Our health begins with what we eat. The moment a seed is planted in the ground, everything around it will influence its growth, nutritional value, and consequently, its monetary value. This, however, should not be the case; there should not be a price tag on health. My name is Estrella Luna and I am currently a biology major at Bergen Community College. During my time here, I have learned a lot about myself and the world around me, but first, I will share a bit of my background. I was born in the Bronx, New York and grew up there for half of my life. Back then, I did not know exactly what I wanted to do and what I cared for– after all, I was a child. My interests swayed and changed with every passing thought I had; any new hobby I found was quickly overshadowed by a newer one. My biggest focus was on my academics, but even that always changed. At first, in elementary school I wanted to be an English teacher because, well, I was good at my English classes. Then I wanted to be in the army because I thought it was cool, and after that I wanted to do something related to cooking because I made a single meal for my dad one time, and then I went back to English simply because I hated math. Even after that, I thought I wanted to do a math career because I did very well on one of my math tests after a long night of struggling. Needless to say, I had a lot going through my head as a kid. There were three subjects that I absolutely hated: art, health, and science (ironic, I know). This was because my family really tried to get me into art and science and being the stubborn little girl I was, I did not want to do anything that anyone made me do. As for health, I never wanted to work in a health-related field because I figured I was not smart enough nor did I want to be in charge of people's lives. It was not until my middle school years that I began to solidify the things I liked and did not like. Throughout middle school, I began to see my strengths, weaknesses, and true interests. One of these strengths actually became my math skills; I began to excel in math and not have so many break downs over solving a problem. By no means was I a genius in math, but it was good enough to foster an interest in the subject. Despite going to school in the Bronx, I was very fortunate to be given a lot of opportunities throughout my time in middle school and one of these was a trip to the United Nations through one of my social science classes. This included learning a lot about food insecurity, struggles of getting proper nutrition, and other nation wide issues. At the time, I was very interested in these subjects but I did not think it would be something I stuck to in the future just because I was more focused on my other classes. In addition to math, I fell in love with art and drawing and then eventually– science. Whenever someone asks me what made me want to do STEM and fall in love with science, I credit it to my 8th grade living environment teacher. He made me realize that it was not that I was bad at science, I just was not being taught in a way that stuck. Doing hands-on labs, looking under microscopes, and the silly memes he would put throughout his slide shows all made me fall in love with the subject. From that moment forward, science stuck with me and hands-on applications of work was the way I learned best. Once I moved to New Jersey, my interest in science only increased. Though I was awful at chemistry, I loved biology and human sciences and eventually, I wanted to go into pharmacy despite how bad I am at chemistry. I always rationalized it in my head as pharmacy, specifically compound pharmacy, is like baking but with chemicals; the ingredients had to be exact or everything would be thrown off. I loved to bake thanks to having a lot of free time during the pandemic, and I liked science, so this was a good combination of the two. Now that I am in college, I have been exploring more and more about nutrition and plants. During the 3 internships I had at college, I have done more research into hydroponics and plant science as well as large scale issues such as food insecurity. Never would I have thought that what I learned back in middle school would show up again here! After doing a lot of research into food insecurity and its correlation with obesity and other health problems, this has made me understand the very difficult issue of conquering food insecurity and poverty. For context, in the summer of 2024, a team of myself and 6 other students did research under our schools STEM program called STEM Student Scholars (3SP for short) on hydroponically grown basil. Hydroponics is a soilless form of growing plants by submerging the roots in a nutrient rich water. We studied the effects of different hydroponic systems on basil growth and measured for chlorophyll concentration index, nitrogen levels, and other key indicators of the plants health. This summer, we took the winning hydroponic system and made a product that allows for plants to be grown on a larger scale indoors. The way our product worked was that it tackled the issue of unused office and retail spaces that have been vacant for years and using them as a hub to grow food, as well as creating a solution of sourcing locally grown food in areas where fresh food is scarce. We actually won 1st place nationally for the Community College Innovation Challenge, funded by the National Science Foundation while presenting our product in Washington DC. For this project, I was in charge of researching the effects of food insecurity, food desserts, and food swamps (in addition to the biology aspects of the project). Through this research, I realized just how serious this issue is and how close to home it was. I have always been a picky eater until I started trying to change my poor eating habits and in the Bronx, a lot of the foods near me consisted of fatty, processed fast foods with access to fresh food being scarce. Fast food was the most affordable and reliable source of food near me and this phenomenon is exacerbated in low-income, marginalized areas; it is defined as a "food swamp”. This is why areas that are food insecure are also seeing increased rates in obesity and other