Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Sherman S. Howard Legacy Foundation Scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. Thank you so much for your consideration!

I am really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and their impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. I plan to one day research diseases to create educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and texts in different languages and work with other first-generation students to help other immigrant communities learn about diseases and their available treatments. I am also really passionate about becoming a great 2D animator and bringing back the art of 2D animation, and animate African tales, which are often overlooked in the animation world. As a first generation Ghanaian-American, the only show I remember growing up that animated African stories was Tinga-Tinga Tales, and they were animals. I want to bring something unique to the animation world and highlight the stories of African people, which hasn’t really been done before. My career goals are to spread moral lessons by telling African stories, which I know have so much wisdom. Growing up, I often heard amazing moral stories with Africans as the main characters and I believe animating these would help parents and children to have shows that unite them and entertain but also educate and are not inappropriate. If possible, I would love to work at or with a major animation studio one day, but even if I can’t I plan on incorporating my interest in preserving African stories and my interests in science to create animations that educate the world on science concepts and the African experience. Being a recipient of the Hyacinth Malcolm Memorial Scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

I am so passionate about pursuing a Creative Arts degree because I want to one day establish an art career in New York, specifically using animation, painting, and music as my main mediums. I have been drawing since I was in kindergarten but my passion is to become a great 2D animator and bring back the art of 2D animation, and animate African tales, which are often overlooked in the animation world. As a first-generation Ghanaian-American, the only show I remember growing up that animated African stories was Tinga-Tinga Tales, and they were animals. I want to bring something unique to the animation world and highlight the stories of African people, which hasn’t really been done before. My career goals are to spread moral lessons by telling African stories, which I know have so much wisdom. Growing up, I often heard amazing moral stories with Africans as the main characters and I believe animating these would help parents and children to have shows that unite them and entertain but also educate and are not inappropriate. If possible, I would love to work at or with a major animation studio one day, but even if I can’t I plan on incorporating my interest in preserving African stories and my interests in science to create animations that educate the world on science concepts and the African experience. I want to be an animator because animation holds a lot of power in shaping generations. Because it is accessible to young children, teens, and adults, I believe animation is a great way to share core values and important lessons. Animations shaped my mannerisms and way of thinking from a young age. As a young child and well into my early teens I watched a lot of anime and cartoons. Being exposed to different cultures in animation and visualizing my own people through very few representative cultures, I developed an open and curious mind about society and race that I want other kids to get from an early age. In recent years, I’ve noticed the lack of quality animations that promote diverse cultures, social awareness, and core value based lessons. One thing that really shocked me growing up was the lack of African cartoons especially with the prevalence of a book like Aesop’s Fables. I also want to enter and change the animation industry because believe that the animation industry has in part failed to preserve the minds of young children. I believe that with the internet being so widespread and kids getting exposed to the wrong images in adult animations is a huge issue that affects society. Animations have given people unrealistic ideas about the human body, relationships, and sex. I want to be the animator that combats this by producing morally sound and spiritually enriching art and animations, not just what will make me money or what is marketable.

As the only black person in my STEM classes throughout high school, it was increasingly difficult for me to participate when I thought that I was failing to represent black students positively. As a low income student in a private, mostly white high school, I lacked self confidence. My grades suffered. I learned to overcome this by finding a support system, focusing on my passions in science, and exploring various artistic outlets. I now animate, crotchet, draw, and sing and I plan to use my art to also help others learn more about medical diseases. In college, I also am now able to explore an aspect of biomedical research that I am passionate about which is investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. Oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide so I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills so I can go to school without having to worry.

The Fruits Basket series and its film is one anime franchise I can watch over and over because of how deeply connected the Fruits Basket story feels to my childhood. During a rough time when my mother had my siblings and I move out of our apartment to live with someone else, I often felt alone, abandoned and pitiful. I felt like I couldn't shoulder this burden of being in someone else's home and also felt anger towards my father for allowing the situation to happen in the first place. I hated having to be the oldest sibling role model despite the situation. During this time, I used anime as an escape from reality. I admired how Fruits Basket, unlike the other anime I watched, wasn't focused on romance but was focused on the story of Tohru, an orphan girl who is extremely resilient despite how many times she gets abandoned or rejected by those she loves. She was homeless and had to move in with some neighbors who weren't always the most accepting but she stayed caring and open to them. I wanted to be like her but I also recognized how different I was from her in that I had allowed my situation and my negative mindset to shape my personality as grumpy and mean towards my own family. Watching Fruits Basket, I felt like I saw myself in Tohru if only I could let go of my bitterness. The film specifically really captivates me because it goes into Tohru's parents and her childhood and why she was abandoned at such a young age. In her case, it was the death of her parents and her mom's addictions that left her all alone to fend for herself. But she always had a pure heart towards them, she understood they were only human and could only do so much for her. Rewatching the series and the film now, I realize how mature Tohru was and I've also recognized my growth to become more forgiving like her, even though I doubt I could ever reach her level. I'm grateful to Fruits Basket amongst other anime because I believe they had a part in shaping my character and in my upbringing.

Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Jimmy Watts Memorial scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Harriett Russell Carr Memorial Scholarship would be an honor, being able to uphold the legacy of Harriet in serving my community wholeheartedly. This scholarship would also help me and my family tremendously in not having to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She is an immigrant from Ghana who raised us all alone but always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Doña Lupita Immigrant Scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

My Barbie Dream House is located in Ghana, with vibrant colors of a reddish pink, green, and yellow, which are similar to the colors of the Ghana flag and represent the vibrant nature of the land, the culture, and the people. Inside are historical artifacts including a miniature version of the Elmina Slave Castle where many other Barbies were taken centuries before without regard to their wellbeing and sold as slaves. This Barbie is one that may look like other Barbies, that may look like an empty-headed girl, but she cares deeply about the history of her people and is an advocate. Her Dream House has paintings of Biblical encounters with Jesus. One is a painting of the angels stirring the pool of the crippled man, she uses these paintings as encouragement. Even though she may be a Barbie, she is a woman of faith. She knows that the same way the Bible seems just a story, it has come alive in her life just like her story as a Barbie and her Dream House now exists globally in the minds of many. This Barbie is not just any Barbie, she believes in the supernatural, she breaks the fourth wall and can see beyond just her limited life in the Dream House. She longs for more than to be seen as just a Barbie, because she knows she's not like the others. Chocolate skin, vibrant, golden brown hair, smooth skin, a sweet cocoa butter scent follows her when she walks. Her feet hits the ground and her hips sway in a gentle rhythm that no other Barbie possesses.

Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

In my culture many people die from cancer but don’t talk about it at all. They don’t like naming cancer when it's diagnosed, there's this belief that refusing the diagnosis and the name “cancer” will make it go away. Even when a young boy in my church was struggling with and later died of brain cancer, it wasn’t something that many of the adults wanted to talk about or name. Seeing this growing up has made me passionate about actively learning more about different types of cancer, their symptoms, and how often one should be checked to prevent from getting into later stages of cancer. I believe a big part of this culture being so unaccepting of cancer is because a lot of science research and cancer research isn’t explained to the Ghanaian community in a language they can understand. The more I learn about cancer research, the more I can do to contribute to finding treatments and also the more I can help with creating educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and texts in different languages that I am familiar with to help the Ghanaian community and other immigrant communities learn about the disease and the available treatments. Another aspect of biomedical research that interests me is investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

Veganism is inseparable from my roots as a Ghanaian since many Ghanaian recipes are originally vegan. This is partly because of famines that occurred in Ghana that led to the Ghanaian people having to adapt more plant-based, high carbohydrate and high vegetable diests without much meat. As someone who grew up eating a lot of meat, veganism is difficult but important for me as someone who understands the intersection of the history of culture and veganism. I understand that by eating vegan, I'm eating closer to what my ancestors ate. Not just eating vegetables but being able to incorporate traditional Ghanaian herbs and seasonings is highly important to me. Through social media, I have others to inspire me to be vegan and still eat the things that I grew up with. The foods that I was made fun of for growing up are now being recognized in the vegan community. I also love how I am able to progress in my journey to eating healthy, balanced meals and now have a better understanding of why the Ghanaian diet is healthy. I've often heard growing up that Ghanaians don't eat healthy but I refuse to believe that, I believe that is a Eurocentric lie that has been told to many ethnic communities that has prevented the vegan movement from expanding and progressing because there is no real veganism until all cultures are included. Especially since because of the way ethnic cultures are almost ignored when it comes to their cuisines, their cuisines, at least from what I've seen in Ghanaian cooking, there is more emphasis on fresh vegetables and herbs than in American cuisine. As someone who is interested in medicine and the power of diet and food to reverse certain medical complications, I am interested in exploring through my mother and social media the traditional herbs that help with pain, joints, menstrual cycles, and hormones. I believe that is a neglected part of modern medicine which is belittled because of the Eurocentric nature of medicine. I would love to share with the rest of this essay some of my favorite Ghanaian vegan recipes, some of which I've adopted from vegan Ghanaian influencers such as @eatwithafia on Instagram. One of my favorites is spinach stew with yams, another is hibiscus drink called sobolo, another is millet porridge called hausa koko, another is a fermented corn meal dinner called kenkey. I would love for all vegans to explore African vegan foods as well because it has a rich history and rich taste.

Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Lauren Czebatul Scholarship would be an honor for me to continue her legacy of being a light in the world and helping others. It would also help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I feel it is a hugely unfair obstacle not having money when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Walking In Authority International Ministry Scholarship will help me achieve my community engagement and educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college and allow me to focus on getting more involved in my community. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

As the only black person in my STEM classes throughout high school, it was increasingly difficult for me to participate because I thought that I was failing to represent black students positively. As a low-income student in a private, mostly white high school, I lacked self-confidence. My grades suffered. I learned to overcome this by finding a support system, engaging in my community and focusing on my passions in science, and exploring various artistic outlets. I now animate, crotchet, draw, and sing and I plan to use my art to also help others learn more about medical diseases. Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have also learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Kim Moon Bae scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

