主要研究 今天

从很小的时候起，19岁的沃克尼亚·“米莉”·桑托斯就知道她想成为一名医生. What she didn’t know was that she actually could become one.

桑托斯在多米尼加共和国海地边境附近的一个农村省份长大. Her father moved to the U.S. for work when she was 2. 她14岁时在纽约的南布朗克斯加入了他. She didn’t speak English, 她就读的世界文化高中是为教育新移民而设计的. 到了上大学的时候，桑托斯准备离开这个城市. 她参观了主要研究，因为它在科学方面的声誉很高，几乎立刻就知道这就是她想去的地方.

“During my internships, I saw a lot of doctors who looked just like me, and I remembered how, when I first thought about being a doctor, I didn’t know it was really possible.”

“It was a different environment,” the 生物医学科学 主要说. “在城市里，每个人都很匆忙，没有人和任何人说话. Here, people seemed to take their time. 他们很好. I thought I would thrive here.”

她做到了. 在主要研究的时候, Santos was a second-year resident hall assistant, an undergraduate teaching assistant in a biology lab, a research assistant in the chemistry department, 他是有机化学和普通化学的导师，也是朴茨茅斯地区医院的志愿者. She also worked a part-time job.

桑托斯说，布朗克斯的白人并不多. At 主要研究, it was just the opposite. But it wasn’t the lack of a diverse population that she found challenging; it was the small things, like figures of speech and expressions. “我花了整个大一的时间来学习如何正确地说‘字面上’这个词. 每个人都这么说，所以我想用它，但我想学会正确地使用它，这样我才能适应.”

That first year was hard, she says. 她经常感到孤独，并开始考虑是否应该转学. 但她又想到自己从何而来，取得了多大的成就才来到这里. And she decided she already had been through harder times.

今年5月以优异成绩毕业的桑托斯说:“我以为我有克服困难的背景。.

The summer before her sophomore year, 她在耶鲁大学医学院完成了为期两个月的实习, 在耶鲁纽黑文医院上课和跟随医生. 2018年夏天，她在布朗克斯的阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦医学院实习.

“During my internships, I saw a lot of doctors who looked just like me, and I remembered how, when I first thought about being a doctor, I didn’t know it was really possible,她说。.

6月3日, a little more than two weeks after receiving her degree, 桑托斯在纽约市哥伦比亚大学医学中心开始了为期两年的整形外科研究工作. 在那份工作结束前的某个时候，她将开始申请医学院.

“I’ve known how to cook and clean since I was 10 years old. 在多米尼加, every time you do something like that right, the community says you’re ready to get married. There aren’t a lot of other influences,” Santos says. “It makes me know how very lucky I am. Some of the smartest people I know got married young. They weren’t able to leave to go to college, and I could. I feel a responsibility to them to do well. If they can do that, I can do this.”