In the summer of 2021, I wanted to attend one summer program. I had two requirements: I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus and the program to be about the medical field. I found and attended a pharmacy program at the University of Findlay. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I especially enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy. I then continued doing research into the pharmacy field and the UF’s pharmacy program. The program lasts six years instead of the traditional 4 years of undergraduate and 4 years of graduate studying. I decided to apply to UF’s 0+6 program, and I got accepted. My current plan after I graduate is to become either a nuclear pharmacist or an infectious disease pharmacist, two pharmacy specialties that require extensive training after graduation. Receiving this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. Throughout my high school and college career, I’ve tried to improve both my community at home and at school through service work. In high school, I volunteered at Girl Scout Sugarbush Day Camp in 2019, 2021, and 2022. At my church, I helped clean the church building, helped lead two retreats, and served coffee at the Senior Breakfast. In high school, I was a member of my school’s National Honor Society chapter, and I helped out with the service projects my chapter did. I volunteered at school fundraisers, made exam preparation bags for the freshman, and helped distribute a pencil to each student in the school. Nicholas Day. In college, I continued doing service work. I volunteered at a children’s Halloween event hosted by some on-campus clubs. I also helped clean up after a program where college students made cards for St. Jude patients and ate pizza. I helped interview incoming freshmen at a scholarship competition hosted by my school. Over the past few years, I have endured many failures, but the failure I learned the most from was my Gold Award project proposal. Towards the beginning of a Gold Award project, a Girl Scout must submit a project proposal to be reviewed. A project proposal explains the issue the Girl Scout seeks to solve, its root cause, and lays out a plan to address the root cause. I submitted my proposal and waited. I eventually discovered that my project proposal had been denied. I was devastated to learn this. I wanted to give up right then and there. However, I did not. I knew that if I kept persevering, I would eventually succeed. I met with the committee that reviews the project proposals and listened to their feedback, then made the recommended edits to my project proposal. After a few rounds of this, I submitted my project proposal a second time. This time, it was approved. I was rewarded for my perseverance and later earned my Gold Award One of my greatest strengths is my persistence. Through my persistence, I was able to earn my Gold Award. It is through my persistence that I succeed academically. There are many times when I am tempted to skimp on studying for difficult classes, but I still keep going. I know it will be my persistence that will help me get pharmacy residencies after graduation and help me reach my goals.

My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. I am currently in my second year of this program. According to my latest financial reports from my college, my estimated college costs for this year are $55,320 for the 2024-25 school year. I have $27,500 in grants and scholarships this year. Of those, I have an annual $21,000 scholarship that I should get for the next three years. My calculations assume tuition will remain constant for the next 5 years. I know it will not, but this is a rough estimate for the purpose of forming a budget. I need a total of $276,600 to earn my PharmD degree in the next five years. It is $249,100 when you subtract my financial aid for this year. I will also get $21,000 for my junior year and my senior year, meaning I still need to find $207,100. I have about $70,000 in my college fund, leaving $137,100 unaccounted for. My parents will also pay $10,000 each year for the next 5 years, for a total of $50,000. This means I will need to earn $87,100 through scholarships, financial aid, and working a part-time job to avoid taking out student loans. My goal is to graduate with my PharmD in 2029 and specialize in nuclear pharmacy. This will require extensive training, which could take a long time. It involves getting 4000 hours of practice in a nuclear pharmacy and taking classes relating to safety. If a typical work week is 40 hours, that would mean 100 weeks, or roughly equivalent to two years of experience. In order to do this, I will obviously need scholarships, but I will also need immaterial things, such as experience in the pharmacy field, experience with activities outside the pharmacy field to develop soft skills, networking skills, and the support and guidance of my family, friends and mentors. I believe that if I follow my plans, I can achieve my goals.

I had an unusual upbringing, due to my father working at a science museum. Because of this, I basically grew up there. It is called COSI, which stands for the Center Of Science and Industry. It has its exhibit titled “Life” that is about human biology. My parents often took me there when we visited COSI because I had been fascinated with human biology from a very young age. “Life” has a display about prenatal development where they have the preserved bodies of children who did not make it and were given to the museum so that people could learn how humans grow before birth. After seeing this, it was abundantly clear to me that from conception, human beings have dignity. My parents also raised me with pro-life values throughout my childhood, but being able to see what humans actually look like before birth turned my parents’ instruction into values applicable to my life. In my senior year of high school, I was required to create a presentation about a social justice issue. I researched euthanasia and pro-life alternatives to it. What stuck with me the most from that project was how the candidates for euthanasia were seldom screened for depression or had any type of mental health evaluation at all. When I got to college, I joined the Pro-Life club on my college campus. The Pro-Life club was founded during my freshman year of college, and I’ve been in it for my freshman and sophomore years of college. I enjoyed the meetings last semester because we learned about abortion legislation at various levels of government, how pregnancy works, and resources for potential parents both on campus and in the community. We also did service work and toured the nearby Women’s Resource Center. I participated in fundraisers to raise money for the Pro-Life club as well. One of the most important activities that we did was praying at an abortion clinic. It was early in the morning, and a small group of us went to pray before classes started. The most important thing that the Pro-Life club did was protest outside of a pro-choice meeting on campus last fall. We held signs and said prayers. I learned how to protest peacefully, such as not blocking doorways and hallways. The people attending the meeting called the campus police, who talked to us about their pet dogs. Participating in the protest was surprisingly rewarding. Some of the meeting attendees came out to speak with us. They didn’t return to the meeting. They left changed. It was one of the most illuminating experiences I have had with the pro-life club because I had the opportunity to learn about how our opponents operate and why abortion has become such a major issue. From my experiences in childhood, my parents’ directive and my experiences taught me that everyone, from conception until natural death, are human beings and therefore have rights and dignity. I’m going to continue supporting the Pro-Life club at my school and continue advocating for pro-life causes. Our club advisor pointed out that it's not about winning minds, it’s about winning hearts. If the ordinary, everyday person was convinced by logic, abortion wouldn’t still be an issue. We have to convince them through showing love in our actions.

In my sophomore year of high school, I found a summer camp at the University of Findlay about pharmacy. I was excited to attend the camp and learn about a field I had not considered previously. While at camp, I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. Because of this, I chose to attend the University of Findlay’s pharmacy program. Currently, I have two different ideas for what I plan to do after graduation. In my junior year of high school, I read a book about a person with cystic fibrosis who died from an antibiotic resistant bacterial infection. Around that time, I learned about antibiotic resistance and how dangerous infections caused by resistant bacteria can be in immunocompromised individuals. I also researched infectious disease pharmacy for a pharmacy specialty project because of what I read about in the book. Also in my junior year, I read about radioisotopes and how they mimic normal nutrients absorbed by the body. I also learned that people purposefully ingest radioisotopes. Because of how easily detectable they are, they are used in diagnosing many disorders. My grandfather even had a test where he ate the “radioactive eggs” to determine if his digestive system was functioning properly. There is a branch of pharmacy, nuclear pharmacy, that manages these types of medications. Fortunately, both paths require the same starting point. My current plan is to finish my PharmD degree and then pursue a pharmacy residency in a hospital, which are the first steps to achieving my goal. I plan to use the skills I have learned to help others. I am excited to think that I can change lives for the better!

Recently, one specific incident made me realize just how important it is to be conscientious of my mental health. My blood pressure and pulse were taken as part of the screening process before donating blood. I was denied because my blood pressure was too high. This was because I was stressed, and I hadn’t realized it. I had 3 difficult exams the next day along with some stressful roommate issues. I had been experiencing symptoms of anxiety all day, except I hadn’t connected the dots. It was extremely embarrassing, but it highlighted the need for me to be aware of and take care of my mental health. Since May, I’ve been averaging one panic attack per month. This is an average, with some months having multiple panic attacks, while others not having any. The first one this semester occurred because of changes to the class’s schedule. Unfortunately, it happened right before a quiz, and I did not do as well as I wanted to on the test. After this, I decided that I should go to therapy sessions with some consistency in order to avoid these issues in the future. When I went to a therapy session about this, I noticed a pattern. I was only having panic attacks in unfamiliar social situations or because of sudden schedule changes. I noticed that these behaviors are symptoms of autism and brought this up with my therapist. She gave me an autism assessment to take. My results suggested that I likely have autism. I didn’t realize that, but this has affected almost every sector of my life. I didn’t realize that things that I do, such as making detailed plans and sticking to routines are signs of autism. There are a few problems with this that I have yet to combat. The first is schedule changes are extremely difficult to manage. I become stressed out when trying to manage logistical issues in changing circumstances, such as finding transportation to events. To fix this, I will work with my therapist to find strategies that I can use to help avoid feeling stressed and overwhelmed when plans change. I’m very good at solving these logistical problems. The issue is that I become anxious, which prevents me from finding solutions to these issues. I have started going to therapy as part of taking care of my mental health. I also try to stay on top of my physical health because it is connected to my mental health. I do this by making sure I get the right nutrients in my foods and dietary supplements. I also exercise almost every day because it reduces stress. I also try to maintain my schedule because it helps me get all of my homework and other tasks done. I am continuing to learn strategies to mitigate, prevent, and take care of my anxiety. Because of these recent discoveries, I have so much to learn, and many ways to improve. I’m currently in my second year of the University of Findlay’s 0+6 pharmacy program. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years. After graduation, my goal is to specialize either in nuclear pharmacy or infectious disease pharmacy. I hope that through my current efforts, I will continue to better my understanding of how to best care for my mental health while still in school and afterwards. Through these efforts, I can achieve my career goals and use my gifts to help others.

