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Fenecia Shaiju

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Finalist

General information

Hobbies & Interests

  • Drawing And Illustration
  • Painting and Studio Art
  • Singing
  • Sewing
  • Community Service And Volunteering
  • HOSA
  • Key Club
  • Art
  • Baking
  • Cooking
  • Reading
  • Writing
  • National Honor Society (NHS)
  • Foreign Languages
  • Spanish

Reading

  • Fantasy
  • Science Fiction
  • Classics
  • Adventure
  • Book Club
  • Crafts
  • Cultural
  • Epic
  • Humor
  • Folk Tales
  • Folklore
  • Magical Realism
  • Mystery
  • Retellings
  • Psychology
  • Plays
  • Novels

I read books multiple times a month.

Bio

I am an undergraduate sophomore at Rice University in Houston, TX. I am from the small South Indian state of Kerala, and I moved to the U.S. with my family at 5 years old. I am passionate about art, biological sciences, and mathematics. I am also interested in world cultures and languages. I speak two languages fluently, English and Malayalam, and I hope to master Spanish as well. A timid person by character, I am not naturally inclined to lead, but I actively try to push myself to become a leader. My journey began in eighth grade at the NJHS induction ceremony when I gave a speech on citizenship as the NJHS secretary for our school. Now I have grown as far as to have had been selected to represent my school at the annual Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Conference the summer of 2021! Through such experiences and my 4-year active participation in HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America), in which I have earned numerous awards and had the honor to compete in medical events at the international level, I hope to one day become a family medicine physician to help patients get diagnosed and treated quickly; as someone who struggled with getting a fast diagnosis and effective medical treatment for asthma as a child, I aspire to one day prevent patients from being trapped in the same cycle of endless doctors' appointments that I was caught in.

Education

Rice University

Bachelor's degree program

2023 – 2027

Majors:
  • Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other
Minors:
  • Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General

Barbers Hill High School

High School

2019 – 2023

Miscellaneous

Desired degree level:
Master's degree program
Majors of interest:
Public Health, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other, Medicine, Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment Professions, Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, General
Medical school interest:
Yes

Career

  • Pharmacy Care Representative

    Pharmaceuticals · HEB

    Jan 2023 – Present

  • On-Site Volunteer

    Health, Wellness, and Fitness · Hearts and Hands of Baytown

    Jan 2021 – Present

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Hospital & Health Care
Dream career goals:
Family Medicine Physician
Has nursing license:
No

Future Interests

  • Volunteering
Analtha Parr Pell Memorial Scholarship
Ever since I moved to my current school district in the sixth grade, I have won the district Christmas card contest every other year, having my art sent on a greeting card to all local households and businesses. I have also designed nearly every one of my school district’s T-shirts via design contests. And because of my nearly monthly attendance at school board meetings for recognitions for my art awards, my school, and even my whole town, has come to know me as “the girl who wins all the art contests.” However, many are surprised to know that I do not want to become an artist. On the contrary, I wish to become a family physician to solve a global healthcare issue which was the reason for my venture into the arts. As a small child, I suffered from asthma. At around two years old, my mom noticed that I was always breathing heavily, with a heartbeat that seemed to physically move her hand when she placed it over my chest. We sought medical help–but the diagnosis process placed my family in a tough situation. At the time, my dad was in the United States fighting against racial discrimination and labor trafficking after he became a victim of it himself in the Signal International labor trafficking case. Meanwhile, my mom, my brother, and I lived in India with my dad’s parents. My asthma diagnosis was expected to be quick; my symptoms were severe, and we expected the doctors to understand the matter in no time. Little were we expecting the process to take three years, all the while adding to the financial burden of my already struggling family with each doctor’s visit that seemed to take us nowhere. It was during these difficult times that my mom discovered my love for art. Because of my asthma, we often stayed at my cousin’s house for weeks at a time in order to not burden my grandparents with my care. My aunt was an art teacher–she had a room reserved as her studio. She often let me play around with her paints and pastels and pencils, and when I returned to my grandparents’ house, my grandparents discovered a new nuisance–my increasing tendency to draw on the walls. But my mom noticed that this new interest made me happy–she noticed that art was my distraction from my suffering while I waited for a diagnosis and treatment plan for my asthma. And so, although it angered my grandparents, she talked them into letting me project my wild imagination onto the walls, promising them that they will get their walls repainted when I grow up just a little. By around third grade, my asthma had nearly completely faded away. For the longest time, I did, in fact, want to become an artist–but my high school journey has moved me in another direction. I realized that having art as a career would transform it from a haven to a necessity–I feared that becoming an artist would take the joy out of something that helped me escape some of the most difficult times of my life. And so, I resolved to become a doctor. I noticed that the problem of obtaining a fast diagnosis was a problem in not only India, but the whole world–and to become the solution to the problem, I would place myself in the place where the process begins: in the office of the family physician.
Fenecia Shaiju Student Profile | Bold.org