The Path from High School to Graduate School - Seize the Opportunity
Here I share my path from high school to graduate school and the small opportunities that had a big impact on my life.
High School to College:
I did not picture myself here when I was in high school— A recent Cornell Master of Public Health graduate with a full-time job in my field. I am living my wildest dreams but the road here was not always easy.
In high school, I knew I wanted to attend a top university not only for the prestige (that was definitely a part of it) but also because I wanted to feel academically challenged. As a result, I put a lot of pressure on myself, making the college application process unnecessarily stressful. I faced a lot of impostor syndrome when it was time to apply and made a last minute decision not to apply to my dream schools because I thought I would be wasting my time.
Opportunity 1: My parents encouraged me to pursue my dreams of attending a top school. My dad talked to me about Cornell, highlighting that it was close to home (which was important to me) and that it was a great school. He said, “There is nothing to lose.” When I got in, I was shocked. I questioned why they accepted me– I had students at my predominately white suburban high school question why I got in as well. I would hear “It’s because she is Hispanic,” “They had to meet their quota.” It was hard to hear these things but I had to remind myself that I worked really hard all throughout high school for this and it’s okay if strangers doubt me but I should have never doubted myself. This was my goal and I deserved this!
College to Graduate school:
I think a misconception when applying to college is that you need to have everything figured out before you get there. So I entered college, like many of my peers did, a biology major on the pre-med track with goals of becoming a doctor, specifically a pediatrician. I was not even good at science in high school but I felt like the only way to make money was to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer. I realized after my first semester that it wasn’t for me- I was miserable. However, I felt that after telling everyone my insanely detailed plans, I would be ridiculed for giving up.
I wish I could tell my younger self that most people are also just figuring it out and that it is okay to not know how you want to spend the rest of your life when you are 17. College is the time to seize every opportunity, to learn more about yourself- what you like and more importantly, what you don’t like.
Opportunity 2: One day I saw a flier for an informational session on a NYC summer internship in health equity. I randomly attended the session, spoke to the director and again doubted if I would get in… I later got accepted into the internship. This random summer internship was the experience that changed my career outlook and illuminated my passion for public health, a field focused on improving the health of a population/community. I was actually working in the community I grew up in, the Bronx in NYC, witnessing so many people who look like me and my family struggle to access quality health care, housing, and food. This was a new field to me. It was a field that managed to provide solutions to problems I have seen all my life and a field that had great career opportunities and work-life balance. Once I got back to campus, I changed my major, enrolled in courses in public health and health equity, and managed to find a way to graduate a year early to start my career in public health in NYC. Even though I planned everything out this time and felt confident, I found myself struggling to get a job… largely due to the pandemic but also due to my lack of experience in this field.
Opportunity 3: Since everything was changing so fast - changing majors in my last year of school and graduating early in a pandemic- I decided to pursue my masters degree in public health. I truthfully never thought I would continue studying after college but I figured if I couldn’t get work experience in public health at least I could get more academic experience. Although graduate school was not in my plans back in high school or even in college, getting my graduate degree was the best decision for me.
At the beginning of this journey, I was so hard on myself and worried about what other people would think of me that I kind of became my worst enemy- doubting myself and convincing myself that I wasn’t good enough. Although it took awhile to stop self-sabotaging, once I let go of that pressure, I was able to really trust the process and I knew that everything would work itself how it was supposed to.
Moral of story (all corny but all true):
Even if you think you can’t do it or even if people think you can’t do it, give it a chance… you never know where it will take you!
Even with a detailed plan, things can always change and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
With faith, hard work and patience, things do end up working themselves in ways you wouldn’t expect.