A Brienza Scholar's Thanks

    Etin-Osa Osa '09

With the excitement of Match Day and Graduation still a very recent memory, I am filled with many emotions. I am excited to enter the next step of my journey toward becoming a physician, and I eagerly await my first day as an intern. But most importantly, I am grateful to everyone who has made my medical education possible.

My name is Etin-Osa Osa, and it has been a long and amazing journey to the present day. I moved to the United States from Nigeria with my family when I was six years old. At the age of eight, I knew that I wanted to become a doctor. After graduating in the top 5% of my class at State College Area High School as an AP Scholar, I went on to Howard University, where I graduated in three years, having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. I was a Finalist for the National Achievement Scholarship, and I received the NIH’s Fogarty International Research Fellowship to conduct hepatocellular carcinoma research at the Hôpital Paul-Brousse in Paris, France.

I very clearly remember my interview day at NYU School of Medicine, an unbelievable four years ago. The Office of Admissions welcomed me warmly and eagerly answered my questions. NYU’s distinguished academic record and heritage of superior biomedical research, coupled with its warm reception to incoming students, fed my desire to join NYU’s rich legacy. However, the tuition for a private medical school like NYU School of Medicine was daunting from a financial perspective. Attending NYU seemed merely wishful thinking until I received a portion of the Raymond J. Brienza Scholarship Fund as part of my financial aid package. It was a great relief—not just for me, but for my parents’ credit cards—to know that the financial burden would be somewhat eased. I now look forward to continuing my training here at NYU as an intern in the Department of Medicine and a resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has supported me. I especially want to thank the donors to the Raymond J. Brienza Scholarship Fund, whose generosity and kindness have made my tenure here at NYU School of Medicine possible. The knowledge and experience I have acquired have given me the foundation necessary for me to make a difference. I am grateful to God, to my parents— who have always set an honorable example for me—and to NYU School of Medicine.