My journey into UX began far from wireframes—in a hospital in Ethiopia. I had planned to pursue biology in college and was volunteering at the largest public hospital in the country. Patients came from all over—many traveling hours or days—only to be turned away because their records were lost in paper-based systems.

A few of us volunteers built a simple digital solution to help manage patient information and give quicker updates. It was my first time creating something like that. I didn’t know it had a name — I just knew it worked and that it helped.

When I started university, I majored in computer science — but I also minored in psychology because I’ve always been drawn to how people think and behave. It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I discovered UX was the intersection of the two. Every project or internship I took on, I naturally found myself gravitating toward the solution design—asking users questions, mapping flows, thinking about the interface.

Once I realized what UX was, I made it my focus. I actively sought out internships and projects where I could sharpen my UX skills — and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.