Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, I’ve always called the Blue Ridge Foothills home. I graduated from Eastside High School in 2021 and from Clemson University in May of 2025 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Language and International Health. Coming from a family with a deep appreciation for the school and its community, my dream was always to be a legacy and attend Clemson University. I discovered the Language and International Health program as a sophomore in high school during a class project. My high school Spanish teacher was an amazing woman, and she opened my eyes to the incredible ways that speaking Spanish could bridge gaps between individuals. My senior year of high school, I was president of the Spanish Honors Society, and a large portion of our outreach was done in the community. As I served the Latinos in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina that year and the following summer, I came to realize how big of a need there was for education and access to healthcare in that population.
 

One of the most formative experiences I’ve had during college has been spending my summers working at an overnight youth camp in Toccoa, Georgia. I have been developed as a leader there, but I have also learned about the importance of pursuing excellence in work. Pine Cove camps emphasize working to the best of your abilities and striving to bring campers and staff the best experience possible. Pine Cove has provided me life-long friends, mentorship, personal, and spiritual growth, on top of transferable skills: persistence through grit, optimism, expanding my problem-solving skills, widening my relational bandwidth, and refining my mindset to be others-focused.

 

During my time studying abroad in Spain, I interned at a clinic for people with the chronic disease known as Multiple Sclerosis. It was humbling to see brilliant and capable men and women fight to keep their daily life functions. I became especially good friends with one particular patient, and we would chat during his physical therapy session as he rode on the clinic’s peloton. 

 

Another aspect of my time in Spain was the all-together bewildering experience of being completely surrounded by Spanish speakers with little to no English knowledge. Communication was bumpy and slow on my part, which frustrated me to no end. I wanted so badly for the Spaniards to acknowledge that I was an intelligent person with a deep inner monologue. It hit me about halfway through my time there that this is the case for many Latinos in the United States, particularly in healthcare. This was another stake in the ground for me where I began to truly grasp the importance of cultural humility as a healthcare provider. 

 

I am grateful for my upbringing in my beloved hometown, as well as how my parents emphasized the importance of acting with integrity. Both my parents are extremely hard workers and devoted to each other as well as their children. My childhood was wonderful, and yet I spent a year and a half on food stamps when I was a young girl. I had no idea that my parents were struggling to make ends meet during that season of their lives until I was much older. Once they got back on their feet, they immediately began to give the extra time and resources they had to people in our community who needed it. They treated the surplus they had worked hard for as something that was not even their own. And because of this generosity, I have come to understand that integrity isn’t just about honesty—it’s about consistency of character, especially when no one’s watching. My parents never used their struggles as an excuse to stop doing what was right; instead, they quietly lived out the values they believed in, which taught me that integrity often looks like quiet faithfulness and sacrificial generosity.

 

Excellence. Humility. Integrity. These three words found their way into my short but meaningful list of core values. Pursue excellence in work. Serve our neighbors humbly. Treat each other with integrity.