Edlawit Gorfu

Edlawit Gorfu is a junior Neurobiology & Physiology major with a minor in Disability Studies. She has lived in Ethiopia, Sweden, California, and Virginia before eventually landing in Maryland. Despite moving around a lot, her love for medicine remained constant. In the future, she hopes to use her knowledge to bring solutions to illnesses that disproportionately affect underserved communities. Throughout her academic career, she has been involved in medicine in many ways, through conducting HIV research at the National Institutes of Health, interning at University of Alabama's School of Medicine, and working as a Certified Nursing Assistant at a rehabilitation center. On campus, she works as a Community Assistant at Pyon-Chen Hall and is the Co-Director of Programming for UMD's Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program. She has also conducted research in the PSYC department and taught as an Undergraduate Learning Assistant for a genetics course.

Being a Community Assistant opened many doors for her, allowing her to develop her professional skills early on in her career. Due to the hardships that the COVID-19 pandemic brought, she deviated away from her expected four-year plan. However, receiving this scholarship alleviated a lot of the financial stress that came with trying to stay on track to graduate. Her academic progress is important to her; she highly values her education. She is fortunate enough to be able to attend a university such as UMD and be a part of the Department of Resident Life, a department that has worked to minimize her financial burdens, allowing her the opportunity to fully enjoy her college experience.