Student and Faculty Stories
This real-world focus teaches our students to be agile, confident, innovative, and culturally sensitive—all of which helps land them jobs and rise quickly into leadership roles, where they help address the healthcare challenges of our time.
We can tell you all this, but we’d rather show you.
STUDENT STORIES
Justine Newman, Health Sciences
Justine Newman plans to become a forensic pathologist, a career that requires her to go to both medical school and law school. But first, she created a co-op at a county coroner’s office to make sure she had the stomach for it.
“Co-op is a great way to find out if what you think you want, is really what you want to do.
I needed to be around dead bodies, to see them and smell them, to be sure that I could do this.”
Andrew Driscoll, Nursing 2019
Driscoll spent his final co-op delivering healthcare in the Moria refugee camp in Greece, where he witnessed the desperate lives of Syrian refuges.
“It just breaks your heart. They realize that they’ve escaped hell, only to make it to a new form of hell.”
Lauren Ansong, Public Health
Ansong parlayed her internship with the Boston Health Commission into an award-winning capstone project, which landed her a job on the frontlines of the opioid crisis.
“I’m interested in innovation and public health problem-solving. My job allows me to learn about program development and fostering community involvement.”
Brittany Loweree, Physical Therapy
As a professional athlete who competed in five continents, Lowery’s flexible schedule made it possible for her to earn three degrees at Northeastern.
“I told Northeastern from the beginning that I have goals for physical therapy, but I also have very serious ambitions in skiing. Right from the start, the university was unbelievably accommodating. In May, I became a triple Husky.”
Adrienne Peng, Health Science
Peng’s co-op experiences around the globe convinced her that she wants to use her public health experience to join the fight against infectious diseases.
“I knew I wanted to go into healthcare, but I wanted to learn more than just the hard science—I wanted to take a holistic approach by blending hard science with social science. That’s why I came to Northeastern.”
Kelly Szaniawski, Health Sciences and Business
Szaniawski planned to follow her father’s footsteps and become a doctor. But when she started courses for her business minor, she realized she wanted to approach healthcare from a different perspective.
“I realized that I have a passion for healthcare, but the mindset of a business person. So many systems depend on one another and understanding these overlapping systems is a key component to achieving healthcare equity.”
FACULTY STORIES
Christie Rizzo, Applied Psychology
Rizzo is on a mission to help teenage boys and girls avoid dating violence. Her federally-funded research has created a host of innovative prevention programs including a video game designed to promote communication between boys and their parents.
“Dating violence increases the burden on law enforcement, healthcare, and the criminal justice system. To prevent this type of violence, you have to start early.”
Tali Konry, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Pharmacy professor Tali Konry is creating a technology that will help researchers re-engineer immune cells to become “serial killers” for specific kinds of cancer.
“Our long-term goal is to make immunotherapy more personalized.”
Matthew Goodwin, Personal Health Informatics
Goodwin has developed a wearable sensor that can predict aggressive behavior in autistic children and a robotic teddy bear to ease anxiety in hospitalized children.
“Personal health informatics is all about empowerment. It’s about helping patients take control of their own health and stay out of the hospital, which makes healthcare less expensive, more sustainable, and produces better outcomes.”
Rachel Jones, Nursing
Jones has created a 12-part soap opera aimed at preventing AIDS by exploring issues faced by four young African-American women as they navigate the challenges of modern relationships.
“Our goal is to change the way black women view themselves and their bodies—to show that their lives and their bodies are important.”
Sara Wylie, Health Sciences
Wylie is a pioneer in the field of citizen science, a movement dedicated to empowering ordinary citizens to conduct environmental monitoring in their communities.
“The government doesn’t have the capacity to monitor all the polluters. This is why citizen science is so important now.”
Ganesh Thakur, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Thakur is exploring a novel cannabinoid receptor that could pave the way for new medicines to treat opioid addiction, PTSD, eating disorders, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and glaucoma.
“This is where the gem of this discovery lies. There are millions of Americans currently addicted to opioids.”