Mentorship and words of wisdom for fostering success

Q. Can you walk us through your academic journey so far? Where did you go for undergrad? What did you study? 

At the end of 8th-grade, my English teacher, Mrs. Loretta Petrovich, urged me to apply to her husband’s alma mater, St. Ignatius High School. It is an expensive private school that caters to the sons of Cleveland, Ohio's upper-middle class. My family had immigrated from Johannesburg, South Africa. So, I had never heard of any of the schools in our area. I can confidently say I would never have applied were it not for Mrs. Petrovich’s encouragement. I mention this story because were it not for my having attended St. Ignatius, I never would have met Mrs. Linda Gabor, my college counselor. I remember going to her office during my junior year to discuss my college plans. My family had no savings, no 401k, and certainly no college fund. So, when she asked me what my college plans were, I told her I was planning to continue working at the nursing home where I’d worked in high school so I could fund my education at Cuyahoga County Community College, the local, affordable option. 

After 2 years at “ Tri-C” and after saving enough money,  I planned to apply most probably to Ohio State University. She then asked me if I’d considered any other schools. I told her that I didn’t understand her question—I thought perhaps she meant the University of Michigan. But I quickly told her that my family did not have any money to pay for any schools. So, I had to pick something I could fund by myself. She then responded, “No—Harvard.” I must have scoffed in her face. To me, schools like Harvard were an abstract concept—a plot device in films and media to prove someone’s academic bona fides. From my perspective, people named “Kennedy” and “Bush” went to schools like Harvard—it wasn’t a place for  people like me, “normal people,” as I would have called myself. (It turns out I was correct as I was not admitted to Harvard).  I communicated all this to Mrs. Gabor, but she would not be deterred. She responded, “Well your grades and test scores are good—you should consider applying.” 

Once I accepted that you didn’t necessarily have to be the American equivalent of royalty to attend elite schools like this, I then informed her of the other, rather large elephant in the room: even if I were by some miracle admitted, my family had exactly zero dollars and zero cents in savings of any kind—I could never afford it. It was then that she told me that some of these very selective schools had adopted zero loan policies. At the time, a family with an annual income less than $60,000 would pay nothing in tuition. After hearing about these financial aid policies, I was convinced to at least apply. At the end of my college admission decisions, I had whittled my choices down to one of either Stanford or Princeton. Stanford started with a huge lead because I had strong initial apprehensions about going to a school that I perceived to be too “stuffy” and socially conservative. 

However, after visiting Princeton for the admitted students weekend (a trip I only agreed to attend because they offered to pay for my flight), I fell in love. Pretentious though this may sound, I can point to one particular moment at Princeton Preview where my decision to matriculate crystalized. I was at dinner with a group of 16-17 year old and they were discussing the relative merits of differing moral systems—comparing deontology and utilitarianism. I’d never taken a philosophy class and I’d certainly never had a dinner discussion like that. 

So, because I am a huge nerd, I decided that I wanted to have 4 more years of dinner discussions like that. It also helped that New Jersey is a lot closer to Ohio than California and I knew I’d be self-funding all my travel to and from college.   

The spark that fuels research

Q. Why are you focusing on this field of research? Can you explain to us what you’re currently working on and what sparked your interest in this area? 

Like most things in my life, I stumbled upon my interest in cancer through serendipity. After college (and with a few detours), I found myself working in a lab at the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania. As a UPenn employee, I was allowed to take two free classes per semester. One day, I had plans to leave lab and train a friend of mine at the gym. However, she cancelled on me as I was leaving lab with another friend. Since my evening had opened up, I asked him where he was going. He responded “BIOL 407: Cancer Cell Biology.” I’d had no particular interest in cancer, but I decided to accompany him to this class even though I had not registered for it. I found that first class so fascinating and challenging that I petitioned the lecturer to open up an additional seat to this already full class. 

From there, I found a deep, lasting interest in Cancer as a disease process. From there, I applied to jobs at cancer labs at UPenn. I was on the verge of being offered a position, but it required a 2-year commitment. I knew I was applying to medical school and that I’d only be able to stay for one year. So I stopped pursuing that role. Instead, I promised myself I’d do cancer research after my MS1 year. This promise led to my applying to a wide range of Cancer roles. Originally, I was accepted to the Massachusetts General Summer Research Trainee Program. However, that was cancelled due to COVID-19. So, instead, I joined the Memorial Sloan Kettering Pipeline Program. That is where I worked on using genomics to validate the use of bedside, confocal microscopy to characterize skin cancers.

Q. What kind of answers do you hope to find through your research? 

My role in this project came to an end after the work was published. However, it led to a lasting interest in using emerging technology to make medicine more accessible and less invasive. This inspired me to pursue Interventional Radiology as a residency. I hope to find a way to increase access to non-invasive diagnostic and therapeutic tools, just like the microscope my PI, Milind Radjadyashka created. My thinking is that as someone who grew up poor, I never had time to pursue treatments that were costly or that required long recovery times. I was living paycheck to paycheck. If I needed a diagnosis or treatment, I needed to get in and out as quickly and affordably as possibly. So, when considering a patient who has Prostate Cancer or Symptomatic fibroids, a relatively novel, non-invasive technique like transarterial embolization would be a more workable therapeutic option than a prostatectomy or total hysterectomy. 

Q. What are your hobbies / interests outside of your research? What do you like to do in your spare time?

I love music; I taught myself to play the guitar because my family could not afford lessons. I also enjoy entering Broadway lotteries: I’ve seen Hamilton (twice!), The Book of Mormon, Beetlejuice, and many more. I am also a huge fan of films—my girlfriend and I recently did Barbenheimmer on the same day. I also enjoy sports—especially tennis and soccer (Go Liverpool!), weightlifting and traveling (I’ll be going to Australia this January and I recently visited Houston, New Orleans and Chicago). I also enjoy reading too many books at once. I’m currently reading Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime,” Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal,” and I recently finished Jeannette McCurdy’s “I’m Glad My Mother Died.” Lastly, I enjoy reading and writing poetry. My girlfriend recently gifted me a trip to the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe and I was fortunate enough to attend the Philly Pidgeon for a spoken word open-mic night many years ago.