When choosing Stony Brook, I couldn't help but be excited. Because while other students have conversations of when are you going to college, or where are you going to go to college, my conversation was IF you're going to go to college.  

So having a school like Stony Brook view me not as an applicant, not as a number, but really highlight things that I wrote in my essay, I was able to view myself as a part of a larger community. Stony Brook really took the time to make sure that I felt like I was welcomed into a community of scholars, of researchers, and a place where I could really be myself — growing and going to build a better future for myself — that no other school gave me.  

What I’ve loved most about Stony Brook is the family aspect it was able to provide through all of its programs. I came in as an educational opportunity (EOP) student, meaning that I already had a cohort of 100 friends because of our summer academy. After that, I was a part of CSTEP and I was able to find not only STEM majors but other people that I could confide.  

I was able to find my own community and my tribe that kept pushing me to go forward. I had a mentor who graduated in three years with his bachelor's and then in one year he completed his master's in chemistry. Having a mentor showing you that the impossible is something that's meant to be challenged, especially for someone that looks like me, was my biggest push.    

I've been able to not only change my life, but the lives of other kids, and that's what's been most important to me. I'll never stop giving back to EOP, I'll never stop giving back to health science.

Stony Brook not only allowed me to reach my dream, reach my full potential, but it also allowed me to build a new limit for what my potential can be, let me exceed it and now find the next goal. This is what I was meant to do in my life.