Sage Lincoln - New Hampshire Mensa Scholarship Winner

I promptly changed my major to public health and placed a deeper focus tying my academic goals with my personal interests. After completing a minor in biology with my existing credits, I picked up a second minor in Gender Studies. Through this I was able to learn more about inequities present in society. I dove deeply into extracurricular activities in my spare time, becoming the president of a feminist group that allowed me to help educate the student body on reproductive health issues and becoming the vice president of PRIDE which allowed me to use my voice to advocate for other members of the LGBT+ community. I became a member of LGBTU from Freedom for All Americans which worked to create and advocate for non-discrimination protections for trans and non-binary individuals in the state of NH. Watching legislation that I dedicated much of my time toward become law was a monumental part of my professional development.

After getting my B.S. in Public Health, I decided to continue my education in EMS by attending NHTI for my Associates degree in Paramedic Emergency Medicine. While I had been working full time in EMS throughout my degree, I wanted the ability to better care for my patients. Not only that, but being a paramedic will allow me to better provide for myself financially while continuing my academic and professional goals. With this in mind, I will have approximately 6 years of clinical experience with patients by the time I apply to medical school. In my professional experience, both prehospital and in emergency rooms, I am able to see how misinformation and stereotypes negatively impact the LGBT+ community and introduce bias into their care.

As I became more involved in the community that taught me to love myself for who I am, I learned more about the specific and unique issues that LGBT+ individuals face in trying to access medical care. I realized that because the unique challenges that this population faces can be clearly traced back to societal discrimination, I needed to further my professional understanding of public health in order to become a doctor that can provide the best care for my patients in the future. With this in mind, I've decided get my Masters of Public Health. Once my MPH is complete, I feel that I willhave a better understanding of how to look at my patients as a whole instead of just their symptoms, which will allow me to better address the root cause of their issues and help them become better advocates in their own healthcare.

While the journey I am on is long, I am confident in my ability to secure my future as a physician and intend to do so with the betterment of my future patients in mind.