![](\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/12\/Gustavo-Marino-2-225x300.jpeg\")
Having spent his early years in his native Colombia, Gustavo Marino experienced the challenges that underserved people have accessing healthcare.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw members of my family experience difficulties and it just made me want to be able to do more for underserved communities,\u201d says Marino, now a fourth-year medical student. \u201cEven when my mom and I moved here when I was five years-old, we thought we were going to have better access to healthcare but her job as a housekeeper didn\u2019t offer insurance, so things weren\u2019t necessarily better. So that\u2019s always made me want to help the underserved communities in the U.S. and internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marino, who is a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Air Force, this week matched into a military residency in otolaryngology \u2014 one of medicine\u2019s most competitive specialties \u2014 and will train at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have matched into this specialty and to be able to care for the military,\u201d says Marino. \u201cI see the military as a special population that sacrifices a lot to provide a better life for their family, for the country and for future generations. Those are the people I want to help the most, that motivate me to get up every day and train and provide the best care I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gustavo is a recipient of the military\u2019s Health Professions Scholarship, which covers tuition and living expenses for medical students who agree to serve their country for one year for each year of scholarship. Students match into residencies at military hospitals or do their service after civilian residencies.<\/p>\n