My name is Wendy Tamayo, and I am a rising sophomore at Colorado State University, majoring in Biomedical Sciences. I have chosen to pursue a degree in healthcare because I believe in the power of science and technology to improve people's lives. As a Hispanic woman, I also feel a strong responsibility to help grow the representation of women and Latinas in the healthcare field. Growing up, I often saw my family struggle to communicate with healthcare providers. This was especially hard during times when a relative was in the hospital. I noticed that having someone who understood our language and culture made a big difference. It brought a sense of peace and comfort to my family during those difficult times. This experience inspired me to become that person for other families. I hope to make it easier for them to communicate and feel understood. In my studies at CSU, I have been fascinated by how medical technology can save lives and improve the quality of care. Biomedical engineering combines my love for science and my desire to help people. I am particularly interested in developing medical devices that can make treatments more effective and accessible. I believe that by working in this field, I can make a positive impact on many lives. As a woman in healthcare, I hope to bring empathy and understanding to my work. I know that having another woman who understands what you are going through can make a hospital experience much more pleasant. Women often bring a unique perspective to healthcare, one that values communication and compassion. I want to use these strengths to support patients and their families during their most vulnerable times. Furthermore, I am committed to advocating for more diversity in healthcare. Representation matters, and seeing someone who looks like you in a professional role can be incredibly empowering. By being a visible presence in the healthcare field, I hope to inspire other young women and Latinas to pursue careers in this area. We need more diverse voices in healthcare to address the unique needs of our communities. In conclusion, I am passionate about making a positive impact in the healthcare field by helping to grow the representation of women and Latinas. I want to bring peace to families going through hard times and make it easier for them to communicate. My studies in Medical/Biomedical Engineering at Colorado State University are preparing me to develop medical technologies that can improve patient care. As a woman in healthcare, I will bring empathy, understanding, and a commitment to diversity to my work. Thank you for considering my application for the Women in Healthcare Scholarship.

As a first generation mexican daughter, oldest of five, on a pre med track I should be any parents golden star child. Although for my parents having four other children helping me with my tuition and supporting me through college isn’t their top priority, in my parents eyes I should be working instead of wasting my time on school. As the overachiever and people pleaser in me hears this words the only image that crosses my mind is being able to cross that stage and being able to know that I achieved my goal on my own, filling out as many scholarships as I could, figuring out FAFSA, entering a world where I had no clue if I would ever belong, all by myself. I was able to figure out how to register for classes on my own, how to find my office hours, what office hours even were, and most importantly how to ask for help. I always believed I would have so much support going through this process, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. My own family believes I want to prove I am better than them because I want to achieve higher education, my friends think I forgot about them when in reality I couldn’t manage the workload because I had no idea how to study and instead would be sitting in my room crying over an assignment which I had spent 3 hours on, I had no one to ask for help. My one and only hope is to get through this four years of undergrad. Prove that I wasn’t leaving anybody behind, I wasn’t trying to prove I was better, I simply wanted better for myself to help everybody else around me. Studying isn’t a waste of time to me because time will pass regardless of your situation and I refuse to put myself in a place where I wont succeed knowing I could’ve if I tried a little harder. My biggest motivation are my siblings, as the oldest I see them as though they were my children and all my efforts are for those four kids. Mainly so if they decide to go to college they have someone to help them fill out their application, help with their FAFSA, help them apply for on campus living, remind them to take a nail clipper and scissors when they move in because they always come in handy, remind them of those little things no one ever told me. I want to go through with my education so I could someday be someone they look up to and have someone to help them through the whole process. I simply want to be the big sister I always wish I could’ve had.

I believe it is important for society to change its way of responding to the problems of the disadvantaged because in many cases you aren't able to understand the suffering of another person unless you have been in their shoes. In today's society, everyone is very quick to judge another person for their way of living without any previous knowledge of what might have led that person there or what disadvantages they are facing which are preventing them from bettering themselves. In many cases, most people don't have the same resources or support as others making it very difficult to overcome a difficult situation. An example is homelessness. Many are quick to judge on the fact that a person may be asking for money, asking why they don't just get a job like "any other". In this case people don't realize how hard it might be in their situation to even set up an interview. Without a home address, there is no way to get a debit card, making it almost impossible to receive a check, or even have a decent place to tidy themselves up or find decent clothing for a simple interview. If society were to help uplift the disadvantaged and give them a place to start this would heavily decrease the amount of people who have to fight day to day for a normal life. As a society we should learn to recognize not everyone starts at the same pace or at the same start line making it much harder for some more than others to reach that finish line. Although some may never be able to fully understand the suffering of another person empathy is such an important factor that we as a society should show because we are never certain of another person's situation. Money might not always be the factor that could help us better as a society, but learning to empathize with the disadvantaged and recognize the struggle they face without judgment would cause a drastic change within our society. Many of the people you see on a day-to-day basis may be facing a difficult situation that you may never be fully aware of and if instead of judging and having a clouded mentality we were to help uplift each other, as a society we would be able to help motivate and empower those around us little by little on a day to day basis.

