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Victor at Columbia University (Grad School)!

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My name is Victor Felipe Medeiros Pereira and I am a recent international student, first-generation and Latino graduate from University of California, San Diego, majoring in Chemical Engineering with concentration in Biomedical Engineering and Nanoengineering (Pre-med track). Recently, I have received one of important news for my academic career: I have been admitted to Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science as a candidate in the Biomedical Engineering Master of Science program beginning Fall 2022. However, the university gave a deadline until April 19th to submit my response to the offer, which requires a payment of $4,000 deposit, in addition to the costs of enrollment that are charged for international student. HELP ME MAKE THIS DREAM COME TRUE!


Resilience. Resilience is an ineffable quality that urges people to recover quickly from difficulties.

I grew up in a small city in São Paulo, Brazil, in the neighborhood called Boa Esperança, where the youth is the majority of the population and is affected by the high index of criminality. When I left at 6 am to go to school, I often saw people using drugs on the street. The drug trafficking, lack of educational opportunities, absence of life perspective and, most notably, the lack of dreams smite the community, creating an environment where the bad influences prevailed. As a result, the opportunities to develop a road to change this reality were scarce. I was raised by my mother, who showed me that life is a road with a variety of obstacles ahead, but we always need to stay strong to endure hardships. Both of my parents worked since they were children to support their families, meaning neither were afforded the opportunity to get an education. However, I had always lived with this one dream: studying abroad in the US. Looking at my story, I learned that my family and my community had an intense impact on the way I built my pathway in life. Growing up in this atmosphere ultimately revealed me that perseverance and resilience were important factors that would guide me to overcome challenges on my way and define my own values. Being in a college abroad was an opportunity for me to combine my personal background with the educational opportunities available in the US, allowing me to help my community and bring about positive changes.
In 2016, all my persistence and effort were gathered together in one outcome: I started college in the US. However, my life underwent significant changes. At UC San Diego, I dealt with incessant episodes of financial hardship and handled countless challenges. Living with this pressure on myself, I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety and depression. The thoughts of giving up on everything got over myself throughout the time. A year ago, I was a survivor from a suicide attempt. I was hospitalized at a psych clinic. It was tough times, but I learned how to be a human. How to understand who I am and how to face my fears. Moving to the US and diving into this journey made the person who I am today. Life taught me how to actually live. Nevertheless, the desire to be the change in my community, as well as the resilience built along this road, brought me strengths to keep myself up resulting in a high standard performance in college. As evidence of my hard work, I was awarded with the Southern California Edison S.T.E.M Awards and I have been in the Dean's/Provost’s honor list since my freshman year in college.
In order to develop my academic and professional trajectory, I became immersed in the research field starting in my sophomore year. I had thereby the privilege of working at UCLA in the department of Bioengineering under Dr. Gerard Wong’s lab as an undergraduate researcher. In this research, I worked on how P. aeruginosa (an opportunistic bacteria) adapt their motility behavior on a surface colonization and biofilm formation, which is relevant for the understanding of bacterial biofilm formation in order to potentially design antibiotics to prevent bacterial resistance. Through this research, I had the chance to be included in a scientific paper as a co-author which is currently in preparation to be published. Furthermore, I have also received an award at Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in 2018 as an outstanding presentation in the engineering category which was part of my research work for Dr. Gerard Wong’s lab. Moreover, I also had the opportunity to work in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Dr. Sanjay Mohanty’s research team through which I conducted research in sustainable storm water treatment and prevention of groundwater contamination by E. coli regarding limited groundwater supply for an increasing population. This potentially can impact the purification of drinking water. Additionally, I have also worked at Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine as part of Dr. Esther Kwon’s research lab where I performed research using nanoscale engineered materials for drug delivery to study, diagnose, and treat diseases in the central nervous system. In my academic and personal life, I have been praised as a committed, dedicated and hard worker by my professors and peers. Currently, I fulfill the position of Research Associate at a pharmaceutical company in San Diego called Asha Pharma LLC. Through this position, I conduct research on solid form screening and selection through the design of polymorph, salt, cocrystal, and amorphous materials for pharmaceutical industries using broad molecules with chemical diversity. The research is based on crystallization R&D process, which uses solid state characterization methods for the discovery of novel drugs, such as Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Dynamic Vapor Sorption (DVS), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD). In addition, I also perform consulting services for the company's business development and pre-formulation, formulation technology assessment, scale-up, and particle engineering projects.