Since both of my parents didn't get the opportunity to go to college because of finances and an unstable education system in Ghana, I want to overachieve at my university. My goal is to graduate with a bachelor’s in Chemical Biology and Health Policy and a minor in Computer Science while improving my Spanish so I can use three languages (English, Akan Twi, and Spanish) in the professional setting as a doctor. I believe it is important to know these languages to have access to and exposure to various cultures which will improve my interactions with patients and their cultural backgrounds. Growing up in a Ghanaian household, I always had to be the translator and middleman during doctor’s appointments because my parents were not able to communicate well in English. It would have relieved a lot of burden off of me to have a doctor who could at least understand what my parents were saying. I want to be that doctor for others so I want to put effort into learning languages. Another thing that inspired me growing up to go into the medical field was the fact that in my culture many people die from cancer and chronic disease but don’t talk about it at all. They don’t like naming diseases when it's diagnosed, there's this belief that refusing the diagnosis and the name will make it go away. Even when a young boy in my church was struggling with and later died of brain cancer, it wasn’t something that many of the adults wanted to talk about or name. Seeing this growing up has made me passionate about actively learning more about different types of cancer, their symptoms, and how often one should be checked to prevent from getting into later stages of cancer. I believe a big reason why the culture is so unaccepting of cancer is that scientific research and cancer research isn’t explained to the Ghanaian community in a language they can understand. I plan to one day research diseases to create educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and texts in different languages and work with other first-generation students to help other immigrant communities learn about diseases and their available treatments. Currently, I am learning the basics of computer science languages such as Python, Java, and C++. I believe these skills are important to learn since research technologies are increasingly becoming computer science-based. I am also using my summers to volunteer in my local church and also gain research experience and self-study the MCAT. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Mohamed Magdi Taha Memorial Scholarship would be an honor for me to celebrate the life of Mohamed and his big dreams. As a low-income first-generation college student, it would also help my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year.

Since both of my parents didn't get the opportunity to go to college because of finances and an unstable education system in Ghana, I want to overachieve at my university. My goal is to graduate with a bachelor’s in Chemical Biology and Health Policy and a minor in Computer Science while improving my Spanish so I can use three languages (English, Akan Twi, and Spanish) in the professional setting as a doctor. I believe it is important to know these languages to have access to and exposure to various cultures which will improve my interactions with patients and their cultural backgrounds. Growing up in a Ghanaian household, I always had to be the translator and middleman during doctor’s appointments because my parents were not able to communicate well in English. It would have relieved a lot of burden off of me to have a doctor who could at least understand what my parents were saying. I want to be that doctor for others so I want to put effort into learning languages. Another thing that inspired me growing up to go into the medical field was the fact that in my culture many people die from cancer and chronic disease but don’t talk about it at all. They don’t like naming diseases when it's diagnosed, there's this belief that refusing the diagnosis and the name will make it go away. Even when a young boy in my church was struggling with and later died of brain cancer, it wasn’t something that many of the adults wanted to talk about or name. Seeing this growing up has made me passionate about actively learning more about different types of cancer, their symptoms, and how often one should be checked to prevent from getting into later stages of cancer. I believe a big reason why the culture is so unaccepting of cancer is that scientific research and cancer research isn’t explained to the Ghanaian community in a language they can understand. I plan to one day research diseases to create educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and texts in different languages and work with other first-generation students to help other immigrant communities learn about diseases and their available treatments. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide. It would be a great privilege if I am chosen as a finalist for this scholarship to honor the life of physician-scientist Hilliard L. “Tack” Gibbs Jr. and continue on his work as I plan to one day become a physician-scientist.

I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. The dream version of myself is someone who will one-day research diseases to create educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and work with other first-generation students to help other immigrant communities learn about diseases and their available treatments. I also want to work with youth to build their confidence by hosting discussions, full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more immigrant professionals.

Even though I currently don't have the money to give back to my community I give back through my church, where I host College Talks, Bible Studies, serve as an advisor for the youth when it comes to education, academics, social concerns, and faith-based questions. It can be difficult at times being the main person to spearhead these events but my mother, who I consider a matriarch in my life is my biggest fan and inspiration. She always encourages me when I struggle to connect with the Youth or can't get through to them. In the last few years, I have been working with the youth to encourage them to apply their talents to the church and in their schools. I work with them to build their confidence in their identities as Christian Youth who are called to bring light to the world, but also to provide them with resources that can help them achieve their career and academic goals. I plan to one day host full-blown career seminars and professional help sessions once I become more interconnected with professionals at my college and expand into meeting more Black professionals. This would be great since my church is mostly immigrants and their children who struggle with navigating the American system. In the last year, I also created a project for the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) where I’ve been able to interview Ghanaian adults in my community and learn about their language backgrounds and perception of their English and Twi proficiency. With this research, I hope to shed light on ways to improve English proficiency among Ghanaian immigrant populations. I am also really passionate about medicine and disease research, specifically investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Being a recipient of the Johnson Dale Women Empowerment scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

As the only black person in my STEM classes throughout high school, it was increasingly difficult for me to participate when I thought that I was failing to represent black students positively. As a low income student in a private, mostly white high school, I lacked self confidence. My grades suffered. I learned to overcome this by finding a support system, focusing on my passions in science, and exploring various artistic outlets. I now animate, crotchet, draw, and sing and I plan to use my art to also help others learn more about medical diseases. In college, I also am now able to explore an aspect of biomedical research that I am passionate about which is investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. Oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide so I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills so I can go to school without having to worry!

