My favorite tools to learn about personal finance include: TikTok account @herfirst100k, NerdWallet and my Fidelity Investments manager. TikTok is a powerful resource for knowledge share and there are many accounts that use the platform to spread niche knowledge on all sorts of topics. My personal favorite is the account @herfirst100K; an account where a millennial woman reveals money making or money saving tips and tricks that cater to millennials and Gen Z users who need financial assistance. She also promotes female empowerment and occasionally gives tips specific to women to take control of their financial life. NerdWallet is widely known but I love using it to compare bank accounts, retirement accounts, credit card values and mortgage rates. NerdWallet also has educational articles for "first timers" across all levels of finance. My most personal resource is my investments manager at Fidelity who is able to give me the 1:1 interaction I need to understand financial concepts and make the decisions necessary to propel my financial stability.

My 3 favorite places to shop online are: Better World Books, Depop and Etsy. Better World Books is a unique online bookseller of used and new books. They offer a vast variety of book genres and they have killer prices while maintaining top notch quality, even on used purchases. It also feels good to make a purchase here because the company has a strong purpose and mission statement and reflects this in their partner programs which donates a book for every book you purchase. In a similar fashion, I value shopping from Depop and Etsy as well because I am able to support small businesses and individuals and make a real impact with my dollar. I love fashion and Depop provides diversity in fashion by promoting shops that have typical used/resale clothing but also clothing that has been upcycled and reworked to turn it into an entirely unique and one of a kind purchase. This same novelty factor that draws me to Depop also drives my interest in Etsy. Etsy shops allow me to support small business owners while also searching for unique gifts or personal purchases that I would not usually find on a commercial online seller.

Education has been a critical part of my entire life. My mom is a teacher of 20+ years and my dad is a lifelong learner who instilled learning as a character trait in my brother and I since we were children. As I’ve grown up, I’ve taken more and more appreciation for the education I am given and strive to challenge myself in new ways. In highschool I took all the possible AP classes and exams and earned college credit for all of them. As an undergraduate student I pushed myself to complete 2 engineering degrees in only 3.5 years. The more I learn and uncover, the more I realize how little I know about the world, and the more determined I am to understand it all. My hunger for knowledge constantly leads me to new experiences, keeping me actively engaged in society by participating in many activities. I obtain my education not just through traditional schooling, but also through extracurricular activities and organization. Each activity I participate in acts as a door, and every day, I am able to open these doors and experience life through different perspectives, learn more, as well as be an active member of society. I strive to experience everything the world lays before me, and to understand it all. Every activity I participate in provides me with new experiences. For example, being a member of the Verona Rescue Squad allowed me to combine all of my best qualities; solving problems, working under pressure, and helping others, in real world situations. I have been in high stress situations, which have given me the experience of being able to effectively and quickly work under pressure. I have learned basic and advanced medical procedures and used them on calls to try to revive, aid, or stabilize patients. Being on the Rescue Squad also taught me about self reflection, and allowed me to develop that skill and realize that I did not want to pursue a career as a healthcare professional. I have also been musically curious since the age of seven when I first picked up my clarinet and now as a high school senior I have expanded my skills to the bass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, piano, and guitar as well. Music has taught me that winning and losing are simply words, and that the true essence of winning lays within the soul, the one part of music that makes it all matter. If you work with passion and intensity in any aspect of life, you can't help but be proud of what you have accomplished, whether it is a win or a loss. I owe much of my knowledge to firsthand experience throughout my life, and hope not to plateau, but to expand upon it in my future.