My greatest achievement to date was graduating high school with a 4.0 coming from a household where english wasn't my first language, and my parents weren't even able to finish middle school. Although to some this may not be the greatest accomplishment, seeing the look in my parent's eyes and seeing how proud this milestone made them reminded me of why I wanted to keep pursuing a career. If graduating high school was a great accomplishment for them I cannot wait to give them the satisfaction of having their first-generation daughter graduating from college with a career in medicine. This experience has shown me and reminded me how ambitious and determined I am to reach my goals. Throughout my high school experience, I faced many obstacles where I wanted to give up because it seemed like the easiest choice. Growing up in a Mexican household education isn't the top priority although it is the expectation. I was expected to achieve this goal while also working every day after school, helping with my siblings and around the house. Finding time to study in between isn't an easy chore, although I was able to do it to this day I'm not sure how I accomplished it but I was able to balance multiple responsibilities all at once in my life. Although it was difficult I believe this has made me more resilient and taking the challenge of starting my college journey now seems a bit more manageable. Going into my college journey I will be moving into my dorm this semester, an hour away from home, which although it will help me focus more on my education, it will also be a very drastic change. With this experience, I am looking forward to starting this new chapter in my life and keep having the ambitious and determined mindset I have had until today and finishing my major in biomedical sciences one step at a time. I will conquer this new challenge in my life and figure out how to live away from home and balance every new responsibility emerging in my life. These responsibilities will include emerging in my college experience, balancing my education and working at the same time, as well as balancing new friendships while coming back on the weekends to my family. Although at the end of the day I know I will be able to overcome every obstacle in my way because my greatest motivation is seeing that same look on my parent's faces the day of my college graduation, and my future kids finally being able to respond to the question, "Parents Highest Education" with a masters degree, and not less than middle school unlike me.

A contribution that would overall help make mental health care more affordable would be learning to cope with certain situations better in order to relieve yourself in a way from that stress. An example of a mental health problem that can be treated in different manners would be depression. Activities like exercising, socializing, reading, and even other small hobbies can be very useful destressers for your brain. In today's society we aren't taught how to correctly cope and handle our emotions leading to bigger mental health issues. Although we have become more open to mental health issues there are many concepts of that we yet don't understand, and having healthier ways to cope with them and effectively pushing this on to individuals could immensely reduce the cost to treat them.

Being the oldest of 5 in my Hispanic family has pushed me to take on roles and responsibilities from a young age. This role as the oldest child has also taught me how to be more outgoing because, from a young age, I have had to help my parents translate and help them with such things as paying bills. This further helped me when starting school because I was able to take leadership in my classes, never be scared to participate, and easily join clubs and sports. Being able to take this role has always helped me better myself, to participate in new roles which always benefits me because of the new experiences I gain on the way. Enrolling in college this upcoming semester has been a very difficult decision because of the new challenges I will have to face. I had to apply for scholarships and college in itself on my own which was difficult but if I wanted this chance I would have to take this role into my own hands. After attending orientation this past week, I realized how much my leadership skills have helped me take a step forward. Being the first generation didn't make it any easier because no one in my family was able to help me through this process. Although some may assume that being put in this position from a small age can't heavily impact you and cause you to mature faster, this may be true in some aspects. On the other hand, you are able to become very independent from an early age, and to today I have been able to attain everything I have put my mind towards. In the future I plan to attend Colorado State University for my first four years, then attend medical school in order to become a doctor. Although to my family this many years of study seems as though almost impossible I have a set goal in mind in order to do everything in my power to attain it. I will take leadership in my own education and put forth the dedication and time in order to achieve it. Apart from my scholarships, I will also be working part time to pay for my own education in order to save my parents that money, so they could put it towards my siblings education. Taking leadership in my own goals is very important to me because you are able to understand the dedication and effort it takes to achieve them.