Sakura Horiuchi ’19, a chemistry major at Rhodes College, was recently selected as a 2018 recipient of the BlueCross Power of We Scholarship. The scholarship, funded by the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation, awards $10,000 each to three outstanding minority students pursuing careers in the health care field.
BlueCross BlueShield established the scholarship to “help create a more diverse health care workforce reflective of Tennessee communities.”
“I think it is so important for businesses, especially health care service providers, to embrace and support diversity to improve their workplace and field,” Horiuchi says. “I’m glad to see a large company like BlueCross BlueShield holding those values. I still believe there is lots of work to be done to improve diversity and inclusion in the health care field.”
Horiuchi, who has plans to become a surgeon, worked as an intern for Methodist University Hospital and is now employed as an administrative assistant for a plastic surgeon at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
“I have wanted to be a doctor since I was in third grade. My aspirations to work in health care have come a long way from being a dream, to a goal, to a reality,” Horiuchi says.
She adds that throughout her time at Rhodes, her vision for being a doctor and the type of values she wants to encompass as a health care provider have become clearer.
“Overall, no matter what specialty I end up in, I hope to become an inclusive and caring doctor who is able to truly listen to each individual,” she says.
Horiuchi was honored in a ceremony held on Aug. 3 on the campus of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. She will attend George Washington School of Medicine & Health Science in the fall of 2019.