In my culture many people die from cancer but don’t talk about it at all. They don’t like naming cancer when it's diagnosed, there's this belief that refusing the diagnosis and the name “cancer” will make it go away. Even when a young boy in my church was struggling with and later died of brain cancer, it wasn’t something that many of the adults wanted to talk about or name. Seeing this growing up has made me passionate about actively learning more about different types of cancer, their symptoms, and how often one should be checked to prevent from getting into later stages of cancer. I believe a big part of this culture being so unaccepting of cancer is because a lot of science research and cancer research isn’t explained to the Ghanaian community in a language they can understand. The more I learn about cancer research, the more I can do to contribute to finding treatments and also the more I can help with creating educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and texts in different languages that I am familiar with to help the Ghanaian community and other immigrant communities learn about the disease and the available treatments. Another aspect of biomedical research that interests me is investigating infectious diseases and drug efficiency, especially in developing nations. I am interested because as a Ghanaian-American, I grew up watching Ghanaian television shows and I often compared American medication advertisements to their Ghanaian counterparts. Something I’ve noticed is the lack of regulation of drug and medication advertisements in Ghana. As long as the advertisers pay the TV stations, they can lie about their drugs treating any diseases. This is dangerous because many of these drugs aren’t tested or approved, so consumers may fall prey to these ads and buy drugs that end up killing them. I want to enter this field of biomedical research so I can not only help test drugs in the American market but also help the Ghanaian market. Because I’ve gotten the privilege to take classes in infectious disease and in genetics, I have learned about how much pandemics can affect history and its impact on the African continent is especially large in comparison to other continents. I want there to be an equal focus on stopping disease spread on the African continent and I hope to one day give back through my impact on global biomedical research. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide. It would be an honor to continue on Christina's legacy. Thank you!

Since both of my parents didn't get the opportunity to go to college because of finances and an unstable education system in Ghana, I want to overachieve at my university. My goal is to graduate with a bachelor’s in Chemical Biology and Health Policy and a minor in Computer Science while improving my Spanish so I can use three languages (English, Akan Twi, and Spanish) in the professional setting as a doctor. I believe it is important to know these languages to have access to and exposure to various cultures which will improve my interactions with patients and their cultural backgrounds. Growing up in a Ghanaian household, I always had to be the translator and middleman during doctor’s appointments because my parents were not able to communicate well in English. It would have relieved a lot of burden off of me to have a doctor who could at least understand what my parents were saying. I want to be that doctor for others so I want to put effort into learning languages. Another thing that inspired me growing up to go into the medical field was the fact that in my culture many people die from cancer and chronic disease but don’t talk about it at all. They don’t like naming diseases when it's diagnosed, there's this belief that refusing the diagnosis and the name will make it go away. Even when a young boy in my church was struggling with and later died of brain cancer, it wasn’t something that many of the adults wanted to talk about or name. Seeing this growing up has made me passionate about actively learning more about different types of cancer, their symptoms, and how often one should be checked to prevent from getting into later stages of cancer. I believe a big reason why the culture is so unaccepting of cancer is that scientific research and cancer research isn’t explained to the Ghanaian community in a language they can understand. I plan to one day research diseases to create educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and texts in different languages and work with other first-generation students to help other immigrant communities learn about diseases and their available treatments. Currently, I am learning the basics of computer science languages such as Python, Java, and C++. I believe these skills are important to learn since research technologies are increasingly becoming computer science-based. I am also using my summers to volunteer in my local church and also gain research experience and self-study the MCAT. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

Since both of my parents didn't get the opportunity to go to college because of finances and an unstable education system in Ghana, I want to overachieve at my university. My goal is to graduate with a bachelor’s in Chemical Biology and Health Policy and a minor in Computer Science while improving my Spanish so I can use three languages (English, Akan Twi, and Spanish) in the professional setting as a doctor. I believe it is important to know these languages to have access to and exposure to various cultures which will improve my interactions with patients and their cultural backgrounds. Growing up in a Ghanaian household, I always had to be the translator and middleman during doctor’s appointments because my parents were not able to communicate well in English. It would have relieved a lot of burden off of me to have a doctor who could at least understand what my parents were saying. I want to be that doctor for others so I want to put effort into learning languages. Another thing that inspired me growing up to go into the medical field was the fact that in my culture many people die from cancer and chronic disease but don’t talk about it at all. They don’t like naming diseases when it's diagnosed, there's this belief that refusing the diagnosis and the name will make it go away. Even when a young boy in my church was struggling with and later died of brain cancer, it wasn’t something that many of the adults wanted to talk about or name. Seeing this growing up has made me passionate about actively learning more about different types of cancer, their symptoms, and how often one should be checked to prevent from getting into later stages of cancer. I believe a big reason why the culture is so unaccepting of cancer is that scientific research and cancer research isn’t explained to the Ghanaian community in a language they can understand. I plan to one day research diseases to create educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and texts in different languages and work with other first-generation students to help other immigrant communities learn about diseases and their available treatments. Currently, I am learning the basics of computer science languages such as Python, Java, and C++. I believe these skills are important to learn since research technologies are increasingly becoming computer science-based. I am also using my summers to volunteer in my local church and also gain research experience and self-study the MCAT. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

