My name is Katarina Martin and I am an undergraduate freshmen at Elmira College. I am currently dual majoring in Nursing and Social Work, with a concentration in the Honors Program. While I was accepted to almost 50 colleges nation wide, Elmira College was the perfect fit, even though I only live five minutes away from campus. I worked at Ulta Beauty from my sophomore year of high school until this past summer. I work for Texas Roadhouse and the financial aid office, but I quit Ulta Beauty this past summer. Throughout my life, I have been dedicated to community service, finding my path, and ensuring to live up to the morals my grandfather and mother have taught me. Throughout my almost 19 years of life, I have faced more challenges that have impacted my life than I can count. I was bullied throughout elementary school, a victim of pedophilia, raped by an ex boyfriend, and the list just goes on. The biggest challenge I faced; however, was growing up in a single-parent house hold. My parents split up before they got the chance to get married, and my dad was completely out of my life. He was in all three of my brothers' lives, though. My mom was very poor throughout my childhood, working two to three jobs at a time. This led to her not being around as often as she wanted to be, but she did it all for me. She refused to let me go without nice clothing, proper nutrition, all of the bills paid, and giving me beautiful Christmases and birthdays. My mom wore old, raggedy clothing until I was about 14 years old. She has become my ultimate goal in life. I always told her growing up, "I want to be just like you, Mommy!". However, she always responded with, "No, baby doll, you need to be better than Mommy." Now, I finally realize she meant she does not want me to struggle how she did. The crazy thing is, I am just like her, but I listened to what she said. My parents ended up reconnecting two years ago because of my performance in a musical, which led to them getting married this past summer. What a happy ending! I have been volunteering in my community since I was a child. My earliest volunteer experience was with my mom. She led different secret gifting programs, in which she found families in need, then provided Christmas gifts, holiday meals, and birthday gifts. After that, I fell in love with helping others, since I finally found out that I could do it myself. I have done various things such as book and toy drives, clothing drives for children, and food donations. I also volunteered at the Horseheads American Legion, cooking meals for veterans and organizing fundraisers for local organizations. Currently, I volunteer for Embrace Grace, where I provide free child care a few times a month for poor families, especially single mothers. My elementary school and high school did various community service opportunities as well, like singing for the Arctic League Telethon, cleaning town, spending time with the elderly/mentally disabled, and cooking for the homeless. My favorite volunteering experience has been at the American Legion; however, the ownership changed a few years back, so I am no longer allowed to volunteer there. My other favorite experience was volunteering for Love For Our Elders, a program in which younger individuals see various different elderly people around the country each month, and learn a little bit a about them. Once you do so, you get to create letters and become a ray of light and cheer for these people who feel forgotten and alone. Each of my letters were hand written, included hand drawn pictures, and I even made the envelopes myself! I am passionate about pursuing my career as a first responder because both of my grandpas and my dad were in the military. My grandpas served in a couple of wars and my dad was not only deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, but he was also a first responder for 9/11. My grandfather on my mom's side passed away in January, and I had the upmost pleasure in helping care for him in his final weeks of living. I hope to make everyone I treat feel like family and realize I am not just here for a pay check, but to actually improve and save lives (especially because I could not save my grandpa's).

