As a pre-medical student at the College with an awareness of the changing landscape of healthcare in the United States and the need for inter-cultural competence, I began taking Hispanic Studies courses. With a passion for helping the underserved, Hispanic Studies allowed me to understand the challenges that many populations face and provided me with fluency in the language to do research and service abroad.
Among the many opportunities that the department of Modern Languages and Literatures has afforded me, the most memorable would be my time spent in Spain studying abroad and conducting research. Most recently, I traveled to the National Library of Spain in Madrid to conduct archival research on the abuse of medicine by psychiatrist Antonio Vallejo Nágera during the time of the Spanish Civil War. My research was the subject of an Honors Thesis in Hispanic Studies, which I defended in April.
Undoubtedly, the skills and competencies I have gained with my degree in Modern Languages and Literatures helped me to secure admission to the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of Rutgers University. I will be beginning my coursework in medicine in August with an interest in psychiatry.