My experience immersing myself in other cultures and acknowledging and addressing needs in my own community have prepared me to practice in under-served communities as a physician. I grew up enjoying a diverse friend group that introduced me to new faiths, cultures, and languages. I learned Chinese greetings from a friend’s grandmother, found gelatin-free marshmallows to enjoy with Muslim friends, and traded celiac-safe homemade muffins for homemade Indian food. These experiences, however small, introduced me to people with viewpoints I had not considered before, and spurred me to seek out different perspectives. In college, I took a study-abroad course in Ghana; as a member of the minority race in Accra, I found a new perspective as an outsider. In Argentina, unable to communicate in Spanish as well as I would have liked, I initially struggled to understand my host father’s accent. Rather than intimidating me, these experiences energized me. As a Fulbright scholar in Germany, I embraced another immersion opportunity, improving my German, sharing an apartment with German roommates, and joining a German choir and orchestra. As a physician, I look forward to reaching across cultural, language, and socioeconomic differences to connect with my patients, make them comfortable in my presence, and serve them to the best of my abilities. My experiences volunteering at the local food shelf have also prepared me to work with underserved communities. After unexpectedly ending up home early from my Fulbright in Germany due to COVID-19, I quickly got involved again at the local food shelf where I had volunteered in high school. As demand for food-shelf services skyrocketed amidst COVID-19 unemployment and uncertainty, and protests related to George Floyd’s death, I became more involved. In addition to registering clients, packing food, and delivering boxes, I took on responsibility for registering and orienting new volunteers, and became adept at adapting and jumping in to help wherever I was needed. Over the weeks, I have enjoyed getting to know my regular clients and hearing about some of the challenges they face. As a physician working in underserved communities, I know many of my patients will suffer from food insecurity as my clients at the food shelf do. Being aware of and sensitive to the kinds of challenges patients may be facing – in addition to or related to medical problems – will be invaluable to my ability to serve my patients as an effective physician.

The most influential teacher in my life was Mr. Liyanapathiranage. This fall I will attend Harvard Medical School, and there is no way I would have made it to this point without his influence. From kindergarten through fifth grade, I was homeschooled. I loved it! I finished my lessons fairly quickly, leaving plenty of time to read, explore and run around outside; practice piano and flute; and have playdates with friends. In sixth grade, I entered public school. With most of my classmates having been together since kindergarten, that transition was hard. Beyond trying to make friends, school was quite bewildering to me! The noise was excruciating. If you observe kindergarten classes, kids often cover their ears because they aren't used to the noise of school - and I was experiencing the same thing, only in sixth grade, when I was the only kid so bothered by it! Grades stressed me out - I had only ever had to learn before, not compete with others, or be evaluated with letters. And everything took so much longer! I was dismayed by my lack of sufficient time to read. Between my anxious demeanor, my tendency to cover my ears, and my plain newness, it was a challenge to fit in and to find my place. Lucky for me, Mr. Liyanapathiranage was my teacher, and he made sure I didn't fall through the cracks. Mr. L saw his students; he noticed each and every one of us, and he cared about us. Rather than just teaching us math and reading (we learned those too), he taught us about empathy, kindness, and character. We played ball games that required silence and teamwork. He taught us about words and their meanings; to this day, whenever I hear or read the word empathy, I recall Mr. L's definition: "putting yourself in someone else's shoes." When Mr. L felt we weren't embodying those ideals, he let us know. In treating us as mature adults, and showing us he cared about our actions, he made us care, too. We wanted to be the kind of students Mr. L would be proud of, and so we did our best to become them. Mr. L also challenged us, letting us know he believed in us. When I demonstrated especially advanced math skills, he encouraged me to join a program that brought several students to the junior high next door for pre-algebra. Mr. L also gave us different projects to let all his students shine. We compiled artistic collage-books on topics in history, wrote essays, and read stories. When at the end of the year we performed speeches, I did Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman," complete with costume and dialect (which my dad had meticulously helped me rehearse). I took down the house, winning my peers' vote for best speech in the class. It was a redeeming moment for me - finding my place among my classmates. In seventh grade, Mr. L moved with our class to the middle school, teaching Language Arts. He continued his lessons in character, leadership, and collaboration, alongside our reading and writing lessons. And he continued encouraging his students like me. As I headed into 8th grade and high school, I was confident. I had friends, a place, and an assurance of my intelligence and good character – all made possible by Mr. L. As I contemplate a bright and exciting new journey into medical school this fall, I know that so many people have helped me arrive here. And Mr. L is most certainly one of them.

