If I was selected, I would use the scholarship funds to help support my undergrad education. As someone with a (hopefully) future career in the medical field, the cost of education over the next eight or more years will be significant. This piece of information has been weighing heavily on my mind and affected many of my decisions, including where I plan to attend college next fall. Although these expenses pose a problem, I am determined not to let it stand in the way of my passion for medicine and commitment to helping others. Receiving this scholarship would allow me to alleviate some of the financial pressure of medical school and allow me to focus more deeply on my academic and extracurricular pursuits. In high school, I've already created a psychiatric AI model and participated in several shadowing internships, along with many other extracurriculars. I plan to continue engaging in meaningful work that prepares me for medical school. With the support of this scholarship, I could dedicate more time and energy to these important projects and less to financial stress. Ultimately, this opportunity would bring me one step closer to becoming a doctor. I would be truly grateful for KC MedBridge’s support in helping me turn my goals into reality and contribute to the future of healthcare.

In the future, I hope to go into the medical field to bring more awareness to gender bias in medicine and help solve the issue in some way. While at first glance, gender bias and medicine don’t seem to need each other, in reality, the world couldn’t function without their combination. Otherwise, the result is cold hard facts without the context of our world-leading to inequality in health. This combination is not talked about enough even though it’s crucial for our understanding of health. I didn’t even know of it until 9th grade when I heard a professor talk about how the unequal testing of Zolpidem quickly advanced it into becoming a date-rape drug. This sparked my interest in the intersection between humanities and science. I’ve researched this nexus by talking to professors from universities all over to learn from their expertise. I’ve spoken at the CGWS Conference on the effects of social media and gender bias and I've shadowed multiple different doctors in the span of my high school year. Noticeably, I've shadowed an OB-GYN to understand this intersection of gender bias and medicine first-hand. Along with this, I've done plenty of research opportunities such as working at a toxicology lab at UMKC under Dr. Udayan Apte in order to better understand the pharmaceutical industry and the current testing that is being done for drugs. I've also tried to help my community out through installing period products in the bathroom at school and creating an AI chat bot to help initiate mental health treatment and advise the users. While I've seen all of these amazing experiences, obviously I've had my fair share of setbacks such as almost fainting during a surgery, accidentally putting some liver cells on liquid nitrogen instead of ice, and having my original idea for a club focusing on gender bias in medicine be denied. However, all these failures allowed my to explore my passion and truly cement my areas of interest: biology and health equity. While I’m only starting out my research on this intersection, I hope to continue to learn about it throughout college and spread the knowledge of unequal treatment in my career. My goal is to bring awareness of how medicine is tested and the current problems in the status quo. The main way that big corporations are getting away with unfair testing is a dearth of knowledge in the community, so I think the spread of information by educating others would play a pivotal role in helping the advancement of equity in pharmaceutical testing. Along with spreading the word, I hope to contribute through research. In my career, I hope to partake in various research projects and get hands-on drug testing experience myself to create a higher bar for equality in medicine. I've been inspired by countless professors I've talked to over the years such as Professor Jeffery Rakofsky at Emory and Professor Sarah Ohashi at Yale. I've gotten the privilege to learn from them and read their work over the past few years and I find myself yearning to make an amazing impact like them. Their passion for making the world a more equitable place is seen through their research, such as Professor Ohashi's work in immunobiology speaks to me. I strive to continue to learn from those around me and take their knowledge to create a bigger picture of gender equity in medicine. The medical field gives me the power to change the world and create a safer place for everyone, and this niche passion of mine is the driving force in my life journey.

