Hi! I’m Maria Busken and I’m a first year Pre-Respiratory Therapy Major on a premed track. Although I haven’t been at Ohio State long, I’m already in love with everything it has offer. Being a part of Health Sciences Scholars has been such a great opportunity and I’ve made so many friends as a part the indoor soccer team. I hope to attend medical school someday and want to focus on underserved populations. I’ve learned so much already about different barriers to healthcare and am looking forward to learning more about how to break down these barriers.
In high school, I was a part of an incredible program called TapMd, which gave me insight into the wide variety of careers in medicine. Through that program, I’ve heard from a trauma surgeon, a radiologist, a transplant surgeon, a psychiatrist, and a cardiologist. I’ve also seen a kidney transplant and open heart surgery via live video and spent an afternoon at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Simulation Center, even getting to intubate and put an IO (intraosseous infusion) in one of the test dummies. My favorite event, however, was visiting a respite care center for the homeless. I’d never even heard of respite care until that day, and it really opened my eyes to the importance of ensuring complete recoveries for people that may not have a nice place to go home to or people to take care of them. These experiences confirmed over and over my passion for medicine, wherever it may take me.