I think it is important for people to be involved in their communities because doing so contributes to the happiness, well-being, and safety of everyone in the community. In today’s world, despite technological marvels of communication, we are paradoxically more disconnected from one another than ever before. Amidst a global pandemic, this has only become more true. Being involved in communities gives individuals the opportunity to connect – often in-person, because they are geographically near one another. Such connections often blossom into rewarding friendships, and are incredibly important for mental health. When people are involved and invested in their communities, they also tend to look out for one another more. If I know and care about my neighbors, I am more likely to let them know if I see any suspicious activity nearby, to drop off a bag of groceries if I know they have fallen on hard times, or to simply stop by to see how they are doing. If I am involved in the community, others are more likely to reach out and offer me help when I am in need, too. As such, communities in which people are involved tend to be safer and better for everyone. Neighborly hospitality and reduced crime are natural byproducts of communities where people are involved, and these directly contribute to the health, safety, and happiness of everyone in the community. In my life thus far, I have contributed to my community by helping neighbors gain access to food resources. I believe every person has a right to adequate, healthy food, but unfortunately that is not the reality for many people – even in a country as wealthy as the United States. I first became involved at my local food shelf in high school, where I would check clients in and help guide them through the options as a volunteer. Realizing how rewarding I found this work, I pursued similar opportunities during college – even during short-term internships in far-flung locations around the U.S. During a summer in NY, I helped collect leftover food at the conclusion of farmers’ markets, to deliver to local food shelves. During an internship in California, I volunteered at local free produce fairs. When I was forced to return home from my Fulbright in Germany earlier than planned due to COVID-19, I quickly became involved at my local food shelf again. For a short time, I helped to coordinate food deliveries for elderly, immune-suppressed, and home-bound clients. As demand for the food shelf’s services skyrocketed – with increasing unemployment and uncertainty in the midst of COVID-19 and the food deserts created by the protests following the death of George Floyd – I became more involved. Now I volunteer every Wednesday, helping to pack food boxes and coordinate volunteers, and twice a month I conduct intake for the drive-up produce fair. In addition to my food shelf volunteer work, I also contributed to my community through music and the arts. Performing in my first show at age four, I was actively involved in community theatre through high school and even amidst college. Besides contributing as a cast member, I also played in the pit orchestra, painted sets, worked backstage, and sold tickets. As a college student at Luther, I served the community as a pianist at our student-led worship service. In addition to participating in both band and choir throughout the school year at Luther, I also joined a community band during the summers. Amidst the pandemic, I joined a community choir, contributing my voice and my skills as a flute player to our weekly virtual meetings and regular recordings. More directly related to my future aspirations, I have also contributed to my community as a hospital volunteer, guiding patients and families and delivering prescriptions. This fall, I will matriculate at Harvard Medical School where I will acquire the skills and knowledge I need to become an effective and compassionate physician. As I look to my future, I hope to continue being involved in my community through food shelf volunteering and musical activities, but I also hope to contribute through my medical career. As a physician, I will strive to support and care for patients in my community in an open-minded, thoughtful, and culturally sensitive manner, and to make all patients – of all colors, from other countries, on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, or in challenging socioeconomic circumstances – comfortable in my presence. I also hope to help my larger community and the world through research, expanding our understanding of diseases and treatment options for patients. Through my career, I also hope to serve as an educator, teaching and mentoring the next generation of medical professionals. As a mentor and teacher, I hope to broaden my students’ understanding of healthcare disparities, culturally sensitive medicine, and challenges their patients may be facing, in an effort to shape compassionate, collaborative, and competent future physicians. In this way, I hope to make an impact not only on my own immediate community, but many communities, by influencing my students to become involved and invested community leaders, themselves.

When I started an 18,000-piece puzzle in 2014, I never imagined finishing it amidst quarantine in 2020. I started college in 2015, but kept working on the puzzle during breaks. When we sold the cabin that held my puzzle space, I stored it for a year, carefully rolled up in a giant homemade puzzle-mat – and then enthusiastically retrieved it when we moved into a house with more space! When COVID-19 hit, and I unexpectedly returned home early from my Fulbright in Germany, I dove into the puzzle project as I quarantined, finally completing my 18,000-piece puzzle in September 2020.

