My name is Stephanie Nehir Temple, and I suffer from Barlow's Syndrome, which makes me prone to seizures. At the age of 17, I experienced a sudden heart event and received emergency care in hospitals in Turkey. Subsequently, I was diagnosed with Barlow’s Syndrome, also known as mitral valve prolapse. Currently, I am collaborating with a team of medical professionals to identify any underlying conditions contributing to my neurological events. My health journey has significantly influenced my aspirations and goals. Since childhood, I have been passionate about both art and life sciences. I have pursued art extensively and recently received a second-place gallery art award for a painting I exhibited. I also established a solo small business, selling my artwork and merchandise at an artist alley event. I am currently majoring in arts and visual technologies at George Mason University, with a minor in biology. I plan to convert my minor to a second undergraduate degree and pursue graduate studies in the field of biological and medical illustration. As a woman with health challenges, I have encountered prejudice and discrimination within the healthcare industry. I am committed to promoting respect and integrity for women with health issues and healthcare workers. Some of my own personal negative experiences include being called “good girl” after answering every question my doctor asked, and having a gynecologist ask me if I was sure I wasn’t sexually active at the age of 15 after answering “no” because he thought I was attractive. This type of discrimination and predatory behavior is prevalent in the field towards women, both patients and professionals alike. I believe that combining accurate information with visual representation can make medical and biological knowledge more accessible and understandable to the public, thus reducing the risk of a doctor delivering disrespect. Detailed visual aids help individuals comprehend their health conditions better and bridge communication gaps, ensuring that everyone has the right to understand their health circumstances. It also helps normalize and widely spread information that may be less “out there” and talked about. The correlation between art and life sciences is profound, and I aspire to contribute to the representation of women in this field and enhance accessibility to knowledge. When one considers biological illustration, one may think of Gregor Mendel or Charles Darwin and the like. I seek to challenge outdated gender norms and cultivate creativity within the STEM field. Women have always been correlated to the arts and humanities. Cooking, knitting, creating. Why not take the biased notions and uproot the associations of creativity to establish the next step in STEM? My academic and career goals align with furthering my expertise through graduate education and becoming a leader in the field of biological and medical illustration. Textbooks, graphs, pamphlets your doctor may hand you. Things you see to know what is going on. To achieve my aspirations, I am seeking support to develop and promote my portfolio. I have begun establishing some biological illustrations in my free time to start the process and am attending a class specifically curated for botanical illustration this fall semester. I express my gratitude for your attention to my story and aspirations and hope to have made a meaningful impression. Thank you.

My relationship with art began when I was born to my mother, who was pursuing her doctorate in art history at the time of my birth. My mother is Turkish, and in our country it is so affordable to achieve higher education. From a very young age I was following her, Dr. Nadire Cigdem Temple, to different archaeological sites and measuring old columns and architecture from the Byzantine period. I would march around with a little tape measure and some crayons and paper, doodling all of the ornate acanthus engravings I would see in the old stone. As I grew older, my fascination with art remained strong. I have always been creating since I was a child. I began oil painting, watercolor, graphite and charcoal work, colored pencils, digital artwork. I've sculpted and crocheted and knit. When I was old enough to put the tape measure down and pick up a crochet needle my grandmother would show me how to make her ornate lace doily designs, a staple of a true Turkish household. I'd knit washcloths with her and she taught me how to make a rag perfect for use in the shower. The more I grew with age and created, the more art became less of an interest and more of a form of expression and sustainability. Turning old into new, rebreathing life into a concept or object to be appreciated again. I knew around the age of 15 that I needed to pursue it as a career goal. This choice has come with many complications, I cannot lie. Many think that following a dream in arts is like chasing a cloud. Art, however, isn't something far that we cannot grasp. I have personally been impacted by arts and the humanities my entire life. We live and breathe the art we consume. Music, film, museums, cooking. Art isn't just something that impacted my life, it is my life. My expression and how I show love and passion in this world. How I spread joy and creativity. I am also pursuing art for a very serious reason. I developed health issues in my mid to late teen years that now seriously impact my health every day. I had a heart attack at 17 and discovered that I have Barlow's Disease (Mitral Valve Prolapse) in a pretty serious way. The prolapse in my heart is so large that my blood doesn't often flow properly and gets sent to my brain with not enough oxygen. I have seizure attacks that have surpassed 15 in one attack as a result. I use art as a method of visual information. My true career goal is to not only be a freelance artist, but a biological illustrator. My major is in Arts and Visual Technology at George Mason University but my minor is in biology. I plan on following biology as a second undergraduate degree as well and hopefully attending graduate school. By visually demonstrating biological and medical information, you gain the ability of making vital knowledge both accessible and comprehendible to people from every walk of life. I believe it is not a right, but a privilege for us to understand ourselves and the planet. Art became much more than a recreational act for me, but an act of sharing knowledge in pursuit of furthering our understanding of life.