Alan Hurtado

My name is Alan Hurtado and I am from Somerton, Arizona. I am majoring in Neuroscience and pursuing a minor in French. I came to Duke with an interest in Neuro and after taking some courses I realized it really was what I want to continue learning about and hopefully form part of some meaningful research in Neuroscience during my time here. I plan to continue to medical school and become a pediatric surgeon, a combination of my interest in surgery and working with children. I want to return to my community and provide my services there and be a sort of resource and mentor. My first summer I was part of the Duke in Aix-en-Provence summer program. It was a 6 week session in which we lived with host families, learned about French culture and language while being fully immersed. After the program I decided I wanted to continue to develop my language skills and learning about the francophone culture and opted to pursue the minor. I am part of Best Buddies and Adopt a grandparent which are fun ways to be involved in the community and do more than just class. I volunteered as a research assistant at the Belief, Affect and Behavior Lab, which was my first experience in a research environment. I gained much valuable experience working with the members of the lab from helping run the experiments, listening and participating in lab meetings, and doing literature reviews for future projects. Currently I am working in the Cabeza Lab as a research assistant and I am excited to further take advantage of this opportunity and possibly see if this is another path I could follow in the future. Being a Cardea has provided me with a community of people who share the same interests and drive to succeed. They are a group I can depend on and have helped stay motivated they are some of my closest friends and I know that through this program we will be able to achieve our goals by the assistance and guidance we receive.