I hope to write about slowing down and noticing, reflection and connection. In a world that beats to a furiously accelerating pace, I will write about the slower, more reflective, and more personal side of life. As I write and share my own reflections, I hope to encourage my readers to pause a moment to reflect for themselves. What have they noticed today? What are they grateful for? What do they imagine for the future? I love food, trying new recipes, making croissants. But rather than add to the overwhelming void of food blogs, add to the to-do lists of recipes to try, I hope to provide readers with something refreshing. I want to write about books - not just reviews and summaries, but how one book I read connected with another, how this book made me think and feel differently about this modern problem in society. In a world that remains uncertain about how to label differences, I will write about my observations, and ask questions. Why do Germans prioritize community and connection more than Americans, as I observed in Bonn? Or as I wondered, driving across the country to an internship in California - how can a single country hold such a diversity of lived experiences as my growing-up years in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, the lives of those in Nevada mining towns with just one highway exit connecting them to the rest of the world, and who knows how many other experiences I can barely imagine? As I write, reflect, and ask questions, I hope to influence others to do the same while connecting with them. Of course, influencing readers - and getting them to make comments - is the goal of every blogger on the internet! I hope to connect with my readers in a different way though, coming into a true dialogue rather than just drawing comments or likes. As connected as technology has made us, I often feel that my generation is the most disconnected yet. Buried in our phones, we do not even realize the conversations and experiences we are missing - the people our parents and ancestors would have met on the buses while we look at our phones; the sites we would have seen had we looked out the window; the insights we would have gained by simply thinking, pondering, rather than taking in information via technology 24/7. Through my writing, I hope to help people think about these things. I hope to influence them to imagine a different, better, more connected world. And I hope they influence me, too, pushing me to imagine and ask questions I never would have considered on my own.

A degree in medicine to me means having the freedom to pursue my passions through my career. Having a job that you love is an incredible gift, and that is what I hope to achieve through my degree in medicine. To me, that degree will mean being able to help others and make a tangible difference to lives in my community, while continuing to learn and challenge myself, throughout not only graduate school but my lifetime. Two years ago, my friend Jan was diagnosed with ALS. From my research experiences in neurodegenerative diseases, I knew something about the symptoms and progression of ALS. Yet this did not in any way prepare me for the devastating experience of watching my vibrant friend – who volunteered in national parks, and with whom I traveled to Costa Rica – slowly lose the ability to walk, to talk, to breathe. When I went to visit Jan on breaks, I told her about my research and travels, engaging with her still-vivid mind even as she physically withered. I hated to watch Jan’s body betray her, and to see her struggling to communicate through blinks and machines, yet I remained comfortable sitting beside her. While others might have shied away, years of hospital visits with my minister grandfather helped me to feel at ease. Just as my grandfather’s parishioners appreciated his attentions, Jan’s joy at hearing about my experiences made my efforts feel more than worthwhile. Knowing I could play a role in renewing that spirit and contributing to a more engaging life for her, I recognized that medicine was the path I wanted to pursue. My degree in medicine will also give me the opportunity to continue learning and challenging myself. I find learning incredibly energizing – whether it be foreign languages, reading, listening to individuals’ stories, or studying from textbooks. As a first-year in college, I began volunteering in a professor’s lab, and found myself drawn to the research. I was fascinated by the process of considering complex, sometimes seemingly unanswerable questions, trying to find ways to simplify and investigate them, and constantly troubleshooting. As a Fulbright Research Scholar in Germany, I came to love the collaborative aspects of research – the way it draws people together across country boundaries to solve problems. While there, I also learned an enormous amount – about immunostaining, about German grammar, and about how to connect with others across cultural divides. With my MD degree, I look forward to continuing to learn – from my patients, from my colleagues, and through my research – each and every day. After graduating from medical school, I plan to complete residency in a medical specialty I feel passionate about. I then hope to build a career at a university hospital, where I can care for patients, conduct research, and teach and mentor medical students. As a clinician, I hope to build strong relationships with my patients. I will strive to make all patients–of all colors, from other countries, on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, or in challenging socioeconomic circumstances–comfortable in my presence. With empathy and cultural sensitivity, I will aim to see challenges from my patients’ perspectives, and to work with them to customize care to best fit their personal situations and goals. Alongside patient care, I hope to make research as part of my career. As mentioned above, I have participated in research since my first year in college, primarily relating to neurodegenerative disease. As a physician, I hope to conduct clinical research. In particular, I hope to become involved in trials of novel therapies for challenging illnesses, such as neurodegenerative diseases. I also plan to build medical education and mentorship into my career. While I mentioned earlier that I love to learn, I also enjoy supporting others’ learning. Working as a lab assistant at Luther College, I found that I enjoyed working with students, and was skilled at anticipating students’ questions. Presently, I work with a variety of students as a Kaplan MCAT and SAT tutor, continuously refining my methods for promoting students’ confidence and understanding. I look forward to further developing those skills in the coming years, continuing to learn, myself, as I prepare to mentor and teach future medical professionals. Today, I am pursuing graduate study because I want to become a physician. Earning my degree will mean freeing me to pursue my passions. As I build my career as a physician, researcher, and educator, I look forward to finding fulfillment through thoughtful patient care, innovative research, teaching, and a lifetime of learning.

