WHY SCIENCE

My love for medicine is due in no small part to my dad. As a young boy I remember following him around the hospital as he made his rounds to patients. It fascinated me how him just walking into the room could bring such big smiles to people's faces--people connected to tubes, pierced with needles, and some barely even able to open their eyes. I want to become a physician because medicine gives people hope, and to me, the one-on-one interaction is priceless.

Anatomy has always been exciting to me. Growing up, I remember dissecting frogs, sharks, and pigs with my dad. Also, somehow, I've been blessed to always get incredible science teachers since elementary school to now college. Their passion for the subject has definitely rubbed off on me.

My desire to combine medicine with journalism was really confirmed the summer of 2014 when I traveled to Kenya where I got to serve at Kijabe Hospital, one of the largest teaching and referral hospitals in East Africa! I went with my dad who volunteered short-term as a GI physician. Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to film a 7-minute mini-documentary/promotional about the hospital for its 2015 centennial.

The experince really captures the heart of what I want to do when I grow up—-become a physician and tell medically-related stories through video.