Laura Lopez has known she wanted to be a doctor ever since she was a teenager helping to care for her aging grandparents in Mexico\u2019s strained health care system, but her path to medicine has been anything but straightforward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMedicine is where I\u2019m supposed to be,\u201d she said. \u201cIt started with my grandparents, but everything I\u2019ve experienced since then has solidified that for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 18, Laura moved to the United States, determined to pursue her dream of becoming a physician\u2014a process that typically takes 10 to 12 years of higher education and post-graduate training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She began her academic journey at a community college in California while working and living with family. To finish her bachelor\u2019s degree, she sold her car to pay for one quarter of classes at a four-year institution, but, faced with prohibitively high tuition costs, ultimately decided to take a year off to work before returning to school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her plans changed when an aunt and uncle in Pullman with ties to Washington State University offered to support her education while she finished her degree at WSU, her first encounter with the power of the Cougar community to rally around students in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWSU is the first place where I learned that building a community and caring for the community really makes people\u2019s lives happier,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While completing her bachelor\u2019s in genetics and cell biology, a mentor with WSU\u2019s Team Mentoring Program<\/a> suggested Laura apply for a research grant in plant biochemistry and molecular biology. Her application proved successful, and she enjoyed the research so much that she decided to stay at WSU to complete a master\u2019s degree in plant genetics, continuing her research and gaining additional academic experience for medical school applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her graduate school experience equipped her with the resilience and resourcefulness that prepared her well for medical school, Laura said, recalling how she once built from scratch a fluctuating light chamber to study plant growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI gained confidence as a scientist while still working on my passion projects,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An interest in research sparked on the Palouse ultimately took her across the world, first to a plant\u00a0biology internship in Germany and later to a neuro-electrical engineering internship at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in Pullman, however, Laura held on to her goal of swapping the lab for the exam room. The WSU Health Professions Student Center<\/a> helped her prepare for medical school applications, providing guidance on studying for the MCAT and creating materials like a statement of purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n