Legacy is about impact; the things I have done that will influence lives after I am gone. Legacy is less about physical things I create or leave behind, and more about influencing people, and people-related systems. A legacy may be something grand like founding a non-profit, but simple friendship or kindness offered freely to strangers is also a great legacy. A legacy is whatever you envision as your impact on the lives and the world around you. When thinking about leaving a legacy, I am drawn to the question: is it possible for someone to live and die without leaving a legacy? I think not; every human who graces this Earth with their presence leaves a legacy behind. Even ailing babies, present for just days, leave their families with loving, emotional memories, and a yearning to do something to help other children and suffering families. However short their time on Earth, they leave a legacy. There are many kinds of legacies. Some leave legacies of money or furniture, family heirlooms or education funds for grandchildren. Others leave legacies of creativity – musical compositions, paintings, or works of literature. Some, like Marie Curie, leave legacies of research discoveries; others, like FDR, leave legacies of leadership. How valuable these various legacies are is really a matter of opinion and judgement. Some seem more valuable simply because of my own tastes and experiences. For instance, as a musician, I see incredible value in the legacy of compositions, such as those of Bach, Mozart, or Clara Schumann. However, I am no composer, and could not leave such a legacy. Recognizing that each person has different talents and gifts, I believe there are many kinds of valuable legacies. Thinking about my own legacy, I hope to leave one based in kindness and connection, and rooted in my career as a physician. As mentioned, to me the core of a legacy is people. How will what I do impact lives long after I am gone? I want to leave a legacy through the lives I interact with and influence. As a physician, I will strive to leave a legacy through my patient care, supporting and caring for patients in an open-minded, thoughtful, and culturally sensitive manner, and aiming to make all patients – of all colors, from other countries, on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and in challenging socioeconomic circumstances – comfortable in my presence. I also hope to make an impact through research. Having participated in research at Luther College, in summer internships, and during my Fulbright grant, I know I enjoy the challenges of research questions and potential solutions. As a physician, I will embrace those challenges, hoping to leave a legacy of advanced understanding of diseases, expanded treatment options, and improved lives for patients and their families. I also believe mentorship leaves a powerful legacy, and I hope to become involved in medical education during my career, leaving a legacy through my students. Knowing how grateful I am for mentors who have supported and guided me, I hope to do the same for future students. As a mentor and teacher, I hope to broaden my students’ understanding of healthcare disparities, culturally-sensitive medicine, and challenges their patients may be facing, leaving a legacy of compassionate, collaborative, and competent future physicians. Outside of my career, I hope to leave a legacy of simple kindness, consideration, and generosity. I have volunteered at the local food shelf for years now, and hope to continue such efforts in the future, making an impact through small, individual kindnesses and interactions. Caring for the environment is also part of the legacy I hope to leave, impacting human lives long after my own life has become history. After living in Germany for a year amidst a culture more attentive to environmentally-conscious choices, I hope to influence friends in the U.S. to give more consideration to the Earth, leading by example in using fewer single-use products, diligently composting and recycling, and bringing my own bags to the supermarket. I also hope to leave a legacy through generosity, donating my time and money to worthy causes. Ultimately, I want to leave behind a legacy for good. I want to leave a legacy that might not leave my name on plaques or pass along money or physical goods, but will cause people to remember my name with a smile, and for people who never knew me to live better because of the things I did.