Asthma can be triggered by a number of things, such as dust or humidity. Mine seems to be caused by anxiety, among other things. My anxiety about my life is the most common trigger for my asthma. My anxiety has been making my heart rate increase dramatically and has made social relationships difficult. When it became evident that my physical health was suffering because of my mental health, I decided that I needed to do something about it. It was unsustainable for me to have panic attacks every week due to scheduling changes. Things that made me anxious included receiving homework assignments, scheduling extracurricular activities, and interacting with other people. Since these things are unavoidable, I decided that I needed to do something about my reactions to them. To fix these problems, I started going to therapy sessions on my college campus. After the first few sessions, it became evident to me that I need to put in a lot of work to stop these issues. I needed to identify the things that exacerbated my anxiety. I also needed to work on coping mechanisms. The most difficult part is that I need to remember to use coping mechanisms when I start getting overwhelmed. My therapist instructed me to practice coping mechanisms every day so that when I was in a situation that made me anxious, I would remember to use them. It was difficult to remember to practice every single day, but I made it part of my routine, and now I remember most weekdays. I still need to work on remembering to do them on the weekends. This has improved things a little bit, but I still feel very tired and need to recover after avoiding panic attacks. Receiving this scholarship would allow me to pursue my academic and career goals. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. I am studying to become a pharmacist, so this would make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. One of the options I am considering for after I graduate is infectious disease pharmacy. Infectious disease pharmacists are responsible for making sure that the medications patients are using to treat their infections are working. They also try to minimize side effects, prevent new strains of resistant pathogens from developing, and catch medication interactions involving antimicrobial or antiparasitic medications. One of their most important responsibilities is preventing antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance is when pathogens evolve defenses against medications. This prevents the medications from working, meaning that the pathogens survive. By becoming an infectious disease pharmacist, I will help my community by treating sick community members. Infectious disease pharmacists save lives by treating serious infections. I will also benefit my community by preventing antimicrobial resistance. This could prevent resistant infections in my community and possibly even all over the world. I think that through my work, I could help give back to my community.

My passion is to help people with their health and medications by becoming a pharmacist. Specifically, I want to become a nuclear pharmacist. By doing this, I can help diagnose cancer and other illnesses so people can receive proper treatment for them. This can set them on a journey towards regaining their health, allowing them to become their best selves. To reach these goals, I will need to develop skills in biology and chemistry. I have just completed my first year of the University of Findlay’s 6-year Doctor of Pharmacy program. The first two years of the program are the foundational years. So far, I have worked hard to succeed in biology and chemistry classes. In my first semester, I finished general chemistry, so I started organic chemistry during my second semester. Organic chemistry was the hardest class I took in my second semester. I got an A in the class at the end of the semester. I was able to succeed in these classes because I developed organizational and study skills. I planned when I would study and for how long. I also planned which materials I would cover in my study sessions to make sure it stayed fresh. I also stayed organized by keeping track of when assignments were due and completing them as soon as I could. Being a pharmacist means that you must be able to explain to patients who may be ill or in pain what specific medications do and dangerous potential side effects they should be aware of. This requires learning how to speak with patients about their medications. To develop my skills interacting with patients, I got a job as a pharmacy technician. Learning to be a pharmacy technician has allowed me to gain experience working in a retail pharmacy. I’m learning how prescriptions are received and filled. Most importantly, I’m learning the basics of how to speak with patients when they pick up their medications or drop off prescriptions. I have also gained networking skills during my time in college so far. Networking is important in pharmacy, and I originally struggled with it. However, I began getting involved in pharmacy organizations on campus, which helped me develop my networking skills. I joined Phi Delta Chi, a professional pharmacy fraternity. This has allowed me to practice networking with other pharmacy students. The skills I have learned so far through my experiences at school, work, and extracurriculars will be helpful when I become a pharmacist. I will use these skills to help others with their health so they can focus on being their best selves.

I work in a pharmacy as a pharmacy technician. At my job, I interact with lots of different people. I try to show kindness to all of them. Some of it is customer service and doing my job, but I try to connect with people and show them that I care about them and their healthcare needs. Many times at the pharmacy, patients come in with issues that are out of my control and that I can’t fix. Sometimes, we simply are out of stock of their medication and have ordered more for them, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Other times, they have issues with their insurance that I can’t solve at the pharmacy. These instances can leave people feeling very upset for understandable reasons. I feel bad that I wasn’t able to help them with their medications even though I care. However, I try not to dwell on the issues that I cannot solve, because I am simply one person and I can’t fix everything. To do this, I focus on the things that I can solve. There are some times at the pharmacy when simple acts of kindness can go a long way. One of these is sometimes simply listening to patients talk about their issues. There might not be anything you can do about it, and it might not even be related to their medications, but I have noticed that if you are there for people to talk to, then it can really improve their day. Just by being there to listen, then people feel like they matter. Listening is a simple act of kindness that is easy for me to do. There are other times when I can solve a person’s medication-related issues in the pharmacy. This can include doing things such as getting people the refills they need, replacing medications that they have lost, and finding discounts that can dramatically reduce the cost of a medication. Doing these things are part of my job, but I also try to let people know that I’m not just doing it because it is my job. I am doing these things because I care about them. I can tell that doing these things has a positive influence on these individuals. When I find a discount card that makes a previously expensive medication affordable, I can tell just how relieved people are. I think it is very rewarding to know that I have helped someone with their health because of my actions. I think that there are indirect ways I have shown kindness as well. There are times when I try to do the kind thing even when it doesn’t seem to make a difference. In the pharmacy, one of these times is resolving issues with prescriptions on the computer. I never get to see the people whose prescriptions I fixed, but I still know that I helped them out even if I don’t get to see the results directly. I try to do kind things every day, whether it be doing service work or donating blood. One place where I know that my kindness has made a difference is at my job at the pharmacy. When I get overwhelmed by the things I can’t fix at my work or in my everyday life, I try to remember that the effects of kindness are like the electromagnetic spectrum. You can only see a small part of it as visible light. If you could see all of the frequencies across the entire spectrum, just about anywhere you could go would be as bright as day. The effects of kindness are similar. You can only see a small fraction of the results, but if you could see everything, you would find it everywhere.

Recently, one specific incident made me realize just how important it is to be conscientious of my mental health. My blood pressure and pulse were taken as part of the screening process before donating blood. I was denied because my blood pressure was too high. This was because I was stressed, and I hadn’t realized it. I had 3 difficult exams the next day along with some stressful roommate issues. I had been experiencing symptoms of anxiety all day, except I hadn’t connected the dots. It was extremely embarrassing, but it highlighted the need for me to be aware of and take care of my mental health. Since May, I’ve been averaging one panic attack per month. This is an average, with some months having multiple panic attacks, while others not having any. The first one this semester occurred because of changes to the class’s schedule. Unfortunately, it happened right before a quiz, and I did not do as well as I wanted to on the test. After this, I decided that I should go to therapy sessions with some consistency in order to avoid these issues in the future. When I went to a therapy session about this, I noticed a pattern. I was only having panic attacks in unfamiliar social situations or because of sudden schedule changes. I noticed that these behaviors are symptoms of autism and brought this up with my therapist. She gave me an autism assessment to take. My results suggested that I likely have autism. I didn’t realize that, but this has affected almost every sector of my life. I didn’t realize that things that I do, such as making detailed plans and sticking to routines are signs of autism. However, having routines, making plans, and generally staying organized aren’t bugs. They are features. At the end of most days, I get my homework done and stay on top of tasks outside of school. There are a few problems with this that I have yet to combat. The first is schedule changes are extremely difficult to manage. I become stressed out when trying to manage logistical issues in changing circumstances, such as finding transportation to events. To fix this, I will work with my therapist to find strategies that I can use to help avoid feeling stressed and overwhelmed when plans change. I’m very good at solving these logistical problems. The issue is that I become anxious, which prevents me from finding solutions to these issues. Other issues come when I try interacting with people. I often misinterpret conversations with my friends in the worst possible manner. This has strained my relationships with my friends and family. I have been working on trying to adjust my attitude towards my interactions with my friends so that I do not have these issues as often. I have started going to therapy as part of taking care of my mental health. I also try to stay on top of my physical health because it is connected to my mental health. I do this by making sure I get the right nutrients in my foods and dietary supplements. I also exercise almost every day because it reduces stress. I also try to maintain my schedule because it helps me get all of my homework and other tasks done. I am continuing to learn strategies to mitigate, prevent, and take care of my anxiety. Because of these recent discoveries, I have so much to learn, and many ways to improve.

About four months ago, had I been asked about free expression in medicine, I would have thought it was ridiculous and unnecessary. I had just suffered a panic attack one Friday morning because of a disagreement between two of my doctors. My primary care physician disagreed with how my on-campus doctor was treating my medical conditions, and I was stuck in the middle, unsure of what to do. I thought it would just be easier if all medical care providers followed the same rules about how to treat specific medical conditions. That way, there wouldn’t be disagreements, and I wouldn’t be stuck between two conflicting viewpoints with my health on the line. Despite my initial experiences, I learned that free expression in the medical field is essential. Medical professionals should feel like they can express their ideas and opinions because it can help save patient’s lives. Different medical professionals will have received different levels of education, have different backgrounds, and experienced different things throughout their careers. This can influence how they interact with patients and design treatment plans. A primary care physician is going to have a much different view of a patient’s medical issues than a specialist. Pharmacists can catch issues with medications that other medical care providers can miss. If these medical professionals do not feel like they can freely communicate with other members of a patient’s medical care team, then concerns will go unaddressed, which can lead to negative consequences for the patient. The differing ideas of medical professionals can lead to more discussions about how to care for patients. This will lead to better patient care in the long run. Free expression in the medical field also means medical professionals can discuss new ideas for improving patient care. If they are unable to discuss these new ideas, then no new advancements will be made. This is especially important in facilities where research is actively being conducted. Free expression is one of the reasons why the medical field is advancing so rapidly. Medical care providers are able to express new ideas about caring for patients and use these ideas to improve patient care. If free expression in the medical field goes away, then progress will stagnate, so it is important to maintain it. This can be done by encouraging creativity in medical professionals. While medical care providers are in school and learning, they should be invited to think outside the box to solve problems. After graduation, medical care providers should also still be encouraged to be creative. This could be accomplished through workshops and seminars. Free expression in medicine is important because it allows medical care providers to share their viewpoints about patient treatment plans and it allows them to communicate new ideas they have for improvement. If these ideas are suppressed, then the medical field cannot grow and progress.

In my sophomore year of high school, my guidance counselor encouraged me to enroll in a summer program to learn more about potential career fields. I had two requirements for a summer program. The program had to involve staying in-person on a college campus and being related to the medical field. Since this was happening during the pandemic, many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. Because of this, I chose to attend the University of Findlay’s pharmacy program. In my junior year of high school, I read a book about a person with cystic fibrosis who died from an antibiotic resistant bacterial infection. Around that time, I learned about antibiotic resistance and how dangerous infections caused by resistant bacteria can be in immunocompromised individuals. I also researched infectious disease pharmacy for a pharmacy specialty project because of what I read about in the book. I learned about what infectious disease pharmacists do and decided that I wanted to become one. My current plan is to finish my PharmD degree and then pursue a pharmacy residency in a hospital, which are the first steps to achieving my goal. I plan to use the skills I have learned to help others as an infectious disease pharmacist, particularly people who are vulnerable to these medical issues. I am excited to think that I can change lives for the better!

