Hello, my name is Alyssa DeMatteo. I am from New Castle, Pennsylvania, a small city about an hour north of Pittsburgh. I am a first year student here at The Ohio State University, majoring in pharmaceutical sciences, hoping to eventually minor in psychology. Coming into my first year, I am also a part of the EAP (Early Admissions Pathway) Program that is through the College of Pharmacy. While in this program, I will graduate not only from the scholars program, but also from the honors program. Being in this program, it allows me to automatically matriculate into pharmacy school here on campus.
Ever since I was twelve years old, I have wanted to pursue a career in pharmacy. I attended a career day at my school when I was in sixth grade and one of the three careers I got to hear about was pharmacy. The instant I heard about what a pharmacist does and how they contribute to the greater good of society, I fell in love. I knew at that moment that for the rest of my life, I wanted to help people. With this career in mind, I want to specialize in the mental health/mental illness aspect of pharmacy. I want to not only raise awareness for mental illnesses, but also rid of the generalizations that surround these diseases.
When I was fifteen years old, I began to go through bouts of depression and social anxiety. It was hard for me to just get out of bed, having absolutely no clue what was going on inside my head or how to deal with it. I never shared this with anyone, which means that I never got help with this problem. I have noticed how it changed my life, how I would rather lay in my bed all day long than go sit in a room full of people. There are always people that make fun of illnesses such as these, making generalizations, saying that these people that suffer are just “acting” or “pretending” to get attention. It bothers me that we live in a world where things like mental health problems are considered a joke instead of a serious matter. I have been suffering with these problems for the past three years, and hearing the things people say about these serious issues makes me want to change the entirety that surrounds them. I want to bring that awareness to people too oblivious to realize what is actually going on. I want to be able to bring that comfort and help to people who need it most, something that I craved for so long. Pursuing a career in pharmaceutical sciences will allow me to achieve these goals I have set for not only myself, but for the rest of society.
The STEM EE scholars program is all about giving back to the community, about providing knowledge and education to those who need it most. That was one of the main reasons I applied into this program. I have always had a love for volunteering, for giving my time to something far more important than some of the trivial things I spend my time worrying about on a day to day basis. Knowing that I would be able to combine my love for learning and helping into one, I knew that the STEM scholars program was a perfect fit for me. We live in a world where some things are valued over education, that children just need good test scores to succeed in life. I would love to be able to show someone how to fall in love with learning, and how knowledge and understanding is much more important that doing well on standardized tests. This service will help prepare me for my desired field, allowing me to gain experience in different scenarios and different types of emotions and actions. Being a part of the STEM EE scholars program will change both my life and my education for the better, learning how to appreciate my education and everything that comes my way.