I craned my neck to look down from my step stool, my face shielded with clear plastic to protect from blood splatters, as the nurses pried open the patient's chest cavity. I tried to ignore the searing smell of bone, awestruck as the surgeon disconnected the heart valves from the body and redirected the blood into a machine. As I peered at dark red blood whirling through clear tubes, keeping the patient alive, I discovered my passion for Biomedical Engineering and Research. However, after doing my own research later, I realized that medical research fields similarly fall short of representing women fairly. Women were not required to be included in clinical trials until 1993 (NIH Inclusion Policy), and a 2022 Harvard Medical School study confirms that we are still underrepresented. This lack of inclusion has a direct impact on our diagnoses and treatment. For example, men and women experience different symptoms during a heart attack. Due to the lack of research, women are misdiagnosed 50% more often than men; often with mental illness rather than heart disease (University of Leeds). This needs to change. As someone with high cholesterol and a history of poor heart health in my family, this issue means a lot to me. This is why I get so inspired when I hear about the technology that goes into improving this issue. The technology that I was most amazed by during my shadowing experience was Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI): an alternative to invasive open-heart surgery. The doctor first inserted a catheter up an artery in the leg and fed it up the body until it reached the blood clot in the heart. Then a stent inflates the artery and holds it open until the clot is cleared. Choosing whether to perform open-heart surgery or PCI depends on the patient’s situation. However, studies on the benefits of each procedure were conducted almost exclusively on white men. A cardiothoracic research team at Cornell University, the college that I will attend this fall, plans to conduct trials solely on women to decide which procedure will be beneficial more accurately. I am so excited to be attending a school that conducts research based on tech that captivates me. Without scholarships and grants, I would not be able to attend Cornell. As a future Biomedical Engineering student, I will lead research to ensure that women’s health is no longer an afterthought.