I try not to dwell on failures. I try to learn my lesson and move on from the failure. Over the past few years, I have endured many failures, such as having applications denied and being rejected. However, the failure I learned the most from was my Gold Award project proposal. The Gold Award is the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout rank in Boy Scouts. Earning the Gold Award involves doing an 80 hour take action project addressing the root cause of an issue in the community. Towards the beginning of a Gold Award project, a Girl Scout must submit a project proposal to be reviewed. This is after the Girl Scout completes some research about the issue they are trying to fix. The project proposal summarizes this research, explains the issue, displays how it relates to the root cause, lays out the Girl Scout’s plan to address the root cause, and explains what the Girl Scout will try to accomplish with the project. My own Gold Award project started out well. I did a lot of research and learned about the root cause of my issue. The coronavirus lockdowns slowed down other aspects of my project, but I thought it was a great time to put a lot of effort into writing my project proposal, which I did. I submitted it, and figured that it would take a while for it to be reviewed because of the coronavirus lockdowns. However, I eventually discovered that my project proposal had been denied. I was devastated to learn this. Getting the project proposal approved was a vital step to earning the Gold Award. With my ongoing research at a standstill because of the lockdown, I could do absolutely nothing to work on my project. Besides, if I could not get my project proposal approved, all of my research and preparation would be for naught, as I would not be allowed to move into the next phase of the project, which was implementing it. I wanted to give up right then and there. However, I did not. I knew that if I kept persevering, I would eventually succeed. I met with the committee that reviews the project proposals and listened to their feedback, then made the recommended edits to my project proposal. I did this a few times until I submitted my proposal a second time. This time, it was approved. I was rewarded for my perseverance. I went on to earn my Gold Award, even though it took me two more whole years. I had to overcome other setbacks and delays, most of which related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Because of the perseverance I learned during the early stages of my project, I was able to overcome other issues I encountered later on during my project. This experience has shown me that I can reach my goals as long as I do not give up. I learned that the only true failure is giving up. Failure is not the end, just an invitation to keep trying. I learned that the key to overcoming failure is being persistent. My experience with failure has taught me how to persist and not give up. I believe that I do not dwell on failures because I see the skills that I developed along the way instead.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began doing research about college majors and future careers, I realized I wanted to enter the medical field despite my reservations. This was because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

Some days, success seems to mean checking off as many boxes as possible. It seems that in order to have a successful day, I need to complete a specific list of tasks, such as homework and chores. If I don’t do this, then I will fail and fall behind. Other days, it is just about making it to the end of the day. Success is simply running out the clock and waiting for the day to be over. These are usually bad days for me, during times when I’m stressed or extremely busy. I have a very limited view of success because I can’t look beyond whatever challenges I’m encountering. Everything is about simply getting through the difficult times, so what about success when things are better? During less stressful times, success can mean something more positive. Success could be solving a problem at my job. I am a pharmacy technician, so for me, success sometimes means helping a patient get their medications at a dramatically reduced cost or resolving an insurance issue. Success can also mean reaching my long-term goals. This includes earning my PharmD and completing my academic program. Success could also mean getting into specific programs after graduation, such as a residency in a hospital. However, I find these definitions of success a little materialistic. I think that success should mean a little more and shouldn’t be tied to these material things. Success to me means using my gifts to help as many people as I can. In my life, I’ve received a lot, such as a loving family, supportive friends, a good high school education, the chance to go to college, and access to modern technology and healthcare. Not everyone is so lucky. I’m also skilled in biology and chemistry. I have been given these gifts, so it makes sense to me to use my gifts to help others. To me, success is not a specific thing I can point to. It’s an ongoing mission throughout my life to make the world a better place. I am currently in the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

I think that God’s plan for my life is sometimes revealed to me in odd ways. One way was through my high school guidance counselor. She gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. I wanted to learn about potential careers in the medical field because God has given me academic gifts in biology and chemistry, and I wanted to use them to help others. God guided me in choosing a summer program in a strange way: the pandemic. Many of the summer programs were either virtual or canceled because of the pandemic, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. My faith has helped me decide on the program and school I wanted to attend. I think God guided me to the University of Findlay’s 0+6 pharmacy program. When I finish my schooling and become a pharmacist, I want to work in a hospital. This could be difficult and stressful for me because being a hospital pharmacist usually requires long, strange hours and is stressful. I think that my faith will assist me in my career by encouraging me to keep going when things are tough and I feel discouraged. I think knowing that God wants me to do these things, that I’m following His plan, and that I’m making a difference will help me in my career.

Currently, my favorite book-to-film adaptation is Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy. I’ve had an interesting experience with the book and its film adaptation, which I think is why I have enjoyed both so much. I am currently reading the book version of Clear and Present Danger after having watched the movie adaptation first. Usually, I am a staunch proponent of reading the book before watching the movie. Pre-pandemic me would consider it downright heretical to watch the movie before reading the book. However, that was before COVID, and I made an exception for Clear and Present Danger. The movie version was on Netflix for a short amount of time, and I was interested, having previously watched The Hunt for the Red October on Netflix and liking it. The Hunt for the Red October and Clear and Present Danger are both novels written by Tom Clany, and they have both been adapted for film. Despite my lax attitude towards watching the movie before reading the book, I still maintain that the book is almost always better than the movie. I am pleased to report that this is the case for Clear and Present Danger, which means I saved the best for last! However, I still believe that the movie adaptation of Clear and Present Danger is a faithful representation of the book. The moviemakers had a difficult task when adapting Clear and Present Danger for film. The book is long, so they had to cut many, many characters, subplots, and details. I enjoyed the book more because it included these details that filled out the world of the story, but the movie version still has an engaging plot that follows that of the book version. For me, a good book or movie has an interesting, consistent plot. In my opinion, the plot makes or breaks the work. It helps if the work is in a genre that I like. Clear and Present Danger is a thriller about the war on drugs in the late 1980s. I enjoy it because it centers around topics from American history, one of my favorite subjects in high school and a field that I enjoy learning more about. I felt like what made me feel like the movie adaptation of Clear and Present Danger is how they stuck to the plot, but also how it helped me visualize the story. Action scenes in books can be cumbersome. They take a long time to describe using words during a time when readers are excited and want to read as fast as they can, skipping details. However, in a movie, the author doesn’t need to take the time to describe action scenes. The audience can see and interpret everything happening much faster than an author can explain it on paper. This makes action scenes much more comprehensible and enjoyable. My current favorite book-to-film adaptation is Clear and Present Danger because the film follows the plot of the novel and helps me visualize some aspects that are easier to capture in film than in writing. This experience has made me reconsider my opinions on reading the book before watching the movie. The movie provides a simplified version of the plot so that when I read the book, I don’t get lost in the details. While this is my current favorite adaptation, I’m sure it will change when I start reading the next book with a movie adaptation because in the end, the best book is the one I’m reading.

I struggle with perfectionism. I need to get perfect scores on my exams and feel disappointed or guilty when I get anything less than 100%. I put pressure on myself to achieve these unrealistic goals, which leads to anxiety. This makes the morning before the test difficult for me. I know that being anxious while taking a test causes lower test scores, which would make the situation worse. Fortunately, I am learning to take steps to avoid being anxious while taking tests, and I have found them to be effective. I also have many negative thoughts about myself and others. Most come and go, but the most persistent are, “Everyone hates you, and you have no friends.” This puts barriers between me and my friends. I tend to isolate myself and not seek help. When I do seek help from my friends, I feel guilty for burdening them with my problems. Because I have many negative thoughts, I can be pessimistic. Also, my strained relationships with my friends and being pessimistic can contribute to my anxiety. This is difficult for me because I value my relationships with my friends because when I am attending school, I am separated from my family and friends at home, so my friends at school are some of the only people I interact with. Isolating myself from them simply makes my problems worse. I had some physical health problems during my second semester of my first year in college, and I had some difficulties arranging my treatment plan, which exacerbated my anxiety. My friend noticed that I had been anxious and acting differently for two weeks and encouraged me to go to a counseling session. The counseling session showed me a way of dealing with my negative thoughts, one of the root causes of my anxiety. I was told that when I have negative thoughts, I can compare the evidence for and against the thoughts to gain a more realistic perspective. I also structure my daily routine to care for my mental health. Because mental and physical health are related, I have found that taking care of my physical health helps maintain my mental health. Because of this, I keep a consistent sleep schedule and exercise several times a week. I also spend time with my friends and doing creative activities, such as writing and drawing with chalk. To deal with anxiety during tests, I have learned deep breathing exercises to help me focus. By taking these steps, I can be less anxious and succeed while I am at school.

The universe is fun! It’s full of fascinating objects and flabbergasting living things. From pulsars to resurrection ferns to the human microbiome, there are amazing things everywhere to be found. We only know about these unique things because we took the time and resources to study them. Understanding the universe is important for many reasons, such as benefits to humanity and technological advancements, benefits to nature itself, and for enjoyment. Studying the universe is helpful for humanity. By trying to better understand the universe, we can learn how to use its laws to benefit humanity. We can develop better technologies and techniques to improve the lives of humans by studying the universe. One example of this is the space program. In our efforts to reach the Moon, we improved or invented many things that benefitted the rest of society, such as improvements to computers and materials used in orthodontics. Humanity’s understanding of the universe allowed us to design groundbreaking technologies, such as vaccines, automobiles, antibiotics, cellular phones, and air conditioning. Our advancements have been made possible by seeking to understand the universe, which is why learning about the universe is important. Studying the universe can also help us protect it. This is especially evident in studying ecology and the environment. We can’t do anything to protect the environment if we don’t know how it works, what harms it, and what benefits it. By studying nature, we can learn about how we affect it. Oftentimes, we can identify how our actions are harming the environment. Using this knowledge, we can attempt to fix any issues we create. An example of this is how scientists studied how CFCs interacted with ozone in the atmosphere and how humanity came together to prevent the ozone layer from being destroyed. Also, learning about the universe is fun. I enjoy learning about science because learning about the universe makes me happy. It is intrinsically exciting to discover new things about the universe. Because of this, I chose to study science in college. Specifically, I chose to study pharmacy. As part of studying pharmacy, I hope to participate in research. Research broadens humanity’s understanding of the universe. Currently, I’m involved in research in an oncology lab at my college. The research I’m involved in is about testing novel compounds on cancer cells. I hope to use the concepts that I’ve learned about in the oncology lab and my schooling, such as metabolic pathways within cells. I hope that throughout my college and professional career, I can continue to better humanity’s understanding of the universe.

