I believe that being an immigrant has determined every part of my scientific journey. I am currently a doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at Florida Institute of Technology. I am a first generation U.S. immigrant but before that I was a first generation Canadian immigrant. I was born in India and I moved to Canada with my parents when their pursuit of higher education and their careers inspired them to move across the world. My mother studied as a medical doctor and my father as an engineer. Science allowed them to build a life in a new country for them and their children. I am able to dream big because I grew up watching my parents accomplish their dreams. My parents also taught me how to be disciplined and work hard for what you want. So I worked hard through elementary and high school and graduated as school president and valedictorian. Then I earned my B.Sc majoring in Neuroscience. During my undergrad I learned that I wanted to use science to better understand the brain, human behaviour, and I wanted to apply science to help others. I then worked hard to get my M.Sc. in Psychology while working my two research assistant positions. This led to my acceptance into the doctorate program. As an immigrant, I had to leave everyone I knew behind and move to a new country, this time without my parents. This required courage. I had to figure out new bank accounts, renting an apartment, new grocery stores and most importantly new relationships. Additionally, I have type 1 diabetes so I had to figure out how to navigate the American healthcare system. Managing this chronic illness while I balance my life as a student, work and friendships is a challenge. I overcome this barrier by ensuring I have good time management and organization. While Canada and America are not drastically different, I am continuously learning about small differences in culture. Occasionally, I have to correct people’s perceptions of my background and culture. This can be seen as a challenge or as an opportunity to widen others knowledge of my culture. I choose to see it as the latter. Diversity is beautiful and I have also enjoyed learning about my peers and their backgrounds from across America. I am happy to say I have several close friends in my program after a year of being in America. They have made this process of immigration significantly easier and provided me great company during long study sessions. To conclude, being an immigrant has impacted my scientific academic journey in many ways. As of 2021, only 3% of psychologists in America are Asian and even fewer are South Asian. I hope to increase diversity in the field of psychology and decrease the stigma associated with seeking mental health support in the South Asian community. Thus, my experiences as an immigrant will help me help other immigrants.

If my year had a soundtrack from 1989 it would be “Welcome to New York”, except it would have to be changed to “Welcome to Florida”. I moved to Florida all by myself from Canada in August of 2023 for my doctorate degree in clinical psychology. I got to drop my bags off at my first solo apartment floor. 2024 will be my first year whole year living in a different country from my parents. It’s a new soundtrack, but I can definitely dance to this beat. I’m loving the Florida weather, the wildlife and the people in my program. We all come from different walks of life and everybody here was someone else before. I have met people from New York who grew up in the lively city and also people from South Carolina, who grew up on a farm and show me photos of their baby cows. The diversity of life in the United States is fascinating. The lights are definitely bright in a doctorate program. For example in the last two weeks, we’ve had two tests, a 30 page report, two assignments and over 400 pages of reading. The lights don’t blind me. I know what I signed up for and I’m here to work hard. In fact, in my first semester in the program, I finished with a 4.0 GPA. I am excited to heal people who are struggling with their mental health. When talking about mental health problems, I think of another song from 1989. “Clean” appears to be about feeling moving on from the end of a relationship. However, this song that can be used to describe other psychological disorders such as substance use disorder or depression. This song is so powerful when people hear and realize they are stronger than their depression or their substance use. Music can be so healing, especially knowing that someone else has felt similar feelings to you. In clinical psychology, this is referred to as validating and normalizing emotions. I know Taylor has helped many people through dark periods in their life and I hope to do the same. I may even recommend Taylor’s music to clients as a part of their healing journey. Taylor has also supported me since I started listening to her in 2008 and her music has kept me motivated through all the stages of my education. If I win this scholarship, I will see it as Taylor’s music continuing to support me in my goals.