What does inspiration mean to you? How would you use your platform in your future career in healthcare to inspire and uplift others?

My inspiration became my voice, giving me a deeper sense of my self-identity and the courage to create the change I wish to see. To me, inspiration ignites a fire within you that pushes you to pursue the projects you truly care about. Being an intern at the All of Us Research Program, a program with the largest healthcare data set in the nation, awoke my desire to make a difference in the field of healthcare. I was inspired by the lack of data surrounding minority groups, realizing just how crucial this data is to their well-being. The moment inspiration set in, I knew I was devoted to bringing a voice– a new sense of inspiration– to underrepresented communities.

While my internship is extremely meaningful, I view it as just the beginning of my journey to create a lasting impact in the field of healthcare. My inspiration taught me to utilize my skills and platform to help others. Recognizing the influential position and extraordinary opportunity presented to me during my internship, I chose to focus my research project on the increased risk of skin cancer faced by significantly underrepresented individuals, such as outdoor workers. In this research project, I proposed to provide UV sensors to outdoor workers to collect data on their amount of exposure to the sun as well as develop ways to combat it. The inspiration led by my internship is what propels the efforts I go through today to make an impact in healthcare for those historically marginalized. My dedication to giving underrepresented communities a voice remains prevalent, as it led to the extension of my summer internship to this day and the transfer from an unpaid to a paid intern.

However, recognizing these issues often requires innovative and creative solutions. I aim to use my platform in my healthcare career as proof for others that no idea is out of the question. After proposing my research project, I would have never thought I would be working on innovative ways to collect healthcare data from outdoor workers and developing an app for sun safety and healthcare. Despite this, it was my internship that served as an inspiration for me to think out of the box. Similarly, I intend to use my future platform as an outlet to encourage others to seek additional creative solutions to issues they may have never recognized existed before. Acknowledging that none of my achievements would have been possible without the inspiration from my internship in healthcare, I hope to provide the same inspiration to others.

Coming from a first-generation Hispanic household, I hope to be the representation and change for my community and those similarly underrepresented, as I acknowledge the impact I will be able to make from my future healthcare career. By inspiring individuals like me to join my goal of creating a more fair and equitable healthcare system, we can work to create a system that serves the needs of every individual, regardless of their background or circumstance.

What intentional actions are you currently taking to inspire people around you?

Healthcare, while fundamentally a science-based field, encompasses so much more, and those who decide to work in healthcare are motivated by the desire to help others. Similarly, I share this passion to help others through the use of technology to address challenges, specifically in healthcare. For instance, I developed the app SunScan which provides personalized sun safety recommendations to help its users prevent skin cancer as I recognized that technology can have a tangible impact on public health.  Nonetheless, this being one of my first endeavors in the field of healthcare, creating this app was a challenge, which motivated me towards working to inspire others to consider innovative approaches to healthcare problems.

Recognizing that motivated students such as myself need a platform to make a difference, as efforts such as these deserve a team to help maximize their efforts, I was inspired to create ProjectConnect, a social forum for motivated students passionate about making a difference in fields such as public health and science to connect, collaborate on projects, and inspire others to do the same. ProjectConnect is not only a place for people to feel a sense of community, but it in turn inspires its users to pursue their own initiatives, create their own lasting impact on the world, and contribute to fields such as healthcare in their own way. For example, our website supports organizations like The Magic of Neuroscience– an organization focused on encouraging children to engage in the field of neuroscience– to HeartSync–a nonprofit aimed at improving health and well-being within our global community. ProjectConnect also hosts webinars including speakers from dozens of other organizations to use their stories to inspire those just starting. At ProjectConnect, inspiration and encouragement are our main goals in our attempt to make healthcare a better field by providing others with a voice.

My nonprofit, Solace for Outdoor Workers, further allows me to inspire others through our educational efforts. Solace inspires people worldwide– from chapters in Saudi Arabia to the US– we allow students who are interested in healthcare to start chapters at their own schools and become more involved in bettering healthcare for all. However, we also aim to inspire outdoor workers and commonly underrepresented individuals, such as Hispanic and black communities, towards advocating for themselves even when they may have not considered it before.

After my research internship, I was astonished by the data on skin cancer rates in Hispanic and Black communities, which is rarely discussed. Through Solace, I hope to not only inspire these communities to advocate for better healthcare for themselves but others who may think their ideas are too niche to pursue them anyway. I recognize that ideas such as these feel niche for a reason– because nobody talks about them as much as they should. I hope that through my efforts I inspire people to take on what they may have thought they never would have been capable of doing, and provide them with the resources to successfully accomplish their goals simultaneously.

If granted the scholarship, describe how you would utilize the award to propel yourself towards your goals and continue serving as a source of inspiration to others.

While I often spend my free time thinking of solutions to problems in my community, as a first-generation student who has been planning on attending college since my youth, I am often also thinking of the future financial burdens that college may bring. However, this scholarship would allow me to shift my focus away from financial worries and toward my goal of improving healthcare for underrepresented communities. By easing my financial constraints, this scholarship would not only further encourage me to pursue my chosen field in college, but also provide me with the opportunity to achieve a greater impact.

Receiving this scholarship would serve as a sense of validation towards all my endeavors which I've poured countless hours of work into. As a Student Visionary of the Year Candidate raising $4,850 for leukemia research, I've seen the impact money can make and learned how to utilize my resources to make a meaningful difference. For example, Solace would be able to distribute more sun protection products like sunscreen and UV-protective clothing to a larger number of outdoor workers, inspiring them to take further initiative with their healthcare. Additionally, further developing ProjectConnect as a better social network for students looking to make a difference in healthcare alike will inspire more individuals to get involved in making the change they wish to see. By continuing to focus on community-driven projects, I aim to inspire others to join me in making a remarkable change for the betterment of healthcare.