health problems; when there are less fresh food options readily available, most people would rather eat unhealthy than starve. While there seems to be a correlation between food insecurity, poverty, and obesity, these matters are not often looked at together as an interconnecting web of issues. As someone who grew up with very little access to food, let alone fresh food, this has always been something that I just figured was because of my specific location. I had no idea that food insecurity was like a pattern that wove itself deep into areas just like mine across the country– areas that consisted of people of color, low income families, and mentally susceptible people. It was never that my family did not want to get unhealthy food, it was that it was all we had access to. More and more fast food locations have popped up even after I left the Bronx, while supermarkets and farmers markets get less and less available. Because of this issue, my goals began to shift a bit from what is traditionally thought of for pharmacy. I began to realize that so many health issues are often caused because people do not have access to the proper nutrition and diet that is adequate, and the education of these proper foods are nearly nonexistent. I was truthfully lucky enough to have had a teacher like the one I had in middle school to at least expose me to the systemic rate of food insecurity amongst the poor but I also knew that I had to try to do something to stop this while also helping those who have already been affected. Like I said previously, because of the newfound research I have done on the issue of food insecurity, povertery, and its subsequent health problems, I began to shift my focus from a traditional pharmacy to wanting to have a focus in natural pharmacy. While I am currently a biology major, I have been taking a lot of classes on human anatomy and microbiology and they had a lot of focus on how proper nutrition helps reverse treatable health problems rather than masking them. By no means does this mean I am against traditional pharmacy with medications and prescriptions, but it is a firm belief that focusing on nutrition and getting the proper diet in conjunction with typical medications is a must. With education on how to prevent these health issues such as obesity, type II diabetes, and other preventable health ailments, we would not have to have so many Americans rely solely on pharmaceuticals that aim to mask the issues rather than cure them– medications that cost an arm and a leg for the people who need them the most. When I get my doctorate degree in pharmacy, I want to be able to bridge the idea of nutritional health and typical medications rather than having a focus on one or the other. Maybe a patient cannot afford nutritionally adequate food and only wants to rely on prescriptions; maybe another experienced harsh side effects to prescriptions and only wants natural options. Regardless, having an understanding of both and being able to educate is crucial to try to solve the rising rate of health complications. With this comes the second goal of mine which is to open and run a larger scale community garden in impoverished areas such as my home city, the Bronx. This is another reason why I have been so interested in plant science and farming even though it does not directly relate to pharmacy; I have done 3 internships around agriculture and community farms. In addition to the two I mentioned before, I also recently did an internship with Rutgers Newark called “The Bodega Project”. In essence, this project was a business-agriculture internship with the goal to try to connect bodega owners in Newark to local community farms and gardens in Newark. Newark is a very urban city, much like the Bronx, with very little working farms due to the constant production of housing complexes and gentrification of the city. The farms that once stood now became luxury apartments that most Newark “natives” cannot afford– farms that once supplied food to pantries, schools, senior homes, and more. While it was difficult finding many community farms that were large enough to potentially supply a bodega, we did find some, and this proves that if done right, an urban farm is possible even with a lack of space. I have seen first hand how food insecurity runs rampant in the Bronx so giving back to the city I was born in– in some way or another– is important to me. The produce would be sold at a cheap price only to keep operations going (paying for the land, seeds, water, etc) and nothing would go to waste. Food that is not sold would be given to pantries and scraps would be composted. It would also be able to create job opportunities by having a few workers tending to the farm as well as creating educational opportunities for schools to learn about gardening and nutrition. Of course, this is not to be put into motion until at least 5 years into the future once I get my degree because, well, I am just another broke college student right now, but with the money I make from being a pharmacist, I would be able to fund this future dream of mine and give back directly to the community. Education has helped me to realize that a lot of our country’s issues can be solved if people were properly educated. In the case of nutrition and gardening, many people who are in low income areas with little access to fresh food or land do not think it is possible to grow food on their own when in reality, this is not the case. Food can be grown indoors in 5 gallon buckets and fertilized using kitchen scraps like egg shells, banana peels, and other nutrient rich byproducts of food. Even if that takes up too much space, things such as lettuce, microgreens, and kale can be grown in windowsills hydroponically with water. While I could not afford to go to a 4 year university straight out of high school, I am so fortunate to be able to go to community college and learn so much about the world around me. Through education, I feel that it is imperative that I can spread things that I have learned in school with friends and family who do not go to college or may not be in a STEM field like I am. Of course, not everything I say will be well received, especially