A lot of my family members, a lot of my teachers thought that I would make a really great doctor. I wanted to help people and be a physician and help my, uh, city and my community heal figuratively and physically. I got to my senior year, uh, and I did an internship and I realized that being in a hospital, it just wasn't for me. I had to go back and I had to think about, you know, what was it that I really wanted to do in life? Since I had a background in science and math, I would be a really good math and science teacher. As soon as I talked to that Teach for America recruiter, I knew that was going to be a perfect fit for me. My name is Marcus Howard and I was part of the 2013, uh, teach for America Corps, uh, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Teach for America prepared me to go into the classroom and really build relationships. You can't really teach a student without building a relationship with them. I had a huge impact on why class, but the class also had a huge impact on me. In my first year of teaching, uh, I won middle school Teacher of the year. the year. That was something that really meant a lot to me because my sixth grade class that I had was mixed in with some of the lowest achieving students coming out of the fifth grade compared to their other classes. But by the end of the year, they had the highest growth and some of the best test scores, not just relatively, but just the best test scores than the other classes. That meant that the experiences, the bonds that we built, it really made a difference. My sixth grade class was the class that really taught me how to be a leader. Uh, participated in after school activities. I was a basketball coach. I was going to family dinners. The students and myself became one big family, and I think what that taught me going forward was relationship building is the most important thing in education, then content, then learning, but first comes the relationships. I realized that I wanted to make an impact on a larger level. It was the same thing that was impacting, you know, you know, our communities in education and holding them back in education are the same things that are holding the communities back from experiencing a higher quality of life is lack of resources, lack of transportation, lack of qualified people, racism. I decided to tackle a really important issue, which was health equity. I was really passionate about health equity because I always saw a lot of the research coming out and the statistics coming outta St. Louis about, uh, the high blood pressure rates, the the high HIV rates, the high STD rates, the high chronic disease rates that are disproportionately impacting people of color in St. Louis. But I'm really interested in finding solutions, uh, where I can see people's lives improve. I partnered up with, uh, some friends back home who were healthcare providers, uh, and we started, uh, the first ever radically inclusive, cultural responsive pharmacy in the United States called Greater Health Pharmacy and Wellness, a full retail pharmacy that provides additional services, uh, to really, uh, address the health inequities that exist for people, um, furthest away from opportunity. We wanted to make sure that every FRA fabric of this organization is integrated with equity principles. So no matter what gender you are, no matter what race you are, no matter what sexual orientation you are, no matter what religion you are, no matter what socioeconomic status you are, no matter what language you speak, you come into greater health pharmacy and you get a quality healthcare experience because that is the way that people become healthier. If they trust their provider, they listen to their provider. By the time a student comes into the classroom, they have experienced trauma and it impacts their ability in the classroom. That's the same exact thing that happens when you're in healthcare. By the time a patient comes to you, they've already experienced racism. They've already experienced inadequate providers who talk down to them. They've already experienced not trusting the provider. And so that's why we are really, uh, thankful for our experience with Teach for America really taught me, uh, the value of understanding challenges at a systems level, uh, in being able to solve the root cause of the challenges that people face. The incredible part about my story is that it is a full circle moment because I did end up in healthcare. I did become a doctor, not necessarily a medical doctor, but I have a PhD and, um, I'm helping people at a systems level to make sure that people in my community, uh, get the healthcare they deserve.