High School: Sutton High School
Research: Worked at the Shriver Center at University of Massachusetts where I recruited and consented patients for Dr. Jean Frazier & Dr. Sarabeth Broder-Fingert’s Autism Spectrum Disorder studies by conducting 1,000+ searches from our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, comforted mothers and infants (4-6 mo.) during Dr. Sohye Kim’s study paradigms, fNIRS, & MRI scans, organized and prepared study documents for patients and submit documents for IRB approval, built and designed REDCap data records & surveys and input participant data, and managed physiological & survey data from children & parents and process lab samples via centrifugation.
Accomplishments:
Abstracts published in American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Society of Biological Psychiatry
Poster presentations at UMass Chan Medical School and Harvard’s NESS Conference
Activities at Conn:
Assisted in Marc Zimmer's research where I pipelined data from PDB searches for green fluorescent protein research, created data collection statistical reports and maintained a lab-wide data capture system, and met weekly with the rest of the research team.
Chemistry tutor for the Science Leaders program
President of our Best Buddies chapter
Volunteered at Connecticut College's Child Development Lab School
Neuroscience Student Advisory Board
Nu Rho Psi Member

High School: Southington High School
Research: Worked with Dr. Schroeder on 3 different projects involving conditioned place preference and altered light/dark cycle in rats to study addiction behaviors.
Internship: Research at UConn Health with Dr. Crocker in the Department of Neuroscience. Studied senescent gene expression in the aged and diseased central nervous system.
Activities: Career Fellow, Student Advisor, Cells Class Tutor
Currently: Graduated from perfusion school and now I work at Cleveland Clinic as a cardiovascular perfusionist. I operate the heart-lung machine and work with technology including LVADs, ECMO, and Impellas.
Traveled to Tanzania last year to perform cardiac surgery in Dar es Salaam with Cardiostart.

Activities: Admissions office tour guide, Asian Students in Action Club
Research experience: Interned with the Conn Summer Science Research Institute doing biology, chemistry, and bioinformatics research projects (Summer 2018 – Summer 2020)

Life after Conn
2021 – 2023: Attended Duke University to earn my Masters in Biostatistics During grad school, I interned with the Duke Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research (Duke CFAR).
Summer 2023: Began my first full-time role as a Biostatistician at the Harvard Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research (Harvard CBAR) within the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Summer 2023 – present: As a Biostatistician at Harvard CBAR, I perform statistical analyses using SAS software as well as write reports, statistical analysis plans, and communicate with various members of study teams such as clinicians. I was connected to this job and referred by a fellow Conn alum, Sindy Du ’20!
The position is hybrid which gives me the flexibility of working from home four days a week. Right now, I still live at home in CT and commute into Boston once a week.
I am thoroughly enjoying the kind and supportive community that comes with working in an academic setting, as well as the work benefits!

High School: East Hartford High School
Research: Worked with Marc Zimmer on the conservation of three glycine residues in the 2nd beta-strand of all naturally occurring fluorescent proteins.
Internship: Manganese Oxide Research with Stanton Ching (Summer 2018), Computational chemistry/biochemistry research at the University of Colorado Boulder through the Rosetta REU (Summer 2019) and Pfizer (Summer 2020)
Conn Activities: Student Advisor, Men's Varsity Basketball, ENRICH Mentor, General Chemistry (I and II) and Biochemistry I Tutor, Co-Founder for Health Professions for Underrepresented Minorities (hPURM), Connecticut College Athletes of Color Coalition (CCACC)
Honors/ Awards: Dean’s High Honors (3x), Dean’s Honors (2x), New England Small College Athletic Conference All-Academic Team (3x), 2021 Lois Taylor ’31 Academic Achievement Award, 2021 American Chemical Society Connecticut Valley Section Award, 2021 American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Physical Chemistry, 2021 Oakes and Louise Ames Prize, 2021 ACS DIC Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry, 2020-21 National Association of Basketball Coaches Honors Court
NIH PREP-VTSI Scholar at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 2021-2023

High School: Camino Nuevo Dalzell-Lance, Los Angeles, CA
Internships:
2018 - Connecticut College Summer Research
2019 - Aerodyne Research
2020 - QuantAQ
Research: I was part of the Ching and Zimmer Lab in the summer of 2018 where we studied manganese oxide nanoparticles and green fluorescent proteins, respectively. I continued working in the Zimmer lab until graduation when we published our first paper. After graduation, I worked as a research assistant at Northeastern University until I started my PhD. Now I am part of the Lopez Lab at Northeastern, where I computationally study organic photochemical mechanisms with quantum mechanical and machine learning methods.
Plans: After completing my PhD, I want to pursue an academic career as an organic or physical chemistry professor.

High School: Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut, New London, CT
Publication: Beltz, J., McMahon, H., Torres-Nunez, I., and Bernhard, A. (2019). “Vegetation-Dependent Response to Drought in Salt Marsh Ammonia-Oxidizer Communities.” Microorganisms, 8(1), 9.
Accomplishments/Activities at Conn: student advisor, Big Sib mentor, NICU volunteer at L&M, Womxn of Color Collective executive board member, head student coordinator for the diversity recruitment team at the Admissions Office, and biology and organic chemistry tutor.
Gap years after college (2020-2022): I worked as a Clinical Laboratory Process Development Associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard doing COVID-19 diagnostics and variant surveillance.
Accomplishments/Activities at Quinnipiac University: Currently in med school, President of the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA), Chief Information Officer of the LMSA Northeast region, student lead for the 15% Better Initiative of Perspectives in Equity Advancement: Research and Learning Symposium, medical translator at the Bobcat Community Health Alliance, and member of the admissions committee. Over the summer of 2023, I participated in a research project investigating the use of furosemide to expedite bladder filling in pediatric patients awaiting pelvic ultrasound for suspected ovarian torsion
Future Plans: To match into residency! As of right now, anesthesiology is my top specialty interest.