Computer chips are amazing. I know this seems strange because they’re so commonplace and mundane that they blend into the background. This is part of what makes them so inspiring! In the 1960s, we flew to the Moon with computers the size of a suitcase, which was cutting edge technology at that time, especially considering that normal computers took up an entire room. Compared to what we have today, these 1960s computers had minute amounts of processing power. I find computer chips inspiring because they’ve improved so much in recent history. First of all, they got tiny. They fit inside everything from watches to children’s toys. Second of all, they got much more powerful. What once took up an entire room can fit on a wristwatch. Also, computer chips are so ubiquitous that it proves how useful they are. Computer chips are so commonplace and have so many real-world applications that it is easy to see how they can make the world a better place. However, during the pandemic, I started appreciating computer chips much more. During the pandemic lockdowns, everything I did was online. I did my schoolwork, watched movies and YouTube, and went shopping online, which necessitated computer chips. This summer, I started working at a pharmacy, and I got to witness just how important the computers there are. The computer systems keep track of patients, their prescriptions, medication interactions, and prescribers better than humans alone ever could using paper. This makes the experience much safer for patients and much more efficient. From these experiences, I’ve seen how something as omnipresent as computer chips can be helpful and inspiring.

In my first year of college, I realized that perfectionism was either going to save or destroy me. I need to get perfect scores on my exams and become disappointed or guilty when I get anything less than 100%. I needed to have perfect attendance because one missed day would leave me hopelessly behind in my classes, which would harm my perfect grades. When I was in high school, I told myself that this was what was necessary to be accepted into college. When I got to college, I told myself that this is what I need to do to succeed. I have been putting pressure on myself to achieve these unrealistic goals, which leads to anxiety. This is especially problematic on the morning before a test because I know that being anxious while taking a test causes lower test scores, which would make the situation worse. I also have many negative thoughts about myself and others. Most come and go, but the most persistent are, “Everyone hates you, and you have no friends.” This puts barriers between me and my friends. I tend to isolate myself and not seek help. When I do seek help from my friends, I feel guilty for burdening them with my problems. Because I have many negative thoughts, I can be pessimistic. Also, my strained relationships with my friends and being pessimistic can contribute to my anxiety. This is difficult for me because I value my relationships with my friends because when I am attending school, I am separated from my family and friends at home, so my friends at school are some of the only people I interact with. Isolating myself from them simply makes my problems worse. These false ideas about my life left me with a lot of anxiety. Because I was anxious about my school, it spilled over into other areas of my life and made it more difficult to deal with issues. It led to nightmares that made it hard to sleep in my final year of high school. I thought that once I got into college, my perfectionist attitude would abate. However, my perfectionism continued into freshman year of college. I continued trying to make everything perfect. This caused me to become anxious. It strained my relationships with my friends. I am in the University of Findlay’s six year doctor of pharmacy program. In the first year of the program, my professor gave my classmates and me a worksheet with basic pharmacy calculations on it. She explained that all of our answers on the worksheet needed to be correct because when pharmacists make mistakes in calculations, it puts patients in peril. From this experience, I realized that I could use my perfectionism. I could use it to make sure my calculations and decisions are correct to help patients after I graduate. Instead of being perfect all the time, I would allow myself to make mistakes in situations outside of my work. I have the rest of my time in college to learn how to control my perfectionist tendencies and put them towards something useful. I will have numerous opportunities to do so, and I intend to succeed.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noticed that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this career path to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began doing research about college majors and future careers, I realized I wanted to enter the medical field despite my reservations. This was because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

Many bad things happen in the world. We can’t avoid them. Our lives aren’t perfect. It is part of living on Earth. Sometimes, it feels like we can’t do anything about that. Service work can change that. You are one person. You can’t fix every problem. However, doing service means you are doing something about a problem in your community. In this way, service work is empowering. It allows you to make a difference for the better in a broken world. This is what inspires me to do service work in my community. I feel like by doing service work, I can improve the lives of my community members. Throughout my high school and college career, I’ve tried to improve both my community at home and at school through service work. I surpassed the 25-hour requirement each of my four years during high school, even when it was waived or reduced due to the pandemic. I volunteered at Girl Scout Sugarbush Day Camp in 2019, 2021, and 2022. I helped out at Lithuanian Days, the oldest continuous ethnic festival in the United States by preparing and serving food. At my church, I helped clean the church building, helped lead two retreats, and served coffee at the Senior Breakfast. In high school, I was a member of my school’s National Honor Society chapter, and I helped out with the service projects my chapter did. I volunteered at school fundraisers, made exam preparation bags for the freshman, and helped distribute a pencil to each student in the school. Nicholas Day. These projects mean a lot to me because they directly improve the lives of people in my community at home. In college, I continued doing service work. I had some challenges, because I lacked a car on campus, which limited which events I could help at. I also had a demanding schedule my first year, being in my school’s pharmacy program. I volunteered at a Halloween event for children that campus organizations were hosting. I helped set up tables. I also helped clean up after a program where college students made cards for St. Jude patients and ate pizza. I helped interview incoming freshmen at a scholarship competition hosted by my school. These experiences meant a lot to me because I was able to overcome these challenges. It meant I could help people in my new college community. Service work is important because it is a way you can directly improve your community. I find it rewarding because even when I can’t directly see the benefits of my work, I still know that they are there. I know that someone’s life has been improved because of something that I did, and that keeps inspiring me to keep helping others day after day.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began doing research about college majors and future careers, I realized I wanted to enter the medical field despite my reservations. This was because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

I struggle with perfectionism. I need to get perfect scores on my exams and become disappointed or guilty when I get anything less than 100%. I put pressure on myself to achieve these unrealistic goals, which leads to anxiety. This makes the morning before the test difficult for me. I know that being anxious while taking a test causes lower test scores, which would make the situation worse. Fortunately, I am learning to take steps to avoid being anxious while taking tests, and I have found them to be effective. I also have many negative thoughts about myself and others. Most come and go, but the most persistent are, “Everyone hates you, and you have no friends.” This puts barriers between me and my friends. I tend to isolate myself and not seek help. When I do seek help from my friends, I feel guilty for burdening them with my problems. Because I have many negative thoughts, I can be pessimistic. Also, my strained relationships with my friends and being pessimistic can contribute to my anxiety. This is difficult for me because I value my relationships with my friends because when I am attending school, I am separated from my family and friends at home, so my friends at school are some of the only people I interact with. Isolating myself from them simply makes my problems worse. I had some physical health problems during my second semester of my first year in college, and I had some difficulties arranging my treatment plan, which exacerbated my anxiety. My friend noticed that I had been anxious and acting differently for two weeks and encouraged me to go to a counseling session. The counseling session showed me a way of dealing with my negative thoughts, one of the root causes of my anxiety. I was told that when I have negative thoughts, I can compare the evidence for and against the thoughts to gain a more realistic perspective. I also structure my daily routine to care for my mental health. Because mental and physical health are related, I have found that taking care of my physical health helps maintain my mental health. Because of this, I keep a consistent sleep schedule and exercise several times a week. I also spend time with my friends and doing creative activities, such as writing and drawing with chalk. To deal with anxiety during tests, I have learned deep breathing exercises to help me focus. By taking these steps, I can be less anxious and succeed while I am at school.

Ever since I was in elementary school, I wanted to go to college. However, I lacked a plan at that point besides going to college and getting a degree. I decided I wanted to go into the medical field when I started high school because I enjoy biology and chemistry. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements. I wanted to stay in person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. After the camp, I was interested in learning more about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went to virtual meetings to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which lasts six years and combines the more traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years. For me, holding myself accountable means doing the things I know are ultimately beneficial but may seem difficult for me. A common example of this is doing homework. I know doing homework is ultimately beneficial for me because it helps me learn the material for class. Despite this, I usually do not enjoy doing homework as much as I enjoy doing other things. One way I hold myself accountable is by developing habits. This is helpful for things like getting physical activity every day and eating healthy foods. I develop the habit of doing these things. Once I develop habits, then it is significantly easier for me to do these activities every day, and I’m less likely to be sidetracked. I also think that the key to being accountable is having self-discipline. When I don’t want to do something important, such as homework, I have found that self-discipline helps me complete it. Being accountable has helped me succeed in college so far. Because I had the self-discipline to develop effective study habits, I passed my first semester of organic chemistry last spring. My decisions regarding taking care of my health have kept my asthma under control and benefitted my mental health. This has helped me focus on my classes. Also, staying on top of my homework helped me learn the material in my classes so I could do well in school. Being accountable has helped me succeed in my first year of college. During this time, I developed habits that help me stay accountable. I learned how to take on difficult, but beneficial, challenges.

