How do you hope to bring change to your intended career field? By Elia Sanchez by Elia

How do you hope to bring change to your intended career field? By Elia Sanchez by Elia - June 2020 Scholarship Essay

My ambition has always been to work in assisting people through the medical side of the spectrum. I specifically intend for my career to be in the dental field of work. People want bright and warm smiles, I want to provide high quality as well as fair dental treatments for each patient. I will take my past experiences and future knowledge and integrate it into my career to produce the result of change for the better. This change is to abolish the discrimination of people with special needs, mental health issues, people of color, as well as those who have economical disadvantages.

It disgusts me when I see someone being mistreated or ignored simply for something they have no control over. Coming from a Latino home as well as growing up with a mentally ill grandmother all my life, seeing my grandmother have to experience discrimination because of her illness hurts. Imagine coming home to see your grandmother with bruises all over herself because she managed to beat herself up with a floor mat that she rolled up. Only this was not an imagination, this was reality. My mother frantically getting my grandmother ready to go to the hospital, we jump into the car and rush over. On our way my mother is asking why she beat herself up, we find out that she hallucinated being raped. My grandmother's illness consists of hallucinations, hearing voices, and paranoia on top of that. As a child, you expect that going to a hospital is a place that will help treat people in need, but this experience was much different. The nurses were not helping but instead, they were staring and laughing. Trained nurses that are supposed to provide care are snickering. The lack of knowledge and compassion these healthcare providers had during our situation was clear. They ended up sending us home with the explanation that they did not know how to help her. This experience was a complete slap in the face and a strong sting to the heart. I do not want anyone to ever experience that kind of “help”.

I aspire to become a healthcare worker that people from all different backgrounds can come to and expect to receive the fair and high-quality care they deserve. Change is long overdue. Discrimination in the health care field is evident, it will take an abundant amount of work to correct and educate on this way of performing care, but I am up for the challenge of contributing to a positive change.