Rezwana Islam

I think my success is because of my passion for health equity. I really want to do something in the future where I'm able to take a lot of my projects globally and help those in underrepresented communities. This is very important to me because I'm from Bangladesh, and when I would visit there, it's a developing country, and there'd be so many people who just weren't able to receive proper healthcare and treatments. Within my own family, I have family members that suffer a lot. Recently, one of my cousins just passed away, and it was because they weren't able to receive proper treatment for cancer. There are so many neurological disorders and diseases and health problems going on in developing countries, and a lot of them aren't able to afford proper treatment or receive care, especially those in rural communities, because they can't even have transportation to even find a hospital. So I really want to do something with that in the future. Witnessing how there's so much lack of healthcare accessibility and treatments, and how expensive the cost is in Bangladesh, really motivated me to want to do something within my own community and try to grow this globally.

I think the best career advice was from my mom, actually, and she told me to just continue persevering through the challenges that I face, because they'll help me grow, and even though I'm facing these challenges, I'm still learning through them. I think just continue persevering.

I would say take initiative and work towards what you believe is right and what you think is important. And also, don't let what other people say get to you, because I feel like having people spread negative thoughts and stuff like that around you really unmotivates you to want to do something. I feel like keep your head up and just constantly work.

I think challenges would be that it's hard to find opportunities, especially when you're a first-generation person, so I'm first generation in my family to go to college and stuff, and so I feel like there is definitely a huge gap in opportunities that I would receive in comparison to other people, and there's a huge gap in the knowledge. Sometimes there's questions that I might not even be able to ask because I don't have that knowledge to even ask those questions.

I think being able to work in a team is very important, and also being able to communicate well, and also hearing others' responses, so it's not just one person talking the whole time, giving their ideas. I feel like it's important to ask others for their opinions, especially people who are quiet, because sometimes they might just be shy, or they might be afraid to speak up, and I feel like that's super important to involve everyone.