Growing up in a community where admitting emotional and mental instability as a male is viewed as a sign of weakness, my resort to mental balance was my few trusted friends. During my most depressing days, these friends would steer me to mental clarity and would not make me feel like I was 'overreacting' or equate my vulnerability to weakness. Thus, a practical solution I would propose for helping people struggling with mental health is restructuring peer-to-peer support, particularly on college campuses. On my college campus, a new approach to peer- support was recently developed. The ‘Pride Cares' initiative follows a curriculum where students are trained as first responders to attend to fellow students who may be struggling with mental health at any level. How this works is once a student completes the training program, a green tag is given to that student to put on their backpack to indicate their position as a peer support person on campus. The peer support person, after offering a listening ear, can direct the student to resources on campus as well as external help if needed. Since its inception, it has proved to be a great tool on campus to help students with mental health struggles, significantly lowering student anxiety on campus. Admitting a mental health struggle is a tough battle but having someone to willingly listen makes everything so much easier. I believe reimagining peer support in this way would go a long way to help reduce mental health issues among young adults since we are more open to our peers than to any other age group. I signed up to be a peer support person on my campus and to do my part to destigmatize mental health struggles.

As an international student and a first generation black college student in a predominantly white institution, I never let the odds stacked against me get in the way of me achieving my dreams. I deeply believe that no matter how small or young or unqualified a person is, it is never impossible to stir change. With this in mind, I am on the pursuit to becoming the first physician ever in my family, and to enroll in medical school upon graduation. To say that the journey so far has been an easy one would be a lie. With my parents' business hit hard by the pandemic, taking a toll on their finances, I had to cope with the notion that sometimes things do not go as planned, but that does not necessarily mean an end to it all. I am deeply passionate about helping and serving the under-deserved. This pushed me to acquire a job at a local nursing home for the elderly. With this job, I have not only built experiences for medical school but have also gained a deeper understanding of how diversity in the medical field is extremely important. I have been driven more than ever to become a physician. Wining this scholarship would mean that I have a shot at my dreams, promote diversity and bring hope not only to my family but also to the community that I represent and stand for.