I spent the entire evening filling out another health history. Every medical appointment, like my dentist, primary care physician, and podiatrist, needed a health history. Filling out each medical history is like rewriting an essay when having previously lost the original copy. Each copy has the same basic information, but has slight variations. The health history I was filling out in my dorm room that evening was special. I was having surgery in a month, and I wanted to get it right because if I didn’t fill it out correctly, I was putting my health and life in danger. If I could make one change to our current healthcare system, I would increase communication between different members of the medical care team. The Internet and health portal services could make this communication significantly easier, but it simply does not occur in the real world. Increased communication between all medical professionals involved in caring for a patient could help catch medical issues and provide better care to patients. Online health portals, such as MyChart, could be useful in increasing communication between medical professionals. This already occurs when multiple medical professionals use the same online health portal. This is especially common when medical professionals are part of the same health system. However, not all medical professionals use the same online health portal. This results in patients being forced to make multiple profiles on different health portals, memorizing passwords for each profile, and having important health information scattered in numerous places. The solution to this would be finding a way to link the different health portal profiles together. This way, patients can access all of their information in one place. This could also help medical professionals gain a better understanding of a patient’s health. Also, patients would not be forced to fill out medical history after medical history, increasing the chances they will make mistakes. If a patient receives a serious medical diagnosis from one of their medical care providers, then their other medical care providers can see it and adjust the care they are giving to avoid any harmful interactions. A specific example of this would be one medical professional diagnosing a patient’s penicillin allergy. This is an important allergy that all of the patient’s medical care providers need to know about, and the patient may or may not correctly convey this information to them. Sharing this information between medical care providers would be done at the patient’s consent. This would not eliminate all communication issues, but it could increase communication between medical professionals regarding serious health information. Linking health portals together could help increase communication between medical care providers. This could help avoid miscommunications about medical conditions and medications. Patients would still consent to this, and it will help them avoid having numerous online health profiles with their health information squirreled away in multiple places. Communication is important, particularly in health care. Taking these steps would be the obvious next step for improving healthcare.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began doing research about college majors and future careers, I realized I wanted to enter the medical field despite my reservations. This was because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. After graduation, I am currently planning to pursue a hospital residency with the goal of eventually becoming an infectious disease pharmacist. To achieve this goal, I will need to complete a Postgraduate Year 1 pharmacy residency, followed by either a research fellowship or a Postgraduate Year 2 pharmacy residency. By becoming an infectious disease pharmacist, I will help my community by treating sick community members. Infectious disease pharmacists save lives by treating serious infections. I will also benefit my community by preventing antimicrobial resistance. This could prevent resistant infections in my community and possibly even all over the world. Since I was young, I wanted to help my community through my career, and becoming an infectious disease pharmacist will give me the opportunity to do that.

I never realized simply how flat Kansas was until my family drove across it. I hadn’t realized how empty North Dakota is until I went there on vacation one summer. I read about these things before visiting these places, but I hadn’t realized just what these geographic features mean for people living there until I visited myself. Travel means that you don’t just learn about a place; you experience it. When you travel, you can experience other cultures. You can learn about the culture and traditions of a group of people from your home, but you cannot experience it without traveling. You cannot see how these beliefs and traditions are realized by people and families in a specific culture without experiencing them in person. You can also learn about how people in other cultures live their day-to-day lives and how their everyday actions are influenced by their beliefs. This is important because these everyday traditions can point towards deeper beliefs and perspectives, which can help individuals gain a deeper understanding of another culture. Travel allows you to interact with people whose experiences and perspectives are completely different from yours. For example, you can learn about the politics and current events of a place online, but unless you visit there and actually interact with the citizens, then you cannot completely grasp the significance of these issues. From your perspective, it might make complete sense to think a certain thing, but from another perspective, it might be completely illogical. When you encounter other perspectives through travel, you can learn about what they value. This can cause you to contemplate what you value and why. Travel can help you experience these other perspectives. Travel can also expose you to different environments. For example, when I traveled to the beach in Florida, I noticed that almost every day around the same time, there was a thunderstorm in the evening. Sometimes, it only got cloudy and rained a little, and other times, it stormed late into the night. However, I had the opportunity to experience the weather pattern. While one can read about this online, it is different to experience it and see how it affects the lives of people who live there. Experiences are much more valuable than learning from books, which is why travel is so important.

I chose to study pharmacy because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. Since I was in elementary school, I performed well in academics, especially science. In high school, I excelled in biology and chemistry. During high school, I began researching potential careers. One of the ways I did this was attending summer programs, which led me to attending the University of Findlay’s pharmacy summer camp. After the camp, I continued researching the pharmacy field and pharmacy programs at different colleges. I decided that I wanted to attend the 0+6 program at the University of Findlay, so in my senior year, I applied and was accepted. I made the decision to go because I am skilled in subjects related to the pharmacy field and I wanted to help others. My current academic plan is to complete the University of Findlay’s 0+6 program and earn a PharmD. Usually, it takes four years of undergraduate school and four years of graduate school to earn a PharmD, for a total of eight years. The 0+6 program condenses this into six years. After graduation, I am currently planning to pursue a hospital residency with the goal of eventually becoming an infectious disease pharmacist. To achieve this goal, I will need to complete a Postgraduate Year 1 pharmacy residency, followed by either a research fellowship or a Postgraduate Year 2 pharmacy residency. Infectious disease pharmacists are responsible for making sure that the medications patients are using to treat their infections are working. They also try to minimize side effects, prevent new strains of resistant pathogens from developing, and catch medication interactions involving antimicrobial or antiparasitic medications. One of their most important responsibilities is preventing antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance is when pathogens evolve defenses against medications. This prevents the medications from working, meaning that the pathogens survive. This means that infections caused by the resistant pathogens are significantly more difficult to treat. This lengthens hospital stays, makes surgeries more dangerous, and increases health care costs for patients. It puts a burden on healthcare systems because they must care for more patients for longer periods of time. It also causes higher patient mortality rates. Infectious disease pharmacists prevent antimicrobial resistance. They take steps to minimize antimicrobial medication use because using these medications for too long can lead to antimicrobial resistance. They also make sure patients are on their antimicrobial medications until the infection has cleared up, not just until their symptoms improve. Infectious disease pharmacists collaborate with microbiologists to find which pathogens a patient is infected with so they can treat the infection with a medication it is vulnerable to. By becoming an infectious disease pharmacist, I will help my community by treating sick community members. Infectious disease pharmacists save lives by treating serious infections. I will also benefit my community by preventing antimicrobial resistance. This could prevent resistant infections in my community and possibly even all over the world. Since I was young, I wanted to help my community through my career, and becoming an infectious disease pharmacist will give me the opportunity to do that.

The place was familiar, my elementary school’s cafeteria where I had eaten lunch countless times before, but the situation was my worst nightmare. My assistants, the group leaders, and the children in the group were all expecting me to give a presentation. This was not a school project presented in front of a group of people who I attended school with every day; this was a workshop, with activities, programming, and material selected, designed, and put together by me and presented to near-strangers. However, I conquered my greatest fears and won gold. This workshop I was leading was a component of my Gold Award project, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn. The project I selected to earn my Gold Award involved running workshops, which was my greatest fear. I knew that I was going to have to put on workshops when I began my Gold Award project. The idea of leading a workshop was so terrifying to me because it involved speaking in front of people I barely knew. Also, I wasn’t just going to have to speak in front of people; I was going to have to lead them step-by-step through crafts and activities that I selected. If anything failed, it would be my fault. At first, the image of me running a workshop seemed so ridiculous and terrifying to me that I avoided thinking about it in the early stages of my project, which involved more research and surveys than presentations and workshops. As my project made progress, I realized that if I wanted to earn my Gold Award, I was going to have to confront my fear of workshops, so I began preparing for them. I surveyed people about their favorite activities, researched crafts, and interviewed group leaders. Finally, it was ready, and I was still nervous. The first workshop I did was for a group of strangers at my previous school’s cafeteria. Even though I was nervous, I did not let it show in my presentation. The children I was presenting to loved the crafts and activities that I had selected and had a great time. Because of my preparation and determination, the workshop was a success. To my surprise, I was looking forward to doing another one. From that first workshop, I learned several lessons. Some were ways to improve the programming, but the most meaningful ones were that with enough determination, I can confront and conquer my fears.

When I was little, I was constantly reading a book. Every time I stayed home from school because I was sick, I would spend my time reading book after book. My favorites were The Magic Treehouse books because they involved learning about history. I also enjoyed fantasy novels that involved fairy tales. When I was young, reading books allowed me to learn about empathy. When I was little, I didn’t have many friends and felt awkward in social situations. By reading books, I was exposed to other people’s viewpoints. Books provided me a window into the lives and thoughts of other people. Understanding how other people thought allowed me to practice putting myself in another person’s shoes, even if the person was just a fictional character. This practice in fictional worlds helped me relate to others in the real world. Reading when I was young helped me learn about other people and empathy. It helped me overcome some of my childhood awkwardness. As a child, I also read a lot of children’s nonfiction books. My interests included science, especially human biology. I also liked reading children’s books about ecology and geology. This even inspired me to start my own rock collection! However, this shaped my later educational and professional goals. From my reading, I learned about how various human organs and body systems worked, which I enjoyed a lot. In high school, I decided I wanted to go into the medical field because I liked learning about these things so much. This inspired me to search for potential careers in the pharmacy field and the associated academic programs, which led me to the pharmacy program at the University of Findlay. In my second year of high school, my class read a book called Salt in My Soul. It consisted of journal entries from a girl with cystic fibrosis throughout her life. Before reading this book, I had learned about antibiotic resistance, but it was purely academic knowledge. This book made the topics and numbers I had learned about previously real. Real people are being affected by these problems. While reading this book made these public health issues real for me, it also inspired my academic and career goals. In my first year of college, I researched infectious disease pharmacy, which is a pharmacy specialty. A significant part of infectious disease pharmacy is attempting to treat antibiotic resistant infections and prevent more resistant strains from evolving. Reading this book inspired me to learn more about and consider infectious disease pharmacy as a potential career. Books have influenced me and my goals throughout my life. They helped me relate to others as a child, and they influenced my career goals as an adult. I hope to continue learning from books in the future.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. I began doing research about college majors and future careers, because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to learn about potential careers by researching summer programs. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus. I also wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. When I returned from camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting. It is inspiring for me to think that I could use my gifts to help others!

What makes me a leader? Well, I lead. Enough with the comedy. To be a leader, a person must be someone who people are willing to follow. You need to convince others that you are a person who knows what they’re doing and will pay attention to their needs and wants. Encouraging others to follow you means that you need to develop specific skills, such as self-confidence and communication. If you want others to follow you, you have to be confident about yourself. When I was in 7th grade, I did a project where I created a brochure for other students my age about gaining self confidence. It included techniques for increasing self confidence, such as having good posture. Having self confidence makes you appear decisive and competent to others. It communicates to others that you know what you are doing, so you are worth following. It communicates that will not lead them astray. Through this project in 7th grade, I learned about how to develop self-confidence. I began incorporating techniques to increase self-confidence into my everyday life. I continued using these strategies throughout high school. This helped me with my experiences in high school. In high school, I completed a Girl Scout Gold Award project. This is an 80 hour take action project that addresses the root cause of an issue. The Gold Award is the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Rank in Boy Scouts. The Gold Award is designed to teach project management and leadership skills. Through my experiences in earning this award, I gained leadership skills in communication. A good leader needs to be able to communicate with other people. They need to be able to listen to the needs, wants, and expectations of other people. Also, they need to clearly communicate what they need others to do. From completing my project, I learned about how to communicate this information with others in emails. Part of my project included having workshops for elementary schoolers and distributing surveys for research. I needed to communicate well with others to schedule workshops and distribute surveys. Through practice with this project, I learned how to communicate with others effectively, making me a better leader. Being a leader means developing vital skills, such as communication and self-confidence. This is because being a leader involves knowing what other people need and finding the best way to meet those needs. I have learned to do this through my experiences with my Gold Award project and my project in 7th grade. These experiences have given me leadership skills that I will continue to use and develop throughout my life.

