This past year was exciting in a completely different way than I had imagined. Instead of going out to restaurants and exploring Cinci with my roommates or spending hours in Langsam cramming for exams with friends, I spent the year at home with my parents. I never expected to be at home for that long after graduating high school but there I was back in my childhood room with boyband posters covering each and every corner. Although it was disappointing to be missing out on a year of the "college experience" I could not be more grateful to spend this year with my family and take care of my mental health. We would go on nightly walks after eating dinner together to take a break from a long day of classes. I also loved eating home-cooked meals, meals that I had missed so much during my freshman year. Although I was at home this year, the extra time from virtual classes gave me the chance to participate in honors experiences. This year was my first time planning a self-designed honors experience. I never thought that I would design my own because it seemed to require a whole other level of creativity, however, when I realized that I had already started on developing a project I decided to turn it into an honors experience. If you've read my 2019-2020 year in review you already know how excited I was to be a part of Refuge-UC. This year, however, I got the opportunity to branch off of that organization and design a curriculum to give refugee students a foundational understanding of the many intricacies of the field of healthcare in hopes that they would be able to apply this knowledge in order to assist their families. This experience has opened up so many doors for me in terms of finding my passion for health education and promotion as well as getting the opportunity to share our findings from this program and expand it to impact as many refugee students in CPS as possible. On another note, this past year I've really focused on narrowing down my commitments to things I'm truly passionate about and finding new opportunities. I wanted to get more involved on campus and decided to apply for a position in the Student Wellness Center as a Peer Educator so that I can learn more about health education and teach other students on campus about important health topics. I also applied to become an honors ambassador because I've loved my experience in the program and it wouldn't have been possible without the help of another honors ambassador who encouraged me to look into it when I was in high school! I'm so excited to start working with these organizations/programs next year and to continue the experiences I've already started this year. Although I'll be back on campus next year, cooking my own meals :(, I hope to continue some of the habits I've developed over quarantine such as going on walks with my roommates and taking care of my mental health. I know it'll be a difficult year with the MCAT and challenging courses but hopefully it will be a fulfilling one as well! 

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