Since both of my parents didn't get the opportunity to go to college because of finances and an unstable education system in Ghana, I want to overachieve at my university. My goal is to graduate with a bachelor’s in Chemical Biology and Health Policy and a minor in Computer Science while improving my Spanish so I can use three languages (English, Akan Twi, and Spanish) in the professional setting as a doctor. I believe it is important to know these languages to have access to and exposure to various cultures which will improve my interactions with patients and their cultural backgrounds. Growing up in a Ghanaian household, I always had to be the translator and middleman during doctor’s appointments because my parents were not able to communicate well in English. It would have relieved a lot of burden off of me to have a doctor who could at least understand what my parents were saying. I want to be that doctor for others so I want to put effort into learning languages. Another thing that inspired me growing up to go into the medical field was the fact that in my culture many people die from cancer and chronic disease but don’t talk about it at all. They don’t like naming diseases when it's diagnosed, there's this belief that refusing the diagnosis and the name will make it go away. Even when a young boy in my church was struggling with and later died of brain cancer, it wasn’t something that many of the adults wanted to talk about or name. Seeing this growing up has made me passionate about actively learning more about different types of cancer, their symptoms, and how often one should be checked to prevent from getting into later stages of cancer. I believe a big reason why the culture is so unaccepting of cancer is that scientific research and cancer research isn’t explained to the Ghanaian community in a language they can understand. I plan to one day research diseases to create educational content such as medical cartoons, animations, and texts in different languages and work with other first-generation students to help other immigrant communities learn about diseases and their available treatments. Currently, I am learning the basics of computer science languages such as Python, Java, and C++. I believe these skills are important to learn since research technologies are increasingly becoming computer science-based. I am also using my summers to volunteer in my local church and also gain research experience and self-study the MCAT. Once I graduate, my career goals are to work as a medical assistant for a year or two in my community while preparing to take the MCAT and apply to MD-PhD school. Throughout MD-PhD school, my ultimate goal is to combine science with the humanities by incorporating healthcare policy, language, and medical anthropology to produce research that can help overcome systemic and interpersonal healthcare barriers. Being a recipient of this scholarship will help me achieve my educational goals because it will help me and my family not have to worry about financing college by my parents and me taking out more loans each year. I would really appreciate this scholarship to pay off the semester bills as oftentimes I am unsure how my family is going to be able to pay and I worry that I may even be kicked out if I am unable to pay on time. I feel it is unfair having money as such a huge barrier when I have so many goals and plans to help out communities worldwide.

My name is Hannah, I was first inspired to pursue medicine during a yearly visit to my hospital, Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx when I was in middle school. I and my mother were sitting and waiting for the doctor to see me when a student doctor walked by in a white robe. I yelled out “I want to be like that one day” and he turned around and smiled at me. When the doctor finally called me in, I asked about the program they were doing where student doctors would shadow current doctors. I promised her I would do the same one day. Even before then, I was always fascinated by the doctor’s office. I loved when doctors made me feel like their office was intimate and that I could participate in a plan to better my health. I knew that I wanted to be a doctor that works with patients but knowing how interested I am in other areas: in disease research, healthcare policy and language learning; I also didn’t want to sacrifice being a part of research and gaining a higher education in other academic areas that will help my career in medicine. It wasn’t until I entered college that I found the perfect career: MD-PhD. As an MD-PhD, I plan to not only work in the lab towards curing diseases but also learn more about medical anthropology strategies to overcome culture and language barriers amongst immigrant families. I want to become a groundbreaking doctor that makes it possible to communicate research to my patients so they understand and can get involved in it. A big reason I care so much about this is because my doctors growing up were rarely able to get through to my family. I was mostly translating during the visits and filling out all the forms. It would have meant a lot to my family and other families in my community if they had more of an understanding and a say in their own healthcare. Especially when my uncle had kidney surgery, the language barrier prevented him from having much of a say on his donor, who performed his surgery, and the surgery ended up unsuccessful. He ended up signing away his rights to surgery with a lesser-matched kidney that would be performed by a student surgeon. Because of the lack of communication, when he was on his deathbed, there was only blame being thrown at the way the hospital handled his situation. To decrease these instances from happening again to other families and in other hospitals, I want to enter the field as an empathetic doctor that works hard to meet the patients’ needs despite language barriers. During high school and now in college, I found courses and a community that really supported me going into STEM. Especially In college, since I go to Brandeis, which is a huge STEM school, I've had the privilege of taking courses such as Chemistry, Evolution, and Biology and I plan to double major in Chemical Biology and Health Policy with minors in African American Studies and Computer Science. I was also privileged to have done the Prep for Prep program in New York, which now supplements our education with a host of internship opportunities in New York so this summer I am going to be interning in a lab in New York. I am Ghanaian and growing up I also had a lot of people to advise me so I plan to one day permanently stay in New York and give back to the communities that poured into me.