What could go wrong? It’s the question I ask before embarking on any adventure. The answer? Many things. From what I’ve seen from books like The Martian and movies like Apollo 13, NASA seems to hire people just to answer that question and make contingency plans for when things do go wrong. I also do this! When I leave my dorm at school, I ask myself this question. Could it rain? I’ll grab a rain jacket. Could I get sunburnt? I’ll put on sunscreen, a hat, and sun sleeves. Could my asthma be aggravated? I’ll make sure to bring my inhaler and N95. I think of what could go wrong and make contingency plans to address these issues. While my college experience is not a space mission, there are some similarities. I make contingency plans for when things go wrong. Help is out of reach. I live on campus, two hours away from my family. I can communicate with them, but I’m the one who has to go solve my own issues. I also have tasks to complete for my mission and a schedule to follow to stay healthy. This includes exercise. I might not be in microgravity, but exercise still helps me stay healthy. I need to learn to get along with the other people on campus with me. Also, I have a mission! It’s not to go to the Moon or Mars. It’s to receive a PharmD. What could go wrong on this exciting mission? Many things. I have had schedule problems, academic problems, and health problems. I’m very busy on campus. I’m in a doctorate degree program that combines eight years of school into six. I’m in many difficult classes, and I spend a lot of time studying. I’m also involved in activities. I’m part of the book club. I do research in the oncology lab on campus. I’m part of Phi Delta Chi, a professional pharmacy fraternity. I’m part of my college’s symphonic band. I’ve had to miss meetings for various extracurriculars because they happen at the same time as my classes. I’ve had to prioritize one meeting over another because they are scheduled at the same time. I’ve also had academic issues. Most of the time, I get good grades. On occasion, there is a setback. The biggest setback in my first year of college was my final exam for the first semester of my organic chemistry lab. I got a grade on the final exam that dragged my overall grade for the class to an A-, meaning my entire GPA would be ruined. However, during open hours, I went to see the professor and we discussed my answers on the test. Because I did this, he gave me back a few extra points on the exam, which caused my grade to be just high enough to not drag down my GPA. Because I took action to remedy this issue, I was able to fix my grades. Two days before leaving for college, I learned that I had a tear in a tendon I’d never heard of in my left ankle and that the only way to fix it would be through surgery. The surgery was scheduled for Christmas break. My first semester was okay, except I had a ticking clock counting down to the day when I would be unable to put weight on my left leg for a month. My second semester was more difficult. I was allowed to walk on my leg a few days before I returned to college, but only if I was wearing a boot. I had to arrange physical therapy appointments for myself. Then, I arranged rides to these appointments because I did not have a car on campus during my freshman year. I relied on a combination of rides from friends and using the local public transportation to make it to my physical therapy appointments. My physical therapy helped me transition my stiff, weak ankle from a boot to a brace and helped me regain the strength and flexibility my ankle lost from a month of disuse. As soon as I got the all-clear from my doctor to transition out of my ankle brace, I started having breathing problems. My chest hurt constantly and it was difficult to climb the stairs to get to my classes without taking a rest to catch my breath. I decided to go to the doctor on campus, who diagnosed me with asthma. My new quest was to get to the local CVS to get an inhaler. Lacking a car, I had to make several trips to the CVS throughout the rest of the year to pick up various asthma medications until my regular doctor and my campus doctor figured out what worked for me. In each of these situations, I encountered an issue. Something went wrong, whether it was an academic shortcoming or an injury. However, when I encountered these issues, I took the initiative to fix them. I needed to solve these issues myself. Like in a space mission, I could still communicate with Houston (also known as my parents) for help, but I was the one who had to actually fix the issues I encountered. So, what could go wrong? Many things. I encounter problems and setbacks almost every day. However, they don’t stop me. Each problem is just another puzzle. Each problem has a solution. I just need to find it.

In the spring of 2021, my guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the upcoming break. I had two requirements for a summer program. The program had to involve staying in-person on a college campus and being related to the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. Because of this, I chose to attend the University of Findlay’s pharmacy program. When I was in high school, I read a book about a person with cystic fibrosis. I learned about antibiotic resistance and how dangerous infections caused by resistant bacteria can be in immunocompromised individuals. In my first year of college, I completed a project about pharmacy specialties. I researched infectious disease pharmacy because of what I read about in the book. I learned about what infectious disease pharmacists do and decided that I wanted to become one. My current plan is to finish my PharmD degree and then pursue a pharmacy residency in a hospital, which are the first steps to achieving my goal. I plan to use the skills I have learned to help others as an infectious disease pharmacist, particularly people who are vulnerable to these medical issues. I am excited to think that I can change lives for the better!

I was surprised by just how many service opportunities there were in college. I thought that when I got to college, I would be too busy to do service work. I thought that having been uprooted from my community, I would lack the social network I have at home, so there would be few opportunities to participate in service. Also, between having a demanding schedule and lacking a car, I thought it would be difficult to find opportunities. Fortunately, I was wrong. There are numerous opportunities for service on campus! While there are many I cannot make due to lack of time or resources, there are some that work out. There are simple activities, like supporting organizations on campus financially by participating in fundraisers. These types of fundraisers are simple and fun. There are other ways of participating in service in college, as well that are more involved and more meaningful. They involve spending time doing service work. I’ve found many ways of giving back in this manner while at college. I have helped set up events and clean up afterwards, such as when my college held a Halloween party for local school children or when an organization I’m in had students write cards to children in the hospital. I helped cook breakfast for the pharmacy faculty during Faculty Appreciation Week. I have also helped out at scholarship competitions at my school. The college needed students to interview potential scholarship recipients who were incoming freshmen. I helped out twice at these scholarship competitions. In addition, I’ve started donating blood. Even though I felt uprooted from my community at home, I still return there every summer. It seems that within a day of being back from any break, my family has signed me up for some service opportunity. This summer, I’m helping at my church’s Vacation Bible School. It seems like the future will be exciting, but when I was starting college, I wasn’t sure how participating in service work would fit into that. I am studying to become a pharmacist. The pharmacy professors inform us that before becoming professors, they were extremely busy working in hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and nursing homes. From my experiences in college, I learned that opportunities to help out will appear all over the place. They may be small, but even small things can make a difference. Doing small acts of service can inspire you to look for other service opportunities. It can inspire you to see issues in the world and actually do something about them.

My grandfather was the first person I remember losing. When I was small, I had lost great-grandparents and other distant relatives, but I didn’t really remember them. Grandpa was the first person I actually knew before he died. Grandpa had Alzheimer’s. I remember being told this as a child. I wasn’t really sure what that meant. I thought it meant that Grandpa would forget things and would need to be reminded of them. For a while, I thought that was what was happening. Grandpa would ask Dad questions about things that seemed small and subtle, such as where Dad went to college. Dad would remind Grandpa of these details. While my dad’s family was concerned about this, it didn’t seem like a big deal to me because Dad reminded Grandpa, so he could remember again. Grandma always took the latest nice pictures of my brother and I back to her house during this time. She told me it was good for Grandpa to have pictures of us around so he would remember who we were. I learned at that time that Alzheimer’s gets worse over time. Other adults had told me things like this, but I didn’t fully realize it until Grandma told me that. Things began changing at Grandpa and Grandma’s house. They stopped taking us on trips to Florida. They got a cat. At first, it was just one cat. Then, they kept getting more cats. There were five different cats in that house at one time. It felt weird because Mom couldn’t stay at Grandpa and Grandma’s house anymore because she was allergic to cats. I was allergic as well, but it wasn’t as bad back then. It felt like their house was becoming less and less like home and more like a foreign land. We visited Grandpa and Grandma often. There was one time when we went to the park to play in the new fountains they had created. My brother and I had a good time playing in the park and the new fountains. However, Grandpa wasn’t Grandpa anymore. Grandpa had always been kind to my brother and me. However, when Grandma was trying to get him into the car, he began yelling and using words my parents had never permitted us to use at home. It occurred to me at that moment that I had lost my Grandpa. Grandpa died several months later. My brother and I were there that day to say goodbye. Grandma gave us some of Grandpa’s Beanie Boos. When his Alzheimer’s had reached some of the most severe stages, he started collecting Beanie Boos. Grandma said it was like he had become a child again. My brother and I both received some of his Beanie Boos after he died. I still have mine. I learned several things from this. I learned that when someone dies isn’t necessarily when you lose them. It can happen before then. I also learned what Alzheimer’s was and how terrible it is to develop it. I also learned to appreciate the time I have with my older relatives.

Ever since I was in elementary school, I wanted to go to college. At that time, I lacked a plan at that point besides going to college and getting a degree. During the pandemic lockdowns, I decided I wanted to go into the medical field when I started high school because I enjoy biology and chemistry. I like learning about the ways the physical world works through the laws of science. I also enjoy helping others and wanted to use my gifts to improve my corner of the world. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I was encouraged to attend a summer program so I could learn about potential careers. I had two requirements. I wanted to stay in person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. I wanted to stay on a college campus so I could learn more about what life is like on a college campus and features I like on campuses. I wanted the program to be about the medical field so I could learn more about potential majors and careers. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. My favorite activity was learning about hospital pharmacy. After the camp, I was interested in learning more about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences throughout college. I went to virtual meetings to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which lasts six years and combines the more traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years. At the core of my decision was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. As a pharmacist, I hope to care for others. I also plan to help others by reducing their likelihood of becoming addicted to their medications by educating them of these risks. I think that educating patients about these risks can help them avoid becoming addicted to their prescription medications. I also plan to help others by educating them about potential interactions between medications and health conditions. It is exciting to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others.