1. I have chosen nursing as my major in college because helping people and taking care of others is what I am best at. I have been entrusted with people's children for certain amounts of time, leading me to become a caretaker for them. Any bumps, scratches, or booboos, I attend to them. My grandfather recently passed away, and even though he placed in a full-time nursing facility, I went there every day to tend to his needs. I fed him, got his medicine in order, helped him to drink, and lifted him by myself even though he was about 6 feet tall and over 150 pounds. I am only 5'1 and very tiny weight wise, but I exercise regularly in case something happens where someone is needed to lift someone. I have always been willing to help those in need, no matter if it is financially or physically. I want to be able to step-up the level of care I am able to provide to individuals who need it, and becoming a nurse is the only way I can do that. My ultimate dream is to be able to take care of my parents once they get into failing and declining health stages. As for my career goals, I wish to be able to become an ER nurse or practice in a nursing home facility (or something of similar stature). I do not want to be a nurse who is only in this field for the money. I will be the nurse who families and patients count on because I do my job well with dignity, genuine care, and respect for those entrusted in my care. Too many times, my family has been in and out of hospitals and facilities where the nurses and other staff do not care about the patients and let call bells ring and ring until other visitors get them out of their desk area. I refuse to sit back and let anyone be in distress. I do not care if someone rings a call bell just because they cannot find the remote for the tv or need help adjusting their bed. That is part of my job as a nurse; to be there at patient's beck and call to the best of my ability. No matter how frivolous, needy, or annoying things get, I will keep a smile on my face and take care of them, because that is what a nurse does. I intend to stand by my beliefs and morals regarding this job, as it is not just a job, but a commitment to those who need me most. 2. To me, the phrase "human touch" means not only physically touching a person but also touching their soul via actions and genuine care for them. I believe "human touch" can impact patient care in many ways, such as, improving recovery time, increased mood levels, greater willingness to listen to doctors and nurses, and showing them that people care about them as well as their needs. Often times, individuals nowadays in health care do not care about the patients or the job itself for that matter and just want to collect a paycheck. "Human touch" changes that when you genuinely care about your role in this field. This shows that a person is not doing their job robotically and as if the person they are caring for means nothing to them. "Human touch" creates a bond between caregiver and patient, as well as with their families. "Human touch" is about having feeling, emotion, and passion for what you do, not just because it looks good on paper.

My name is Katarina Martin. I am currently 17 years old and a high school senior at Notre Dame High School in Elmira, New York. Currently, I am taking numerous college courses through my high school and a few advanced placement courses. I was offered a spot to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum of Health and Medicine at Yale University; however, I was sadly unable to attend. In the future, I hope to become a mother of three children, have a husband who is a loving father, a family pet, and a beautiful home somewhere relaxed and quiet, but has enough opportunities for activities. I plan to learn about and invest in the stock exchange so that I am able to build my wealth comfortably while busy with my studies and endeavors. I enjoy fitness, nutrition, cooking, baking, shopping, and especially holiday activities. I currently have worked at Ulta Beauty for over a year and a half, where I use my expertise in makeup and skincare to help guests better their techniques, application methods, and create new routines. Personal hygiene is something I care strongly about as I have a fear of smelling bad. My top choice for college is Rochester Institute of Technology where I plan to pursue a master's degree in Diagnostic Medical Sonography. I would like to specialize in the Maternal-Fetal-Medicine area of this field to deal with high-risk pregnancies. I hope to get my doctorate after my master's in this field. This is my chosen field of study because my parents were given incredibly wrong information while my mother was carrying me. The doctors told my parents that I would be born with down syndrome and would also be born early around 28 to 30 weeks. None of these things happened and I was born perfectly healthy; however, my mother has severe anxiety which was affected greatly due to this false information. Not only did it cause issues to hear health, but anxiety is not good for a developing baby as it could lead to serious health issues during the pregnancy that can put both mother and baby in extreme danger. I want to be able to prevent these mis happenings as best as I possibly can and I want to be the comforting face a mother with a high-risk pregnancy gets to see. My backup career path is nutritional and dietetic studies to become a certified nutritionist and dietician. I struggled for a few years with an eating disorder, leading me to extremely unhealthy and irregular eating and activity habits. I wish to study this field to help prevent this from happening to more individuals of various ages and genders, as eating disorders can affect anyone. I would also like to aid individuals in developing meal plans for various life situations. These situations include but are not limited to busy lifestyles, low-income, fixed budget, mood disorders affecting eating patterns, etc. This profession would allow me to not only become more knowledgeable myself on eating habits and current trends with fast food chains but also help others become more knowledgeable as well so that they do not fall for the same tricks and tactics.