ABOUT ME
I've had an insatiable passion for the human body since elementary school. As far as I can remember, my favorite form of playing was taking care of my Barbies and teddy bears with my plastic doctor sets, and I always gravitated toward books about medicine and the human body, especially the human brain.
This interest only grew stronger as I began middle school, but my interests were placed on hold because at the age of 12, my mother told me we were moving away from our hometown in Bogota, Colombia to the United States of America! This news came with great excitement but mostly fear; moving to a different country meant starting a new life: new culture, a new language, new friends, and a new family. After living in Florida for about one year, I began the 8th grade, started speaking English more comfortably, and began focusing on my passion for science and medicine once again.
(Photo: My mother and I at the airport on the day we permanently moved to the United States.)
As I progressed through high school, I still felt a burning passion for medicine. This ambition drove me to take dual-enrollment classes at Valencia College during my sophomore year. During that time frame, I turned 15 years old, and this is when my mother and I endured domestic violence and had no choice but to live in a shelter home for several months. At the time, the situation appeared insurmountable, but with remarkable resilience, my mother and I felt more motivated and driven to continue working towards achieving our dreams.
Eventually, I finished my Associate's Degree at Valencia College when I turned 18 and transferred to the University of Central Florida to finish my coursework in Biomedical sciences. The events that my mother and I endured years earlier had a lasting impact on me, and I found it increasingly difficult to maintain my focus and succeed in my science courses. Because of this, I made the decision to take a break from school and gain work experience ranging from being a medical scribe, academic tutor, pharmacy technician, behavioral therapist, and at one point, I even worked as an Uber driver.
(Photo: Graduation day at Valencia College.)
After recovering from the hardships of domestic abuse, my mother and I co-founded a non-profit foundation dedicated to assisting victims of domestic violence. We strive to find the best resources for these individuals and have hosted activities and events with the aim of empowering and uplifting women and children who have endured domestic violence. Some of these include going to shelter homes and hosting exercise sessions, massage therapy, make-over sessions, etc. In recent years, our focus has shifted toward donating technical education scholarships for them to obtain an education and gain independence from their abusers.
(Photo: Networking event where I promoted the Restored Women Foundation and our mission.)
After taking a 2-year break from school, there was nothing I wanted more than to go back and continue pursuing my passion for medicine. In July of 2019, I decided to re-enroll at UCF; I knew I needed to work much harder this time to succeed academically. After lots of trial-and-error, the study methods I discovered have also benefitted my classmates. My primary tool for tackling challenging classes is Anki, a computer software that utilizes active recall and spaced repetition. I found that this tool was incredibly effective, so I told my Histology professor (Emily Bradshaw, Ph.D.) about it, and together we're conducting research relating to Anki. My hope is that this tool will transform the way students learn information in upper-level science courses. It has allowed me and other students to understand concepts at a level where we can appreciate the science we are learning rather than simply memorizing facts. To me, that is much more important than obtaining a good grade.
(Photo: My first day working as a medical scribe at Florida Hospital)
I graduated in December of 2021 from the University of Central Florida, where my main area of study was Biomedical Sciences. My goal is to attend medical school to become a pediatric neurologist; this will allow me to advocate for young neurodivergent children diagnosed with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, Tourette's syndrome, dyslexia, etc.
As a person with ADHD, I believe it is crucial to educate parents, teachers, and other medical providers about these disorders. Having worked with neurodivergent children, I believe each child should have a unique, individualized treatment plan rather than a standardized treatment given to all children with the same conditions.
(Picture: Graduation day with my family at the University of Central Florida.)