A bit about me...

When I was 13 years old, my parents decided to sign up as a host family for an exchange
program for students in Spain. A few weeks later, I watched my new host sister step off the
airport shuttle, nervously walking up to me and my family as I stood wide-eyed with a goofy grin
slapped on my face. I welcomed my host sister to South Carolina for the summer. I was beyond
excited to make a new friend and learn about her culture. From asking her what “banana” is in
Spanish while we played in the pool, to traveling around the US, it was so beautiful to see the
world and my small southern town through her fresh eyes. I immediately signed up to start
taking Spanish classes at my middle school, preparing myself for a lifetime full of culture,
language, and adventure.

I first traveled outside the United States in high school at age 16 on a school Spanish club trip to
Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, I saw powerful waterfalls rushing through the mountains. I had locals
ask me to join them for a game of soccer. I ate rambutan fresh off the trees. I fell in love with the
country. It was no surprise when I chose to study abroad in Ecuador for a semester in college,
yearning for more exposure to the Latin American landscape and culture.

My educational journey while earning my B.S. in Language and International Health at Clemson
has deepened my values of fostering peace, reveling in adventure, and finding stability through
health. I always wanted to work in healthcare, but as a teenager, “healthcare” just meant
“doctor.” It wasn’t until I came to Clemson that I began to learn more and more each day exactly
where I could belong in healthcare.

Since my first year at Clemson, I have seen the ins and outs of the healthcare system outside a
doctor’s office. From my shadowing experiences in rural health clinics to learning about disease
outbreaks in epidemiology class, to working a health internship in Ecuador, I have gained
invaluable experiences that have shaped my unique perspective and skills. My coursework has
stressed the importance of cultural competency in health, treating each person as a person, not
just their symptoms or diagnosis. My semester abroad placed me in the middle of a country I
knew nothing about. It forced me to become comfortable being in the uncomfortable as I lived
my everyday life in a language and culture that were very different from my own.

My journey over these past four years has led me to seek a career in public health, where I aspire to use my communication and outreach skills to bring health promotion programs into communities all over the world. I am seeking full-time program coordinator positions in public health organizations, and I hope to grow during my career, stepping into roles where I may be able to one day influence health policy. I plan to start my career to find exactly where my strengths within the public health field lie and continue my education to earn a Master of Public Health degree. I know I can be a great force in the world of public health, and I am so excited to see where my next steps take me.