Berks' Best 2024 science/environment winner Ana Pichardo's experience with car crash victim shaped future

May 17—The last thing a 14-year-old Ana Pichardo was expecting while helping at her uncle's auto shop was for a car to crash through the wall.

What seemed even more unlikely — that Pichardo would form a lifelong bond with the woman behind the wheel — was perhaps inevitable, given Pichardo's deep and enduring compassion.

"It felt like trauma bonding, a terrible experience happened, and we were both there for that," Pichardo said. "It was wanting to make sure she was OK, seeing her through her process of healing."

Pichardo accompanied the woman to the hospital and was the only one to visit her for weeks.

"We spent hours just talking and coloring," Pichardo said.

The woman was released a few weeks later and moved to North Carolina not long after, but she and Pichardo never lost touch.

Pichardo's compassion, along with a fascination with chemistry and the human mind, have driven her toward her dream of becoming a neurosurgeon since she was young.

The Reading High School senior's pursuit of that dream has been as relentless as it has been effective, earning her accolades from teachers and peers alike, as well as the Berks' Best 2024 award in the science/environment category.

Pichardo has taken all three of Reading's Advanced Placement science courses — physics, biology and chemistry — and has excelled academically, according to Jessica Brown, teacher and science department head at Reading High.

"She (Pichardo) has consistently demonstrated her academic fortitude in the sciences," Brown said. "She is an excellent student."

Pichardo's fascination with chemistry began one day in a 10th grade chemistry class when her assumptions about how microwave ovens work were turned on their head.

"The addition of electromagnetic waves causes the molecules to vibrate, which in turn produces heat," Pichardo said of what she learned that day. "This fact was so fascinating to me that I spent the rest of the day researching thermodynamics, electromagnetic energy and molecular chemistry."

Even before then, Pichardo was devoted to pursuing neuroscience, due in part to her sister Carolyn's experience being treated for what doctors believed was a brain tumor.

"I watched the migraines get worse, and I stood by while her hair slowly began to fall out," Pichardo said. "Every day I would wake up hoping that this wouldn't be the day that I would find my sister dead in her bed. I am incredibly grateful that that day never came."

Doctors later diagnosed Carolyn with a noncancerous pituitary cyst.

Pichardo said her sister's perseverance in the face of her illness and beyond inspires her to chase her goals.

"Her neurologist had recommended that she stop playing sports to focus on her treatment and recovery," Pichardo said. "My sister refused to give up track, volleyball and softball, and she went on to win multiple medals in track and field. I remember one day sitting in the car with her after one of her appointments when she told me that if she was going to die, then she was going to die doing something that she loved."

She said accompanying her sister in and out of hospitals opened her eyes to the wonders of the human brain — how it functions and how it can heal.

"I personally want to do research when it comes to CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy)," Pichardo said. "How little parts of the brain control such big features, and if that small part is damaged, the brain can self-repair in a way."

Beyond researching CTE, Pichardo said she plans to volunteer at a rehab center to better understand those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases.

She also said she's interested in constructing an apartment complex for tenants with various disabilities.

"For example, wheelchair accessibility throughout the entire complex, shorter cabinets for wheelchair-bound tenants, medical staff on site for any emergencies and assistance 24/7," Pichardo said.

More immediately, Pichardo aims to pursue her doctorate at Standford University of Medicine, then take up a neurosurgery residency on the West Coast.

"I do know that I would do whatever it takes to become a neurosurgeon, and the best one that I can possibly be," Pichardo said.