Emily López Santa

I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I attended the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, and graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in cellular and molecular biology.

As an undergraduate, I volunteered at Migrant Farm Worker Clinics while doing the Summer Research Internship Program at UConn Health. I mostly worked as a translator bridging the language barriers among doctors, students and spanish-speaking patients. By communicating with the patients in their native language, I was able to ease their worry and make them more willing to seek treatment. This experience helped me realize the degree to which efforts at culture sensitivity can lead to greater well-being for patients. I also volunteered at Rounds of Compassion where we prepared food, coffee and hygiene packages on Friday night, and hand-delivered them until the early hours of Saturday mornings. My favorite parts of these nights were the genuine conversations I had with those I served, the chances I had to listen to their stories, their concerns and how they hoped to be perceived.

Joining the Urban Service Track/AHEC Scholars Program will allow me to learn more about the healthcare and social challenges faced by various underserved, vulnerable communities. I hope that through these experiences, I will become a more culturally-sensitive and empathetic physician, one that accounts for my patients’ cultures, situations and beliefs in order to provide holistic healthcare solutions.