Lily K.

Lily is a 12th grader with a desire to learn how to use computing to develop innovative technologies that will impact disease diagnosis and treatment. She hopes to have a positive impact in the medical field as a physician-scientist. Throughout middle school she took advantage of additional STEM opportunities offered by her school including coding, robotics, and Destination Imagination. From community events and shadowing she learned about how fMRI is being used to understand how the brain works and to diagnose disease. These experiences sparked Lily’s interest in learning more about imaging technologies, mathematical modeling, and computer coding. She has gained over 200 hours of volunteer experience on weekends for St. Luke's Medical Center as a laboratory runner. She is also currently co-president of her school's Girls Who Code Club, and was it's project leader on a runner-up health literacy medical innovation project for the MKE Reverse Pitch competition. Furthering her computer science learning, she participated in the Summer Girls Who Code Self-Paced program with 7 certificates of completion. This summer, she also had the opportunity to intern in the Radiology Research Lab at the Medical College of Wisconsin, contributing to studies focused on advancement in dependable imaging-based biomarkers for predicting survival of patients with brain and prostate tumors. Combining tools of computer science and clinical data she was able to find relevant predictors of patient health. This experience has fueled her curiosity in further research opportunities incorporating technology tools. After school, she is also a competitive distance runner for her school cross country and track team. Additionally she has other interests such as painting and architectural design. Lily plans to attend a science-focused university and then apply to an MD/PhD program to gain additional engineering and coding skills to go along with her medical training. She thinks this training would allow her to make innovations in imaging while helping patients as a radiologist or surgeon. Though she still has a lot to learn she feels that that this career would blend her interests in math, science, coding, and healthcare.