In order to intensify my efforts to promote inclusion and outreach in my community, I interned at a high-regarded children's cancer institution in São Paulo, Brazil, called GACC (Group of Assistance to Children with Cancer). I shadowed doctors in the oncology department during consultations, surgeries and medical processes. Through this experience, I witnessed firsthand the lack of efficient treatment methods and therapeutics, and the abundance of outdated technology in my country. Therefore, this inspired me even more to be immersed in research in the biomedical field, aiming to develop better treatment methodologies and therapeutics as well as a better medical technology in an accessible way for every individual.
Knowing that cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's disease), and respiratory disorders have closely affected relatives and friends back home in Brazil, where the healthcare system lacks adequate infrastructure, I have been very interested in developing new approaches in biomedical engineering to create personalized treatments that are more accessible to every individual - regardless of their background - to change the current scenario of human health. Being exposed to the effects of limited access to quality healthcare, I developed the ambition to be immersed in the medical field through research in Biomedical Engineering, aiming to fill the gaps regarding health issues in society and bring the human touch to the engineering field.
Columbia University is a high-regarded research institution with a national leader in Biomedical Engineering, which will provide me unique opportunities and experiences to make positive impacts and improve human health. It excites me that Columbia University integrates engineering in the medical field in a broad perspective. The opportunities that Columbia University creates for students to thrive in a collaborative culture that includes multiple generations of leaders in academia and industry was a significant motive for my decision to apply. I am thrilled to work closely in a collaborative manner with Irving Medical Center, College of Physicians and Surgeons, The Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and SEAS. Aiming to build my career and academic path to make an impact in society, Columbia University is a right fit for my goals since it broadly provides the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of experiences through educational and research training that integrate the sciences of biology and medicine with the practices and principles of engineering. Not only Columbia University provides a diversity of medical technologies, it also has a variety of faculty members that encompasses my field of interest in tissue engineering, nanomedicine, bioengineered therapeutics, drug delivery, and stem cells engineering where I hope to gain knowledge from. I am incredibly interested in the work conducted by Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic in tissue engineering and stem cells engineering, which aims to develop personalized treatments for regenerative medicine as well as tissue models for stem cell research and “organs-on-a-chip” modeling to study diseases and test the efficacy and safety of drugs. Additionally, I am also interested in Dr. Kam W. Leong’s research lab that focuses on developing ways to connect biomaterials science and drug delivery for cancer therapy, immunotherapy, cell therapy and gene therapy.
As part of the UCSD community, I was able to acquire different experiences and explore my skills. In addition to this, I was also able to engage in science and engineering activities, empowering the Latino presence in the engineering field, seeking for equality and visibility by promoting scientific literacy, tutoring and helping fellow undergrads get into research. As an enthusiastic student, I can be fully engaged with the activities assigned to make an impact, developing a professional environment in a self-motivated manner.
From where I’m from in Brazil, acquiring this high-level education at a high-regarded university in the US always seemed impossible. After overcoming a diversity of challenges, obstacles and adversities along this road, I can firmly say: it’s possible. Latino, international student, first-generation and LGBTQ+. I fought for my education. I was eager to accomplish my dreams to help those going through the same adversities. Looking at my story, education was a life-changing motive. I am driven to spread to individuals, especially minority students, the power of education. I aim to accomplish this goal through science and research, which is a field in academia that can bring change to people’s lives through resilience, application of life experiences and input of a flux of energy that can drive the research to better success. As a scientist, I aim to combine science, engineering and medicine into an arsenal to impact society, especially human health. Knowing that scientists constantly face failures and adversities, I aspire to bring a different perspective to research by perpetuating my life experiences. I aim to promote a growth process in scientific failures to build resilience to ultimately reach my potential and pass on to future scientists. To illustrate that, I constantly encountered obstacles in my academic career. However, as a result, I achieved an essential goal of being part of a soon-to-be-published research paper. I used those adversities as a positive impact to propel my career forward and become a better scientist. Henceforth, I aim to acquire a PhD in order to enrich my experiences through learning from others, as well as supporting next generations of aspiring scientists. More specifically, obtaining a PhD in Biomedical Engineering will bring me an exposition to different medical novels, improving my knowledge in medicine. I, therefore, aspire to bring my experiences to industry and academia in order to creatively find solutions to problems through means of critical thinking and interdisciplinary knowledge. Through this collaborative environment, I will enrich my understanding of the development of therapeutics through the application of tissue engineering, stem cells engineering and regenerative medicine. By continuing my journey in education, I aim to support individuals, especially underrepresented students, to fight for their education through continuing outreach efforts since education brings hope and transformation to our society.

Looking back, being resilient showed me ways to rise from the ashes to be right here fighting for my dreams.
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    Victor Felipe Medeiros Pereira
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    San Diego, CA

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