主要研究 今天

From a very early age, Walkania “Mily” Santos '19 knew she wanted to be a doctor. 她不知道的是，她实际上可以成为一个.

Santos grew up in the Dominican Republic, in a rural province near the border of Haiti. 她的父亲搬到了美国.S. 她两岁时就去上班了. 她14岁时在纽约的南布朗克斯加入了他. 她不会说英语, and the High School of 世界 Cultures that she attended was designed to educate new immigrants. When the time came to go to college, Santos was ready to leave the city behind. She visited 主要研究 because of its strong science reputation and knew almost instantly it was where she wanted to be.

“在我实习期间, 我见过很多和我长得一样的医生, 我还记得, 当我第一次想成为一名医生的时候, 我不知道这真的有可能.”

“这是一个不同的环境，”他说 生物医学科学 主要说. “In the city, everyone is in such a rush all the time, no one talks to anyone. 在这里，人们似乎不慌不忙. 他们很好. 我以为我会在这里茁壮成长.”

她做到了. 在主要研究的时候, 桑托斯是大二的宿舍助理, 生物学实验室的本科生助教, 化学系的研究助理, a tutor in organic and general chemistry and a volunteer at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. 她还做了一份兼职.

桑托斯说，布朗克斯的白人并不多. 在主要研究，情况正好相反. But it wasn’t the lack of a diverse population that she found challenging; it was the small things, 喜欢修辞和表达. “I spent all of freshmen year trying to learn how to say the word ‘literally’ correctly. Everyone said it, so I wanted to use it, but I wanted to learn to use it right so I could fit in.”

她说，第一年很艰难. She often felt alone and started to wonder if she should transfer. But then she thought about where she’d come from and what she’d accomplished just to get here. 她觉得自己已经经历了更艰难的时期.

“I thought that I had the background to overcome,” says Santos, who graduated with honors in May.

大二前的那个夏天, she completed a two-month internship at the Yale School of Medicine, taking classes and shadowing doctors at Yale New Haven Hospital. During the summer of 2018, she interned at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

“在我实习期间, 我见过很多和我长得一样的医生, 我还记得, 当我第一次想成为一名医生的时候, 我不知道这真的有可能,她说。.

6月3日, 在她拿到学位两个多星期后, Santos began a two-year research position in orthopedic surgery at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. Sometime before that job ends, she will start applying to medical school.

“我从10岁起就知道如何做饭和打扫卫生. 在多米尼加, 每次你做这样的事, 社区说你已经准备好结婚了. 没有太多其他的影响，”桑托斯说. “这让我知道我是多么幸运. 我认识的一些最聪明的人很早就结婚了. 他们不能离开家去上大学，而我可以. 我觉得我有责任把他们做好. 如果他们能做到，我也能做到.”