One of my most exciting milestones and achievements was my acceptance into the Texas A&M Medical School through the Early Assurance Program. In addition to this notable achievement, I am also proud to be in the Texas A&M University Honors Program, serving as a Teaching Assistant for an undergraduate class, and a certified Red Cross lifeguard.
In mid-January 2024, I was accepted into the Texas A&M University School of Medicine Early Assurance Program’s Partnership for Primary Care Program! This program guarantees me a seat to start at the Texas A&M Medical school in Fall 2026, contingent on my continuation of high academic performance. The Partnership for Primary Care Program is centered on increasing the number of doctors in rural or underserved areas. My mother is from Rockdale, Texas (pop. 5,398), which is lacking in access to many basic healthcare services. I feel this lack of access to healthcare contributed to my grandfather’s death in 2021 from COVID and made me aware of the critical need to improve rural medical services.
As a part of my preparation for medical school, I am required to shadow/observe doctors throughout the year. In May, I shadowed a doctor in Nosara, Costa Rica. I was able to use my Spanish (I am fluent) as I listened and interacted with the doctor and patient’s cases firsthand. It was interesting to learn that in Costa Rica it is also difficult to get doctors to work in rural communities. This experience helped me see that the shortage of primary care doctors is an international problem that I would like to help solve in the future.
As a member of the University Honors Program, I am allowed to take courses that push me to master the content and develop creative ways to use the content. For example, this past semester I took an honors biomedical genetics class. In addition to learning the fundamentals of genetics, I was given an unidentified set of nucleotides. I learned to sequence the nucleotides to discover what species they belonged to (they were a Mus Musculus (house mouse), beta hemoglobin sequence) and then I was able to create a gene therapy approach to modify the mutation I found in the assigned sequence.
As a teaching assistant (TA) for the course Introduction to Mammalian Histology (VIBS 243), I attend class and help facilitate the lecture, quizzes, and exams. Every week I lead an online Zoom review session that covers the key topics covered in lecture and answers any questions the students have about the content or assignments. I love being a TA for this class; it has challenged me to understand this content even better.
My Red Cross Lifeguard certification, oxygen administration certification, and Naloxone Training certificate have prepared me to provide leadership in higher risk situations.
I believe all of these activities and accomplishments are preparing me for my long-term goal of becoming a physician and to teach and conduct research in a medical school.