Sanoe Rapozo

Neuroscience & Psychology

Growing up, there wasn’t much consistency in my life other than my family and academics since we moved around a lot. I fell in love with reading all sorts of different genres and indulging in my mind's constant state of wonder. Curiosity is defined as a strong desire to know or learn something. For me, curiosity is my main motivation to understand why and how everything works around me. Until certain aspects around me started to work abnormally, like my brother's hindered ability to learn and speak. His undiagnosed neurological deficit heightened my curiosity, and as time flew by I found myself trying to dive deeper into neuropsychiatric research. I volunteered at my nearby hospital to learn more about hospital culture and developed/ran the first medical club of my school to bring together others with the same passion as myself. With that medical club, I created fundraising events to go on health-related field trips and gathered medical professionals willing to be interviewed by students to learn more about their career choices.

Before my arrival at Duke, I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Cardea Fellowship Program. Cardea offers amazing resources and opportunities that help manage the stress and time commitment that comes with the life of a pre-health student!

In my time at Duke, I plan to do extensive research on many neurological-related topics and continually grow the skills that I acquire. Through it all, I hope to gain the experience and knowledge to understand conditions such as that of my brother. Furthermore, I intend to develop my career enough to acknowledge and help others going through similar situations. Although my curiosity will never be satisfied, the best feeling is learning something new about a topic you once knew nothing about.