Roasted corn soup, shrimp potstickers, and A.I.-created chocolate chip cookies. That was the menu that 12-year-old Emma helped to prepare with her chef mentor at a high-end tech company.
“Cancer is kind of all consuming of your life and it kind of takes everything away,” said Emma, a sixth grader at the time of her diagnosis. “Getting a chance to leave the hospital and go do something fun that you truly enjoy, it is completely life-changing for the point of view that you have with cancer.”
Thankful for being able to take a break from the typical jargon a cancer diagnosis can present, Emma loved any time her mentor would come into her hospital room and talk about more than chemotherapy and medications.
“It was more about what I enjoyed and what I wanted to do and not ‘How are your treatments going?,’” stated Emma.
Emma believes that Connecting Champions gave her a post-cancer identity, as she no longer felt like simply the “kid with cancer.”
“I still have a life and I still can go do things,” said Emma. “There is still fun to be had.”
Emma is entering her junior year of high school and is still very passionate about cooking and hopes to one day pursue a career in the field.
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Future Scientist
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