When I started out as a chemistry major, at Saint Joseph’s, I had no clear direction yet besides liking chemistry. My first-year service learning opportunity helped me shape how I viewed my goals and purpose. Consistently working with the same individuals, every week, all year, allowed me the opportunity to witness growth and struggles. Specifically, I volunteered for an after-school program to give students social experiences and creative projects that did not fit into the school day. I returned to informal education the following summer when I started work as an outreach educator for a non-profit science museum in my hometown of Allentown, PA. Answering students’ what-ifs with “give it a try” allowed me to clearly identify why science attracts me so strongly: the ability to answer your own questions and collaborate with others. Outreach work showed me that confining science to scientists limits its impact. Interdisciplinary study is at the core of my learning and interests. I love chemistry, but I also seek out opportunities to learn history, engage with international affairs, and learn about others’ cultures. Saint Joe’s gives me the opening to delve into those passions through service learning and our campus ministry. I dedicate the greatest amount of my time to one of our newer clubs, SJU for Refugees and Migrants. As service liaison, I have helped expand our scope both on campus and into the community by collaborating with other clubs for events and organizing our first volunteer event off-campus. I felt our dedication grow as we began to have first-hand experiences with the causes we cared deeply for. I knew I would be most productive in a career where I could apply my chemistry knowledge and skills in a non-isolated environment focused on serving others. As I worked through chemistry courses in college, I found that organic chemistry and biochemistry especially clicked. I focus on these branches through organic synthesis research and toxicology coursework. Pharmacology and toxicology incorporate the concepts in chemistry that I find most fascinating and apply them to a biological context for a productive cause. Guided by service, I aspire to pursue a career as a research toxicologist to serve my passions positively. Through a career as a toxicologist, I hope to prioritize equity and public health in the application of my scientific background. My public health interest stems from health science courses where I had the opportunity to hear about the effects of under-researched psychoactive drugs on the illicit drug market in Philadelphia. I am taking steps towards developing my neurotoxicology knowledge by taking specialized courses with professors in the field. I intend to achieve a PhD in toxicology to contribute to filling in research gaps that exist due to stigma.

I volunteered as part of a first-year service-learning course sequence in my freshman year at Saint Joseph’s University. As part of a fall political science course and spring philosophy course, first-year students are matched up with organizations where 2-3 students are partnered to volunteer weekly for 3 hours. I volunteered at Southwark School in South Philadelphia for an after-school program called Puentes de Salud as an education volunteer. Puentes is an after-school program that specifically serves K-8 Spanish-speaking students. The program serves as a way for students to grow their social skills and have a creative outlet after a long school day. It also allows Spanish-speaking students to communicate in whatever language they prefer with the other students and with us teachers. Each week, my partner and I came in soon before dismissal. We worked in a tight office packed with other after-school programs with the same goal as Puentes but for other demographics. We gathered the kids after dismissal, allowing them time to play and eat snacks, before shifting to a classroom setting. I worked with a group of about 7 students who were all in 1st grade and 2nd grade. Most of my students preferred Spanish, so I utilized my 5 years of Spanish throughout college and high school to get comfortable communicating with them. As teachers, we assisted students with their creative activities. Activities included building the tallest possible tower from sticks and marshmallows, making instruments from simple materials, using recycled material to build a model of their town, and coloring flags of where their family is from. The creative activities tended to have a theme of building community pride and pride in the kids’ Hispanic background. My role was to support the kids in building their confidence in social skills and giving the students the individualized attention that they could not get during the school day when one teacher was responsible for almost 30 students. The volunteer experience exposed me to both the challenges and benefits of serving a diverse student population. I also learned about issues involving underfunding in Philadelphia public schools. My experience at Puentes was my longest consistent service experience. It revealed the importance of physically showing up and being present in your community to serve and learn. Grassroots efforts contribute to change just as much as top-down efforts, and neither can be optimally effective if employed alone. Leadership through service inspires volunteers to fully dedicate themselves to the experience of learning from those they serve and understanding needs straight from the mouths of the people who experience struggles. It connects volunteers not only to one another and to the served but also builds confidence and empathy within oneself. Leading through service shows the importance of reaching out and offering assistance rather than expecting people to ask for help before acting. Solidarity and understanding are incredibly important attributes of any human in today’s world as struggling is amplified through the internet and media. We must have compassion for one another to act when we realize struggles going on within our community.