As 2020 began, I was happily settled as a Fulbright Research Scholar in Bonn, Germany. I collaborated with colleagues from all over the world conducting research as part of the Neural Regeneration group. I observed the German healthcare system firsthand shadowing in the the university hospital. Immersing myself in German culture, I joined a choir, orchestra, and ballroom dance course. Living with six Germans, I engaged in intercultural exchange, sharing evenings cooking, playing games, and making music together. Amidst the joys, there were challenges, too, but I learned an enormous amount – about German culture, communicating across cultural divides, and myself and who I want to become. March arrived and quite suddenly, four months before my planned departure, I returned home from Germany – with less than 36 hours’ notice. I was devastated. While it had not always been easy, I now felt comfortable with my housemates and the German language. As things became more uncertain with COVID-19, I remained committed to staying, even as Fulbright urged students home. Yet when Fulbright suspended all programs, I had little choice. I told my housemates – through tears – that I was leaving. Setting aside my to-do lists and distress, I tried to cherish the last few hours with my German friends. We made cookies, ate croissants, and soaked up sunshine on the roof together. That night I packed up the last seven months of my life, and the next morning, I left. Leaving early was one of the hardest things I ever did. Yet even as I mourned, I felt full of gratitude – for my experiences, the people I met, and the ways I had grown. In the coming weeks, I did my best to focus on that gratitude. After returning home, I struggled at first. Unaccustomed to idleness, I was quarantined, with no plans. I ached constantly for my friends and routines in Bonn. Yet slowly, I began to build a new life for myself at home, while staying in touch with my German friends. Recognizing that many had been impacted financially by the pandemic, I began volunteering at the local food shelf. As demand for food shelf services skyrocketed – with increasing unemployment due to COVID-19 and the food deserts created by the protests following the death of George Floyd – I became more involved. By the end of 2020 I was volunteering regularly, packing food boxes, coordinating volunteers, and conducting intake for the drive-up produce fair. I resumed my job as a tutor for Kaplan, began nannying, and even started working at a local bakery. As I applied to medical school, I found my resolve to pursue a career in medicine reinforced by the challenges of COVID that surrounded me. Having seen how the universal healthcare system of Germany confronted the pandemic, I became determined to advocate for expanded access to affordable health care in the U.S. Joining in the George Floyd protests that swept the nation, I recognized anew the importance of addressing racial inequities in health and healthcare. Thus, while I still plan to spend my career in patient care and research, 2020 has strengthened my resolve to advocate for better, more accessible, and more equitable health care for Americans. Alongside my volunteering, work, and application essays, I enjoyed quieter moments and embraced the slowed-down pace of life. I read 58 books in 2020, cultivated my garden, and completed my 18,000-piece puzzle. I also embraced the unique opportunity created by my early departure from Germany, gap year, and COVID restrictions, to spend time with my family. My sister and I played Broadway-inspired piano duets, my dad and I played cribbage, my mom and I cooked together, and all four of us enjoyed many walks and movie nights together. Looking back on 2020, it feels like a blur. I remember my happiness in Germany, blissfully unaware of what came next. I remember the pain of coming home so abruptly, and the haziness of days spent so much the same – at home, seeing only family – punctuated only by the events I created for myself. But I also remember distinct moments and emotions – the solidarity of standing together with strangers at George Floyd protests, connected in our support of racial equity; the joy of sharing German Christmas traditions like Glühwein and Raclette with family and friends; the comfort in being able to slow down, breathe, and simply reflect on the day. As I look to the future, I am excited to return to more normal routines – seeing friends, singing in choir, dining in at restaurants. At the same time, I aspire to preserve the spirit for activism and eagerness for my medical career that COVID-19 ignited, and to retain some of the gifts the more relaxed, reflective pace of life has given me.

