Service Engagement

Service is a big part of campus I have realized. This year, I really tried to get involved with service and giving back to the community. So many groups across campus really get involved with giving back to the community and it is really rewarding to take part in their events and help out. I really liked being a part of MLK day of service so much that I joined Pay It Forward to be a part of more events like that. I feel that everyone should come to college with the mindset to give back and that is definitely the vibe I felt from everyone around me during the service days.

Leadership Development

Leadership has always been a big part of my dreams and it’s been something I’ve been striving to get better at, especially in college. Being a part of the DLA (Dean’s Leadership Academy) is possibly one of the best decisions I’ve made in college. I’ve been able to have a whole new perspective on who I actually want to be in the workforce and trying to actively sort out what my values and goals are and how I am going to achieve them. It has also made me more aware of my weaknesses and in which settings do I need to voice my opinion more or assert myself more. By constant reflection and creating a culture of self-improvement I definitely feel more confident in leadership roles as well as confident in knowing where I lack and consciously working on being more present, attentive, active, and a better listener. It has also enabled me to think bigger, especially in terms of my extracurricular, I constantly try to find ways to reach to more people, make the program better and more inclusive. That way, I’m really happy at how many opportunities there are at Ohio State and how much I’ve grown and how far I’ve still got to go.

 

Academic Enrichment

Academically, I feel that HSS really provided me with the tools I needed to succeed in my pre-med classes by hosting review sessions and providing a community in the dorm with other pre-med students. It has really made all the difference and I feel that in some cases I’ve learnt more from my peers than sometimes in lectures because having that personal connection with a friend and figuring out concepts together is not only helpful but it also makes it more memorable.

 

Original Inquiry

Everybody has thousands of cells that turn cancerous every day. This fact I learned in my freshman year Biology class with Dr. Ball shifted my perspective on cancer as a whole. In a way, it made me more grateful. In a stroke of luck every day, my lymphatic system is able to identify and eliminate all potentially cancerous cells in my body. While researching with Dr. Hai on the metastatic niches of breast cancer and the role of ATF3 in the recruitment of neutrophils, I grew more fascinated with cancer and its treatment.

My research apprenticeship under Dr. Hai was one of the highlights of my undergraduate career and formative in my decision to pursue a career in medicine.  I learned the importance of cross-referencing data, how to test relationships and functions of different pathways, and most importantly, the cruciality of cultivating an independent and critical mind: knowing what you are doing and why. As Dr. Hai puts it best, I had to learn “how to be a ‘chef’, and not just a ‘cook.’” Dr. Hai’s lab allowed me the independence to be a confident researcher and sparked my love of being “hands-on” in science, furthering my conviction to want to be in a field where I can blend my love for emotional connection and medical sciences.

Our work involved the metastatic niches of breast cancer and the role of ATF3 in the recruitment of macrophages. AFT3 is a stress-inducible gene and has been known to exacerbate cancer metastasis.  My work built on a previous paper detailing the changes chemotherapy makes in the tumor microenvironment, allowing for cancer cells to escape into the bloodstream, and changes in the tissue microenvironment at different sites which create a more hospitable environment for traveling cancer cells in the blood stress to extravasate and metastasize.

During my senior year, I worked on understanding and studying more of the vascular microenvironment. At 3 hours using the experiment model above, there are more cancer cells in the lungs of the mice treated with commercial chemotherapeutic agents, however, most of the cells had not extravasated. This led to the hypothesis that CTX treatments alter the microvascular environment, making it easier for cancer cells to adhere to vascular walls. The satisfaction of perfecting my experiments, seeing my progress through my results, and the challenge of thinking critically and building on available knowledge and literature, fostered my passion for research and my drive to contribute to the scientific community, which I hope to continue to do as I further my career in medicine.

Year in Review

This first year was one of the best and toughest years I’ve had. First, by being so far away from home it was difficult at first to find my center and figure out my own path in a place where I didn’t know anyone. I learnt a lot about myself and my ability to seek opportunities out. I also realized I really like leadership as I joined ELI leadership cohort and absolutely loved it. I also learnt how to prioritize school, work, and friends a bit better and make the most of my time that I had this year. I learnt that overloading on work and trying to do too many things at once doesn’t help with time management so I know what to do next year. Reflecting back, I am really happy of how this year turned out and I can’t wait for next year because I think I finally have the hang of things and I can’t wait to branch out and make use of all the opportunities that college has to offer!

Global Awareness

 

I grew up speaking Tamil, a dialect from the south of India, alongside English. Very often, trying to use one language to understand a sentence in terms of the other. I think that’s where my love for languages and cultures began. At Ohio State, I took Linguistics 2000, an introductory course about the origins of language, and in Ling3701 Language and the Mind, I learned about the Sapir Whorf theory: the language you speak dictates how you think.

I wondered how that related to systems and constructs today, especially in healthcare, the field I am interested in joining. I spent the summers of my Freshman and Sophomore year of college being involved in Samarpan, an NGO dedicated to providing accessible health care to the underserved in India. It started as a couple of camps in some neighboring smaller towns near the main city of Chennai, India focusing on screening for renal failure. However, in the next years, it grew in scale to provide comprehensive care (with the help and collaboration with other clinics in the area with the same mission) to nearly 30 rural communities. What I loved about the experience the most was the feeling of shared identity and how the physicians treated the patients as their own family members, often holding their hands and walking alongside them, even sometimes scolding them out of care and concern as you would a close family member.

There is a power in being human and that similarity connects us all. My experience definitely broadened my interest and perspective of different communities and heightened my global awareness. I look forward to leaning in and learning more as a future medical student and hope to be involved with Global Service Trips and electives in order to become a better, well-rounded and globally-aware future physician.

About Me

Subhakeertana Sivakumar is a recent graduate of Ohio State University with a B.S. in Neuroscience, minor in Integrative Health and Wellness, and a Certificate of Leadership from the Dean’s Leadership Academy through Fisher Business School in May 2021. She is currently in her gap year while applying to medical schools and spends her time working part-time as a medical scribe and market analyst. 

While a student, Subha loved being involved on-campus and in the Columbus Community. She was Co-Director of Pay-It-Forward, a service cohort on campus dedicated to connecting students with service and providing education and awareness of social justice issues throughout the year, and was on the Outreach Commitee on TEDxOhioStateUniveristy and worked with various organizations in and around Columbus to share “Ideas Worth Spreading”.

She also loved advocating for students as a Wellness Coach through the Student Wellness Center as well as being an Ambassador for both Neuroscience Advising Office and the Dean’s Leadership Academy. She found her love for research and teaching through being a TA for several Neuroscience classes and doing cancer research surrounding ATF3, a stress-inducible gene, and its relationship with cancer metastasis with Dr. Hai and Dr. Middleton.

When not in class, she enjoys baking and cooking with friends, finding elusive D-tix deals, exploring Columbus’s thrift stores,  going to yoga and zumba classes, and DIY crafting  If you have any questions about Ohio State, pre-med life, getting involved, or just general life, feel free to contact Subha with questions!