I have found that daily prayer is vital for my spiritual development. Every evening before I go to sleep, I pray. It is an opportunity to reflect on the day and the things that happened, such as where I messed up, the things God did for me during the day, and the concerns I have. It is also an opportunity to pray about the problems I find in the world, one of which is abortion being legal. Besides prayer, I’m also involved in the Pro-Life club on my college campus. The Pro-Life club started during my freshman year of college. I couldn’t always attend meetings because, but I went as often as I could. I enjoyed the meetings because we learned about abortion legislation at various levels of government, how pregnancy works, and resources for potential parents both on campus and in the community. We also did service work and toured the nearby Women’s Resource Center. I participated in fundraisers to raise money for the Pro-Life club as well. One of the most important activities that we did was praying at an abortion clinic. It was early in the morning, and a small group of us went to pray before classes started. The most important thing that the Pro-Life club did was protest outside of a pro-choice meeting on campus. We held signs and said prayers. I learned how to protest peacefully, such as not blocking doorways and hallways. The people attending the meeting called the campus police, who talked to us about their pet dogs. Participating in the protest was surprisingly rewarding. Some of the meeting attendees came out to speak with us. They didn’t return to the meeting. They left changed. My faith has heavily influenced my career goals. My current goal is to become a pharmacist. I wanted to enter the medical field because I wanted to use the gifts God gave me to help others. I do well academically. I’m especially gifted in biology and chemistry. I can use these skills that God has given me to help others by becoming a pharmacist. My faith helped me discern my goals. I prayed to God for discernment when I was applying to colleges and choosing my career path and major. I plan to use my education as a pharmacist to help others with their medical issues. As a medical professional, I will learn about how the human body works. An important area where pharmacists are needed is counseling patients, particularly pregnant patients because medications can behave differently for the child and the mother during pregnancy. Because I will be familiar with different stages of pregnancy, I can educate others about what actually happens during it. I will care for people in all stages of life as a pharmacist, so I will be able to witness the dignity and value of each stage of life. I can’t wait to help others with my education.

In my first year of college, I realized that perfectionism was either going to save or destroy me. Throughout high school, I needed to be perfect. I needed to have the perfect grades. I needed to have perfect attendance because one missed day would leave me hopelessly behind in my classes, which would harm my perfect grades. I told myself that this was what was necessary to be accepted into college. This attitude left me with a lot of anxiety. Because I was anxious about my school, it spilled over into other areas of my life and made it more difficult to deal with issues. It led to nightmares that made it hard to sleep in my final year of high school. I thought that once I got into college, my perfectionist attitude would abate. However, my perfectionism continued into freshman year of college. I continued trying to make everything perfect. This caused me to become anxious. It strained my relationships with my friends. I am in the University of Findlay’s six year doctor of pharmacy program. In the first year of the program, my professor gave my classmates and me a worksheet with basic pharmacy calculations on it. She explained that all of our answers on the worksheet needed to be correct because when pharmacists make mistakes in calculations, it puts patients in peril. From this experience, I realized that I could use my perfectionism. I could use it to make sure my calculations and decisions are correct to help patients after I graduate. I have the rest of my time in college to learn how to control my perfectionist tendencies and put them towards something useful. I will have numerous opportunities to do so, and I intend to succeed.

As a child, I didn’t understand why my family ate pickled herring on Christmas Eve. I didn’t like fish, so it made no sense to me why my family had to serve the most disgusting variety on Christmas Eve. It was Christmas Eve, a time for cookies, not a time for pickled herring! As I grew up, I learned that pickled herring is an important part of Christmas Eve dinner and that Christmas Eve dinner was an important tradition in Lithuania. It involves eating 12 foods, each with a different meaning. The pickled herring represents the sour things in life. As I grew up, I learned to appreciate this family tradition. To keep my family’s traditions and heritage alive, I am involved in Knights of Lithuania. The Knights of Lithuania are a group of people with Lithuanian heritage who do community service and maintain Lithuanian culture in the United States. I am the cultural chair of Council 144. Every month, I research an aspect of Lithuanian culture and present it to the rest of the council. Council 144 also puts on Lithuanian Days, which is a festival in August. Lithuanian Days raises money for charities in Lithuania. I have helped set up the event and make food. I also served food during the festival. Two of my great-great grandparents came from Lithuania in the 1800s and met in the United States. They passed down some aspects of Lithuanian culture, such as Christmas Eve dinner, to me and my family. My family encouraged me to learn about and study my heritage because it is important. Like with the pickled herring, I did not understand the importance of learning about one’s heritage. However, as I grew up and learned more, I began to realize that learning about one’s heritage is essential. I learned that knowing about your heritage and knowing where your family comes from makes you curious about what their lives and experiences were like. It makes you curious about history, particularly how it affected your ancestors. It also keeps the memories of your ancestors alive. Traditions and culture are a form of inheritance within families, and like any heirloom, need to be cared for and passed down. However, unlike heirlooms, they do not take up as much space. Family heritage reminds people of where they came from, but apart from being an interesting origin story, they help me appreciate the things that I have and the sacrifices my ancestors made to give me those things.

My favorite aspect of playing Minecraft is building. More specifically, I enjoy designing buildings, particularly houses. I enjoy designing all types of houses in Minecraft, from tiny cottages to vacation homes to luxurious mansions. I experiment with different types of architecture and floor plans, such as incorporating balconies on houses. I enjoy combining different color schemes and materials. I also have fun designing gardens around houses and using plants as decorations. My favorites are beach houses, where I design windows and decorations to showcase the nearby ocean. I imagine creating the ideal vacation home in Minecraft. I think that designing and constructing houses in Minecraft resonates with me because I am a creative person, and building houses in Minecraft gives me a way to express my creativity. I enjoy writing stories, and I can build locations, homes, and buildings from my stories. This helps me visualize my stories. Using multiplayer mode allows my friends and me to explore these locations together. I also think it involves problem-solving skills, particularly when I use redstone lamps to create indoor lighting. I believe playing Minecraft can be a fun break from other activities, but it can be particularly rejuvenating when I can use my creativity.

If I could have everyone in the world read one book, it would be Whatshisface by Gordon Korman. Gordon Korman writes novels for tweens, and they are frequently comedic. Whatshisface is about a 7th grader named Cooper. His school is putting on the play Romeo and Juliet, and Cooper has a crush on Jolie, the girl cast as Juliet. The school bully is cast as Romeo and also has a crush on Jolie. To make things worse for Cooper, he finds out that there is a teenage ghost haunting the new phone his parents bought him. The ghost’s name is Roddy, and he claims he wrote Romeo and Juliet when he was alive and that Shakespeare stole it. The novel is hilarious because Roddy is always making Shakespearean quips about the situations Cooper finds himself in. Roddy also finds modern television programs fascinating and begins incorporating modern slang into his comments. I especially enjoyed it because I read Romeo and Juliet in my English class shortly after the book came out. I enjoyed it because it took an older, more difficult to understand piece of literature and made it much more interesting to me by relating it to something funny. For this reason, I think everyone should read it. I think that it is much easier to get people interested in learning when it is related to something currently happening in their lives or when it is related to something funny. I think that everyone should read Whatshisface because it is a perfect gateway towards reading more, whether it be classic literature or even more Gordan Korman novels.

My passion is to help people with their health and medications by becoming a pharmacist. Specifically, I want to become an infectious disease pharmacist. By doing this, I can help people manage their treatment for infections. This can set them on a journey towards regaining their health, allowing them to become their best selves. To reach these goals, I will need to develop skills in biology and chemistry. I have just completed my first year of the University of Findlay’s 6-year Doctor of Pharmacy program. The first two years of the program are the foundational years. So far, I have worked hard to succeed in biology and chemistry classes. In my first semester, I finished general chemistry, so I started organic chemistry during my second semester. Organic chemistry was the hardest class I took in my second semester. I got an A in the class at the end of the semester. I was able to succeed in these classes because I developed organizational and study skills. I planned when I would study and for how long. I also planned which materials I would cover in my study sessions to make sure it stayed fresh. I also stayed organized by keeping track of when assignments were due and completing them as soon as I could. Being a pharmacist means that you must be able to explain to patients who may be ill or in pain what specific medications do and dangerous potential side effects they should be aware of. This requires learning how to speak with patients about their medications. To develop my skills interacting with patients, I got a job as a pharmacy technician. Learning to be a pharmacy technician has allowed me to gain experience working in a retail pharmacy. I’m learning how prescriptions are received and filled. Most importantly, I’m learning the basics of how to speak with patients when they pick up their medications or drop off prescriptions. I have also gained networking skills during my time in college so far. Networking is important in pharmacy, and I originally struggled with it. However, I began getting involved in pharmacy organizations on campus, which helped me develop my networking skills. I joined Phi Delta Chi, a professional pharmacy fraternity. This has allowed me to practice networking with other pharmacy students. The skills I have learned so far through my experiences at school, work, and extracurriculars will be helpful when I become a pharmacist. I will use these skills to help others with their health so they can focus on being their best selves.

I try not to dwell on failures. I try to learn my lesson and move on from the failure. Over the past few years, I have endured many failures, such as having applications denied and being rejected. However, the failure I learned the most from was my Gold Award project proposal. The Gold Award is the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout rank in Boy Scouts. Earning the Gold Award involves doing an 80 hour take action project addressing the root cause of an issue in the community. Towards the beginning of a Gold Award project, a Girl Scout must submit a project proposal to be reviewed. This is after the Girl Scout did some research about the issue they are trying to fix. The project proposal summarizes this research, explains the issue, how it relates to the root cause, lays out the Girl Scout’s plan to address the root cause, and explains what the Girl Scout will try to accomplish with the project. My own Gold Award project started out well. I did a lot of research and learned about the root cause of my issue. The coronavirus lockdowns slowed down other aspects of my project, but I thought it was a great time to put a lot of effort into writing my project proposal, which I did. I submitted it, and figured that it would take a while for it to be reviewed because of the coronavirus lockdowns. However, I eventually discovered that my project proposal had been denied. I was devastated to learn this. Getting the project proposal approved was a vital step to earning the Gold Award. With my ongoing research at a standstill because of the lockdown, I could do absolutely nothing to work on my project. Besides, if I could not get my project proposal approved, all of my research and preparation would be for naught, as I would not be allowed to move into the next phase of the project, which was implementing it. I wanted to give up right then and there. However, I did not. I knew that if I kept persevering, I would eventually succeed. I met with the committee that reviews the project proposals and listened to their feedback, then made the recommended edits to my project proposal. I did this a few times until I submitted my proposal a second time. This time, it was approved. I was rewarded for my perseverance. I went on to earn my Gold Award, even though it took me two more whole years. I had to overcome other setbacks and delays, most of which related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Because of the perseverance I learned during the early stages of my project, I was able to overcome other issues I encountered later on during my project. This experience has shown me that I can reach my goals as long as I do not give up. I learned that the only true failure is giving up. Failure is not the end, just an invitation to keep trying. I learned that the key to overcoming failure is being persistent. My experience with failure has taught me how to persist and not give up. I believe that I do not dwell on failures because I see the skills that I developed along the way instead.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began doing research about college majors and future careers, I realized I wanted to enter the medical field despite my reservations. This was because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. I had two requirements for a summer program. I wanted to stay in person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to attend. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I started seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school during my academic career. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began doing research about college majors and future careers, I realized that despite my doubts, I did want to go into the medical field. This was because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. My mother told me that I could go to one summer program. I had two requirements. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I especially enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing research about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school midway through my college career, so I do not have to worry about getting rejected, which is a relief. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