to peers who have not learned what I have, and especially to people in the field who may be male. I am well aware that women in STEM, while more common, is still not as normalized as it should be, and with this comes many challenges. There have been times where I have been belittled in a setting where there are mostly men, and most recently I faced it during the bodega internship. Since I had a lot of experience doing presentations and writing papers for my other internships, I was the one facilitating it for this internship. There was one guy, however, who refused to take into account anything I said. For the sake of telling, his name will be “Ken”. When I tried to explain to Ken, he would cut me off and talk louder. When I put my foot down and asked him to not talk over me, he got upset and shrugged me off and then asked another male teammate (who was much less discriminatory, shout out to him) for help instead. The other teammate also had never done presentations and literature reviews for papers, so he asked me what to do, right in front of Ken. When I told him, he told Ken, and Ken finally did it once he was told to by another male. This is just one example of the way I was treated by men during this internship, despite me having more experience due to the other internships I had. I am aware that not everyone is like that, but I knew that if I were a male, the respect would have been much higher. These challenges I face and will continue to face as a woman will not deter me from my goals and ambitions; it will simply make me fight harder. Not only will I be proving it to myself, but I would be proving it to everyone else around me that I am just as capable of being in STEM or getting a doctorate degree just as much as anyone else. My definition of “leadership” has changed over the years as I have grown. As a child, the concept of leadership was very… shallow. To be a leader is to be a “boss”. That was it! Of course, this is true in some ways, but it lies much deeper than that. I firmly believe a leader does not have to be in a position of power; a leader is someone people can rely on. Someone who commits to a task and helps people out while still getting their own stuff done. They do not expect a reward or some kind of respect from everyone, they do it because they want to and because they care. They do it for the sake of the team. Perhaps I am a bit biased because I do not currently uphold any leadership positions, but I do feel as though I am a leader. For example, in school I would be the one to take charge of a project and during the internship I had this summer, I was the one that people relied on because I knew the most about what we needed to do. Even in times of uncertainty, a leader will continue to push through and improvise/innovate regardless of what gets thrown at them. One of the most recent memories of this was when my father went on vacation and left me alone in the house (it was my choice, he did not leave me!). We live in a senior apartment complex because my dad is a superintendent of the building so we basically live where he works. While he was away, a tenant accidentally started a small fire in their house which caused all of the fire alarms to go off. We have had the smoke alarms in the building go off before but it was usually a false alarm, so I was under the assumption this one was as well, but decided to check anyways. Immediately as I went into the hall, I smelt smoke. I went floor by floor to check where the fire was coming from and once I got to the third floor, the entire floor was filled with smoke. Multiple people were in the hallway as well trying to see what was going on and subsequently inhaling the smoke; I made sure everyone cleared the building and got away from the source of the smoke. Once the floors were all empty, I heard the fire department pull up outside the apartment complex which happens whenever the alarms go off. To make matters worse, they did not have any keys to access the main parts of the building so I had to search for my fathers work keys and open the doors for them. It was scary enough being the only young person in the building and having to make sure everyone made it out safely, but I also had no working phone because I could not afford to pay my phone bill that month so I could not contact my dad for a while. Eventually I remembered that he left his work phone at the house and I ran back to call him, but it was overall a very scary experience that could have turned out much worse. Leadership is something that you are sometimes thrusted into without any chance to object, and the choice of going with it and embracing that position versus not is what differentiates leaders from nonleaders. The overall reason I applied to this scholarship was of course, to try to win the money, but it was also a test for myself to put my goals into motion. Like many college students, I tend to struggle with procrastination and this caused me to miss the deadline for my school's scholarship application. This is no one's fault but my own, but it discouraged me from applying to any other scholarships because I felt that someone else deserved them since I did not put in the effort to get one this semester. Even if I get rejected, I would not be discouraged this time because I can say that I made sure to put myself out there and take charge of my future. I am graduating from community college in December of this year and my next steps would be a 4 year school to get a bachelor degree. Loans are inevitable for me as I want to get my doctorate degree, but this scholarship would be used to dampen the blow of the financial burden I will have once I move on from community college. Education in this country is not cheap, especially in this day and age, but the benefits of being educated outweigh the price to me. If education can help me be one step closer to being able to help the people around me as well as achieve my goals, then I would choose it a million times over. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to apply to a scholarship like this and regardless of the outcome, it is donors like you that make it possible for millions of students to pursue their dreams.

