I have struggled with eczema for as long as I can remember. As a child, I bounced from one ointment to another, trying to figure out what worked best on my skin. At the time, I didn’t understand my condition or what caused it, but I was interested in learning. As I learned more about the human body, I became interested in how medical professionals are able to diagnose and treat different conditions. This is the root of my interest in medicine. As I grew older, this fascination only grew, and during my junior year, I was finally able to pursue my passion. In the first semester, I took a course called Honors Ethics and Modern Global Affairs. Before the course, I had never given thought to the issue of health disparities because nobody around me seemed to suffer from poor health or lack of access. This changed when I read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It detailed the work of Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti, and suddenly the drastic difference in health quality was at the forefront of my mind. I knew that Haiti was an extremely poor country, but it was shocking to learn details about diseases like tuberculosis were much more deadly. Kidder’s book stuck with me throughout the year, and I realized that I wanted to do something to combat health disparities. When the opportunity arose to participate in a summer program that addressed this issue, I jumped to join it. This past summer, I had the opportunity to participate in a summer research program at Loma Linda University. The program taught me about health disparities in the United States and the ways that inequality exacerbates historic health issues. I also got the chance to conduct breast cancer research under a pharmacologist and learn more about developing treatments for the disease. Participating in this experience solidified my future goals. I would like to get a degree in biochemistry and pursue a career in medical research. I hope to use medicine as a means of helping others, by investigating and developing treatments for various health issues. I think that biochemistry is the best way to combine my love for both chemistry and biology and advance my medical knowledge. This scholarship would help me achieve my goals by alleviating some of the financial burdens of college. As a low-income student, I have always been very aware of how difficult it would be for me to pay tuition and the other costs associated with college. As a result, I have focused on using my education as my strongest asset to help me gain opportunities that will pave the way for me to pursue higher education. With this scholarship, I will be able to stress less about the economics of my education and focus on excelling in my classes and pursuing research opportunities at university. My journey began as a child unable to understand what was happening to me, and I would like it to continue as a college student, one closer to giving back and helping people around me.

I used to want to be famous. When I was younger, I would fantasize about becoming a famous singer and traveling around the world to see millions of fans. I loved fantasizing about fantastic, out-of-this-world things, and that is what made me happy. Now that I’m older, I think my pleasures are more grounded in my real life rather than fantasy. Things that are very personal and particular to who I am now. The first of these pleasures is my keychain collection. In my closet sits a small box, with over a hundred different keychains. Whenever I travel somewhere new, I always make sure to pick up a cool keychain. I’ve been collecting them since I was in elementary school, and I am quite proud of my collection. It’s something small, but I always look forward to adding to my collection when I go somewhere new. The second is my Spotify Wrapped. It’s a personalized curation of all the music that you listened to on Spotify throughout the year. It gives you all of your statistics, like your most listened to song, how many minutes you spent listening, and your top artist. I loved it this year because my music changed a lot over 2021, and I could see the progression of my taste in the presentation. I love music and going back to see what songs I loved at a particular time is like a flash to the past. My music taste has always been tied closely to what I’m interested in, so I can remember what I was doing as I listened to a particular album or genre. Many people view their Wrapped once and forget about it, but I love to go back and listen to my older playlists and reminisce.

I would consider myself an avid reader. When I was young, my mom would read to me every night before bed. When I got older, she would take me to the library almost every weekend to borrow books and in school, I would get in trouble for reading when I was supposed to be working. There are quite a lot of books I’ve considered my favorite. The Chronicles of Narnia and the Percy Jackson series are classics I keep on my bookshelf. I was obsessed with Little Women and Anne of Green Gable. But no book has struck me as my current favorite has. The book is Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder. It's about Paul Farmer, an anthropologic doctor who has dedicated his life’s work to medicine in Haiti. It was introduced to me this year, in my ethics class as required reading. I fell in love instantly. Somehow Kidder managed to take tragedy and combine it with Farmer’s story to make something that seemed to come from a superhero comic. Paul Farmer seemed larger than life. For some time, I thought it was fiction. But it isn’t and that’s what makes it more meaningful. Mountains Beyond Mountains is first a story about poor people. It’s a story about how the poor get poorer and sicker, and then poorer again. It’s a story told through medicine in Haiti and through Paul Farmer. Though Farmer is the main character followed throughout the book, its subject matter is larger than him. Reading about the drastic disparities in healthcare and the lengths people must go through to try and solve them opened my eyes. I will never be able to forget this book, even if I read hundreds of more books and choose another favorite.