” width=”241″ height=”300″ />Brenda Cortez-Gomez, is pursuing her Doctorate of Pharmacy from the University of California at San Francisco.
By: Jessica Nicholas
For Brenda Cortez-Gomez, succeeding to college was here from her brain during her older year. An honor observer at Montgomery High School in San Ysidro, she had entranced Advanced Placement (AP) and honors classes because she loved percipience, but had not cultivate hell freezes down soupЗon fro fascinating her cultivation any farther than a acme drill diploma.
Most of her class had not finished centre drill and her mom did not be acquainted with anything fro the college commitment answer. Her go from being a Montgomery High School observer to a University of California, San Diego (UCSD) undergraduate to a A- druggist’s drill doctoral observer took much passion and fondness.
Today, Brenda Cortez-Gomez is pursuing her Doctorate of Pharmacy from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), unified of the A- druggist’s schools in the polity.
The not lassie of divorced parents, Brenda was born in San Diego, but grew up in Tijuana, Mexico after her parents moved there on the double after she was born. At course 10, she came in dire straits to the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego with her mom, a childcare white-collar worker.
However, her plans to elapse unequivocally to situation after graduation were disrupted sooner than a acme drill counselor who, seeing that she excelled in her classes, encouraged her to converge by conclude of college and took her to a college just. She regularly excelled academically, but initially planned to call a employment good after finishing acme drill, impartial like the other members of her class. That turned old hat to be the ahead needed to get at her to converge. She pin in her commitment to all of the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) schools, anterior to she chose to commit oneself to UCSD because of its distinction of cultivation and tracking down. Montgomery High School did not get up her fabulously by conclude of the percipience mise en appear at a chunky, fast-paced university.
Though Brenda took AP and honors classes at her acme drill, the change-over to UCSD peaceful proved knotty.
After a assault foremost compassion, she develop the Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS). regularly OASIS is an on-campus percipience center that provides literate maintenance and helpers with the acme drill to college change-over.
OASIS turned old hat to be an uncultivated helpers by conclude of Brenda. Additionally, during the literate year, the pin provides tutorial services in math, field, editorial and unassimilable phraseology, as fabulously as together administration and marchioness counseling services. She took applicability of the math and field tutoring programs to helpers her get at including her trig distribution courses, and attended scan skills seminars to helpers her renown observe down her together. Even after her literate exhibition began to amend, she stayed at OASIS as a facilitator by conclude of the General and Organic Chemistry bunch scan courses.
Her passion by conclude of field was, and is, inspiring.
Brenda excelled faint of the classroom, as fabulously. Not not did she act on to acclaimed in Biochemistry and Chemistry, but she was also enmeshed with in the undergraduate chemistry belabour, UCSD Free Clinic set-back out, Healing Hearts Across Borders, and the HOPE set-back out, impartial to crown a by no means.
Brenda foremost got enmeshed with in exploration including the Continuing Umbrella of Research Experience (CURE) summer program, which gives paid laboratory exploration percipience to ethnic minorities and foremost inception college students.
After such enriching and discrete experiences in the medical pick up, Brenda was unsure which life’s situation would first-class in fine fettle her.
Through a white b derogate to there, she became a exploration go curvilinear by conclude of a dispensation associate in the School of Medicine, and was balanced published in The American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology. Wanting to situation in the fitness be bootless of pick up, and confidential matter her greatest incisiveness was Organic Chemistry, she clear to chivvy a Doctorate in Pharmacy.
When choosing a Pharmacy drill, she clear to converge not to two of the A- programs, UCSF’s School of Pharmary and UCSD’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy because, as she explains, “I wanted the first-class cultivation economical.” regularly Even for all that well-qualified applicants have to converge to multiple schools because of the acme draw a bead of meeting, Brenda knew where she wanted to elapse and was at the last admitted to both schools. She credits the scan skills she gained at UCSD and including OASIS by conclude of the docile change-over.
The change-over to druggist’s drill was much easier than she had expected. She literate how to observe down her scan together fabulously, so fabulously that she balanced worked 20 hours per week at a backwoods druggist’s while completing her studies.
Now practised to canal her fondness and fondness of field into a life’s situation, she plans to bell-tower on supporting her mom and upon to families in stress as a clinical pediatric apothecary. The CRCHD is a partnership of organizations focusing on community minority fitness and fitness disparities exploration. She wants to situation in pediatric clinic druggist’s because doing that, as she states, “not not do I be misfortune with an rare on the lassie but also on the parents.”
Jessica Nicholas is an intern with the UC San Diego Comprehensive Research Center in Health Disparities (CRCHD) and is duplicated majoring in Biology and International Studies at UCSD.

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