I want to say thank you to MIT for the past four years.
I really had an amazing time here.
I think that MIT really pushed my boundaries and pushed me
to think about problems that I never would have expected to be
thinking about this early on or at this caliber.
I've been able to learn from the best and from the experts
in any particular field that I'm learning.
MIT has definitely made me a stronger person its made me a better
person; its made me more confident. But its also made me realize
that you don't know everything and you can't know everything.
And after graduating I kind of feel like I know nothing - I don't know
nothing, but MIT keeps you in check. It never lets you get too big;
always keeps you humble.
I would like to thank MIT for partially getting this really interesting
group of people together that is the Class of 2014. I've made so
many great friends.
My peers and all the students here are an incredible support
system and inspire me every day with the stamina and
intensity and passion with which they pursue all their interests.
MIT has really, really taught me so much and I feel like I've grown
and I'm a completely different person than I was four years ago.
And without all the resources here at MIT I know that would not
have been possible, so thank you.
So I think one of the coolest moments I've had at MIT was
definitely some of my time spent at Simmons Hall, where I was
house chair. A couple summers ago I helped plan their tenth
anniversary celebration. It was kind of chaotic at first because
you're negotiating contracts and still managing your research
everyday in the lab. But seeing a huge event with all the residents
and alumni and help the alumni association come together
was such a nice reward.
My first impression of MIT, of what it is like to really like to learn
from a place like MIT actually happened when I was visiting
the campus during CPW. I was sitting in a class and the professor
was talking about about this mechanism and pathways of this
particular molecule. And after the end of the lecture he basically
said, "Oh by the way I discovered this molecule five years ago."
I was just in awe at that moment and I feel like the past four years
my education here has been nothing short of that.
Its really an amazing place and the professors who teach you are
so absolutely accomplished but at the same time are so down-to-earth
and just the opportunity that you get to interact with people who
discovered the most fundamental aspects of your field, for me that's
biology, is just incredible. And to have them teach you those things
that they discovered is really amazing. And just the doors this place
has opened for me, I wouldn't have even been able to open them if I
hadn't gone here.
I got to work with a woman who was blind and severely hearing
impaired and she wanted some sort of device that would help her
communicate with her phone. And so my partner and I built her a
bracelet that vibrates when her phone rings, and it communicates
with her phone via bluetooth. It was just so inspiring to me to be able
to get my hands on some sort of work that was actually going to
help someone.
I run cross-country and track and field here at MIT, and every year
our big team championship is the New England Division Three
Championships. This year was the first year both the men and
women's team won the championship at the same time.
So at the end of the meet we all got together in a big circle and both
the guys and girls we had a really big, "MIT! MIT! MIT!"
and for me that was just a phenomenal closing meet for my college
track experience because a) it was the best team cheer that we've
ever done, but also I just really felt like I had found a group of people
that I really loved and who were all passionate about the same thing
and we really achieved something amazing.
So after commencement I will be doing data analytics as a research
assistant for social policy work, focusing on all kinds of different
social problems, and measuring them them, and trying to find solutions
and mechanisms behind why they happen. It's definitely been a
dream of mine, coming from a neuroscience background to take the
theory about how individuals make decisions and broadening that
to how populations make decisions.
Next year I will be going to the University of California in San
Francisco for medical school. I'm actually doing a five-year program,
it's an MD with a masters in Public Health, geared towards doctors
who want to treat the urban underserved. And I hope that my career
in the future will have both an international and U.S. component to it.
After commencement I just plan to go home and relax with my family.
Spend some quality time in Seattle, and relax my brain for the next
big thing which is medical school.
Directly after MIT I'm going to take a break this summer but then
next fall I'll be attending Stanford University for my PhD
in bioengineering.
I'm very excited to head over to the other side of town at
Harvard Medical School to pursue a combined MD/PhD program
under the HST program.
Next year I will be doing a Marshall Scholarship at Oxford University
in the radiation/biology program and I'll do a one-year masters there.
And then after that I'm coming back to do the Harvard MD/PhD
program in the HST program.
I did it! I just want to say thank you again to MIT. It's been a really
amazing four years, and I've grown so much.
So I'd like to thank my family and friends for their fierce support
over the four years here at MIT.
My ma, baba and didi thank you and I love you.
Thank you aneb, baba, Layla my wonderful perfect family for
always being there for me, catching me when I fell. But most of all
for pushing me to work hard and dream big every day, even when
I didn't want to be pushed.
I obviously want to thank all my friends who are an amazing
support group, but I also want to thank the Men's Hockey Team which
I've been a part of for the past four years and my coach Dave Hunter.
It's honestly been one of the best parts of my MIT experiences, getting
to play on the team and its just the best group of friends I could ask for.
Class of 2014: we made it!
Woooooooo! Guys, we're done! We're so awesome! Class of 2014:
we rock. I'm so proud to be part of this class and we're done! Yeah!
It's really over. . .I can't believe it. We really did it! Yay!