By age 14, I wanted to be a missionary doctor. My experience working in communities in Honduras and Haiti strengthened my passion for public health—to promote life and better health for people around the world.

Traci Means found her future in Las Flores, Honduras, in 1997. Working in a boys' school and a women's shelter there, Means soon discovered her innate resourcefulness and her desire to improve people's lives in the developing world. Four years later at an orphanage in Kenscoff, Haiti, she used a basic knowledge of Creole to fashion a curriculum of language study and athletics.

In addition to a strong religious faith that inspires her compassion and ambition to help others, Means is a natural scholar. As an undergraduate, she synthesized a potential anti-cancer drug and used a Sturgis Fulbright Study Abroad Scholarship to study French. She's also a natural leader. For the past three years, the Johns Hopkins medical student has directed a sex education program for boys and girls for the Department of Juvenile Services in Baltimore.