My experience with COVID-19 and mental health was me struggling to have confidence in my academic abilities while taking a lot of science courses such as chemistry and physics. It was me struggling mentally, feeling like I didn’t belong in my school, a predominantly white instituion and private school, while I had to take many courses as the only black person in the room and figure out how to force myself to participate despite feeling uncomfortable. It was hard for me to keep having faith in myself to keep pushing forward in the medical field when other students seemed so much more qualified and experienced in the sciences. COVID was a time where I had to rethink a lot of my friendships because I realized many of them didn’t actually care about what I cared about and that our connections, especially when challenged by distance, were a lot more shallow than I realized. COVID forced me to turn to God and my church community for hope and allowed me to be more involved with community service such as helping out my church with recording service footage and promoting the church on social media. I also realized the importance of getting closer with family and having a great support system at home. This meant having hard conversations with my siblings and parents. I also developed closer relationships with the church leadership. However, when I returned to campus it was hard figuring out where I fit in within my school’s social scene and finding out how much the student body lacked deeper connections. I struggled with taking a lot of STEM courses such as math, chemistry, and biology. As the leader of the school’s Christian Fellowship and African Student Organization, I was struggling with coming up with weekly meeting topics, juggling homework, and not having a lot of freedom from the school with COVID restrictions. I realized the importance of giving in sometimes and letting God take over. I could not do everything all at once and I sometimes just had to take a break, pray, meditate and ask others for help. I realized that even though I’m not the best with science courses, I should keep preserving and I realized my passon for language learning. My career goal is to become fluent in Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese along with English and Twi (the two languages I grew up with) so I can use these skills when I enter the medical field and access a variety of communities as a doctor. I believe these skills, sometimes even more than the science courses I’m taking, can make me a more well rounded healthcare provider and create effective communication between doctor and patient.

I was inspired to enter tech by seeing a lot of young women of color around me enter the field after they graduated college despite their varying interests. For many years I wrote off entering tech being I didn’t perform well in the computer science courses I took in middle school and high school and wasn’t sure how it would apply to my interest in medicine. Alot of the people around me also had prior experience in tech but I had no prior experience and didn’t feel like I could adapt like they had so I gave up on computer science courses. But after talking to these women about the different types of careers in tech, I became interested in taking computer science courses and pursuing a double major in biology and computer science. I was fascinated hearing how learning different types of code can allow one to make websites to promote different types of information, can allow someone to work on code for machines used in research labs, and can allow someone to even help out with product design for engineering startups. Although I’m not sure exactly which of these applications of computer science to medicine I will one day pursue, for now I am curious about how learning biology, chemistry, and computer science side by side can prepare me for my future career in medicine. One thing I would do once I enter the tech industry is focus on improving biomedcal technologies and making healthcare more automated and individualized through medical databases. One thing about the tech industry I would change is the amount of access students of color have to introductions to tech or computer science courses. I would create more programs for free that would allow parents to introduce their kids, especially low income kids to various careers in tech. I would increase the amount of jobs that offer funding for employees to enter tech by taking computer science courses or other supplementary courses. It really helps having more capable employees to advance the workplace and the technology available in a workplace. I do think the tech industry has a social and moral obligation to be inclusive to all consumers because, from reading research papers on bias in technology, it is obvious that there is an increase in bias and negative effects from biased tech when there is a lack of diversity and inclusivity in the tech industry. Ignoring how the experiences of diverse people can improve technology is detrimental to the future of the tech industry and cause a lot of unneccessary lawsuits.

I am not really sure how I will be able to completely cover my future student loan debt. Right now, I am planning to address my student loan debt by working summer jobs and a Work Study job on campus. I also have a little bit of money saved from working the last couple of summers. However, I know that no matter how much I make over the summer it probably won’t be enough to pay for my loans and also cover textbooks, and other misceallaneous fees. Knowing that I have to work each summer limits the types of summer programs I can apply to and won’t allow me to do many unpaid internships such as volunteering or shadowing in a hospital even though that would be beneficial for me as someone who wants to enter medicine. I also have asked my parents to help but they are not really able to help and cannot really afford to take money out just to help me cover my student loans. I understand that I can’t really rely on them for college student loan debt and I understand that financially, it is difficult enough asking them to help with the immediate bills for each semester. In addition to this, I plan to apply to various scholarships such as this one and have been meeting with my school’s financial aid officers for advice and to see if there is a way to reduce the cost of attendance but that hasn’t been of much help. Talking to them I see that it is really necessary for me, in my situation, to apply for many outside scholarships and hope to be awarded at least one. It makes me sad that I have to think of all this while also taking pre-med courses such as chemistry and having this financial burden restricts me from participating in a lot of programming for clubs that happens off campus or hanging out with my friends as much since I need to save money. Also knowing that I plan to go to medical school after college, I know that I am not really financially stable and will be in debt unless I am able to gain scholarships to help with my loans and cost of attendance. However, I know that if I am persistent enough with scholarship applications I can gain enough money to cover my loans and graduate with minimal debt.

