Support Bouchra's Medical School Journey & Dream

Update 7/2024: Dear All,

Just wanted to give an exciting update that I've committed to the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC!! I am so happy and excited for this journey and appreciate any contribution or amplification of my story. Thank you all again!

Sincerely,

Bouchra

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Dear friends, family, and everyone who I've crossed paths with along this journey:

My name is Bouchra and I'm so honored and grateful to have been accepted into medical school to begin later this summer/fall of 2024. The final decision has not been made as I weigh these finances, but I am so excited to be attending an MD school in New York, DC, or Connecticut! Since I was a little girl, my dream was always to become a doctor in order to help others and lift up my communities. I am so proud to be able to tell little me that I have turned that dream into a reality and am on the way to becoming a physician-scientist driven to discover solutions that alleviate suffering for the most vulnerable people.

As a first-generation, low-income, eldest daughter of a single mother Algerian immigrant, I have faced extreme challenges throughout my journey to achieve my goals. Despite these odds, I've excelled academically, having attended Northeastern University for undergrad, graduating magna cum laude with an honors distinction in my major of Cellular/Molecular Biology & minor in Global Health, a Gilman Scholar, a Truman Scholar nominee, and with the top honor at Northeastern, the Huntington 100.

While in undergrad, I was selected for a prestigious summer research fellowship at Yale School of Medicine doing cancer research, and spent the rest of my time conducting infectious disease research at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health where I won multiple awards & produced multiple publications on my research. I've been working at Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medicine in NYC since graduating right after the pandemic in 2021 and have been continuing my infectious disease and cancer research since. Further, I was selected for an internship at the HIV/AIDS Section of UNICEF in the United Nations where I contributed to international health policy & programs, and produced/created a internationally renown podcast. All of these experiences, accomplishments, and honors are a testament of how driven and excited I am to make a difference.

Throughout my entire journey, I have not only entirely financed my studies by working multiple jobs to make ends meet beyond my scholarships & loans, but have also supported my family. My mother's recent battle with cancer further exacerbated this, and I gladly helped my family by supporting them with my savings. However, as I prepare for my move and journey throughout medical school, I face the obstacle of being able to afford the cost of living on top of the loans I am already maxing out on for tuition and fees which themself already exceed 250k, but the total cost of attendance is nearly 400k.

I'm turning to the kindness and generosity of others in (and around) my village of community to help alleviate this financial burden and make my dream a reality. It is especially difficult to ask for help during this time with so much suffering happening in the world, but I only do so as I am committed to help alleviate this suffering. I am deeply grateful for any support you can offer, whether it's through a donation (no matter how small), sharing my campaign with your network, or offering words of encouragement.

From the moment I take my Hippocratic Oath this Fall, every time I wear my white coat, and live out my dream every day as a physician caring for patients, I will carry my head up high knowing it is only through my community that I am where I am today. I am so awestruck by your collective belief in my potential to make a difference and am so excited to dedicate myself through medicine to serving others. Thank you all.

Sincerely,

Bouchra Benghomari (Venmo: bouchh)

"And whoever saves one life, it is as if he had saved the whole of Mankind." (Quran, 5:32)