The community around you impacts the person you are; being involved and connected with your community creates a sense of responsibility as well as purpose. My name is Estrella and before I moved to New Jersey, I was born and lived in the Bronx. The difference in community from the Bronx to where I live now is like night and day but both have shaped me into the person I am now. For example, it was very hard to find a caring community in the Bronx despite how large it was. Many people did not care enough about the community to form an active, on going group and this became evident through the many failed attempts at creative community groups. Once I moved to New Jersey for high school, I knew I wanted to be more involved. It was already hard for me to adjust to the quiet life of where I am now compared to the Bronx, so I felt like an outcast within my own neighborhood. This feeling was only exacerbated due to being one of the only few people of color. This changed once I joined my school's robotics club in high school. I found a community where I can meet people; a place where I can do things with others. In order to give back, both me and my father began volunteering for the club by preparing lunches, doing the annual car washes, and helping around with other parts of the club. Now that I have graduated high school, I have been more active at my community college and also am involved in my school's community garden. Additionally, I plan to volunteer at my county's animal shelter as well. Now, to answer the question of why it is important for me to serve and give back to my community, it is because I know that there will be more people like me who eventually move here; there will be more little girls who may be longing for a community to be a part of. Additionally, giving back by serving in some way is the least I can do to show my gratitude to the people who made this all possible. The personal growth I have achieved through being involved is something that I will continue to value no matter where I end up academically or personally. All of the programs and clubs I have been a part of were through other members supporting the community through funds or volunteer work and without the collective efforts of everyone, no one would be able to reap the benefits. In order to keep the cycle going, the collective efforts of all community members– no matter how small– is crucial to keep the opportunities available for the people who come after me.

Our health begins with what we eat; this is evident in both scientific literature and personal experience. My name is Estrella Luna, and my career goal is to become a pharmacist with a focus on natural solutions first. I have wanted to do pharmacy since high school as I loved a career working hands on and in health. Being born in the Bronx, I grew up with limited knowledge about health in general. I have always been a picky eater and a lot of the foods near me consisted of fatty, processed fast foods with access to fresh food being scarce. Of course, being a child, I was not aware of the impact that this had on my health. Once I moved to New Jersey, the difference in quality of food was drastic. From having a fast food option on every block to seeing farmers markets and fresh food being grown locally was eye opening but me still being young, I figured it was simply a coincidence. It wasn’t until my experiences at my community college was where I realized this is not a coincidence, but a pattern. In low-income and marginalized areas, access to fresh food is significantly lower than high income, affluent areas. So many children and adults are not getting the necessary vitamins and minerals they need because of a poor diet which leads to health problems like obesity, cancers, and other major issues. This moment of realization made me shift my career goals a bit from just overall pharmacy to a focus in nutrition and pharmacy. The constant use of medications can lead to side effects and ultimately just masks the underlying problem rather than solve it. There needs to be a focus on diet and nutrition in addition to just medications if we want to see improvement in the overall health of our country. Simply put, empathy means to be able to wear someone else's shoes. Nobody knows what another person is experiencing but being able to listen and understand is crucial. It is especially important to have empathy in health related fields because you have no idea what your patient has been through to end up at your office/job/practice. In my case of nutrition and pharmacy, I may come across someone who is a firm believer in one or the other. I must know not to judge them because maybe they have had negative experiences in the past with either nutrition or prescription drugs. Maybe they cannot afford nutritionally adequate food and only want to rely on prescriptions; maybe they experienced harsh side effects to prescriptions and only want natural options. Regardless of the reason, educating and understanding both sides will help bridge the gap and misunderstanding between the two. It is important to make it clear that I am not against one or the other, but they should be explored together in order to overcome health ailments. Human health should also be in control by humans. With the growing rate of AI focused jobs and practices, human health can only be properly understood by humans (with help of technologies, of course) and it is important that it remains in control of humans. Something that I have been doing more with my rising interest in nutrition is gardening. Again, our health begins with what we eat, and this includes the way we grow food. Participating in community gardens, reducing the use of synthetic pesticides, and growing fruits and vegetables that we may not have access to is a great way to start taking control of our health. It is even more necessary now than ever to foster this community of health and healing through natural practices as more and more of our lives are seen through AI lenses. While I am still working towards my degrees and education, my experiences have made it clear that this is the field and focus I would like to stick to. Again, our health begins with what we eat and there needs to be more focus on this if we want to prevent these health problems that run rampant in our country.

