I always envisioned myself in healthcare as I found it fulfills my mission to find means to promote health and well-being to ensure individuals, communities, and larger populations live flourishing lives. Though I could see myself in healthcare, initially I did not know in what capacity. I worked as a nurse assistant in in-patient units, a medical assistant in a specialty clinic, and a clinical research coordinator conducting HIV/AIDS research. However, I felt constrained by my scope of practice and first-handedly witnessed barriers and scarcity of health-related resources among underserved communities. I am a cis-gendered gay man, a first-generation, Chinese American who grew up with working-class immigrant parents, my various coinciding identities and experiences uphold its privileges and its relative challenges. Considering intersectionality, my identities have made my life choices intentional – for example, finding means to promote access to resources for BIPOC LGBTQ+ individuals through clinical research or assisting with mobile clinics stateside to provide medical services to low-income, immigrant households. Having grown up in a neighborhood that has historically been comprised of families of color, immigrant, and/or low-income households, I find the importance to reinvest and care for the communities that have influenced my upbringing. In addition, being an ally to those who similarly face marginalization within society. All in all, my professional experiences in healthcare nurtured my passion for a career in direct patient care, more specifically as a nurse practitioner to deliver care that is needed the most. I constantly aspire to provide a wider range of healthcare services to meet the needs of such communities as well as be a leader within the industry to ultimately find innovative means to improve the healthcare infrastructure - one that provides accessible, affordable, and comprehensive care. As a prospective nurse practitioner, the impact I intend to make extends beyond the bedside. Nurses play a pivotal role in healthcare, aside from being a caretaker, they are also healthcare leaders. I will not only provide the utmost quality patient care and build meaningful rapport with individuals that I will work alongside, but advocate for said individuals as well as communities, and populations through healthcare lobbying at a systemic level. Healthcare is everchanging and I intend to consistently advocate for patients at a systemic level that will sustain such changes. For example, by working directly with diverse communities, through these experiences, I can leverage patients’ voices to be able to enact change by implementing policies and programs that best cater to the health needs of populations. As a person of color who grew up in a medically underserved area, I hope to work within my respective communities and in medically underserved areas. To a degree, I understand the barriers and disparaging health outcomes that come from living in said areas and working as a clinician entails being involved not just in addressing healthcare demands but being an advocate and facing social issues. Whether that is implementing cultural competency programs within hospitals and clinics for healthcare personnel to better navigate concerns from individuals from various cultural backgrounds. And or lobbying for funding across areas that disparagingly face chronic health issues. Through the knowledge and training that I will acquire from my program and through working in healthcare, I will be further equipped to serve as a vehicle of change as I will be in a position to liaison with the needs of communities. I hope the impact I make will bring change within the industry, as it is my lifelong mission to work towards realizing that it is possible to deliver equitable health care to all walks of life.