Over the course of my life, I’ve been involved with many cultural organizations. As part of being Armenian, I was introduced to Homenetmen Armenian Scouting and began my scouting journey 13 years ago. Within this organization, I’ve ranked up to become one of the leaders that helps run the chapter. As part of my role, I’ve learned how to properly communicate with others, create weekly scouting schedules, and work as a team with my fellow leaders. Being in scouts is not only a time commitment but it helps us stay in touch with our community. We often do flag raisings for the Armenian old folk home, volunteer our time serving at Armenian Relief Society (ARS) luncheons and events, and even pick up trash for the Beautify Fresno Organization. Through scouting, I've been given the opportunity to earn my Eagle Scout. This is the highest rank attainable in Boy Scouts of America. A requirement for Eagle Scout is to lead a service project that will help benefit the community for years to come. I chose to have my service project at the Fresno Ararat Masis Cemetery. My project was to put up block signs which helped direct people to their loved ones burial sites. I chose to execute my project there to honor my grandfather that is buried there and to help the community members that visit the cemetery. Another Armenian organization I’ve been a part of is called Armenian Youth Federation (AYF). This organization's target goal is to help raise awareness for Armenians and help as much as we can with the resources we have in America to assist Armenia in any way possible. Our AYF chapter in Fresno is called the Kevork Chavoush chapter, named after one of the infulenical fedayis. We've been in contact with a US citizen that is currently living in Artsakh and he has been letting us know what we can do in order to help the people of Artsakh during the blockade. Since we're located in the valley, he has asked us to get into contact with farmers so that we can teach the people of Artsakh how to come back from the blockade. Because there has been no food coming in, people have been using up all their crops for food and killing their animals. Our job is to contact Armenian farmers in Fresno so that we can teach the people in Artsakh how to start growing their crops again and making sure that they don't experience a hit once the boarder opens up. In the future years, I plan to to give back to my Armenian community by going on a medical mission to serve the ones back in my homeland. I also want to to put my future children in these Armenian organizations I've grown up in so that they can be the next generation of Armenian youth.

Perseverance to me means that regardless of any given situation, the desire to overcome will always be greater than the obstacle itself, and is the driving force on how I chose to face any struggle. The spirit of perseverance was instilled in me at a very young age. My grandparents were the children of genocide survivors. It was a heartfelt example of how one can take a struggle and turn it into a positive, and persevere. Embracing my Armenian ethnicity and hearing the struggles of my family made me realize there is nothing that I wouldn’t be able to conquer. My heritage has given me great pride and allowed for a stronger connection to all cultures and ethnicities. During times of great struggle personally, with perseverance, I was able to take my challenging moments and turn them into positive ones by helping others, and improving myself. Communication wasn’t my strongest asset, but with perseverance and the will to never give up, I chose to take my weakness and make it one of my best strengths. This is evident in my volunteer work, community, and on-campus activities. Understanding what perseverance means in all that I do has reassured me to enter a field that I'd long loved and had the desire to do. Helping people has always been a passion of mine. Specifically helping people in the field of medicine. Being Armenian, I grew up with a very large family and I've gotten the chance to experience meeting lots of people in my community and learn how to talk to all different kinds of people. Over the years of volunteering at the hospital and being around plenty of people throughout my life, I've been able to keep a bubbly and talkative personality. This is very important, especially in health care. In most cases, all a patient needs is a doctor who is involved and gets to know you further than just a patient-doctor interaction. During my volunteering experience at the Cancer Institute, I had an experience when I was bringing a patient back for their first-ever chemo treatment. After I finished taking their vitals, the patient had a few questions to ask the nurse. Unfortunately, the nurse ignored the patient and continued to do whatever she was doing which made them feel very nervous and uncomfortable. This made me aware that comforting and putting in some extra work to get to know the patient better makes such a big change. All of the experiences I've been through in my life have given me the proper tools to effectively interact with the healthcare setting and the people that I interact with daily.

The Covid 19 pandemic shook many of us to the core! As a new chapter of my life had just begun, I was faced with my own mental health challenges as I was trying to navigate life as a freshman in high school dealing with a nationwide shutdown of schools. Looking back now, I know mental health is extremely important to me as it shapes the way I think, feel and act. At the time my mental health needs were neglected. As the months went by during the pandemic, I began to feel more and more withdrawn from my family. I began to spend time with peers that were not the best examples for me. My sleep patterns changed drastically, as I was up all hours of the night and slept during the day. I spent many hours on social media and technology which added more strain on my mental health. Self comparison began to grow stronger as I would see others enjoying social activities and travel while I was home unable to do these fun activities. Families took on individual responsibility of how safe their household was in preventing getting sick. Some families didn't believe this pandemic was real so their kids had different privilege's than I did. My parents were strict on our whereabouts as they were looking out for their elderly parents and their well being. This was something I had a very hard time coming to terms with. Through these difficult months, I began to lose focus of the importance of self care. Self care prior to the pandemic included routine exercising and proper nourishment of my body through healthy brain fueling foods. After accepting the help my mom sought out for me, I started going to weekly therapy sessions. This gave me a safe place to share my thoughts, feelings and overbearing concerns I was faced with. It allowed be to comfortably talk to a professional and take care of my mental health. Once I started to see the damage I was causing to myself, I realized how much my mental health was affected by just the negative thoughts I was holding in myself. The next step after therapy was to start taking better care of my body. I joined a gym and created a routine for myself that allowed me to spend time focusing on me. This went hand in hand with my food intake. Nutrition became very important in this process. Once I started exercising at the gym, I started to notice how I was fueling my body. I paid more attention to ingredients in food labels and how they might also be affecting my mental health. Overall, Im proud to say I have overcome a huge obsticle that will forever have impact on me.