Kristen Springer is from Windsor, Connecticut and has a Barbadian heritage. She graduated from the Metropolitan Learning Center magnet school in Bloomfield, Connecticut and will major in cognitive neuroscience at UConn with the ultimate goal of becoming a neurologist. Her interest in the health professions was sparked by three events; the performance of her mother’s surgery by a doctor who inspired confidence, her personal doctor’s willingness to explain things multiple times, and a health professional’s snap judgment that Kristen wouldn’t make it as a doctor. These events have given Kristen the drive to share hope and confidence, patience and knowledge, and to instill ambition in her patients and students.