In Fall of 2021, I acquired the position of an undergraduate research assistant within the Sociology department under the supervision of Dr. Donley. Our goal, as a research team, is to raise certain budgets at UCF through researching student homelessness. I conducted surveys pertaining to food insecurity and homelessness on campus using a randomized sample. I am passionate about this topic because I was homeless as a child. I am also an undergraduate researcher. I conducted interviews based on the criteria from my surveys. In addition, I am also conducting a literature review under Dr. Ahangari (M.D.) within the Biomedical Sciences department on the link between neuro-regression and mitochondrial dysfunction. I chose this topic because my younger sister has severe autism and is non-verbal. She constantly has a decrease in her learning behaviors. For example, if she learns to say her name when asked then her therapist moves on to a different goal she will forget how to say her name over time because she is not constantly exercising that phrase. 

My experiences of being homeless and becoming an advocate for the underserved continuously water the seed on my medical journey. I have a burning passion to serve my community and become a physician through these experiences and take pride in my upbringing. Attending a university has now turned my “what ifs” into “what’s next”. After obtaining my bachelor’s degree I plan on taking a gap year to focus on serving others, then applying to medical school in order to aid in the many successes my patients will have, poor or rich.