In the future, I hope to go into the medical field to bring more awareness to gender bias in medicine and help solve the issue in some way. While at first glance, gender bias and medicine don’t seem to need each other, in reality, the world couldn’t function without their combination. Otherwise, the result is cold hard facts without the context of our world-leading to inequality in health. This combination is not talked about enough even though it’s crucial for our understanding of health. I didn’t even know of it until 9th grade when I heard a professor talk about how the unequal testing of Zolpidem quickly advanced it into becoming a date-rape drug. This sparked my interest in the intersection between humanities and science. I’ve researched this nexus by talking to professors from universities all over to learn from their expertise. I’ve spoken at the CGWS Conference on the effects of social media and gender bias and I've shadowed multiple different doctors in the span of my high school year. Noticeably, I've shadowed an OB-GYN to understand this intersection of gender bias and medicine first-hand. Along with this, I've done plenty of research opportunities such as working at a toxicology lab at UMKC under Dr. Udayan Apte in order to better understand the pharmaceutical industry and the current testing that is being done for drugs. I've also tried to help my community out through installing period products in the bathroom at school and creating an AI chat bot to help initiate mental health treatment and advise the users. All these experiences allowed my to explore my passion and truly cement my areas of interest: biology and health equity. While I’m only starting out my research on this intersection, I hope to continue to learn about it throughout college and spread the knowledge of unequal treatment in my career. My goal is to bring awareness of how medicine is tested and the current problems in the status quo. The main way that big corporations are getting away with unfair testing is a dearth of knowledge in the community, so I think the spread of information by educating others would play a pivotal role in helping the advancement of equity in pharmaceutical testing. Along with spreading the word, I hope to contribute through research. In my career, I hope to partake in various research projects and get hands-on drug testing experience myself to create a higher bar for equality in medicine. I've been inspired by countless professors I've talked to over the years such as Professor Jeffery Rakofsky at Emory and Professor Sarah Ohashi at Yale. I've gotten the privilege to learn from them and read their work over the past few years and I find myself yearning to make an amazing impact like them. Their passion for making the world a more equitable place is seen through their research, such as Professor Ohashi's work in immunobiology speaks to me. I strive to continue to learn from those around me and take their knowledge to create a bigger picture of gender equity in medicine. The medical field gives me the power to change the world and create a safer place for everyone, and this niche passion of mine is the driving force in my life journey.

In the future, I hope to go into the medical field to bring more awareness to gender bias in medicine and help solve the issue in some way. While at first glance, gender bias and medicine don’t seem to need each other, in reality, the world couldn’t function without their combination. Otherwise, the result is cold hard facts without the context of our world-leading to inequality in health. This combination is not talked about enough even though it’s crucial for our understanding of health. I didn’t even know of it until 9th grade when I heard a professor talk about how the unequal testing of Zolpidem quickly advanced it into becoming a date-rape drug. This sparked my interest in the intersection between humanities and science. I’ve researched this nexus by talking to professors from universities all over to learn from their expertise. I’ve also spoken at the CGWS Conference and shadowed an OB-GYN to understand this intersection first-hand. While I’m only starting out my research on this intersection, I hope to continue to learn about it throughout college and spread the knowledge of unequal treatment in my career. My goal is to bring awareness of how medicine is tested and the current problems in the status quo. The main way that big corporations are getting away with unfair testing is a dearth of knowledge in the community, so I think the spread of information by educating others would play a pivotal role in helping the advancement of equity in pharmaceutical testing. Along with spreading the word, I hope to contribute through research. In my career, I hope to partake in various research projects and get hands-on drug testing experience myself to create a higher bar for equality in medicine. I've been inspired by countless professors I've talked to over the years such as Professor Jeffery Rakofsky at Emory and Professor Sarah Ohashi at Yale. I've gotten the privilege to learn from them and read their work over the past few years and I find myself yearning to make an amazing impact like them. Their passion for making the world a more equitable place is seen through their research, such as Professor Ohashi's work in immunobiology speaks to me. I strive to continue to learn from those around me and take their knowledge to create a bigger picture of gender equity in medicine. The medical field gives me the power to change the world and create a safer place for everyone, and this niche passion of mine is the driving force in my life journey.

My interest lies in the intersection between humanities and science. In 9th grade, I heard a professor talk about how the unequal testing of Zolpidem quickly advanced it into becoming a date-rape drug. This sparked my interest in health equity for minority communities. I’ve never looked back since. I’ve researched this nexus by talking to professors from universities all over to learn from their expertise. I found how biased our pharmaceutical industry is and was determined to fix this. Through becoming a doctor and researcher, I would like to help decrease inequality in our medical system. In high school, my passion for the issue has pushed me in my extracurriculars, classes, and volunteer opportunities. I’ve spoken at the CGWS Conference on the effects of social media and gender bias and I've shadowed multiple different doctors in the span of my high school year. Noticeably, I've shadowed an OB-GYN to understand this intersection of gender bias and medicine first-hand. Along with this, I've done plenty of research opportunities such as working at a toxicology lab at UMKC under Dr. Udayan Apte in order to better understand the pharmaceutical industry and the current testing that is being done for drugs. I've also tried to help my community out through installing period products in the bathroom at school and creating an AI chat bot to help initate mental health treatment and advise the users. All these experiences allowed my to explore my passion and truly cement my areas of interest: biology and health equity. My passion for healthy equity and my steadfast attitude toward solving the problem make me believe this scholarship is perfect for me. I plan to continue many years of higher education in order to gain knowledge and grow my creativity to understand more about health equity and medicine. These multiple years of education would put a great toll on me financially but obtaining this scholarship would aid me a tremendous amount and allow me to pursue equality for all. The scholarship allows me to reach my dreams and help others while allowing me to be secure in my own life. If I receive this scholarship, I will continue to work tirelessly to reduce gender bias in medicine and make this world a safer place. The knowledge gained through getting this scholarship would allow me to conduct innovative research to minimize current bias in the pharmaceutical industry and create a better and safer world for all.

