That is what a life-threatening peanut allergy does to a childhood. I brought my own cupcake to birthday parties. An EpiPen rode in every backpack I ever owned. Asthma added its own limits, and for years I assumed that watching from the sidelines was simply part of who I was. Then a group of doctors decided it did not have to be. My allergist put me on Xolair, a biologic that brought my asthma under control, and started me on Palforzia, an oral immunotherapy that has slowly taught my immune system to tolerate the very protein that once threatened my life. The scientists who engineered those treatments never met me. The physicians who prescribed them did, and they treated a nervous kid and his worried parents with a patience I have never forgotten. Because of them, I am now a varsity track captain competing in the hurdles at the state level. The kid who sat out became the kid who leads warmups. Those doctors are the people who inspire me, and they are the reason my vision is specific. I want to become a board-certified pediatric allergist and immunologist. The road runs about twelve years, and I have mapped every mile of it. I am applying to accelerated and early-assurance medical pathways, including Liberty University’s LU MED 3+1 track, the University of Pittsburgh’s Guaranteed Admit Program, the Penn State and Jefferson seven-year premedical program, and LECOM’s Early Acceptance Program. I have toured each campus and built relationships with faculty. From there the path leads through a biochemistry degree, medical school, a pediatrics residency, and an allergy and immunology fellowship. If no accelerated program takes me, the traditional four-year route with a clinical gap year gets me to the same place. I have planned for that too. In the meantime I am shadowing my own allergist for thirty to forty hours this year and pursuing additional clinical exposure through the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. I am not waiting to feel ready. I learned a while ago that you become ready by starting. The impact I want to make is easy for me to picture because I have lived it from the other side of the exam table. Somewhere right now there is an eight-year-old eating lunch alone at the allergy table, a kindergartner who has never tasted birthday cake at a party, a middle schooler who quit the sport he loves because his lungs kept betraying him. Their parents check the same label three times and lie awake replaying close calls. Those are my patients. I want to be the physician who walks into that room, explains the science in words a family can hold onto, and hands that kid his sidelines back. Food allergies and asthma are rising in exactly the age group I want to serve. The treatments that rescued me are barely a decade old, and the next decade will bring better ones. I intend to be one of the people delivering them. I am paying for this education myself, through my job, a resale business I built on my own, and years of saving. I mention that not as a hardship but as proof. Every version of my plan ends in the same place, a clinic where children with allergies and asthma get the same second chance I got. My doctors changed the direction of one life. I want to spend mine doing it over and over.

My goal is to become a board-certified pediatric allergist immunologist. As a varsity track captain managing severe chronic asthma with the injectable biological omalizumab, otherwise known as Xolair, while undergoing Palforzia oral immunotherapy for my life threatening anaphylactic peanut allergy, I am a living beneficiary of modern immunology. The physicians who engineered and prescribed my treatment restored my ability to compete, and it is my dream to help other asthma and allergy sufferers just as much as my doctors helped me. The road to becoming a allergist spans roughly twelve years, starting with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, medical school, a three year pediatrics residency, and a two year allergy and immunology fellowship. I have constructed my plan around three pillars, which are resources, timing, and contingency. For undergraduate admission, I am pursuing multiple accelerated and early assurance pathways. These include Liberty University’s LU MED 3+1 track into the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM), the University of Pittsburgh’s Guaranteed Admit Program, the Penn State Jefferson seven year Premedical Medical (PMM) program, and LECOM’s Early Acceptance Program. I have toured each of these campuses and cultivated faculty relationships, including with the Director of Biomedical Sciences at Liberty. My decision criterion is fixed. I will matriculate wherever the strongest financial aid package combines with a college capable of getting me into a strong undergraduate program so I can get accepted into a medical school that places its students in pediatric residencies and an allergy fellowships. The budget is the most critical variable in my plan because I am financing this education myself, as my family is unable to contribute. Published costs of attendance at my target institutions range from around $35,000 to $48,000 annually, and I am closing that gap with a couple streams. The first is institutional merit. My 5.3 weighted GPA and 1500 SAT qualify me for automatic academic