The failure I am most thankful for is the failure I have experienced trying to find my career footinging in the healthcare industry. When I was young I would bargain with my parents to buy me the popular Hasbro game “Operation”, in an attempt to assuage my desire to become a doctor. In high school, I decided to become intentional about my interest in medicine to decide if it was the path for me. I started to shadow doctors at the local hospital and became a volunteer member of the local emergency medical response team, the Verona Rescue Squad but quickly found I am too squeamish and anxious to work as a healthcare professional. I began my undergraduate degree studying mechanical engineering and engineering science, but my passion for healthcare never wavered. I wanted to take my STEM knowledge to the world of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostic care. My first industry experience at Johnson & Johnson granted me an amazing opportunity to learn the intricacies of the pharmaceutical, medical devices, and consumer goods sector of the healthcare system. My role as a quality assurance analyst allowed me to gain insight into the manufacturing process, where I identified potential areas of optimization and efficiency in the drug creation process. It was also here that I noticed the ethical issues that came with working in pharmaceuticals; legal implications, increased drug prices and competitiveness with cheaper generic brands. I quickly realized pharmaceuticals was not the career space for me and I moved on to try another space in healthcare. My next experience was at Siemens Healthcare as an engineering operations analyst. The laboratory diagnostics industry has made strides in being able to drive preventative care but has archaic methods of working that I was not able to fix alone. Working as an operations engineer provided insight into the siloed nature of diagnostic laboratories; everything from the machines, data, and even the people were all separated within the system. I saw first hand the detrimental effects of this siloed industry when system failures resulted in highly disruptive and costly consequences that were nearly unfixable. Soon after witnessing enough of these catastrophic failures that I could not fix, I decided laboratory diagnostics was again, not for me. Today, I find myself working as a process engineer at a direct-to-consumer health insurance company, driving innovation and “refactoring healthcare” from the inside out by automating claims processes and granting patients transparency to their doctors and pharmaceuticals. The opportunity to explore the healthcare system has shed a light on the industry, allowing me to explore all the options and learn what part of the healthcare system needs to be improved. Understanding healthcare intricacies affords us the opportunity to break down walls of separation through the use of technology to bridge inefficiencies. The healthcare industry hides the myriads of untapped resources that could be the solution to the problems we see today and I am so thankful that my past failures have driven me to my current success.

One of the most impactful and technical projects I have worked on as an Engineer was a 2 year long, intensive biomedical research project focusing on the effect of fluid forces on specific motor proteins. In this work, kinesin and microtubules were examined in order to understand their characteristics and to develop a screening method for further experimentation. Understanding kinesin characteristics could lead to more efficient ways of testing and ultimately help understand the role motor proteins play in the human body and diseases they are linked to. Microtubules and kinesin motor proteins play major roles in cell viability, intracellular transport, and signaling. Without these components, vesicles and other cell organelles would rely on diffusion to move within the cell. These components are also significant in cell division(mitosis), which is essential for growth of tissues and organs, and are required for neuronal growth and survival. There are many types of kinesin, each with different characteristics, serving a different purpose or specific to a certain part of the body. For instance, kinesin-1 (the kinesin used in this study) is specific to transporting vesicles throughout the axon to assist in synaptic transmission. Kinesin-2 is known for intraflagellar transport and is what creates and maintains the flagella and cilia.In order to perform this research, samples of dmKin1 kinesin and microtubules were prepared and passed through a gliding assay. When the microtubules are set in place, a solution is run over the top of them at various speeds and their reactions are recoded. The recoded data at different speeds show various microtubule movements or detachments and can demonstrate the effect of mechanical forces on these biologics. Three videos were selected at a high speed (20,000 nL/sec), speed (16,000 nL/sec) and a slower speed (8,000 nL/sec). These videos are further analyzed for any potential trends or patterns. The purpose of this research is to observe motor cooperativity and force sensitivity. From this, a screening method was identified to distinguish characteristics of kinesin and determine if more in depth testing must be done with another characterization tool such as optical trapping. This research is most specifically focused on full length kinesin 1. Kinesin and dynein are two families of motor proteins, but the difference between them is the type of cargo they carry and the direction of movement (kinesin moves cargo toward the periphery of the cell while dynein carries it to the center of the cell). For a long time, kinesin-1 was the only known motor protein that moved towards the plus end of a microtubule but during the 1990s, many other kinesin proteins were reported. Kinesin 1 is commonly referred to as conventional kinesin, kinesin heavy chain or KHC, and is a motor protein that utilizes chemical energy from ATP hydrolysis to create mechanical force. Kinesin 1 is part of a greater superfamily known as 1bg2A which classifies all the motor proteins . Full length kinesin 1 is the full motor protein that contains two motor heads and two small globular tails while a truncated kinesin is fragmented. The full-length kinesin is used in order to accurately represent how fluid forces would interact in the body. It is important to keep in mind that this research is not focusing on any particular illness, but instead we are looking at the underlying physiological reasons for why these illnesses could be occurring. By understanding how kinesin and microtubules act and are affected by mechanical forces, it is hoped that a baseline could be developed for models of illnesses in vitro. This means that improvements can be made in healthcare, and in-patient safety. For instance, diseases such as frontotemporal dementia, ALS, and deafness have been linked to kinesin motor dysfunctions in a paper by Eckhard and Eva- Maria Mandelkow. If more information could be found about the biophysical properties and how these biological systems react to external sources, new steps could be taken towards preventing, treating, and curing these illnesses. Economically, if this research could lead to more efficient and cheaper medication or even cures, it would be much more economical for the patient than to pay for constant treatment and inefficient care. It could also lead to personalized medicine which would have a higher efficiency and reduce the money spent on multiple medications at once. Better understanding of the characteristics of kinesin and microtubules could also lead to better understanding of how organelles are moved within plant cells, which could ultimately lead to increased crop yields, more environmentally responsible agriculture, and plant-based pharmaceutical production.