I plan to become a MD-PhD and pursue research on chronic kidney disease and diabetes and also explore the relationship between hormones, menstrual cycle dysfunction, and the kidney. As an MD-PhD, I also get to work in the lab and work towards curing the diseases. In addition, I get to communicate the causes of, prevention strategies, and treatments for these diseases to families in an accessible way. This is something that would have meant a lot to my family and other families in my community and most importantly, would have allowed them to have more of an understanding and a say in their own healthcare. Especially when my uncle had kidney surgery, the language barrier prevented him from having much of a say on his donor, who performed his surgery, and the surgery ended up unsucessful. He ended up signing away his rights to a surgery with a lesser matched kidney that would be performed by a student surgeon. Because of the lack of communication, when he was on his deathbed, there was only blame being thrown at the way the hospital handled his situation. To prevent this from happening again to other families, I want to enter the field and be the empathetic doctor that works hard to meet the patients’ needs despite language barriers. Along the way, I have been reading a lot of language books because I think an important part of being a doctor is effective communication and overcoming language barriers. My goal is to be proficient in Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish, along with Twi and English (the two languages I grew up with) I believe it is important to learn these languages to have access to and exposure to various cultures which will improve my interactions with patients and their cultural backgrounds. This way, I can be a better provider and get patients to open up to me. Growing up in a Ghanaian household, I always had to be the translator and middleman during doctor’s appointments because my parents were not able to communicate well in English. It would have relieved a lot of burden off of me to have a doctor who could at least understand what my parents were saying. In addition to this I am really involved in community service. In high school I was a Student Listener, so I was a therapeutic listener for students and trained by our school psychologist on how to respond to different students and situations. In college, I am apart of Samuel Scholars, which is a program that allows students to pursue community service. My goal is to use my art and drawings to create webcomics that explore Ghanaian language and culture and expose more people to Ghanaian culture. I believe it is important to preserve culture and language and don't want to forget that even as I take classes in preparation for medical school. In addition this, I've been taking classes such as chemistry lab and biology, which require a lot of patience and preserverence to finish. I've already finished one semester but I'm ready to go through all four years of this to become the doctor that patients need ten years from now. Having this scholarship would be a great help for affording my undergraduate degree and my future in medical school.

My name is Hannah, I’m a freshman in college at Brandeis, and Ghanaian-American. I am really passionate about improving the mental health of first-generation Africans through art. I began creating afrocentric art over the summer of 2021, initially hoping to preserve my mother and my stories of growing up African. I quickly realized how therapeutic drawing people I knew as characters, creating a storyline, and envisioning them in ways that I never thought could be possible was. I hope that through publicizing my art, I can introduce others to this method of expressing your feelings about aspects of your culture and also a new way to preserve cultures. As someone who grew up in a multilingual community and had trouble balancing switching between languages so I know using art would be a great way to practice my Twi, which is my home language but also use English to expose people of different cultures to Ghanaian culture. I am currently working on a collaborative project that could hopefully win money for my community and empower other young African artists. Especially after experiencing so much death, and the tragedy last summer where my aunt was murdered in an apartment near mine by a mentally unstable person, I think mental health in the African community should be discussed more often. Art I believe is a powerful and often underestimated way to do this. Around the same time I started working on my African art, I also became really interested in black joy through African dance and joined my school’s Afrobeats dance group. In that club, I was able to connect with first-generation African students like myself but also experience the joy of reconnecting with my culture and teaching non-African club members about it. I realized how important it is to build confidence and be active using African beats because, no matter your ethnicity, it makes you feel as if you are reconnecting with your roots or your inner being. During COVID, to spread this message, I began posting myself dancing to Afrobeats and hip hop on TikTok and on Instagram, not to show off but to encourage people at all dance levels to keep dancing and connecting with various cultures. I believe it is important for people to not only appreciate the art but the people where it came from, so I hope through my efforts in promoting African arts, I can change someone’s prejudice about African people and get them to open their minds about getting to know the African people around them.

My educational goals include getting a bachelor’s in biology or biochemistry while becoming proficient in Japanese and Chinese so I can be proficient in five languages (English, Akan Twi, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese), which I can then use in the professional setting as a doctor. I believe it is important to learn these languages to have access to and exposure to various cultures which will improve my interactions with patients and their cultural backgrounds. This way, I can be a better provider and get patients to open up to me. Growing up in a Ghanaian household, I always had to be the translator and middleman during doctor’s appointments because my parents were not able to communicate well in English. It would have relieved a lot of burden off of me to have a doctor who could at least understand what my parents were saying. I want to be that doctor for others so I want to put effort into learning some of the more common languages. As an undergraduate, I also plan to learn the basics of computer science languages such as Python, Java, and C++. I believe these skills are important to learn since research technologies are increasingly becoming computer science based, for example there are now lab robots that make pipetting automated and operating the machine is easier with some sort of a computer science background. I also want to be someone that can contribute to research technologies by improving the interfaces and improving the code that goes into making them. I also want to take some classes in health policy since it is important to understand the way the healthcare system works. My professional goals include getting certified as a medical scribe before I graduate college so I can work during the summer and school year in hospitals and gain experience with how doctors communicate with patients, diagnose them, and keep track of their patient records. I will be doing a medical scribe scholarship program in order to gain this certification. I will also be continuing my on-campus job in a biology research lab for my four years of college and hopefully I will be able to do a project with the lab I am currently working in. I also plan to join my university’s Emergency Medical Corps with hopes of gaining experience as a first respondent to medical crises on a college campus. Once I finish all this and the required pre-med classes, I plan to graduate and enter a medical school with an MD-PhD program.

