Student Perspectives on Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity at Yale

She/her/hers Year 6

Hometown: Waterford, Michigan

Undergraduate Institution: Michigan State University

Gap year activities and length: 2-year, post-bac at NIH in Baltimore

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: MD-PhD DEI committee, served as a Biomed Amgen mentor for 2 years, was a PATHS mentor for one year, co-created the annual MD-PhD anti-racism and inclusivity module.

Something outside of academia you are proud of: I am a proud cat mom, love to bake, and recently got married after a 4-year long distance relationship.

Also an academic PASS mentor

He/him/his Year 3

Hometown: Karaman, Turkey

Undergraduate Institution: University of Connecticut

Gap year activities and length: 2 research years at the Jackson Laboratory!

She/her/hers Year 4

Hometown: Cavite, Philippines / San Diego, California

Undergraduate Institution: UCLA

Gap year activities and length: 2 years as a Postbac Fellow at the NIH

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: I am an immigrant and came from a low-income background

She/her/hers Year 5

Hometown: Shanghai, China

Undergraduate Institution: Vanderbilt University

Gap year activities and length: 2-years, work as a research engineer and clinic coordinator

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: National First-Generation and Low-Income in Medicine Association. PATHS program (Program to Advance Training in Health and Sciences)

Something outside of academia you are proud of: Working on my first crocheting project right now, and it does look like a scarf :)

Also an academic PASS mentor

She/her/hers Year 3

Hometown: Los Angeles, California

Undergraduate Institution: UCLA

Gap year activities and length: 2 years, got married, worked as a lab assistant studying cortical/striatal neurons in HD, worked as a scribe in a cardiology clinic.

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: Co-leader of SAMOSA

Something outside of academia you are proud of: I love fostering guinea pigs and rabbits with the CT Humane Society

She/her/hers Year 3

Hometown: London, United Kingdom

Undergraduate Institution: Princeton

Gap year activities and length: 2 years, Research Technician at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: Mentorship for high school and undergrad students interested in healthcare/STEM through Yale organizations such as PATHS and HPREP. I'm also one of the Head Graduate Affiliates for a Yale Residential College. I enjoy being an active member of local/national chapters of SNMA/LMSA and the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) Virtual Content team.

Something outside of academia you are proud of: Baking and decorating cakes for friends!

She/her/hers Year 5

Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia

Undergraduate Institution: Spelman

Gap year activities and length: 2 year, NIH Post-bac

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: Low-income, first generation, African American, HBCU, DICE, CDISJ

Something outside of academia you are proud of: I love to swim and am a huge foodie.

She/her/hers Year 5

Hometown: Alpharetta, Georgia

Undergraduate Institution: MIT

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: Women in Medicine and SNMA

Also an academic Pass Mentor

He/him/his Year 3

Hometown: Issaquah, Washington

Undergraduate Institution: Middlebury College

Gap year activities and length: 3 years, 1 was spent backpacking in South and Central America and 2 as an IRTA researcher at NIH

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: Anxiety, high BMI

Something outside of academia you are proud of: I just married the love of my life in the summer of 2023! Talk to me about having a serious relationship and family planning during the MD-PhD.

She/her/hers Year 5

Undergraduate Institution: Georgia Tech

Gap year activities and length: 1 year, I was a Fulbright scholar researching microbial resistance in India.

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: LGBTQIA+, YFLI

Something outside of academia you are proud of: My community

Also an academic PASS mentor

Yona is an MD-PhD student pursuing graduate training in the Department of Immunobiology. She graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and a minor in Philosophy. Prior to joining Yale, Yona completed two years of research at NIAID as part of the NIH Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Awards Program. Interested in integrating experimental and computational approaches to investigate the role of the immune system in human health and disease, Yona is currently conducting her thesis research in the laboratory of Dr. John Tsang.

She/her/hers Year 3

Hometown: Zhuhai, China / Brooklyn, New York

Undergraduate Institution: Swarthmore College

Gap year activities and length: I worked as a research assistant at Boston Children's Hospital for 2 years

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: YSM first-generation & low-income (YFLI), MD-PhD DEI committee, and mentoring at all sorts of levels!

Something outside of academia you are proud of: I still dance a bunch, including with a wonderful dance company I joined during my gap years!

She/her/hers Year 2

Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Undergraduate Institution: University of Pennsylvania

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: Black, women, first generation-low income, no-gap year.

Something outside of academia you are proud of: I have two cats and love reading!

She/her/hers Year 8

Hometown: Burlington, Vermont

Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University

Gap year activities and length: 2-years, research Master's

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: FGLI.

Also an academic PASS mentor

She/her/hers Year 2

Hometown: Los Banos, California

Undergraduate Institution: Scripps College

Gap year activities and length: 3 years, basic science research here at Yale!

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: Being Black in STEM, rural background, small liberal arts college

Something outside of academia you are proud of: My Strava mileage time!

She/her/hers Year 8

Hometown: Poughkeepsie, New York

Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University

Gap year activities and length: 2 years as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford doing a Masters in Oncology Research.

Identities, affiliations, experiences, and or DEI-related activities you are involved in: Experiencing significant illness during medical training, commuting to Yale (lived in Norwalk)

Something outside of academia you are proud of: I love to crochet stuffed turtles for my friends' children!

Also an academic PASS mentor

Born and raised in León, Nicaragua, Eugenia moved to the U.S. in 2017 to complete her B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At UMass, she joined Dr. Sloan Siegrist's lab where she found her passion for developing point-of-care diagnostics. After graduating college in 2021, she moved to Cambridge to be a Broad Biomedical Post-baccalaureate Scholar at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. During her time in Viktor Adalsteinsson's lab at the Broad, she continued following her interests in diagnostics as she helped create a more accurate DNA sequencing method that improves the detection of cancer mutations in patients. At Yale, Eugenia hopes to merge her clinical and research training to mitigate health disparities through the development of affordable and accessible diagnostics and therapeutics.

Eugenia's research interests include cancer biology, immunology, infectious diseases, genetics, and microbiology.