Tell me a little about your background. A thought question for some direction: What identities do you occupy, and how do these identities influence your interaction with the world? 

 

I was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic and moved to the Bronx with my family when I was 6/7. I'm really proud of my immigrant heritage because there have been a lot of barriers to overcome in my personal life and in pursuing higher education. I grew up in the Bronx, often the forgotten borough of NYC, and often the one that gets the most flack. I credit my upbringing in the Bronx to making me who I am today and I'm super grateful to have grown up in such a diverse environment around many other Caribbean people. In high school I used to be embarrassed of where home was, mainly because most of my classmates (white, privileged, or high SES) came from really fancy places in Brooklyn or Manhattan. It wasn't until freshman year of college that I came to appreciate the unique perspective I had on the world based on where I grew up. As I've moved up in higher education something that has been upsetting is to see a continued lack of diversity, coming from a different country and growing up in the Bronx grounds me everyday and pushes me to continue working hard - for others who share parts of my background and for my little cousins. 

 

A key point in this project is the process of “othering”—a sociological phenomenon that is perpetuated by the majority group, enhancing feelings of difference among minority individuals. What is your experience with this, if any. How about within the medical space (with school, research, etc.)?

 

 ​In high school and at Brown I was often one of the few people in academic spaces from my background. I wasn't the only one but at first this was a huge culture shock, coming from a middle school where everyone was a person of color, half had immigrant backgrounds, and most spoke another language. It wasn't something that got in the way until it came time to apply to college and then medical school. My parents both completed their college degrees in the DR and going through that process with little guidance (let's be real guidance counselors in HS don't usually do a good job ,especially when it comes to helping marginalized people) was one of the most difficult things I have done in my life, especially navigating financial aid. At Brown I was privileged to have access to more resources and friends who had applied to medical school, but the process still felt daunting as I was again pursuing a field no one in my family had pursued before. 

 

The most othering I have experienced up to date has been in medical school, where I am the only person of my class with my background (as a Dominican immigrant woman). When topics of racial disparities have come up in class discussions or racist metrics that are still in place at our institution,  it has often felt isolating. Sometimes speaking up takes so much energy and work.

 

I'm interested in pursuing neurosurgery as a career, a field that has an extreme amount of work to do in terms of gender and racial diversity. I am currently the only female identifying, URM medical student in my neurosurgery lab. It's scary to not see people that look like me in the field or people that share my background. This has made it hard to speak up at times and its taken (and still taking) a lot of work on my end to express myself in these spaces without feeling like I am saying or doing too much While at Jeff I'm lucky to see much more women in the field than I would otherwise see at other places, I still crave to see/meet a black or latinx female identifying neurosurgeon in the field. I hope that one day I can be that person for an up and coming medical student. 

 

Can you imagine a future where students of minority identities can thrive and are supported, especially by our institutions? What does this look like?  

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 ​It's hard to imagine that right now but I have hope and complete faith that this can happen. This would include having more faculty of color, more safe spaces for people of marginalized identities, and work from institutions to dismantle and tackle racist policies and metrics. Basically, institutions have to be ok to topple what they have and rebuild. I feel like the only way to make this happen is by collective student action with the help of allies. The thing is that it's often burdensome to take on this work and there is often some kind of expectation for marginalized identities to tackle this - when in fact allies should be putting in the work just as much. Furthermore, institutions love to talk the talk but don't walk the talk - e.g inviting speakers that are in line with progressive agendas but not actually working to get rid of harmful policies/metrics. 

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Finally, I’d like to leave space for celebration of yourself and others— feel free to share any affirmations/last thoughts here. 

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I love the skin I am in and I am worthy of success and love!