I struggle with perfectionism. I feel the need to get perfect scores on my exams and become disappointed or guilty when I get anything less than 100%. I put pressure on myself to achieve these unrealistic goals, which leads to anxiety. This makes the morning before the test difficult for me. The morning of my first AP test in high school I spent trying to prevent myself from throwing up because I was nauseous due to anxiety. I did the same thing before my final exams in my second semester in college. I know that being anxious while taking a test causes lower test scores, which would make the situation worse. Fortunately, I am learning to take steps to avoid being anxious while taking tests, and I have found them to be effective. My grades have not suffered so far because of my anxiety, so my strategies must be working. I also have many negative thoughts about myself and others. Most come and go, but the most persistent are, “Everyone hates you, and you have no friends.” This puts barriers between me and my friends. I tend to isolate myself and not seek help. When I do seek help from my friends, I feel guilty for burdening them with my problems. Because I have many negative thoughts, I can be pessimistic. Also, my strained relationships with my friends and being pessimistic can contribute to my anxiety. This is difficult for me because I value my relationships with my friends because when I am attending school, I am separated from my family and friends at home, so my friends at school are some of the only people I interact with. Isolating myself from them simply makes my problems worse. I had some physical health problems during my second semester of my first year in college, and I had some difficulties arranging my treatment plan, which exacerbated my anxiety. My friend noticed that I had been anxious and acting differently for two weeks and encouraged me to go to a counseling session. The counseling session showed me a way of dealing with my negative thoughts, one of the root causes of my anxiety. I was told that when I have negative thoughts, I can compare the evidence for and against the thoughts to gain a more realistic perspective. I also structure my daily routine to care for my mental health. Because mental and physical health are related, I have found that taking care of my physical health helps maintain my mental health. Because of this, I keep a consistent sleep schedule and exercise several times a week. I also spend time with my friends and doing creative activities, such as writing and drawing with chalk. To deal with anxiety during tests, I have learned deep breathing exercises to help me focus. By taking these steps, I can be less anxious and succeed while I am at school.

My parents knew that I wanted to enter the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began researching college majors and future careers, I realized I wanted to go into the medical field. This was because I wanted to use my gifts to help others. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. My mother told me that I could go to one summer program. I had two requirements. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to attend. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I especially enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in a hospital setting. After the camp, I seriously considered studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began researching the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and condenses the traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the traditional 8-year path, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school midway through my college career, so I do not have to worry about getting rejected, which is a relief. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began researching college majors and future careers, I realized that despite my doubts, I did want to go into the medical field. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. My mother told me that I could go to one summer program. I had two requirements. I wanted to stay in person on a college campus and the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to attend. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I especially enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in hospitals. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing more research. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and combines the more traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the more traditional path consisting of four years of undergraduate followed by four years of pharmacy school, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school midway through my college career, so I do not have to worry about getting rejected, which is a relief. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using my gifts. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I enjoyed learning about biology and chemistry and was gifted academically in these areas. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began doing research about college majors and future careers, I realized that despite my doubts, I did want to go into the medical field. I told my parents about this, and they encouraged me to research summer programs to learn about potential careers. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. My mother told me that I could go to one summer program. I had two requirements. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. Many of the programs were either virtual or canceled, which helped me narrow down which one I wanted to go to. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field, which I hadn’t known much about beforehand. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. I especially enjoyed the session about hospital pharmacy, where I learned about what pharmacists do in hospitals. After the camp, I was seriously considering studying pharmacy in college and having a career in the pharmacy field, so I began doing more research. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and combines the more traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I liked that it was shorter than the more traditional path consisting of four years of undergraduate followed by four years of pharmacy school, meaning that I could start my career sooner. I also do not have to reapply to pharmacy school midway through my college career, so I do not have to worry about getting rejected, which is a relief. Winning this scholarship would allow me to pursue these academic, career, and personal dreams. It will allow me to pay for my college education and reduce the student loan debt I will have when I graduate. This will make it easier for me to explore residency options in hospital pharmacy after I graduate. At the core of my decision to go into pharmacy was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is inspiring to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others. My goals for my career in the pharmacy field after I graduate include getting a job in a hospital setting.

Ever since I was in elementary school, I wanted to go to college. This may have been because Iiked learning at school, because I knew a college degree leads to higher-paying jobs, or because my parents began saving money for me to go to college when I was born. However, I did not have a plan at that point besides going to college and getting a degree. When I was in high school, I began thinking more about what I wanted to do after high school. I always try to plan ahead and prepare for something before it happens, and my college plans were no exception. I wanted to have a major picked for college and a plan for after college before I graduated from high school. I knew that it would be more difficult for me if I started college with an undecided major and later declared it. I wanted to begin college with an end result in mind, so that I would be motivated to complete it. My parents knew that I would want to go into the medical field before I did. They noted that I liked learning about biology and chemistry. When they suggested this to me, I was quick to brush them off. I would make comments like, “I could never do that. I would get queasy if I had to see lots of blood.” However, when I began researching college majors and future careers, I realized that despite my doubts, I did want to go into the medical field. My guidance counselor gave me a packet of summer programs for the summer of 2021. My mother told me that I could go to one summer program. I had two requirements. I wanted to stay in-person on a college campus, and I wanted the program to be about the medical field. I found a program at the University of Findlay about pharmacy, which I attended. The camp introduced me to the pharmacy field. I learned about what pharmacists do and what education they receive. After the camp, I was interested in learning more about the pharmacy field. I went to a talk by a pharmacy student to learn about their experiences. I went on video calls to learn about pharmacy programs. I learned about the 0+6 pharmacy program, which is offered by Ohio Northern University and the University of Findlay. This program lasts six years and combines the more traditional four years of undergraduate studies and the four years of pharmacy school into six years, which is why I applied there. I applied to the Ohio State University, which has a more traditional pharmacy program. I also applied to DeSales University and Saint Vincent College, where I would do the undergraduate part of my studies before going to a different university for pharmacy school. At the core of my decision was my desire to help others, especially using the gifts that I have. It is exciting to me to think that I can use my gifts to improve the lives of others.

I would watch Back to the Future. The movie is the synthesis of my two favorite subjects, science and American history, and I feel a connection to the characters. I can identify with Marty’s father, George. George writes science fiction stories, but he is too nervous to publish them until Marty goes back in time and changes the future. Both Marty and George are nervous of others judging their work, saying, “What if they don’t like it?” I had almost the exact same conversation with my mom when she suggested that I try publishing my stories. However, both characters are able to overcome their fears of being rejected and become successful by the end of the movie. Watching the movie inspired me to continue writing and using my creativity to make others laugh. I gained the confidence to submit stories to writing competitions. I might not become a professional writer when I grow up, but this movie did inspire me to share my stories with my friends and to send them to writing competitions. The movie is a science-fiction movie, which appeals to me as a science and science-fiction nerd, but it is also about restoring relationships within a family, which I find heartwarming. I also really like American history, especially from the 20th century. My parents took me to visit many historical sites on our family vacations, so they inspired my interest in American history. I like learning about all of the pop culture and quirks of different time periods. There are lots of little details in Back to the Future that are references to pop culture in both the 1950s and the 1980s that I find delightful, such as when Marty tries to remove a bottle cap from a soda bottle, and George takes it from him and pries off the cap using a bottle-opener on a nearby mailbox. This is just one example of a multitude of little pop culture details that make the movie more immersive. I don’t think I would get bored of watching this movie if I could only watch one for the rest of my life because I could find new details each time I watch it. If I were to watch only one movie for the rest of my life, I would choose Back to the Future. This is because I like history, science fiction, and the characters. I also think I wouldn’t get bored with watching it. Watching the movie inspired me to write and share stories and to use my creativity to make the world a better place.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in science. I practically grew up at the science museum, COSI. My family had a membership and my mother took me and my brother there often on the weekends. I think that this environment fostered the growth of my interest in the sciences, especially life science. My parents must have noticed this because I received a children’s encyclopedia about the human body for Christmas when I was in 3rd grade. Eight-year-old me read that book over and over again. Throughout grade school and into high school, I was also always interested in science and it was my favorite subject at school. In ninth grade, I liked my biology teacher and enjoyed her class so much that it barely felt like schoolwork. During the summer of 2021, I wanted to attend a summer program to learn about potential career paths and life on a college campus. My guidance counselor provided me with a packet of information about various summer programs. As I looked through the packet, I had two requirements: the program had to focus on the medical field and it had to be on a college campus. I found that the University of Findlay’s pharmacy summer camp met those requirements and was pleased to be able to attend. I enjoyed that camp and began considering going into pharmacy. My favorite activity was learning about compounding and trying it out in a lab. I also got to talk to some pharmacy professors about the program and what it entailed. After I returned from the camp, I continued doing research. I participated in a virtual program by the University of Florida to learn about the pharmacy profession. On the video call, I had the opportunity to talk with students from the University of Florida about their experiences in their school’s pharmacy program. It was exciting to find out that just a few years into the program students were able to go out in the field for real-life experiences. I also went to talks from pharmacy students hosted by my high school who indicated the same thing. I spent time at a pharmacy day camp on the Ohio State University’s campus in the summer of 2022. Through role-play, we practiced taking a patient's health history and finding out what medications a person was taking. I spoke to graduate students and professors about the pharmacy profession at this camp. After learning about pharmacy and health professions, I decided to go into pharmacy. I applied to the University of Findlay’s 0+6 pharmacy program and got in, which is where I am going in the fall.