HI EVERYONE!!
HI EVERYONE!! My name is Racquel Q. and I am 19 years old. I am a rising sophomore at the wonderful Duke University. Although I most recently hail from Brooklyn, New York I have lived in England, South Carolina and Georgia(my dad was in the Air Force). I love running(although my exercise has fallen off after coming to college) and dancing and I am involved in the latter within the Duke community during the schoolyear. My participation in the Howard Hughes Reserach Fellowship comes from my desire to do medical research later on in life. Although as a child I claimed that I wanted to be a doctor, as I grew older I realized that I was not really cut out for the job. Two of the key factors that helped me to decide this was my participation in the National Youth Leadership Forum(a 10-day program in which high school students can shadow doctors and get a hands on experience with the field… you can learn more at www.nylf.org). The second factor was the hit television show Grey’s Anatomy. As corny and slightly weird as that sounds, watching the gory tales of patients freaked me out and watching the stress of an intern I realized that perhaps I wasn’t really ready to take up the struggle. Perhaps I based this on a non-legit source but I figure if I can’t handle the special effects, real blood won’t be any better. Anywho, that is just a bit about why my interest in HHMI came about. I want to remain involved in the medical field but behind the scenes. I hope to gain an appreciation for research and learn more about what I can do for those who are sick in the world.