“Just make it through Suhani you can do this” I keep chanting in my head over and over again. It surrounds me, I feel as if I’m suffocating. “I can’t back down though, it’s too embarrassing to be seen running away. And if I run away what future is left for me?” I question myself as I desperately try to hold on, leaning against the table slightly in order to stay standing. I didn’t make it. 10 minutes into the surgery I stumbled back from the operating table into a random chair. That’s not the problem though. The problem was the pure hot shame that I was experiencing and I saw my mentor, the person who trusted me enough to vouch for me scrubbing into this surgery, glance at me who almost fainted before returning back to the hysterectomy. I was escorted out of the operating room. Only one thing played inside my mind: “Could I even be a doctor?” I sat in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity. I remember searching up on phone “can you be a doctor if you can’t stand the bovie smell (smell of burning flesh)?” While I found that lots of people got used to the smell over time that only partially eased my fears. At this point, I didn’t even know for sure if I wanted to be a doctor or not but I didn’t like the idea that I couldn’t be a doctor. I wasn’t used to a drastic idea of not being able to do something but this seemed like something that I couldn’t overcome. At the moment, it seemed so definitive. I could not become a doctor. I’m physically unable to. My nose, my senses wouldn’t allow it. However, I was determined to prove my body wrong. If there’s one thing I hate, its someone else telling me that I can’t do something, regardless of if that someone else is my own body. So, I need to get through it. So, for the next three weeks, I continue to sit in as many surgeries as I can in order to get used to the bovie smell. It started the next day, with me asking my mentor if I could scrub into to an Ovarian Cystectomy. This time, I wasn’t allowed to scrub in, instead sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, straining my neck to try and see. While the bovie smell was there, it wasn’t as potent as I last remembered. The next day, I push my chair just a bit closer. Just a couple of feet but I could already feel the increase in nausea. But I could adapt. This continued for the next two weeks, slowly pushing my chair closer until I once again got the privilege to stand next to the body. 30 minutes into the surgery I finally realized: I don’t smell anything. My heart’s giddy with pride as I continue to watch the laparoscopic surgery. This adversity made me realize that I would not allow external factors to stop me from choosing what I thought was best for me. I wouldn’t accept defeat from something even if that thing seemed impossible to overcome. I urge others who are facing internal adversity to do the same. The experience grew me as a person both physically from adapting to the smell but most importantly grew my mindset and forced me to take my future in my own hands and decide what I could and couldn’t do for myself.

30 minutes without fail everyday. Throughout high school, I have changed in considerable different ways. My appearance, my personality, my friends, everything has grown in numerous ways. However, one thing that remained constant was my love for the piano. I have been playing piano since I was 4 years old, and my love for it grows stronger everyday. Even though I love it, I found myself not having the time to practice. 9th grade was a stressful year. I was constantly bombarded by new work, assignments, extracurriculars, sports, etc. I honestly did not get the opportunity to play except for my 30 minute lessons every week. While in practice, piano took the back seat, the reality is that my love for it did not. However, I did not get the time to express this love and instead was focused on other things. By the end of sophomore year I realized what had happened and paid the price in one of my recitals. I realized the stress I had put onto myself and how I did not even have the time or energy to enjoy what I loved before. So I changed and made it a constant in my life. 30 minutes without fail everyday began. As the name implies, I started playing piano for 30 minutes everyday regardless of what was happening in my life. It became a relaxing moment everyday. No matter how bad my day was or how much stress was falling onto my head, I could decompress through expressing my feelings in my music. 30 minutes of safety. While I am not the best player or the person who practices the most, I am a pianist who gains joy from playing. And in a world where instruments are often forced on you from a young age, that is a rarer thing than you would think. The joy is the most important part in playing. My piano journey has faltered over the years but I can confidently say it has never stopped. Piano has given me a safe happy place in the difficult world of high school. While I regret not being able to use the full extent of my piano in freshman and sophomore year, I am currently happy with my routine and relationship with music. My love for music and creating it will be a lifelong passion and I can see myself finding hope in it for the decades to come.