If you were to have asked fifth grade me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have given you a blank stare and shrugged. While all the other students would be saying things such as doctors, teachers, nurses, and other important jobs, I would have had no idea how to answer. Being a doctor or a nurse was for smart people; being a teacher was for patient people. And on top of that, pursuing any of these careers cost a LOT of money. At that time, I felt I did not have the smarts or the money for any of those things. So yeah, fifth grade me was a bit of a pessimist. Now, however, despite still being low income, I have much more confidence in myself to chase after my potential goal which is majoring in a science and becoming a pharmacist. Pharmacy specifically stood out to me in about ninth to tenth grade because that was when I picked up my love for baking. Compound pharmacy reminded me of baking; putting the right “ingredients” to make a product with its exact measurements and formulaic specifications. It seemed like something so fun to do and so rewarding. Of course, I was scared (and still am) that this job might be way too hard for me or way out of my league. I mean, it is an additional six to eight years of my life after high school and I don’t even know if I would be able to keep up with it all! This is why I picked up a job at Walgreens so I can work my way up to the pharmacy once I turn eighteen. Even though I would not actually be compounding the drugs myself, I can still get a feel of what it is like to be a pharmacist in general. In my personal life, I always try to work on being more confident in myself and my abilities. I always had a hard time with this because growing up, I constantly compared myself to others. I put down my own talents in order to try to work on other skills that I had no interest in just because I wanted to be able to do what other people can do. This part of me is what also pushes my ambition to pursue pharmacy. I know that I am doing this for myself and while it may be stressful, I know that I have the ability to go above and beyond for my passion.

My passion isn’t anything super special or unique, nor does it have anything to do with my future career goals. Despite this, I’ve been doing it for well over 10 years; my passion is art. I’ve come a long way in my art skills; from barely being able to make an attractive looking piece of work to eventually selling some of my art. To me, it’s more than just drawing on a piece of paper or coloring in some lines. The patience and perseverance I have developed through drawing goes beyond that. These two skills are something that I can confidently say I lacked before I started drawing. In fact, I used to hate drawing! When I used to watch my older sister draw, my parents would try to get me into it too but I always found it so tedious to have to learn drawing basics. So… I didn’t! Of course, this led me to have extremely slow progress but it allowed me to develop a fondness for art rather than seeing it as a “chore”. I can so clearly remember sitting on my bed with awful shrimp-like posture drawing for hours because I just loved it so much. Tediously tracing and darkening over every other line I drew to make the linework pop, or sharpening my pencil to the point where it was just a little stub only to be able to add fine details. Through something some would consider so mundane, I began to see the importance of perseverance. Having the skill of patience and perseverance now– especially as an upcoming senior– is crucial. These skills I developed through art even help me in my career choosing path. If I weren’t so persistent, I would not be working the hours I do at my Walgreens job as a cashier just so I can be promoted to working in the pharmacy. My future goal is to become a compound pharmacist which is why I want to start working in a pharmacy as early as possible to make sure it is the right choice for me. Being a retail worker in this day and age is NOT easy, let me tell you. I have to have patience to be able to handle different kinds of people, which is not easy, but it is much more manageable thanks to learning it from so young. Art has impacted my life in more than just those skills, though. As someone who grew up in a bit of a… “unique” household, art allowed me to express myself even when I lacked the words to do so. Needless to say, this had one of the biggest impacts on me. I never found it easy to express myself when I felt depressed or when I had too many emotions going on at once, so by drawing it, it felt like I was able to relieve some of that emotional weight instead of keeping it bottled up. I even began drawing characters to represent my negative emotions and seeing how much I’ve changed and developed those characters really reflects the way I grew with my emotions. Though my passion isn’t one to be considered unique, it’s still something that I can wholeheartedly say impacted my life and still does to this day, and not just by getting me a few extra bucks from selling it. I think everyone's passion impacts their lives in one way or another, but for me, art has been rooted deep for years and I do not plan on ever giving it up, despite where I end up in my career path.