“I majored in dietetics at the University of Delaware and then got my M.S. in health promotion. I originally wanted to go the Registered Dietitian route, but health promotion incorporates so many other aspects of health. I realized that I appreciate nutrition, but there were so many health topics that I wanted to have a broader perspective on.

I was looking for a summer internship while pursuing my graduate degree and heard about a fellowship opportunity with Westside Family Healthcare. It literally sounded like everything that I was good at and wanted to do. It was a lot of program planning and event planning, which I had a lot of experience in during undergrad because I was on the Cultural Programming Advisory Board (CPAB at UD).

My second summer at Westside was online because of COVID, so that was different than what I was used to, but I still had a lot of experiences with the health information area. I got to run their social media accounts, designed flyers and worked on how to reach the community with health information specifically. There's so much that people probably don't know that can help them in their daily health, help them to grow or just take better care of themselves. I enjoyed being able to disseminate that information and provide resources.

Long-term, I want to do something to help larger communities and make an impact in those same ways that Westside has done. For now, I'm looking to get back into the community event planning or fundraising space.

You know how you just have things that when you see them, your heart kind of hurts a little bit when you think about whatever it is? For some people, it’s animals, it’s nature, the environment, the elderly, the list goes on. But for me, that's how I feel about seeing that there's so many areas that we can help people in, but also where we can empower people to then help themselves. That's what I am most passionate about and see myself helping most with as time goes on.”