“I plan to be a public health major. In high school I interned at Robert Wood Johnson and we had the opportunity to learn about the different departments at the hospital. One of those was care coordination, and the director [of care coordination] would always talk about the problems that arose when patients who didn’t speak English came in and didn’t have health insurance.
There’s a healthcare disparity for people in low income areas, for those who don’t speak English, and who don’t have insurance. They don’t get the same quality of care because most of the time they can’t follow up or address their problems. It really made me think, ‘hold on, there’s more to this,’ and inspired me to want to dig deeper into the issue.
It’s a very diverse group of people [at Rutgers], especially here in the Honors College. We have people from different schools, different majors, different states, and even different countries. I grew up in New Brunswick my whole life, surrounded by Rutgers, but I never really spent any time on campus. Being here now, it’s a completely different world.
I’d like to be remembered as someone who can bridge the two worlds within our city. There are kids in New Brunswick who never really dream of going to a university like Rutgers – even though it’s in their backyard. I hope I can inspire kids who were in the same position I was in elementary or high school, and show them that it is possible to go here.”
Ezekiel is a freshman majoring in public health with a minor in Spanish and currently lives in the Honors College on the College Avenue Campus.
