STEM Career Essay Example

Cysticercosis. Borborygmi. Bradykinesia. Many 16-year-olds might not even know how to pronounce those words, but I can tell you not only how to pronounce them, but exactly what they mean. Medical terms, hospitals, blood, doctors, they all excite me. I spend every Saturday volunteering at Lake Forest Hospital and learning new medical terms.

My love for science and human anatomy started my first year of high school in biology class. I suddenly went from someone who hated science to someone who loved everything about it. There was rarely a day that I went to class with any emotion except excitement to learn new things. The dreaded pig dissection was the opposite of gross to me. My lab partners made me do all the dissecting, which most teenagers would complain about, but not me. When we learned about the human body and the way it works, I would almost explode from excitement.

I am now a 16-year-old girl with a brain full of medical terms who spends weekends practicing sutures and phlebotomy, reviewing medical terms, and volunteering at hospitals. Though the classes and volunteering are fun and exciting, my favorite healthcare experience was shadowing a nurse, Marilee, at the Rush University Medical Center. When a patient began seizing only a few feet in front of me, nurses and doctors swarmed the room. Seeing doctors yelling out orders and nurses administering medicine inspired me. While my time spent with Marilee was brief, she became a huge role model to me for her kindness, passion for medicine and medical knowledge, but my biggest role model is my grandfather, Dr. David Nahrwold.

My favorite part about visiting my grandparents has always been sitting on my with my grandpa and listening to his stories. He talks about how he went from studying in medical school to being the chair of surgery at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. I get overwhelmed with excitement when he tells me stories of what it was like being a surgeon. He teaches me medical terms that most adults wouldn’t even begin to know how to say. I learned how to say and define idiopathic non-thrombotic cytopenic purpura when I was in third grade. These are only a few of my personal experiences that have led me to my interest in and passion for healthcare.

Through healthcare I hope to help innocent people who are being affected by incurable diseases like cancer, Alzheimers, and heart disease. Whether I would be resecting brain tumors, drawing blood, or simply comforting a patient, I am deeply passionate about caring for others in big and small ways. Through the Discovery program I not only look forward to STEM career exposure, but supporting others through community service while gaining life and leadership skills.