1. Personal Statement/Autobiographical Sketch By Awungjia Foretia Why I want to pursue a career in Pediatrics/Medicine. I chose this career path due to the fact that I love helping children and giving them hopes that they will live for a better tomorrow. My mom who obtained an associate’s degree at PG Community College is now a registered nurse. I see her work every day helping people and I enjoy seeing her work hard to save lives. Hi, my name is Gia Foretia and I am a 17-year old senior at Parkdale High School. I grew up in Maryland and have been living here for the past 15 years of my life. I have two sisters and one brother and I am the oldest out of all of us. I have a passion for science and plan on majoring in Biology in college. I have taken honors 10th and 11th grade English courses and I’m now taking Advanced Placement Biology to gain all the knowledge I can to help me prepare for college. Besides biology, I have a passion for Fashion Design, I am now taking fashion design courses as well, and also hope sometime in the future I would be able to attend an art institute in New York and put my skills to the test. I love sports, my favorite sport is football, and I love watching the games and give anything to be involved in the action. I admire the massive impact and all the scoring touchdowns. I currently play varsity softball for both my 11th and 12th grade academic school years. I enjoy meeting new people and getting involved in a sport that I know I can pursue in college as well. In my spare time, I like listening to R & B, Pop Rock and Country music and also like to read and write. My favorite books are the Harry Potter and Twilight Series and I also love to read “romance” novels. I am a Christian, who attends Saint Mathias Catholic Church every Sunday and I always look up to God for everything. In my past I haven’t had the best relationship with my mom; we have fought our issues out to the point where I have run away a couple of times. Due to these experiences, it had caused me to have a sudden drop in my grades and it led to me into having a very low self-esteem about myself. It made me feel so self conscious about the way I look, and up until now I sometimes feel that I am not beautiful and that I can never be good or succeed at something. I have always been the girl whom anybody notices but yet I realize that I have to live life the best that I can. As I grew up, I realized that my mom only wants what is best for me and I look up to her as my role model. I know that I have a bright future ahead of me and I am willing to take on the obstacles and challenges to achieve it.