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Ashtin Sanchez

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Bio

Hi there! I am currently a senior in high school in New Jersey. I hope to one day become a plastic surgeon and give back to my community. I am of Puerto Rican and black descent and grew up in Queens, NY until junior high. Life in Queens wasn’t always easy, my mother and father worked hard and sometimes struggled but were the best parents I could ever imagine. They try their hardest to give my sisters and I the most opportunities available and I hope that one day I can pay it forward back to them. My biggest inspiration is my mother, a strong woman with christian values who was first from her family to graduate college. She pushes me everyday to be the best I can be and I hope to make her and my family proud one day. Since I was little, my mother pushed me to read. Being an educator herself, she knew how important it was to have a good foundation in reading and writing. “Being a good reader, makes you a good writer,” she would say. She catapulted me into success and I owe it all to her. I have been a dancer since I was 4 and competing since I was 9. This instilled into me competitiveness and confidence. Without confidence, there’s no way you can go onto a stage, perform, and win. For as long as I can remember, I have been determined to reach my goal and “win.” My dream is to be accepted into a BS/MD program in New Jersey, preferably at Rutgers. However, attending that program at Drew University, Montclair University, NJIT, Brown University, Steven’s Institute of Technology, NYU, or Stony Brook would be a dream.

Education

Morris Knolls High School

High School
2019 - 2023

Miscellaneous

  • Desired degree level:

    Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)

  • Majors of interest:

    • Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other
    • Law
    • Medicine
  • Planning to go to medical school
  • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Medical Practice

    • Dream career goals:

    • Shadower & Presenter

      Sun River Health
      2022 – 2022
    • Shadow

      Morris Medical Associates
      2022 – Present2 years

    Sports

    Dancing

    2008 – Present16 years

    Research

    • Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other

      Morris Medical Associates — Shadow
      2022 – Present

    Arts

    • Morris Vocational Academy of The Arts

      Dance
      Winter Showcase 2020 , Winter Showcase 2021 , June Performance 2021 , Winter Showcase 2022 , May Dance 2022
      2019 – Present

    Public services

    • Volunteering

      Sun River Health — Presenter
      2022 – 2022
    • Volunteering

      Sun River Health — Presenter
      2022 – 2022
    • Public Service (Politics)

      Puerto Rican Day Celebration — Dancer
      2021 – 2022

    Future Interests

    Politics

    Entrepreneurship

    She Rose in STEAM Scholarship
    Black women have a higher reported percentage of death during childbirth than white women, and black men and women are more affected by sickle cell anemia than their white counterparts. Although some issues are caused due to genetic predisposition, more often than not, people of color have a higher mortality rate due to socioeconomic disparities. As a woman of color from the inner city, I hope to help close the health gap between black and white individuals by practicing in lower-income communities. Also, as a carrier of sickle cell anemia and a person who suffers from Protein C deficiency, I can relate to people of color who feel like their health is being dealt with inadequately. When receiving my protein c deficiency diagnosis, my doctor followed up with his plan of action—or lack thereof. There was no action to help me with my diagnosis because he wouldn't medicate but instead gave me a list of things I couldn't do. Before I was born, my father suffered a life-threatening blood clot in his brain due to his Protein C deficiency. When he was admitted to the ER for his pain, the nurse treated him terribly and insinuated that he was only coming to the ER for pain meds for an addiction he didn't have. Because of his environment, he was treated like dirt by a nurse because so many others had come in begging for pain medications to ease their addiction. If more nurses could relate to the people in their community and receive better training, nurses like this wouldn't be present in hospitals, offering better treatment to those who need it. Although I also don't condone this nurse's behavior, I can't say that her assumption came from nothing. In the inner city, you see all types of things every day, and I learned this in my volunteer work at hospitals. As a healthcare worker, it is imperative to treat others with respect because you never really know what's happening in their life. Unfortunately, that nurse didn't heed this lesson which impacted my dad's ability to receive proper treatment and delayed his recovery. As a future doctor, I want to be proactive and offer the best options for those less fortunate than myself; I want to treat everyone with kindness and respect and do my best to see that everyone that enters my practice feels cared about. As a future doctor, I hope to help close the health gap due to classism, financial disparities, and the unkind stereotypes thrown onto people like me.