I plan to go to medical school after undergrad to become a doctor. I am currently studying biology/neuroscience and computer science at Brandeis University. I plan to decrease suffering and improve quality of life by entering into cancer research and by using bioinformatics technology to find cures for patients faster. I find it important for me to use undergrad to learn as much as possible about current biological research and computer science applications in medicine so I can figure out what each field is lacking that I can bring to it. I also love to draw and I plan on starting a business where I create merchandise to empower first-generation students and STEM students that are women. I also love to sing and plan to use my social media to do covers of songs that inspire me. I am also heavily involved in the Christian community at home in New York and at Brandeis. I learn so much about love and about different cultures from attending diverse Christian groups on campus. I am also studying different languages (Japanese, Spanish, and later Korean) at Brandeis because I want to have access to diverse communities when I enter the healthcare field. I would love to carry on Catrina's dream of improving healthcare internationally as someone whose family is originally from Ghana and as someone who is always learning different languages. However, this will be challenging since I do not have the funds to pay for medical school and don't know how I will pay off my debt from undergrad as well. As a first generation student I also do not have any connections to people in the medical field to learn from or shadow. However, I believe this scholarship will help me to financially prepare for medical school and pay off some of my undergraduate debt. Thank you for reading!

1. I got interested in pursuing a computer science degree after learning about the field of bioinformatics. I love that computer science has allowed researchers to solve biological problems by putting sample images through applications and working virtually. I also have a few friends in college who are teaching me different programming languages such as Python and Java and they really inspire me to keep going. 2. After receiving my degree, I plan to combine my experience with programming with everything I do, from research, to social media, to creating websites for my own business and helping others do the same. 3. I feel that I am the best candidate for receiving this scholarship because I will do more with the money than just learn computer science but also apply what I learn to different fields like I mentioned above: biological research, marketing and social media platforms, business, and more.

My current goal is to become a doctor but I don't plan to ever stop learning even when I do become a doctor. Right now, I am studying biology, neuroscience, and computer science at Brandeis University in preparation for medical school. A big obstacle that I have been facing in life is learning new study habits to adapt to each new class. In high school, there was much more individualized support from teachers but in college, I've been learning the hard way that it's up to me to learn from others and also experiment with note-taking, my sleep schedule, and more. My first chemistry quiz, I received a 3.5/10. From that experience, I learned that it doesn't matter how much you want to learn something if you don't go out of your way to be creative with memorization, note-taking, and doing practice problems you won't get very far. I started using tactics I learned in Japanese class, surprisingly, to memorize the structural formulas of molecules and since then I have been doing better in the class.

2020 was a year of breakups. A clash in belief systems broke many of my friendships into just acquaintanceships. At first, I panicked, I mean, how could people I had hung around for two years disappear just like that? But then, I looked back for all the red flags that I had ignored earlier. All the conversations that had seemed innocent and friendly, which actually held deeper meanings and foreshadowed the different paths we would eventually walk into. And I noticed the way I sometimes changed how I spoke with them, little things, just to fit into that group, thinking that I couldn't belong anywhere else on campus except with them. But 2020 was also a breakout year. I lived a double life without those friends turned acquaintances not knowing. A secret life where a girl who knew little about biology and medicine joined a group of teens interested in neuroscience and came out having completed a research proposal and a research paper. It was a year where I found another community, people who were imperfect but valued growth in faith and the teachings of Jesus like I did. People who are trying to live with a purpose and respect those who surround them as best as they can. I learned to make God my family and my family my friends. And now, taking what I've learned in 2020, I plan to meet more people outside of my social circle. I've learned to accept when people don't like me because I've also learned that there are always people who do. I've learned that not only will I always have a purpose but also that different people come into our lives for different seasons. I've learned to be bold and apply to programs, even if I don't have much experience in the field. I've learned to make the most of everything I'm surrounded by, but I also have learned how to shut out the bad influences, the things that waste my time. I've learned that I won't always get what I want or see what I want, but at the end of the day, God's plan is the best. I plan to keep asking questions and being curious, even if it's scary. I plan to learn even more about neuroscience and medicine, to keep writing and researching, to keep emailing adults and other students who know more than me for help. I plan to learn how to love people more with my actions instead of doing the opposite of what I feel. I want to become even more humble and patient and carefree but also intentional in my school and social life. And when I actually land a career in the medical field, I plan to thank all those who led me there, to thank God for the breakups turned personal growth, and myself for working hard for so long.