I started my higher education experience in a nontraditional sense. What I mean by that is I spent two years at a community college obtaining two associate's degrees, one in general studies and the other in science. During those two years I explored different career and life opportunities. I’ve wavered between several different career paths, but found that all of them had one thing in common, STEM. Further, I found my interests seemed to lean strongly in the medical/healthcare field. It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to participate in an undergraduate research summer fellowship at the University of Michigan that I learned where my passion really lies. Effective January, 2024 I will be transferring to the University of Michigan majoring in cellular and molecular biomedical sciences. This degree program is a bachelor's/master's program that combines molecular and cellular biology with biomedical engineering. After my bachelor’s and master’s degrees I will pursue a PhD in biomedical engineering. Once my PhD program is complete, I plan to go into the medical field working in the area of medical research. The research experiences I have participated in have shown me that research is the pathway for me as well as given me insight into the importance of medical research. I spent ten weeks over this past summer studying chronic rejection in solid organ transplants in a biomedical engineering lab that I will continue to work in throughout my undergraduate degree. The potential outcomes of the research could beneficially affect the procedure of care before and after organ transplants tremendously. Even though I don’t believe I will be in the same lab for the rest of my career, my time there has helped me explore more of my interests, such as neuroscience, pathology, and histology. Neuroscience in particular strikes my interest because of a familial relation; My grandfather has a neurodegenerative disease known as Parkinson’s disease. There is very little known about Parkinson’s disease and there is currently no known cure for it. Although there are medications that show some promise in slowing the degeneration, I believe that more could be done in the prevention and management of the disease, something I would like to further research. My potential research in the realm of Parkinson’s disease will most likely be too late to benefit my grandfather, but after seeing the effects of Parkinson’s disease on a person, being able to help others who suffer from the disease would be a dream come true. I may not know exactly where I will go in the wide field of medical research, but I know that I will do my best to help others in a world of disease and illness.

Three months ago my life was turned upside down. My three siblings and I were born and raised in Michigan. Three months ago my parents moved themselves and my grandparents down to Florida. My two older siblings had already moved out, however, my 17-year-old sister and my 20-year-old self hadn't, leaving us with the tough decision of whether to uproot our lives and move to Florida with our parents or to try to stay in Michigan and live by ourselves. Both for our own reasons, my sister and I chose the latter. My reason for staying was so that I could go to my dream school. Growing up in Michigan, the University of Michigan has always been a top school on my list of colleges. The University of Michigan is well known for its rigorous academics and lively student life. The city of Ann Arbor itself is beautiful and has a welcoming and intriguing energy to it and provides a wonderful community for University of Michigan students. I am excited to say that I am getting the chance to follow my dreams as I am to start at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in January of 2024. With having to start living out on my own these past few months, paying for college is my biggest stress-inducer. With several external life events taking place, it was logical to cease classes for the Fall 2023 semester so I can better acclimate to living more independently and save up some money by continuing to work at our local coffee shop. But with a basically minimum wage job and the prices of cost of living, paying for the entirety of my yearly school costs is nonviable even with the money I have saved up. It is well known that in the United States, higher education can be costly. Even with in-state tuition, I will be going into tens of thousands of dollars in debt each school year. Although my parents and I live in different states and my parents don’t have the ability to help me pay for my schooling, their income is still evaluated for my financial aid, which in turn, leaves me with little to no financial aid and the necessary taking out of substantial federal and private loans to cover my education. This scholarship would help me pay for my dream of going to the University of Michigan and relieve some of the stress that the financial burden has put on my shoulders.

