At just 13 years old, Alena Analeigh is making a name for herself.
The teenager recently made history as the youngest Black person to be accepted at a medical school in the United States. And this isn’t the first time she’s caught people’s attention.
Last year she was accepted into Arizona State University’s engineering program at 12 years old with dreams to work at NASA. But a volunteer trip to Jordan made her change her mind.
While Alena has been homeschooled for awhile, she told Forbes in October 2021 that she did attend traditional school for some time. Her mother pulled her out of school after a rude comment from her principal.
“I started in a regular school, but my mother pulled me out when I was seven, because my principal told me that I couldn’t get all A’s because of my skin color,” Alena said. “It hurt, but it also made me determined. It convinced me that I could—and would—prove them wrong by getting all As.”
She took advantage of being homeschooled, and within a few years, Alena, who was previously told she wouldn’t excel, graduated high school and was ready to apply for college.
Alena was accepted into ASU’s engineering program where she planned to study astronomical and planetary sciences and chemistry.
She dreamed of landing a job at NASA.
During summer 2021, the pre-teen interned at NASA.
“I had an internship with NASA and actually got to go to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which has extremely large replicas of the actual rovers that went to Mars,” she said. “I was so excited.”
And while she was one step closer to achieving her ultimate dream of building rovers for NASA, she learned she had another passion: viral immunology.
“It actually took one class in engineering, for me to say this is kind of not where I wanted to go,” she told 12 News.“I think viral immunology really came from my passion for volunteering and going out there engaging with the world.”
After realizing her dream was no longer to work at NASA, but instead in healthcare, she applied for medical school. Upon her acceptance she became the youngest Black person to be accepted into medical school in the United States.
“What I want from healthcare, is to really show these underrepresented communities that we can help that we can find cures for these viruses,” the teen founder of Brown STEM Girl said.
The teen will attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine.
If all goes as planned, which there’s no reason it shouldn’t with someone as determined as Alena, she will become a doctor when she’s 18 years old.
What an incredible achievement! You are such an inspiration, Alena. Keep up the awesome work.
Please share to congratulate Alena and encourage her on her journey to becoming a doctor.
