“No tengo dolor,” smiled Paola. I drew blood for just the second time in my life. Earlier in her visit, at the Culture of Life Ministries’ free clinic, silence filled the room until I began a conversation with her using my broken Spanish skills. Feeling my welcoming presence, she allowed me to draw a blood panel on her and experienced no pain. Personally, I’ve dealt with chronic arthralgia since childhood, a condition that causes pain and joint aches. On some days, I experience knee aches from standing or backaches during my long runs. However, my health condition doesn’t stop me from hiking, traveling, or line dancing because these activities bring adventure to my life. Having a multidisciplinary medical background, I’m blessed to have the knowledge to manage my health and share tips with others. For instance, I recommended a diplopia patient, wearing an eyepatch, to place scotch tape over one eyeglasses’ lens to prevent obstructing his peripheral vision. Fascinated with my outside EMS expertise, I revealed I had prior neuro-ophthalmological experience. Even though alleviating a patient’s distress is challenging, I find it rewarding to educate, heal, and help people overcome their own health battles. My versatility in minimizing patient discomfort is similar to many nursing practices and is why I’m drawn to becoming a nurse. As a nurse, I’ll form patient relationships that are built on trust and will spend quality time with them, as I did with Paola, despite our cultural differences. Additionally, I am interested to heal, educate, and provide preventative and routine care to patients in underserved populations. Therefore, my primary goal for returning to school is to earn an advanced degree to become a family nurse practitioner (FNP). My future practice focus is to protect God’s gift of human life and care for families while integrating my Catholic faith. I strive to imitate Christ “justified by [my] works and not faith alone,” through acts of charity, compassion, and humility towards others. As an incoming student at Emory University, I’m blessed to be attending a top 2 nationally ranked graduate nursing program beginning this May 2023. Under the guidance of intellectual and well-rounded faculty, they will provide me with a strong education, provide me the resources to succeed on the graduate level, and prepare me to be an advanced practitioner who will be ready to deliver quality whole-person care in the real world. Unique hands-on experiences, like the Farmworker Health Program, will expose me to learn ways to reduce inequalities in healthcare for marginalized communities. I aim to foster a commitment to promote health and to heal the whole person as a future FNP.

Growing up, a majority of girls dream to look and feel like a princess. That princess has always been Ariel from the Little Mermaid. The song "Part of Your World" has always been my go-to karaoke song, but why? There's usually a reason why we are drawn to certain songs or people or in this case, Disney characters. We see a piece of ourselves attached to that particular thing. In this song, Ariel sings about the collection of things she owns & how it makes her feel closer to that dream reality she really wants to be a part of, "that shore up above." Even though the sea is her home & she's expected to follow the customs of a mermaid, she felt out of place. For years growing up, I've been the obedient child following the rules of life, listening to my parents' advice, etc. However, that path has led me to box up & never make my own dream a reality. That desire to travel the world & collect my own "thingamabobs" from the different places I visit remained a dream. At the age of 16, Ariel rebelled against her father, left home, & made the daring decision to surface to the land. Despite the obstacles she faced, she was ultimately in control of her own destiny. She made her dream a reality & even found her happily ever after. Now, I've always been a late bloomer in comparison to all my friends and colleagues. I've watched so many others achieve such great milestones i.e. engagement, marriage, babies, school acceptances, or landing top careers. I haven't achieved any of that. I kept making excuses that I can put off traveling the world after I get into a school or land a good career. Over the last couple of years, I realized I'm not getting any younger so I jumped at the idea of traveling solo. In 2022, I finally embarked on my first solo international trip to Peru for 5 weeks. Being alone in another country as a female, without cellular service, was scary. The adventure I experienced was so worth it. I got to immerse myself in a new culture, made amazing memories, & brought back a few "thingamabobs" for my collection. Ariel & her song reminds me to explore & turn wishes into a part of my world. Up next, France & London in 2023!

2020, I remember ringing in the new year just like everyone else excited and hopeful for what the new decade will bring. I know for myself, I made a commitment that I would make big plans to step out of my comfort zone and do something life-changing. In June 2020, I would be traveling to Cusco, Peru to join a volunteer medical project to serve the impoverished communities, learn about their healthcare system, and assist in delivering basic medical care. As an individual who believes in lifelong learning, I find immersing myself in the Spanish culture to be the best way for me to develop improved Spanish communication, learn life skills that cannot be taught in books, and gain further patient care experience. Despite being ready to take off with a grant lined up to assist me financially, COVID-19 came in like a storm and disrupted all my plans. The virus was not going to stop me. I refused to sit around, not be able to contribute to the fight against COVID or even stop my urge to continue learning. Therefore, that summer, I quit my old job to join an accelerated program so I could become an EMT and became a volunteer blood donor ambassador/screener for the American Red Cross. Both these positions renewed my love for studying medicine and reminded me why I love working in the healthcare field: to foster a commitment to serve, heal, and teach through Christ’s ministry in medicine. I began working on the ambulance in the early fall of 2020 where I witnessed firsthand the amount of COVID cases in the hospitals and then transported these COVID patients on oxygen. It definitely placed my life in a new perspective, but I am truly grateful for those experiences. During these unprecedented times, God truly blessed my family and me as we continued to stay healthy and well. But it opened my eyes that I should not take this life for granted, and to be a go-getter. Now being 2021, I carried that “go-getter” mentality with me into the new year as I still aspire to be a Physician Assistant (PA) as my future career choice. First, I will be pursuing extra certifications in two separate programs to advance my skills in the field of medicine this summer. Between graduation from UC Irvine three years ago to the present, I have worked in countless entry-level medical positions from medical assisting, behavioral therapy, to now being an EMT, as mentioned earlier. Each job I worked at taught me to develop different skills, from learning to interacting with a wide variety of patients from pediatrics to geriatrics and even the developmentally disabled to supplementing my own personal professional growth. For instance, I recall working up this elderly disabled woman with her testing. We were at the optical coherence tomography (OCT) machine, and I began my normal routine, which I came to develop overtime having learned from my own trial and error on the job. I instructed her to place her forehead against the machine, focus on the green star on the screen, and then said, “Hold still. 3, 2, 1 now blink.” She fully complied without issue, then thanked me for my clear instructions. However, she proceeded to ask me what her test results were. She became anxious when I said I was unqualified to analyze her results. I told her Dr. A will be coming in a few minutes to discuss them with her. Even though I performed these tests daily for two years and had an idea of what her results demonstrated, I felt discouraged because of my limited scope of practice. After that moment and many more similar patient encounters, I knew I desired to be more than just an entry-level employee making minimum wage. I want to be able to sit down with my patients to analyze and share his/her results but then educate and formulate a plan to treat the patient. That is why, on top of the urge to help during COVID, I earned my certification/license to be an Emergency Medical Technician in the summer of 2020, to move forward and do more. However, now working on the job, I have found myself limited once again. These limitations have motivated me to return to school where I will be earning certifications in electrocardiograph (EKG) technician and phlebotomy this summer. These certifications will help me to advance my skills so I will have more professional growth opportunities, greater responsibility with patient care, and prepare me to be a well-rounded future PA.