scholarships, and I am retaking the SAT with a target of 1540 to reach the threshold that converts Liberty’s award into full tuition. The second is national scholarships. I am submitting applications to the Coca-Cola Scholars Program by the deadline in late September and Chick-fil-A’s Remarkable Futures Scholarship in late October, while finalizing my National Merit documents before the October 15 deadline, since a Finalist standing alone can secure full tuition and housing. The third is earned income. I currently generate roughly $800 per month between my job at Chick-fil-A and the clothing resale business I built myself, sourcing and selling vintage clothing across three online platforms, which generates me nearly $9,000 annually that I will sustain through my freshman year. The fourth is a college fund I have saved through years of saving Christmas and birthday money. Clinical preparation advances on the same timeline. I have confirmed 30 to 40 shadowing hours with my own allergist, am securing additional hours through Allied Health’s shadowing program, and applied to CHOP and Springfield Hospital for further more exposure and patient care hours. This experience strengthens both my early assurance applications and eventual medical school applications. Finally, I have accounted for the possibility of failure. If no accelerated program admits me, the typical four year undergraduate followed by a clinical gap year is an alternative. If merit aid is lacking at one institution, my decision rule redirects me toward the lowest net cost rather than the college with the greatest prestige, because minimizing undergraduate debt helps prepare for the expense of medical school. All my decisions lead to the same outcome. Only the cost and the timing vary, and I have spent years ensuring that neither will stop me.

I will never forget the moment my twin sister accidentally ate a peanut in our kitchen. One second everything was normal, the next she was struggling to breathe. I remember the fear as my mom injected her with an EpiPen while we waited for the ambulance. That moment is burned into my memory, and it explains a lot about my life. My name is Luke Confino, and I am a high school junior at Delaware County Christian School. I was diagnosed with moderate persistent asthma at birth, a severe peanut and tree nut allergy at age two, and severe ADHD at age seven. These conditions have been constant hurdles in my everyday life, affecting how I learn, how I compete, and how I plan for the future. My most life threatening condition is my peanut and tree nut allergy, which my sister and I both share. Growing up, I lived with the fear that one careless bite could cause anaphylaxis. That fear was not without reason. Both my sister and I have had serious reactions from accidental exposure, and watching her go into shock made the danger real. Because of experiences like that, we started oral immunotherapy to build protection against our allergens. We have been committed to this treatment for three years, and it is something we will continue long term. It takes discipline and patience, because progress is slow and you have to stay consistent even when it is stressful. Asthma has been just as challenging, especially as a competitive cross country and track athlete. In races, flare ups have tightened my breathing and slowed my times despite my hard work in training daily. It also got into my head, because every run came with the fear of an asthma flare. During my tenth grade outdoor season, symptoms became severe enough that I needed multiple courses of oral steroids, and eventually I started Xolair for severe persistent asthma that was not responding to standard treatment. Track and field matters a lot to me, and for a while it felt like asthma was threatening to take away my ability to run. Despite that, I kept going. Even while battling a severe flare related to mycoplasma, I qualified for the PIAA Track and Field State Championship in Pennsylvania. Today, with aggressive management including Xolair, Symbicort, and albuterol, I am competing again during my junior year. Asthma is still something I deal with, but I have learned how to manage it and not let it control my goals. These conditions have also affected me in the classroom. Last year I missed more than 20 days of school because of asthma, which meant constant catching up. ADHD makes long classes and tests difficult when I have to focus for extended time. I use medication and strategies to stay organized and locked in when it matters most. Even with missed days and ADHD challenges, I have maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout high school. Living with asthma, severe allergies, and ADHD has shaped me, but it has also given me direction. After my own struggles and after seeing my sister nearly lose her life, I want to become a pediatric allergist. I want to help kids and families the way my doctors have helped me, not just by treating symptoms, but by giving them confidence and a real plan. I have started exploring medical programs, including Liberty University, and I have internships with my allergists at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. My goal is to turn what I have lived through into a career where I can help other children conquer their giants.