Sid Subramanian

Background

About Sid Subramanian

A Winston-Salem local, I am currently a senior Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Spanish double major at Wake Forest University on the pre-medicine path. My past clinical and research experiences have been focused on working alongside diverse communities, be it with Latinx patients at a community care clinic or with African graduate students and locals in Arusha, Tanzania investigating plant physiology. Ultimately, my time at Wake Forest has been formative in enabling me to bridge linguistic and cultural barriers in the fields of both biology and medicine and develop a strong level of cultural competency. As a volunteer medical interpreter at safety-net clinics in Winston-Salem, I have been able to facilitate hundreds of doctor-patient interactions, placing an emphasis on trust, patient autonomy, and awareness of community resources. By observing, first-hand, the high prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and other adverse chronic ailments in black and brown communities, I hope to use my background in Spanish, and public health to be a physician-advocate for increased equity in immigrant and minority health.Additionally, through the WFU Scholars Program and generous full-ride Stamps Scholarship, I was able to develop a project to analyze how species' patterns of drought tolerance and photosynthetic efficiency underlie their biogeography in the Serengeti, one of the most picturesque yet adverse ecosystems in the world. I started learning basic research techniques and protocol in plant physiology, including turgor loss point, water use efficiency, and photosynthetic biochemistry, for four semesters, which culminated in a 10 week summer research experience in Arusha, Tanzania. I worked on an NSF-funded study at the Nelson-Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology to observe how first-year Acacia tree seedlings responded to drought stress, to get insights into their resilience and distribution, vital to protecting the Serengeti ecosystem and furthering conservation efforts in light of climactic shifts. At the moment, I am currently serving with AmeriCorps as part of the Wake Forest University Public Health AmeriCorps cohort, and performing capacity-building for the Shalom Project, a local non-profit dedicated to poverty alleviation. Looking ahead, I am exploring gap year opportunities to deepen my commitment to patient care, and hope to find work as a clinical research coordinator or medical assistant pending completion of my service as a Public Health Intern.