Taekwondo, painting and science don’t seem like complementary endeavors.

But they are for Vrushali Patel, a Discovery Canyon High School senior who finds inspiration and purpose in the intricacies of each.

“I pay attention to details and form — brush strokes, competitive kicks, clarifying experiments.”

She was first attracted to painting as a child in India, where every Sunday she rode her bike to art class. “I drew pictures of my dad working on his laptop or flowers in our garden.”

Recently her brush strokes helped feed the hungry. Her paintings were auctioned at a fundraiser where her father works. The proceeds benefited Care and Share.

But using her art that way was scary, she said. She had to get over the idea that people would not like her or want something done by a teenager.

Many of her acrylic paintings depict Colorado mountains or religious deities from her native India. Over time, she figures her $2,000 in donations translated into 17,000 meals.

Like creating brush strokes on an empty canvas, she says, she has worked hard to create her competitive attacks in Taekwondo. Describing how she competed in a state championship, she wrote, “My heart pounded, my legs were trembling, my hands were sweating in my gloves, I was drowning in thoughts of a gold medal.” She added, “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated. She kicked very strong and very fast.”

Patel held her own during the match, concentrating on intricate scoring strategies and vanquishing negative thoughts. She led 3 to 1 with 27 seconds left. But another powerful kick by her opponent to her abdomen threw her to the floor.

She lost the gold medal and felt “dark clouds of sadness.” But on reflection she realized the loss could not cover up all the hard work she had done to get to that point of winning the second place silver medal.

It was another dark moment that propelled her to choose medicine as a career. As a child, she read over and over a book that had topics like what happens when you hiccup and how ears help your balance. She played with doctor toy sets, and later in high school, dissected frogs and found “the depths of the human body intriguing.”

Her counselor, Mitchell Burke, a biomedical science instructor, said that she is one of the most exceptional and motivated students he has taught in 21 years.

He noted she is adept at skills that most don’t know much about, if anything, such as restriction enzyme digest, multiplex polymerase chain reaction and bacterial formation. She is an expert in the use of a compound light microscope, thermal cycler technique and DNA extraction, and expertly designs experiments and analyzes scientific data.

It was two years ago that her career decision was cemented. She and her family were visiting her grandfather in India when he got deathly sick. “When we got to the hospital, I wanted to be with him. I felt trapped in the cage of the waiting room.” Sometime after midnight, she said, “It hit me. We had to trust the doctor. Doctors are our hope.”

Her grandfather recovered. But the incident did not leave her. She pondered how not everyone has access to health care.

“The need to be healed is universal.”

She also sees how medicine must be much more than just the science.

”I want to be the doctor who cares. One who understands. One who reassures. One who heals.”

Discovery Canyon Campus High School

College Plans: New York Institute of Technology

Parent (s): Parag and Parul Patel

Other: NAM 2019 All-American Miss City Queen for Colorado Springs; First Place in Biomedical Debate HOSA State Leadership Conference; Lincoln Douglas Debate Champion

Vrushali PatelBESTBRIGHTEST_Logo_2020