Community service has always been a huge part of my life. I have participated in so much community service that I have reached over 350 hours and have received the President’s Bronze award for volunteering. While EMS was a large amount of these hours, I have participated in other community service projects, such as volunteering at the Green Hill Retirement Home, Peer Leadership, 30 hour famine, tutoring, and HOBY Junior Staff. Community service has provided me with much more than I have given it, since it has taught me life lessons that I can carry with me forever. By participating in community service, I am able to give back to the community that has provided me with so much. I am able to help others, and find happiness in the fact that they found happiness. It has taught me that the smallest tasks to you, are large favors to others. For instance, the 30 Hour Famine allowed me to see life in the perspective of the starving children in countries such as Ethiopia. It put me in a position where I could understand what these children were going through, and it pushed me to make a change. I felt the same thing when helping those at the food bank. As I walked around with trays of food, providing it to those who may be facing such hard times that we may never understand. To see them still thanking us, smiling, and enjoying the food after all they may have been through, really touched me. Community service was no longer just about the task at hand, but to see the people at the opposite end of the service, and help them live life, no matter what they are facing. I feel that its purpose is to develop a sense of empathy in those who don't have it, to help people build character while helping others survive. This is similar to what occurs when I volunteer as EMS, since helping others when they are in pain requires understanding and compassion for what the other party is feeling. It may not only be a physical pain that is bothering the other party, but an emotional or mental pain as well. Involvement in EMS services has not simply vastly expanded my knowledge of medicine since becoming an EMR, and allowing me to give back to the town, but it has also taught me how to treat others at their lowest point. For instance, when EMS services first arrive at a scene, the patient may not only be hurt, but in a state that they do not want anyone to see them in. This must be accounted for when trying to make the patient as comfortable as possible, since they are not only in pain, but may be insecure as well. Community service in the EMS has also taught me about myself, and has allowed me to combine all of my best qualities to one goal, but has also taught me to work under time constraints. Learning about medicine has also helped me find what I want to be in the future, as I have come to realize that I love medicine, and want to pursue it in the future. In the time I have been in rescue squad, I have decided to continue on the track of healthcare by studying systems engineering with a health systems concentration. It has cemented not only who I am right now, but who I would like to be in the future. Community service has inspired me, and taught me that the purpose of helping others is not just to get a reward at the end, but to make the world we live in, a better place through understanding, and seeing through another’s perspective. I feel that if more people participated in these services, there would be less conflict and more understanding in the world. I hope to use this grant to perform research on how to improve the healthcare industry in America.