Mikyas Telahun

I grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, surrounded by merchants and traditional weavers working to support their families. My mother is one of those self-made businesswomen who worked most of the time. On the weekends, my siblings and I would go to her shop, the Ethiopian Cultural Cloth Market Center, to assist her. I observed that workers and customers were frequently in poor health, especially the underprivileged weavers with inadequate healthcare. I learned Ethiopia's mortality rate is high due to a lack of sanitation and a physician shortage. As a result, I became intensely interested in biology. I was fascinated by how the human body works nonstop until a person draws their last breath. That inspired me to help the community by pursuing a career that will allow me to make a difference with true devotion and dedication.

My brother was also a great influence on me when it came to pursuing medicine. When I was 12 years old, my brother was attending his second year of medical school in Ethiopia. During that time, I had the opportunity to read his anatomy books, which I found interesting even though I did not fully understand them. During my seventh grade in Ethiopia, I was required to take three science classes in a year by my former middle school, which was beneficial. I decided at that time about whom I wanted to become in the future. I bombarded my brother with questions because I wanted to learn more than what was already in my biology textbook. I also spent considerable time at home watching him rehearse and study. I used to question him to understand more about medicine. In addition, my brother's instruction piqued my interest in the field even more. The older I got, the more curious and motivated I became to learn more about the human body and its functions.

I moved to the United States during my junior year of high school, along with my twin sister, and only a suitcase filled with clothes. The first few months in the United States were challenging and demanding. Life here is very different from life in Ethiopia. I felt like I had to learn everything over again from scratch, but the process taught me to be independent and self-sufficient. Part of the challenge is that I am currently living with my aunt because my parents' jobs are in Ethiopia, which means that, for the time being, my parents are still there, which makes me feel like something is missing. However, even though our living circumstances are not ideal, I work hard every day to make my parents proud since my parents sent me to the United States to pursue a better education and access to better opportunities than in Ethiopia. Even though I now reside on a whole other continent, my desire to become a doctor is still burning like a roaring flame. Much like my brother, I want to devote my time, passion, and energy to learning more about the human body so that I can develop new and innovative medical procedures, combat diseases, and most importantly, save people's lives and provide equitable healthcare to those unprivileged people in my community.