When people ask why I want to go into pediatric medicine, the answer usually surprises them. It wasn't one big moment. It was twelve years of small moments. I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was two years old. Because of that, a doctor's office became a normal part of my childhood. I grew up with appointments, bloodwork, MRIs, medications, and all the things that come with managing a chronic illness. The person who changed how I viewed medicine was my pediatric rheumatologist, Dr. Groh at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital. He treated me for more than twelve years. What I remember most isn't a specific medication or treatment plan. It's how he treated me. When I was younger, he would have me race him barefoot down the hallway. At the time, I thought he was just playing. Years later I realized he was actually evaluating my gait and checking how my joints were functioning. He had found a way to do his job while still making me feel like a normal kid. That stuck with me. As a child, you don't always understand the medical side of what is happening. What you do understand is how people make you feel. I remember walking into appointments nervous and leaving feeling okay. I remember feeling seen instead of rushed. I remember that my parents trusted him completely. Looking back now, I realize he wasn't only caring for me. He was caring for my entire family. That's what inspired me to pursue pediatric medicine. Children experience illness differently than adults. They may not have the words to explain what they're feeling. They may be scared without knowing exactly why. Sometimes they just need someone who can meet them where they are, whether that's through a conversation, a game, a joke, or simply taking the time to listen. As someone who spent years on the patient side of healthcare, I understand how much those moments matter. My own experiences also sparked my curiosity about science and medicine. Growing up with a chronic illness made me want to understand how the body works, why diseases happen, and how treatments can improve someone's quality of life. What started as curiosity eventually became a career goal. The best pediatric providers don't just treat a disease. They help children keep being children. As I begin my studies at Wake Forest University on the pre-med track, my goal is to become the kind of physician who makes a child feel safe on a hard day, who helps parents feel supported, and who remembers that every patient is much more than a chart or a diagnosis. I can't remember every treatment I received growing up, but I remember how my doctor made me feel. That's the impact I hope to have on my future patients.

If you had asked me a few years ago what I wanted to build, I probably would have said, “a medical career.” Today, my answer is different. I want to build a bridge. A bridge between medicine and the people whose health is shaped long before they ever step into a doctor's office. As president of my school's Fair Trade Club, I learned something that surprised me: health begins in places most people never think about. It begins on coffee farms. It begins in cacao fields. It begins in communities where workers either have access to fair wages, safe conditions, education, and healthcare—or they do not. That realization followed me all the way to Ecuador, where I learned about sustainability and reforestation efforts. Standing there, thousands of miles from home, I started connecting dots that had been sitting on the same page all along. A family's income affects nutrition. Environmental practices affect clean water. Working conditions affect physical and mental well-being. The more I learned, the harder it was to unsee. The idea that health begins long before a doctor's visit has been riding shotgun with me ever since. Throughout high school, I have spent countless hours serving my community. Whether performing on stage, volunteering, leading initiatives, or working toward Fair Trade School certification, I have learned that meaningful change rarely happens because of one grand gesture. It happens because ordinary people decide to care and continue showing up. At Wake Forest University, I hope to build a Fair Trade and Global Health Initiative that brings together students interested in medicine, public health, sustainability, and service. My goal would be to create programs that educate students about the connection between ethical trade and health outcomes, organize community outreach projects, and support Fair Trade practices both on campus and beyond. I want to help students see that the choices we make as consumers, advocates, and future professionals can affect lives across the world. One day, I hope to become a physician. But I do not want to spend my life playing medical whack-a-mole, treating one symptom after another without addressing the causes behind them. You cannot put a Band-Aid on a problem that started miles upstream. I want to understand and address the systems that influence health in the first place. The initiative I hope to build would allow students to see that medicine is not only about caring for patients after they become sick. Whether that means advocating for ethical sourcing, supporting sustainable agriculture, or educating communities about global health issues, small effort has the power to improve lives. Education will give me the tools to build this bridge. My goal is not simply to earn a degree or become a doctor. My goal is to create healthier communities by connecting medicine, sustainability, and social responsibility. If I can help even a few people see those connections—and inspire them to act on them—then the bridge I build will extend far beyond myself. That is the future I hope to build.

When people think about sustainability, they usually picture recycling bins, electric cars, or saving the rainforest. For me, sustainability became personal through my work with Fair Trade and later through my trip to Ecuador, where I saw how connected environmental issues are to everyday people’s lives. Before traveling to Ecuador, I was already heavily involved in Fair Trade work and volunteering in my community. I became passionate about Fair Trade because it focuses on something people often forget when talking about sustainability: the people behind the products we use every day. Fair Trade supports farmers and workers by making sure they are paid fairly, treated ethically, and able to work in safe conditions while also encouraging environmentally responsible practices. To me, sustainability is not just about protecting the environment. You cannot have a healthy planet if the people living on it are being ignored in the process. Because of that belief, I became president of my school’s Fair Trade Club and started helping work toward certifying our school as a Fair Trade School. Through events and conversations with students, I realized how many people simply never think about where their coffee, chocolate, or clothing comes from. Once people understand the impact of their choices, many of them genuinely want to do better. That showed me how important education and awareness really are. In February 2025, I traveled to Ecuador for a sustainability and service field experience. For about ten days, I worked alongside Indigenous communities on Amazon reforestation efforts and learned directly from people whose lives are closely connected to the environment around them. We planted trees, learned about conservation, and saw how deforestation affects communities in real life. That trip made everything I had learned through Fair Trade feel real. I realized environmental problems are never just about the environment. They affect health, food systems, jobs, and entire communities. It also showed me that sustainability cannot just be a slogan companies use to look good. Real sustainability means creating systems where both people and the environment can succeed long-term. Working at Brazilian Table also helped shape my perspective. I had conversations with customers about coffee sourcing, ethical products, and sustainability more often than I expected. Those conversations showed me that people care once they understand the bigger picture. In the future, I hope to continue working in environmental sustainability, public health, or community advocacy to help create practical solutions that improve both environmental and human well-being. I want sustainability to feel realistic and accessible, not something only talked about in textbooks or corporate campaigns. Whether through environmental science, healthcare, education, or nonprofit work, I want my future career to focus on helping communities build healthier and more sustainable systems. My experiences with Fair Trade and Ecuador taught me that even small actions can create ripple effects. A school club, a conversation, or a reforestation project may seem small on their own, but those actions build awareness, and awareness leads to change. I hope my future work helps create a world where sustainability is not just an idea, but something people can actually experience in their daily lives.

