Like many of my peers, I dreamed of entering the healthcare field, because I constantly saw my family struggle with chronic conditions like high blood pressure and cancer. However, as time went on, I rarely heard of full recoveries. Instead, I often learned of another loved one taken by illness. I realized standard medicine, though necessary, lacked the components to prevent and reverse these diseases, rather than just prolonging life. In response, I'm choosing to become a Registered Dietitian to educate my community on nutrition and provide the essential steps for lasting, positive change. For context, I live in Killeen, Texas, a city facing rising struggles with chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity, a reflection of a statewide epidemic. Additionally, North Killeen struggles with food security, being federally recognized as a food desert. To start pioneering change, I would first support existing local initiatives. This includes, volunteering to teach K-12 students about nutritious food and its positive effects on health during the multi-week classes they take for Killeen ISD's nutrition initiative during the school year. In the long term, I also plan to advance the nutrition initiative by implementing South Korean models for school lunches, where nutritionists and registered dietitians plan and prepare the food. Simultaneously, I plan to design and conduct public wellness seminars and host family nutrition classes for Texas A&M's AgriLife program. Secondly, I've already taken initiative by creating my own learning hubs within my high school called the E.A.C. Club. This club is focused on bettering the community, partly by constructing community gardens and greenhouses to produce a yield of nutrient-dense food. Notably, these gardens will prove to be a vital resource to the nutrition initiative by providing fresh food to use for the school program. Ultimately, these spaces will serve as a hands-on learning environment that utilizes community engagement. This framework ensures people understand how nutritional food that contains important vitamins for our body can be utilized, as well as increasing the availability of the necessary ingredients needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle. After earning my Doctor of Clinical Nutrition (DCN) degree and developing community-based initiatives, if granted the opportunity I intend to partner with local healthcare systems such as Baylor Scott & White to establish my own advanced Medical Nutrition Therapy department. Through this initiative, both physicians and Registered Dietitians can collaborate to educate patients on the importance of nutrition while managing severe chronic conditions. The partnership will elevate the professional opinions of Registered Dietitians, alongside esteemed medical professionals, maximizing our community impact. Furthermore, I plan to provide evidenced-based, pro-bono nutritional consultations and tailored dietary plans for community members in local homeless shelters. By hosting fundraisers to expand shelter resources, I will ensure that these often overlooked individuals have the necessary means to fully implement my professional recommendations. In conclusion, my dedication for implementing these changes stems from personal experience rather than mere virtue signaling, as I once had to reclaim my health by utilizing a low-histamine, vitamin-rich diet. After I experienced an immune system hit, constantly falling sick ,because of daily exposure to mold on my high jump mat at track practice, I realized the power of a clean and healthy diet . By the grace of God, my passion for nutrition was ignited. Now as I major in nutrition and dietetics at Texas Tech, gaining expertise in clinical and sports nutrition, I plan to use my education to empower my family and community. Through this, no longer will we suffer under the crushing weight of illness, and families like mine will no longer have to lose their loved ones to preventable diseases.

STEM is often marketed as a collection of fields working on solutions to our societal problems, and whenever I see an issue in my community, my immediate instinct is to fix it. While I've come to understand that I can never do it all alone, I recognize that it is still important to do my part, no matter how small. In my community, one of the biggest problems I’ve seen is a lack of green and food infrastructure, as well as effective, preventative community health initiatives. In response, I want to fix the problem by becoming a Registered Dietitian (RD). In the city of Killeen, which is a predominantly Black community, we face numerous public health challenges. According to Texas obesity trends data, around 40% of adults in Killeen are considered obese, and around 12% live with diabetes. Our local crisis is a reflection of a statewide epidemic where over one-third of adults are obese and 12.3% are diabetic. These numbers do not even account for children under 18; according to UNICEF, global childhood obesity rates stand at 1 in 10. I have personally seen this epidemics impact on my family, with both my immediate and extended family struggling with obesity and its related health issues, such as high blood pressure. This personal experience has revealed to me how Black communities are disproportionately affected by these issues. Confronted by these shocking statistics and my own personal experience, my passion for nutritional sciences was ignited. In this profession we study food science, culinary techniques, and acute medical treatments coupled with holistic medicine, applying extensive scientific knowledge in a practical way to heal families like mine. To uplift my community, I'll use my knowledge to improve the school lunch nutrition initiative taking place in Killeen, by cultivating a program that relies directly on the food preparation standards and professional opinions of nutritionists and dietitians. I also want to ensure the project remains affordable by utilizing local agriculture for the ingredients. Next, I intend to provide pro-bono medical consultations to community members in homeless shelters, while organizing fundraisers and expanding shelter resources, thereby securing ingredients necessary to fulfill my clinical dietary recommendations and ensuring that even people who are often overlooked are supported. Furthermore, it is my plan to partner with the city of Killeen to establish multiple community gardens and greenhouses providing the high-yield, nutrient-dense food needed to support my programs. RDs are trained to advocate for, create, and manage green infrastructure to support food security and availability. The repurposing of these spaces acts as a learning environment, teaching community members how to utilize urban agriculture and understand its importance in cultivating long-term food sustainability and public health. Beyond community health, I also want to help integrate Registered Dietitians into hospitals, such as Baylor Scott & White, to manage patients with preexisting chronic diseases and obesity. Despite what people may think, RDs aren't expensive specialists but are extremely affordable, and the medical nutrition therapy we provide is often 100% covered by major insurances like Medicare. The collaboration of physicians and RDs is crucial to our community's wellness; together, they can show the affected groups that change is possible. In conclusion, I will use my degree to fulfill the core mission of STEM: to identify a problem, study a problem, create a solution, and ensure the benefits continue over generations. By becoming an RD with a master's degree, I'll uplift the health, wellness, and education of my community. Ultimately, the improved infrastructure and clinical collaboration established will inspire future generations to become creative, innovate leaders who sustain vital public health developments in Killeen.

