I have wanted to be a pharmacist for as long as I can remember. It stemmed from primarily wanting to follow in my mom's footsteps, yet I didn't find my passion or motivation for something that would set me apart in the field of pharmacy. I did not discover this until I interned in an emergency room department during my junior year of undergrad. It was an ordinary Tuesday. Many nurses and doctors were running around in the ED, the pharmacist was preparing medications in the compounding room, and ambulance staff was loading beds in the ED. It was a normal afternoon until an older gentleman was admitted for emergency resuscitation. This was the first time I have ever seen this happen, and it was rather scary knowing that a person's life is on the line. About five minutes later, the patient's vitals were normal and we had to figure out what triggered this reaction. The ED pharmacist and I worked our way over to his room to discuss his medication history, in hopes that it may provide some clarity on why he went into an arrhythmia. He told us that he recently had a difficult time paying for his beta-blocker medication due to a change in his insurance. In looking at what beta-blocker he was using, he was taking an extended-release tablet. With these types of medications, we always advise patients not to break the capsule, as the capsule controls the release of the drug into the body. If you break the capsule, you risk toxic dose dumping, which is what we saw with this patient. He had a 30-day supply of beta-blocker medication, and to save money, he broke them in half so that they would become a 60-day supply. He unknowingly risked his life because he could not afford his medication... This day, changed my life. It made me realize my passion for pharmacy, and I hold to it to this day. I realized how corrupt the medical field is. How we have become so blinded by healthcare's original goal: to save and improve our patients' lives. These days, healthcare has become a business. Those patients who are uninsured, are looked over and neglected. If they cannot afford their medication, they are given other medications that are deemed not as efficacious, or they find loopholes that can hurt their health. I have made it a goal of mine, to grow in this field, and support and serve those patients who are not prioritized. I want to improve the lives of my patients and allow them to trust me in guiding medical decisions that will best treat them. I intend to grow as a doctor during my time in pharmacy school and spread this awareness and passion to others. I intend on creating an equal playing field, for all patients, regardless of socioeconomic status, to be provided with the best care possible from my end.

I am currently a first-year pharmacy student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One of the most important aspects that I looked for when applying to pharmacy school included the school's outreach programs to surrounding communities. Chapel Hill is a very affluent area. Outside of Chapel Hill, however, we are surrounded by underserved and underrepresented communities in need of medical staffing. This fact alone, motivated me to choose UNC as the pharmacy school where I would spend the next four years of my life in. This envisionment is not solely because of the ranking of the program alone, but rather the outreach opportunities that I would be able to work in throughout my time in pharmacy school. I am a member of a statewide, community service-based club called CAPS. Through my first semester in CAPS, I have been able to provide vaccinations to patients in varying locations, as well as work in community-based centers surrounding the area. Even more exciting, for my first rotation this upcoming summer, I am heading to the east coast of North Carolina and completing a rotation in an impoverished community, Beulaville. Through my rotation in the community pharmacy there, I hope to form strong relationships with my patients and be able to give them the clinical care that they often lack. Though I know some patient interactions will open my eyes regarding prominent health discrepancies such as race, religion, and socioeconomic status, I will learn how to interact with those patients to build trust. My goal is to improve these patients' lives and make them feel as if their health is a priority to me. I want to lessen this gap that we see between healthcare providers and patients. The lack of trust and communication is hurting both ends of the spectrum. I want to improve medication adherence to manage chronic disease states that take away so many lives. I want to serve these communities and show them that there are healthcare providers that care about their well-being. I want to promote my passion to other healthcare providers and express how WE, the next generation of doctors, can improve healthcare as a whole. I will advocate the importance of serving our communities. My journey has only begun, and I intend on changing people's lives who otherwise lost hope in our health system. I look forward to expressing my opinions to others, in hopes of uniting with those similar to myself. It only takes one person to start to make the change.