“Kayla entered the waiting room.” I pressed admit. A little girl popped into the Zoom meeting, only her forehead and pigtails visible. As she angled the camera, I saw her face. She seemed so normal. Why did I assume that she’d be different? Kayla was Peerguide’s first student from foster care. After three months of outreach, I connected my nonprofit with numerous social workers through the Washington state foster care system, and they began regularly sending foster students to PeerGuide for tutoring. I was proud of my nonprofit’s mission to serve students from underrepresented backgrounds, so when the first student signed up, I was eager to teach her. Upon her guardian’s initial inquiry, I contacted Kayla’s social worker. She explained that Kayla had been taken into government custody after being found abused at age five. She emphasized Kayla’s intelligence but noted her lack of academic support, as her foster mother worked three jobs. This background caused some apprehension and uncertainty within me as I was only a high school sophomore, but I still agreed to help because I knew she would benefit from my assistance. After several sessions, I realized that she was nothing like my preconceived notions of what a foster child would be like. I thought she would be reserved, traumatized, and behind in school. However, she was outgoing, caring, and very bright. I also learned she loved mac and cheese, Harry Potter, and Taylor Swift. I began looking forward to our sessions, and she soon became the highlight of my Mondays and Thursdays. Working with Kayla, I learned how to communicate more effectively, value a younger student’s perspective, and appreciate someone’s story. Most importantly, I learned how to make a difference in another person’s life. Through our collaboration, the friendship we fostered, and the impact I was making, I was thrilled to learn alongside her. By networking and growing PeerGuide when I wasn’t working with Kayla, I expanded the organization to over 350 students and more than 250 tutors. The countless relationships I helped foster, similar to the one I had built with Kayla, were gratifying as students and tutors worldwide still engaged in learning during the pandemic. Developing PeerGuide over the past years has painted a clear picture of what I want coming out of college. I want to help people. By pursuing the sciences and medicine, I hope to connect with people on an emotional level, one where I can help them with tangible results and be emotionally supportive when they need me most. I feel like I can accomplish this as a doctor, having the ability to heal and care for others simultaneously. However, I want my career to be multifaceted. Eventually, I want to become a high school AP Biology teacher, making students gaze in awe at the curvature of the mitochondria's matrix and have them memorize that it is "the powerhouse of the cell," as I once did. I want students to engage in science and be as passionate about studying it as I am. I want to combine my passion for teaching and my love for science to help more students like Kayla I meet in the future.