My name is Mara, I am originally from Jacmel, Haiti, the cultural and artistic capital of Haiti, and I moved to the United States about 4 years ago. Moving to the United States meant leaving my entire family behind and starting over with my two sisters, which was challenging not only academically but also emotionally and financially. My legal guardian makes less than 30000 dollars a year while providing for my little sister and me. While this was enough for us to afford a living in the first couple of years that I was in the US, ever since I started college, it has been significantly more difficult to make ends meet. I was able to overcome this financial challenge in my first year of college through the help of generous scholarship donors, which made this burden more manageable overall. But despite having applied to over 50 scholarships, I have yet to find any to help me cover the cost of my sophomore year. Additionally, it is oftentimes extremely hard to find scholarship donors who are willing to sponsor non-US citizens like me. My journey to STEM has been spontaneous and unexpected, but a certain event brought me closer to this field. Just like in other countries, emergencies are common in Haiti. However, unlike in the US, rural Haiti lacks emergency phone lines, loud sirens, and emergency services that can come to your aid. In these circumstances, one of two things will happen: bystanders will take the victims and drive to the nearest hospital, which is oftentimes over 30 minutes away from the location, and sometimes nothing will be done. In both of these cases, the final result is oftentimes the death of the victims, whether it is on the sidewalk, in the backseat of a stranger’s car, or at the hospital itself. This is one of the saddest and most unfair acts that I have had to witness firsthand. These numerous factors contributed to the large number of premature deaths in my country. From children dying from illnesses that could have been prevented by a simple vaccination to individuals left to die alone in their houses from diseases that could have been easily treated. Those people had futures, they had dreams for themselves but were brutally stolen from an opportunity to fulfill their dreams. This experience inspired my journey in STEM, but more specifically, medicine. My dream is to become a wonderful doctor whom people can trust and to restore my people’s faith in this broken health system. I have thought it through multiple times, taking into account the disadvantages, but nothing can quite keep me from that feeling that this field is my true calling or purpose. Since I realized my dream of becoming a physician, I have dedicated all my time, effort, and energy to making this dream a reality. I will continue to persevere until I become the wonderful physician that I dream of being, and nothing will deter me from my target. This event also fueled my interest in human anatomy, neuroscience, and biology. This newfound interest in biomedical sciences inspired me to join the Science Club, Neuroscience Club, and the Science Honors Society. I continued exploring biomedical sciences virtually through online platforms like Coursera and virtual programs such as the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center's science enrichment month. Additionally, in the first 3 years I have been in the US, I have been highly involved in my school and community. In high school, I served as vice president of the French Club, president of SkillsUSA, president of HOSA, and translator at school events such as parent-teacher conferences. This experience also led me to try to find effective ways to help my community in other ways. I am quite familiar with poverty, having witnessed poverty firsthand while I was living in Haiti, the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, with more than six in ten people living in poverty. As Aristotle once said, "Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime." This quote runs true in Haiti since the country is now controlled by gangs, and violence has now become the norm in the nation. Under these circumstances of extreme poverty, many are also unable to afford an education and proper medical care. Witnessing inequality close up has inspired me to participate in activities that help make our world a more equitable and loving place for all. I began volunteering at my church's food outreach for the local families every Thursday and Wednesday morning during school breaks, starting in the summer of 2022. There, I am responsible for helping organize the shelves and helping distribute the food and other supplies to the local families in need. It allowed me to learn from fellow volunteers and leave each day feeling like a better person. Access to proper healthcare, education, and basic needs should be a fundamental right of every human being. Through the maintenance of needs, we also ensure that everyone has a chance of achieving their personal goals and reaching their full potential. These roles have taught me the value of collaboration and patience, and I’m eager to foster that same spirit everywhere I go. Now that I am in college and have found ways to continue to stay involved and help my community, I was recently accepted to be an intern at my school’s center of prevention and outreach, and I am currently in the process of completing my training for the crisis text line to hopefully help people who are struggling with suicide. I try my best to be involved in my community and help others as much as I can. I may not be perfect, but every day it becomes my responsibility to improve myself both academically and socially and to be better than I was the day before.