Major: Molecular Biology
Profession: Doctoral Candidate in Biomedical Sciences
Hometown: Orange, New Jersey
What are you doing now?
I am currently a fourth-year doctoral candidate studying vascular biology at Northwestern University in downtown Chicago.
How did you get there?
My high school guidance counselor encouraged me to go to Pomona because of its interdisciplinary structure, and it was there where I met my advisor, Professor Sara Olson, with whom I did amazing research on the C. elegans embryo. During my time at Pomona, I was heavily involved in social activism work with Improving Dreams Equality Access and Success (IDEAS) and in community building as a resident advisor. I took many Latin American courses with Professor April Mayes where I read literature across many disciplines.
After graduating, I enrolled in a post-baccalaureate program at University of Chicago working in a clinical research lab studying the role of bariatric surgery on inflammation and its outcomes on obesity. I really enjoyed the lab environment and decided to apply to PhD programs. At Northwestern University, I joined the lab of Dr. Luisa Iruela-Arispe to study endothelial cells in blood vessels and vascular pathologies, wanting to study a topic that was more applicable to human disease.
How did Pomona prepare you?
Pomona was a space that taught me the importance of community, in building up an individual to pursue and succeed in any environment that they choose to be in. Pomona had rigorous and challenging courses that strengthened interests that I already had and opened my mind to things that I would not have considered before. I took a philosophy class that I really enjoyed, and it was my first foray into argumentative writing. In graduate school, I lead meetings that require me to be convincing, succinct and informative. I really enjoyed the people that I met at Pomona, and I continue to seek similar communities and mentors in all the spaces that I work in. I am a strong believer in teamwork, and that is because of my experiences at Pomona.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
My training as a doctoral student has given me a lot of transferable skills outside of academic spaces. With those skills, I am interested in exploring different opportunities in industry. I really enjoy management and working in teams. Ideally, I would love to lead projects that will address health inequities in marginalized communities.
Any advice for current or prospective students?
Be open-minded about where your path can take you. A lot of students at Pomona come from environments where they were one of the best minds that their communities had. When you come to Pomona, treat it as an opportunity to re-create yourself and explore different versions of yourself that can exist. Take the class that is interesting, make mentors with any professor regardless of your major, make all the friends or try a new sport. These new experiences can guide you to places you never thought were possible, and most importantly, it teaches you that you are capable of many more things than your community expects of you. You can be anything you choose to be if you pursue it to the best of your ability. Failures are valuable experiences even if they are super painful when they first happen.
In that same vein, give back what you take. My experiences at Pomona were so great because I was invested in making it a great place to be for those around me. I volunteered and was in a lot of social activist spaces. I spent time at the Women’s Union learning about gender studies and participating in workshops. I took a tumbling and flipping class at Claremont McKenna College.
Some of the people that I met in college I am still super close with now! I hope for many more years with them and am confident it will be because of how much time and love we poured into one another when we were younger and less established. Go make those connections, and make many of them.