I am currently an MD/PhD student at Penn State College of Medicine, getting a PhD in Biochem and Molecular Genetics. I grew up in Port-au-Prince , Haiti and and moved to Queens, NY at age 18, where I attended Queens College. I graduated in 2011 with a major in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry. From an early age, I've always been fascinated by the intersection of medicine and research (somehow I wanted to be a chemist since about the 10th grade!) and how that can be applied to literally affect mankind. Fast forward to a few years later and its easy to understand my career choices.
Entrepreneurship
During my second year of graduate school, I came up with an idea to help accelerate the pace of genetic research and launched a startup company called DNAsimple. The goal is to connect genetic researchers - whose research labs are in one place - with sample donors all over the country without needing them to physically show up to a hospital or anywhere, and also for donors to get compensated for their samples. My entrepreneurial journey has been quite a fun and enriching one so far and I'm happy to continue to be immersed in it.
Sports love
Growing up in Haiti, it makes perfect sense for me to enjoy sports in general and have a very special love for soccer. I played all throughout high school and also a bit in college. I've played in several leagues here in Philadelphia and also coach a U16 team at Fairmount Soccer, which is a lot of fun. Sports (soccer, basketball, tennis) are my "refuge" when everything else is going crazy.