We are proud to announce our 2021 recipients of our Senita Scholarship. This year, we were able to select 4 winners with the support of Omnipod. Each of our winners are living with Type 1 diabetes and we are honored to share their stories with you.
Keep reading to meet our Senita Scholars Winners!
Elisa:
Elisa is pursuing a degree in Economics and her aspirations are to continue her work peer-mentoring individuals with diabetes, while also pursuing a career that intersects education and disability advocacy.
For her senior thesis, she says that she is "crafting a project studying the Muslim American diabetes experience, and how religious identity could potentially affect diabetes care".
She aims to study abroad in Turkey and says that the "knowledge that I would gain here is one that I will utilize throughout my life to better relationship build and understand diabetics in my life who are Muslim, and to better advocate in diabetes spaces for Muslims and immigrants".
Elisa has been such an inspiration to our team, and we are honored to have her as a scholarship recipient!
Nicole:
Nicole is a current undergrad student pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. Her dream is to be able to further research ways to make blood glucose levels and insulin management more controllable and predictable for diabetes.
She says that "as a mechanical engineer, it excites me that I have the skills to help improve products like insulin pumps, that many people use on a daily basis".
The reason Nicole was drawn to mechanical engineering as a major was because "there is always a need for improvement in the products and machines that are used by people. Product users are often the best people to suggest design improvements as well, so I think it would be amazing to have more input from
diabetics into their future medical devices.".
We're proud to have Nicole as part of the Senita family!
Carly:
I can picture myself attending or starting a College Diabetes Network on campus
because advocacy is such a big part of my life. I would love to be able to bring my advocacy skills to my future career.
To make up for the lack of courses, I have dual enrolled in a local university.
Kaitlyn:
Kaitlyn is currently a senior in high school, and has plans to pursue her undergraduate degree in health care policy and eventually a Masters in Healthcare
Administration and a Juris Doctorate to further her education.
She proudly states that," My type 1 diabetes diagnosis definitely did change my life forever, but it has empowered me in the best way possible. Through my unrelenting medical condition, I found my life’s ambition: to ensure a working, equitable healthcare system for everyone living in America, especially for those suffering from chronic conditions like type 1 diabetes".
Kaitlyn works through two specific organizations—the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the Right Care Alliance (RCA)—, and is working to transform America’s healthcare system into one that prioritizes patients’ wellbeing, not profits, to ensure healthcare equity.
Something that we love that she said is that "Type 1 diabetes drives, not defines, me.".
1 comment
When is the window open for The Senita Scholarship? As a Physician Assistant graduate student, I am interested in pursuing Endocrinology but would certainly appreciate any financial assistance. Thank you.