I didn’t really grow into confidence in a classroom—it happened out in the real world. At fourteen, I was giving tours at the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, standing in front of groups of strangers, telling stories, answering questions on the spot, and just learning how to think on my feet. At the same time, I was also spending long hours in professional theater, performing, rehearsing, and learning how to stay calm under pressure even when things didn’t go perfectly. Between those two worlds, I slowly learned how to speak up, carry myself with confidence, and not freeze when all eyes were on me. I grew up in an immigrant family from Brazil, and that’s really shaped everything about me. My parents came here with basically nothing, just a lot of hope and a lot of hustle. They had to learn a new language, adapt to a whole different life, and work nonstop to build something for us. Watching that growing up made me realize early on—nothing is just “given” to you. You’ve must go get it. Being a first-gen, low-income student meant I had to figure out a lot on my own. College stuff, applications, financial aid, all of it—I was learning as I went. No one was sitting me down explaining it step by step. It was more like Google, asking questions, messing up, fixing it, and repeating. It wasn’t always easy, but it made me independent real quick. Something that really stuck with me is Fair Trade. I’m actually president of my school’s Fair Trade Club, and through that I learned how it helps farmers and workers in developing countries get fair pay, safer working conditions, and support for their communities. Coming from a Brazilian family, that hit different for me. I understand what it looks like when opportunities are limited and people are just trying to make it work. What really got me was learning how Fair Trade actually helps kids stay in school. Like, the money from Fair Trade can go into school supplies, scholarships, clean water, healthcare, all of that. Stuff that seems basic to some people, but changes everything for a kid somewhere else. That made me realize even small choices can actually matter. On top of that, I’ve also put in over 800 hours a year working in professional theater. That experience taught me discipline, confidence, and how to stay calm when things get stressful. You learn quickly how to show up, do your job, and work with a team no matter what. In the future, I want to go into medicine. I want to be that person who actually makes things easier for people, especially immigrant families who feel lost in the system. I know what that feels like, and I don’t want others to go through it alone. At the end of the day, growing up in an immigrant family is still teaching me resilience, gratitude, and compassion. Everything I’ve done—Fair Trade, theater, school, all of it—just keeps building on that. And I know that’s what I’m bringing with me into college and whatever I do next.

I am the founder and president of Team Toucan You Can the club at my school that is working to certify my school as fair trade. When I first initiated this project my sophomore year, I was meeting regularly with teachers, administrators, and even school board members. At first, I was often met with polite smiles and hesitant responses. I could see that in their heads they had doubts regarding the success that would come from my endeavors especially given I was the sole student working towards it. My vision was for a more sustainable community that began with a root in our very own high school. I wanted to do so, through the lens of fair trade, This meant that I would encourage the education and application of sustainability practices, as well as ethical sourcing. In the beginning, I had no advisor and no team. I was just a student wanting to be the start of something. Eventually, I went on to meet other students who found a passion for the same kinds of changes within our school and the greater community. I was able to build a strong team of various perspectives coming from all parts of the school community. Together, our perspectives combined to create a solidified foundation for our project and strong persuasion that allowed us to get it approved by the board. As a teenager and a mere student, people doubted my capabilities and thought certification to be far too great of an undertaking. This showed me the power of a community. When more than one student comes together to make a stance for change, there will always be results, even if they are small. Instead of stepping back and accepting defeat I pushed even harder because I knew going into it that it would not be an easy process. I have continued to lead my team through meeting after meeting being met with the same hesitant gazes; however, those gazes have begun to shift. They meet us with more confidence and knowledge of our capabilities. We have won the people over and instilled influence within them. We now participate in many local community events, school events, we host events, teach all the AP Human Geography courses and IB Economics courses a full period lesson, and we are even on the cusp of publishing a children’s book that will reach an even younger generation of people who will grow with the ideas we hope to instill. Recently, we were awarded 5th place globally in the CAS (Creativity, Activity, and Service) Challenge out of hundreds of entries. I am proud to have been at the head of this change in my community. Despite resistance at first, I persevered with the help of my community. Not just my team mates, but the teachers, administrators, and even local businesses that have given their support to our project. These experiences have taught me that it truly does “take a village”.