By: Amna Syed
"Early in life, I knew I wanted to be a doctor. While I was growing up, the career of a neurosurgeon called out to me, having to study medicine became a dream. It wasn’t until my freshman year when I realized I wanted to take a bigger step in continuing my career. Starting my freshman year, I took more action in helping to turn Howard into a better school by joining the Love My Life club. It helped me realize how to not only love my own life, but to help others love theirs too. Our club helped make stress balls for students during the finals, make thank you cards to teachers, and help make confidence post-it notes for students to remind them that they are loved. In sophomore year I continued Love My Life, but I joined Delta Scholars, in which I volunteered and learned how to be a lady at workshops, and Global Education, where I learned how to raise awareness and money for education in developing countries such as Middle Eastern/Asian countries and African Countries. I knew this would look good on my applications for college. I was always interested in joining ARL because I knew it was an opportunity to get started on my career as soon as possible. During the end of my sophomore year, I asked my counselor to put the Health Professions Academy at ARL on my schedule. It was one of the best decisions in my life. There, I learned a variety of medical terminology and ethics/practices as well as doing human anatomy and physiology. Although there were many benefits of being in this academy, the best was being first aid certified. Knowing that I was able to help save others already made me feel powered as a young woman. In my senior year, out of all of the professions in the Health Professions Academy, the Emergency Medical Technician Academy (EMT) seemed to be the most interesting. It was then I knew that I did not want to become a neurosurgeon, but in fact a Physician Assistant. School was tiring enough for me, and I knew to become a neurosurgeon I would have to get my bachelors and then continue to go to medical school. I settled on becoming a Physician Assistant knowing I could go in the field I want to go in but also be done with school early. In Howard, I joined SGA so my voice could be heard, as I knew students were complaining about the spirit of Howard being too dull. I helped increase awareness by pitching in ideas for Homecoming week and how to make Pep Rallies more fun. In EMT, I learned basic life support, more medical terminology, advanced anatomy, CPR, first aid, and how to treat trauma victims. I used these skills in the field when I volunteered to work at the Fire Department, also completing my hours for the class as well as taking and passing a practical and written exam. With this, I was licensed and nationally registered as an EMT. Starting to think about college, I chose the University of Baltimore County as my first choice of college due to the fact that I was offered a scholarship and they had a very good biology program. This college was also instate, which helped a lot because I did not have to commute very far. I chose UMBC for all of these reasons, but the top reason being that all their academics are challenging and that is what they are known for. In college, I especially struggled to study because I did not have to study much in high school. The classes I took were easy in the sense that I had to pay attention in class to know and understand what I would be tested on. In college, though, I have to study to remember what I was taught in class and know how to use what I learned on the exams. This made my social life hard to access due to the fact that I am always home making sure I am doing better in school. My social life was better in high school because it was much easier to access. Today, I am proud to say that I am a proud and happy college student and I will become a Physician Assistant in the future."
Amna's Connection:
My biggest connection to the subject is that she is my cousin from my father’s side of the family. Aside from that, she is a role model to me. She is the first girl in my father’s side of the family to go to an American University. I am more than proud of her accomplishments of being a Pakistani American woman. Although me and my dear cousin differ in our career choices, I feel a connection to her choices of taking action to pursue her career as early as possible. Similar to Hareem, I took ARL, but instead of studying medicine I desire to study law. The career academy I took at ARL is Homeland Security and Emergency Management. In this academy, the class studies different types of terrorisms and historical evidence that helps justify terrorist acts. We also evaluate reasons why terrorist attacks occur. We not only look at terrorism, but in fact take a look at emergencies that may occur at parades, concerts, sports games, etc. One of the benefits of my class is that we have taken a tour of the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. and gone to the National Law Enforcement Museum. Another benefit was that I, along with most of the girls in my academy joined the Cybersecurity academy in a Sisters-in-Stem program at the National Security Agency. There, the girls had a discussion with military women on women empowerment as well as giving background on what the agency does and what roles us students could have in that Agency. Starting second semester of my Junior year in high school and until the end of senior year, my teacher has taught us a course named Geographic Informations Systems, in which we learn how to map data such as locations for atomic bombs and crime data from different parts of the world. At the end of my senior year, I am to take an ESRI and STARS exam to prove my knowledge of my academy. At Howard, Similar to Hareem’s joining of extracurricular activities, I took World History AP and the class Law and the Citizen to further understand not only the history of the United States but in fact the History of all other nations in the world. I hope to go to George Washington University and my goal is to double major in Criminal Justice and International Relations and Affairs. My cousin and I share the same talent of speaking a foreign language, which is very helpful for my career, and hopefully helpful in hers as well. Overall, I believe my cousin and I can become two successful young women, both graduating from Howard High School and help not just Howard, but the world become a better place to live in.
