Stephanie Giannella is a current junior at Montclair State studying Psychology with a minor in Biology, with a passion for medicine and biological sciences. She seems to have developed interest for a career in the medical field from a life changing experience that occurred in her late years of high school. Giannella’s desire was to help others that had gone through similar if not the same experience as her. The Paterson native was afflicted with Graves disease which is a type of Thyroid disorder shortly after learning of a different diagnosis, but in January of 2019, is when that different diagnosis will affect her for the rest of her life. Suddenly, Giannella was hit with unusual symptoms experiencing nausea, excessive thirst, dry mouth, fatigue, and weight loss. Giannella figured these symptoms were just a simple flu until it worsened. Medical help was urgent and Giannella took the steps necessary to determine her prognosis.

The prognosis was shocking to Giannella as she would never have expected this and that was, Type One Diabetes. Giannella learned from medical professionals that it was critical to monitor her diet. Also as an emotional effect of her diagnosis, Giannella experienced mood changes. For Giannella however Type One Diabetes, changed her academic studies from being in a business involved program in high school, she knew there would be no success for her working professionally in a business environment. At 17 years old Giannella awakened to her new passion which was to learn more about her condition and to study how she can help others in her position.

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