Hello and happy New Year! Sorry I haven’t posted any updates lately; I was preparing for the holidays which took up some of my time. I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing holiday 🙂 I would like to share that I used this winter break as an opportunity to take on a leadership role and mentor younger kids through another program I’m involved in. It is called the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps. I had a lot of fun and I hope I was able to make a positive impact on the younger cadets I was in charge of and had a privilege to mentor. I joined the US Sea Cadets at the age of 10 because my father was US Navy sailor and because I wanted to learn more about the military. I never thought that this program will give me so many experiences and teach me so much about service. I think US Naval Sea Cadets Corps is a really good and valuable program. It does not matter if you want to join the military in the future or not. Every cadet will gain valuable life lessons and unique experiences from the program (community service, teamwork, leadership). You get a opportunity to meet many different and interesting people, cadets and adult volunteers, from all over the United States. You also get a chance to learn many useful skills that you can apply in your every-day life, such as first aid, science and STEM, scuba diving, culinary, etc. and of course teamwork and leadership skills. It also can give you an idea of what you possibly want to do in the future, and moreover how they can serve and improve the community.

For 2026, I have a lot of plans; hopefully, getting myself hands on opportunities to experience and learn more about public health as well as looking for more research opportunities. The research paper I have been working on is very close to being complete, I will post it here once it is finalized and ready for you all to read! Last year, I did a survey on youth awareness of public health. I am planning to complete another research paper regarding this topic during the summer. Additionally, during the summer I will be applying to a few medical research summer camps within my local community and through my high school. One will take place in Costa Rica and is being organized by my school medical program and HOSA! I have never been there before, so I am very excited to learn about local culture, traditions, natural environment, and how they practice medicine. Our group of students also will conduct CPR and First Aid training classes for rural communities. I am very excited about the upcoming summer. I will continue to donate food to my school’s food pantry, but I am starting to brainstorm possible ideas or concepts for a passion project. I have a lot of fun public health related things for 2026 so stay tuned! If you have any ideas as to what else you recommend exploring and looking into during summer 2026, please let me know.