Dorothy Adu-Amankwah
2020
Springfield, Virginia
If there was one word to describe the essence of who I am and what I aim to do, it would be: serve. Having a heart of service keeps me busy as I am constantly looking for ways to improve the lives of others whether through simple conversations, giving resources and/or time, or leading an organization. When someone smiles or has a brighter day because I invested something in his or her life, that happiness is what makes my moments of happiness. This desire to serve is an aspect of why I am choosing the path of a medical profession. Though medicine doesn’t always “heal” people who are ill, medicine always “serves” peoples. When the burden of empathy and compassion begins to weigh me down, there are mainly two avenues of release that help me: my faith and writing. The organization I have been most consistent in through my four years at Duke is ENC (Every Nation Campus Ministry). A home away from home, I have found a family that has helped me grow stronger in my faith. As a Christian, faith in God and Jesus Christ helps me to maintain peace in stressful times and resilience despite the pain in the world. Secondly, I write poetry to share with others the beauty of words but also as a cathartic form of art. I love beautifully constructed words hence why I am an English major and a creative writing minor. My future career aspiration is to merge these two interests: medicine and writing. This last year, while working on becoming a certified Expressive Writing facilitator in the Bass Connections project I participated in, I discovered the possibility of writing therapy for cancer patients. I am not a traditional Pre-Med student, my interest though rooted in medicine extends to other areas including art and writing. Which is why I applied to the FlexMed program at Ichan (Mount Sinai) Medical School during my sophomore year. Gratefully, I was accepted and I am excited to explore all the intersections of my interests as a FlexMed Scholar at Ichan (Mount Sinai) in New York.
“ Sometimes coming from a lower economic background can lead to lower self-esteem and doubt about your abilities to succeed but in Cardea, I see all these amazing people and the things they are doing and it's like, there is nothing that should stop me from achieving my goal. Reminds me that I am capable of achieving just as much or something even better than someone from a higher economic class. ”