Growing up in Killeen, it is not uncommon to hear that we have to do something to prove ourselves. We feel pressure to prove everyone wrong who looks only at the bad in our community, labeling us as just a ghetto city with uneducated and untalented kids. Over time, I have noticed how students, due to this pressure, often attribute their worth to whatever they are good at—whether it be music, academics, or sports—developing the work ethic, endurance, and drive to reach their purpose.I did the same. Like many others, I used whatever means necessary, even cheating, to put up good grades so I could secure my position within the top ten students of my school. I did this for bragging rights, to secure my future at the best colleges, and to get networking connections at Star Makers events.Eventually, I realized that I did not want to win that way; I did not want to cheat my way to victory. Despite the surprise of my peers, I held true to my conviction. I refused to cheat, even when teachers gave up and allowed my class to cheat on tests. Consequently, school became harder for me. I dropped out of the top ten but managed to stay within the top ten percent of my class of nearly 600 students. I failed a college class—Diet Nutrition and Therapy, a class I actually need for my career—and got a C in two others, but I ultimately learned the actual value of integrity. I wondered why I felt so pressured to go to such lengths, and the answer hit me during a conversation with an incredibly smart and kind friend. We had previously connected over how our ethnic backgrounds—her East Asian and me African American—meant our parents valued academic achievement above all else. As I told her about my academic failures and drop in rank, she listened in horror. I assured her that I was going to be okay because my worth and capabilities are not placed in my grades, and the best growth often happens in the dark while recovering from a failure.However, she disagreed, saying my grades were a direct reflection of a lack of intelligence and diligence on display for future employers, and that I shouldn't take it as a learning moment. Even though I was hurt by what she said, it was here I understood how important it is for us to separate our identities from the world we live in. We live in a complex world where people struggle daily trying to separate themselves from past mistakes and temporary things like grades. Instead of shutting her out, I explained this to her so she could see how that mindset can hinder personal growth. I then made it a point, whenever I heard people complain about failures in sports, academics, or work, to tell them that their worth does not diminish. In my future as a registered dietitian, I want to help my patients understand that their struggles and habits are not their ending point, but a beginning. They don't have to cheat themselves for quick results or sulk in failure, but can instead focus their drive on doing the right thing as we learn more along the way.

In the last couple of years I've seen a decline in student achievement across the country in public schools ,especially in predominantly BIPOC communities . In Killeen, TX, a predominately black city, teachers to be the last class to achieve high scores on the STAARS test and benchmarks, as well as exceptional GPA's. In response to these growing academic disparity's, Texas has implemented a more intense curriculum for younger children to make up for the gap. I watched as kindergarden shifted from an emotional learning experience to another early education program in my younger siblings elementary school. Now 4-5 year olds are expected to know basic math, identify numbers up to 50 in and out of order, and know their ABCs in and out of order. They are also expected to know the planets, discuss concepts like motion, understand syllables, read three-letter words, and begin writing sentences.Many parents criticized this advanced curriculum for being implemented so unexpectedly onto young children. However, as someone who is about to enter college, I understand how important education is, and I wholeheartedly respect the vision the state has for these children. This is why I take the time to be active in any way I can in my younger sister's educational journey before I leave for college this fall. After my own school days and track practices, I would read the papers her teacher sent home that outlined her current learning units and subjects. I would then find real-world ways to apply the concepts, such as using her soccer ball to explain the physics of motion. To review what she learned, I had her watch educational videos about numbers and letters for at least thirty minutes. I also used her building blocks to help her visually understand how addition and subtraction work so she could complete her worksheets. Every other night before bed, I read at least two books to her, asking questions throughout the story to build her reading comprehension.Furthermore, I changed her daily habits so she could better absorb information and maintain a calmer demeanor. I did my best to eliminate highly stimulating TV shows and YouTube videos in the morning, replacing them with a structured morning routine, and I dedicated weekends to learning. On weekdays, I attempted to limit her device time to one or two hours while I was home so she could study or simply play with her toys. Finally, I introduced educational TV shows and movies like Little Einsteins, Super Why!, and Pocoyo, ensuring she wouldn't feel overwhelmed but could still continue learning.Despite facing hardships like tantrums I want my sister to succeed in this world and flourish into an education person.