As I envision my future, I hope to make the world a better place by leveraging my interests, skills, and the best information and technology available as I provide effective patient care, advocate for increased equity in medicine, mentor the next generation of medical professionals, and investigate novel therapies through research. As a physician, I hope to utilize evidence-based medicine, collaborating with my patients to navigate medical challenges. There are ever-increasing numbers of medical devices and technologies to support optimal patient care, and I aspire to use them as effectively as possible. Through the use of everything from imaging technologies and electronic medical records to pacemakers and bedside ultrasound, I will ensure my patients receive the best medical care current medical knowledge and technology can provide for them. I also to make a difference by advocating for increased equity in medicine. The time is long overdue for racial, social, and economic inequities in health and healthcare to be addressed, and as a future physician, I hope to play a role in that. Through community health care initiatives, activism and public policy advocacy, and simply building relationships and giving quality care, I hope to contribute to reducing disparities in medicine. I also hope to make an impact by guiding, teaching, and mentoring medical professionals of the future. In particular, I hope to use mentorship to reduce disparities within the medical profession, taking the time to advise and work with students who otherwise might be at a disadvantage in their advancement through medical school and the medical profession. Working as a lab assistant in college, and currently, as a Kaplan tutor, I have found that I enjoy encouraging and working with students, and answering questions. Technology has made mentorship more accessible than ever – via Zoom, email, FaceTime, Slack, and more. As a mentor, I hope to broaden my students’ understanding of healthcare disparities, culturally sensitive medicine, and challenges their patients may be facing, encouraging classroom conversations in an effort to shape compassionate, collaborative, and competent future physicians. Finally, I also influence the world for the better through my research. Despite the many medical and technological advances of the last fifty or so years, for many diseases, medicine still has little to offer in the way of hope or treatment. Yet technology, like artificial intelligence, sequencing and genomic techniques, and ever-more-powerful microscopes, holds incredible promise for increasing our research capabilities and revealing new insights. Since my first year of college, I have participated in research – primarily relating to neurodegenerative disease. I enjoy the challenge of considering research questions and potential solutions, and putting them in the context of research literature, and look forward to continuing to develop this skill throughout medical school and beyond. As a clinician, I hope to continue pursuing my research interests, perhaps relating to trials of new drugs or treatments. Ultimately, I hope to investigate novel therapies for challenging diseases, expanding the treatments and hope available for future patients and their families. As I care for patients with bedside ultrasound, connect with fellow policy activists via Slack, connect with mentees over Zoom, and utilize Nanopore sequencing in research, I hope to contribute to making the world a better place. Technology has incredibly magnified the ability for each individual to make a difference, and I hope to always remember that as I continue striving toward a brighter and better future, following my passion for medicine through it all.

At the present time, I am giving back to my community through my volunteer work at the local food shelf and as a volunteer in COVID-19 vaccine clinics. After returning home in March 2019 - four months earlier than planned - from my Fulbright research post in Bonn, Germany, I began volunteering at the food shelf – where I had previously volunteered in high school. At first, I helped with the new coordination of home food deliveries for elderly, immune-suppressed, and home-bound clients. As demand for the food shelf’s services skyrocketed – with increasing unemployment and uncertainty in the midst of COVID-19 and the food deserts created by the protests following the death of George Floyd, I became more involved. Now I volunteer every Wednesday, helping to pack food boxes and coordinate volunteers, and twice a month I conduct intake for the drive-up produce fair. More recently, I have begun volunteering at a local COVID vaccine clinic, explaining how to fill out forms, directing people, and in some cases even walking alongside more elderly folks to help them through the process. I think these actions have impacted the lives of others in a variety of ways. At the food shelf, I think I've been able to demonstrate compassion to my neighbors, showing them that I care and I value them, even if they're having a hard time right now. As I conduct intake, I sometimes share a joke or a few words of Spanish with a client, or we'll laugh at the antics of a child together, and I think those moments help to bring us together and lift our spirits - theirs, but mine, too. At the COVID vaccine clinic, I've similarly been able to demonstrate care and compassion for my elderly neighbors. Some of them are mostly on their own, trying to figure out how to navigate a challenging online vaccine-scheduling system after months in isolation, and often, I think my smile or a bit of kindness is enough to lift their spirits. For a few - such as the woman who forgot her cheaters, and with whom I read and went through the entire consent form - I impacted their lives in more concrete ways. But overall, I think the primary impact I have had is through showing compassion, and creating connection and community, intangibles that affect me as much as they do those I'm serving. As an aspiring physician, I hope to continue to serve my community, but in increasingly expanding ways. I will strive to care for my patients to the best of my abilities, doing whatever I can to increase health care options in underserved areas and to advocate for my patients to gain access to the health care resources they need. I also hope to serve as a medical educator - educating the public, so they can make more informed healthcare decisions, and also educating future medical professionals. In particular, I hope through my mentoring to expand the diversity of those in the medical profession, and to encourage my students to consider different perspectives and advocate for diverse groups, in hopes that, someday, health care disparities that are prevalent today will be less so. I also hope to serve through research. There are many challenging medical problems for which we have little in the way of treatment to offer. I hope to pursue novel solutions through research, doing my best to ensure that future generations will have more options for effective and equitable health care.