The summer before my senior year, I volunteered at a camp run by the organization Cancer Pathways. Camp Sparkle, a summer camp dedicated to serving elementary and middle school students who have experienced the realities of cancer, was a place where I spent pensive days. One of my friends had a father who died of brain cancer, and at age 12, her family was torn apart. My friend entered therapy at a young age and often expressed that she didn’t fear death anymore. As a counselor, I felt more about what it would mean to serve others and how I can learn to actively engage in jovial conversations as a physician. I learned how cancer deeply affects family mentality and relationships, enabling rippled effects for lifetimes. Camp Sparkle taught me what true heroism is in daily life and how to extend my reach to others. After waltzing into this camp with little expectations, I gained ways to better myself through learning, listening, and processing mental health conversations. Attending college and being immersed in health science education would allow me to strengthen the way I interact and become inspired by others. In the past, I was chosen to participate in an internship at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) centered around computational biology. The team, consisting of me, my team member, and our mentor, analyzed data taken from the Arivale dataset and analyzed intersecting genetic markers to further extrapolate patients affected by asthma, eczema, and allergic rhinitis. We examined SNPs and polygenic risk scores to conclude proteomic, clinical, and metabolomic data. We saw how incidence risks changed across genders and used Python to see how patients’ past incidences with various diseases impacted the current data we analyzed. As the final project, our team gave a detailed presentation to a 30-member lab at ISB and wrote a research paper titled “Phenome-wide Association Studies for Food Allergy and Allergic Diseases.” Similarly, I’ve always been passionate about increasing accessibility to disease treatments while breaking racial and economic barriers. According to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in less developed countries. While the World Health Organization recommends mammography screenings every two years for women, this is unfeasible due to ineffective costs and inadequate resources. During high school, my desire to increase accessible breast cancer screenings manifested in a presentation sent to the Washington Tracking Network Contest, where I detailed reasons why around one million women in Washington state do not receive mammograms. Throughout the presentation, my team and I aimed to show how systematically oppressed demographics are less likely to have yearly breast cancer check-ups because of reasons such as lack of information, low family income, and language barriers. The solution we decided to enact was to mail yearly vouchers containing information about where to receive check-ups and to expand the Washington State Department of Health’s “Breast, Cervical, and Colon Health Program.” Although the program, as of right now, provides free cancer screenings, this only applies to “eligible” women. As America becomes more economically polarized, everyone should have the right to high-quality and cost-effective healthcare before having to pay for disease treatments. I will seek opportunities to engage with local government in college to ensure the legislature addresses racial and economic disparities. I want to major in health management and pursue a career as a dermatopathologist who finds cures for diseases while bridging the gap between mental health, empathy, and maternal health. A college education will give me the foundations for continuing my passions for furthering community and global health.