When I look back at my time as a community college student and think about what had the most substantial influence on me, I think of the STEM Scholars program. The program itself was an immensely important resource for my success and networking as a STEM student. But the best thing by far that I got out of this program was a mentor. The STEM Scholars coordinator was the first person to discuss the STEM Scholars program with me; she asked about my educational, career, and personal goals and talked about how the program could help me achieve them. Once I joined the program she was my biggest supporter. We often met bimonthly, during which she and I would cover where I was in the semester on not only a grades or educational basis but also a mental health basis. There were several times when I was struggling educationally, and mentally, felt discouraged, and just wanted to drop out of my classes. I can’t remember a time where I didn’t want to pursue a STEM career and I aspired to continue my education through a Ph.D., but I was beginning to doubt that I would be able to make it that far. I shared my concerns with my mentor and she asked me “Why not? What makes you believe you can’t do it? What evidence do you have to back that up? In the past you have always had excellent grades, you have joined clubs and the STEM Scholars program, you are going to study abroad in Puerto Rico, and you are active in your church community. All the evidence says you can do this.” She was right. I was letting imposter syndrome get the best of me. Statistically women in STEM are underrepresented and I want to even out those numbers. So my mentor connected me with professors, peer tutors, and other resources to help me achieve my goals. She encouraged me to seek out new opportunities which led me to participate in a ten-week undergraduate research fellowship at the University of Michigan in the biomedical engineering department as a community college student. I am now preparing to transfer to the University of Michigan for the Winter 2024 semester to major in cellular and molecular biomedical sciences and a double minor in Spanish and anthropology with hopes of following my bachelor’s degree with a Ph.D. program in biomedical engineering. Without my mentor, I would not be where I am today; I’m not certain that I would still be pursuing a STEM degree or have the desire for graduate school without her help and encouragement. Even now that I have left community college, we keep in contact and she continues to support, inspire, and motivate me to follow my dreams.

If I were a highly influential figure, I would stand for human rights and human health. There is so much diversity in the world today. I believe that everyone should be allowed to express themselves and identify with their true selves. Sadly, many minorities are not accepted by everyone and are often victims of hate crimes as a result of their beliefs, orientation, or even skin color. People should be able to be themselves without being afraid of the feedback others will give them if they are honest and open with others. Conquering this fear is part of knowing who you are and taking care of yourself. Whether taking care of yourself is physically or emotionally, it is important for one's needs to be a priority in their life. I would advocate self-care and self-love as well as acceptance and love for others. Accepting others for who they are and loving yourself could make a significant difference in the world and I believe that the world would be better off with healthy and accepting people.

Self-care is an area in my life that needs some work. Self-care has never been a priority for me. I have always focused on helping others and making sure everyone and everything is else is taken care of before I can take care of myself. Unfortunately focusing on others does not give me much time, if any, to take for myself and do something I enjoy. However in the past several months, through therapy, a loving family, and encouraging friends, I have been shown the importance of taking time for myself. Making sure that I was not being an inconvenience to others was in turn an inconvenience to me. I tried to make everyone happy, to help people whenever they needed it even when I had other important things to do. I recently have started making time for myself and realizing that I will not always be able to do things for others and that other people's problems are not always my responsibility to solve. Making time for myself to do skincare, participate in hobbies I love, go on a walk, journal, or take a nice hot bath has helped me see that I matter, and doing nice things for myself gives me the energy and capability to do nice things for others.

Ever since I was a child my parents told me "be patient," because I would often be impatient. I thought I understood why be patient is important back then, but I didn't completely understand the significance until I got a puppy. Puppies are adorable, cute, and fluffy. However, they are a lot of work. The so called "puppy-stage" is the early training stage of a puppies life. In this stage they are trained to not bite, not chew, and most importantly, not use the carpet as their toilet. Let me tell you, house-training a dog takes much more patience and forgiveness than you may think. When I first got my puppy she had accidents in the house five to six times a day. I thought that it would be easy and quick to train her to go to the bathroom outside, I told myself "she[my puppy] will be house trained in two weeks." Eight later she was officially house trained. But being patient with my puppy and showing grace to her was really important. She was a little puppy that didn't know better so I had to teach her the correct way and be patient while she was learning. It is really important for me to be patient with my puppy so that she trusts me and is patient with me too.

Mental health issues are often dismissed in children of all ages. I myself have dealt with and am currently dealing with anxiety and depression that started in my early teenage years. My anxiety and depression were never seen as important or top of the to-do list issues. Being a young female, sometimes my feelings would be labeled as "hormonal feelings" or saying it was "just a phase" to dismiss the validity of my personal concerns of my health. Unfortunatrly, it isn't only females, many males suffer from anxiety and go through depression but are too afraid to speak up. Often times, males are told to "man up" and that "boys don't cry," which in the end teaches males that their feelings aren't important and that they shouldn't display emotion. Children should be taught that emotions are good and that getting help is ok. Creating a safe space, with counselors or therapists in schools, is an easy solution to start children on the right path to deal with there mental health issues instead of dismissing them. Many schools provide a counselor of sorts to be available to students. However not all schools have the funding to hire the needed counselor or therapist for their students. The highschool I attended didn't offer a therapist or a counselor that was solely there to help students. Students need someone that is dedicated to helping them and they need to feel that getting counseling is normal and completely ok. Schools should be given funding to provide counselors and therapists to start helping those who are struggling.