I will be attending Northeastern University and be far away from all of the restaurants I know I can eat safely at. I hope to further educate myself on the safe foods I can eat and take complete control of my Celiac Disease.

“Can you help me figure out how to manage my 401k contribution,” a Broan employee asked me. I looked up from my desk where I had been sitting at my desk working for the past few hours on a data analytics project my boss needed to be done for the following morning. I have been working at Broan Nutone as a human resources intern for the past 2 years. If asked this question only about a year earlier I would have absolutely no idea how to answer as the details of a retirement fund never seemed relevant to me as a 16-year-old. I believed that I had way too many years to even begin thinking about having to make a major purchase or save money for anything. However, things had changed since I had begun working so I was able to help the woman. “Yes, I would love to,” I replied. I had begun working on a project for DECA which helped me with my own personal finance knowledge. DECA has always been my favorite club, its business focus competition pushed me to learn about financial rules and laws for businesses. I love competing and answering business finance prompts and accounting questions. However, I soon realized that I struggled with any question that related to personal finance and not organizational finance. Financial literacy is an essential skill for those living in both America and everywhere in the world but schools often do not teach the essential skills required. As the district 5 ambassador for Wisconsin DECA, I began to work on creating short TikTok videos on financial literacy topics like investing, bonds, and retirement funds. These “Finance Friday” videos were posted on Wisconsin DECA Instagram and Tiktok weekly with the goal being to share financial knowledge with teenagers. They were greatly successful with one of my videos getting over 4,700 views. Right now, I educate myself through DECA. This club has been a perfect way for me to learn about taxes, budgeting, how to buy a home, how to lease an apartment and much more. Preparing for my competitive event requires me to learn about both personal finance and organizational finance. This push to learn financial literacy was what I needed to actually desire to know how to be financially independent and responsible. I want to be able to file my taxes and make my own decisions. Despite being a teenager, I currently have my Roth 401k with employer match set to automatically take a portion of my paycheck every two weeks. Right now, through my job, I educate people and working professionals who are much older than me on the details of the financial plans that our company offers. Right now, through DECA, I educate teenagers on financial literacy topics. The ability to help those in all parts of their lives manage money is why I want to study accounting. Pursuing a degree in accounting will allow me to learn much more about financial literacy and financial responsibility. I hope to educate myself in personal finance so I will be able to share that knowledge with more people throughout America because of the lack of information and resources available right now. This money would help me to graduate debt free so I can further help others.

My sophomore year of high school was the worst year of my life and that is the unfortunate truth. I was rapidly losing weight with no explanation. I was constantly exhausted and extremely nauseous. Throwing up after meals became my pastime. I, of course, connected with my doctor but despite the many, many vials of blood that she took, nothing was found. With no result, I continued with the same weight loss, exhaustion, and nausea cycle for the entire school year. It got to the point where I would avoid stairs at all costs as I would struggle to make it up without losing all of my energy. Each day was a struggle for me. I stopped playing softball which I loved as I physically could not make it through a softball practice. Sophomore year was a struggle, to say the least. However, even without strong physical health, I pushed to grow throughout this time despite the lack of clarity surrounding my health condition. I consistently volunteered at my local library teaching STEM skills to middle school students. Future Business Leaders of America(FBLA) was one of my biggest passions and I continuously participated in every event possible. I studied daily for my competitive event because I wanted to make sure I excelled. I applied the same philosophy to my DECA(marketing club) studying and preparing. I continued to work hard and persevere even when I was struggling so much. My work in FBLA helped me to be the state champion that year. In DECA, I created a business plan for an environmentally friendly transportation company and placed in the top 10 at the international competition out of about 4000 people. Throughout this time I focused on activities I could do without strong physical health. Over the following summer, I received lab reports from a test that I had not taken before. Celiac Disease: Positive. Everything in my life changed. I took another test a week later to verify and again: Positive. Instantly, I removed all of the gluten from my life. From the pasta I regularly enjoyed to my favorite food of donuts, I rid my diet of them all. I did not feel better immediately but after a month I began to improve. My weight slowly returned and my nausea subsided. My energy returned as if it never left. However, even a crumb of any food containing gluten would send me back into extreme pain which occurred often at first but after learning more about gluten, cross-contamination is now rare for me. Despite my physical issues, I continued to persevere and work to accomplish my many goals throughout the rest of my high school experience. As my physical health improved I took on more leadership roles including president of my DECA chapter, district 5 ambassador for Wisconsin DECA, National Honor Society officer, school newspaper feature editor, and director of the community service for math club. Through my roles with DECA, I was able to not only lead my school but assist in statewide initiatives like creating social media content for the entirety of Wisconsin DECA and helping with regional events. Through the national honor society I am able to plan community service events like a whole school book drive I am currently working on. Through being an editor of my newspaper I am able to share important information with the entirety of the school. Through my role in math club, I have led 3 community service projects each involving over 70 people. Next year I will study accounting at Northeastern University and continue to be a Chronic Boss.