Sophia is currently a senior at Hunter College High School. Sophia is pursuing a career in medicine, with a specific interest in neuroscience and psychiatry.
Sophia is involved in the Hunter community, currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of The Observer, Hunter’s official independent student newspaper, the Captain of Hunter’s Debate team (Lincoln Douglas), the President of F-Stop, Hunter’s Photography Club, and as a Peer Leader. Sophia is also the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Pulse, Hunter’s only medical journal, where she has combined her interests in medicine and writing to feature work on recent medical developments, cutting-edge research, and past histories. Additionally, Sophia has extensive experience with writing mentorship, serving as a co-leader of the BHSE English/Writing Tutoring Organization, a volunteer tutoring organization for English and writing, as well as a Writing Center Mentor at Hunter, where she was nominated by her humanities teachers to help her peers with writing skills and assignments. As an experienced editor for student publications, Sophia has also worked to expand writing and editing resources for her younger staff, organizing in-depth handbooks and workshops and currently setting up editorial internship opportunities for staff writers. Sophia has received over 10 Scholastic Gold and Silver key awards for both her writing and art.
Outside of school and writing, Sophia has interned at a neuroscience lab at Mount Sinai Medical School for the past two years, where she is currently completing a project studying the link between diabetes and cognitive function, which is currently under review for publication. She was also selected as a paid research intern for the Cold Spring Harbor UBRP research program, where she wrote a successful funding proposal and completed an independent research project identifying and categorizing the bacterial species on COVID-19 masks. She has presented her research at several program and school-wide symposiums. Sophia has also competed in the Science Olympiad, where she specialized in subjects relating to biology and health. Her team is a two-time Regional Champion and she has placed second in the events of Anatomy and Physiology and Cell Biology at the New York State and Regional Championships, respectively. Sophia has also interned as a shadowing volunteer and summer auxiliary intern at Mount Sinai Hospital and Lenox Hill Hospital, respectively. At Lenox Hill, she helped organize the first hospital-wide newsletter, featuring important updates on treatment and staff. Sophia is a two-time Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Awardee, a Thomas Hunter Community Service award recipient, and a Coca-Cola Scholars Semifinalist.
While at Hunter, Sophia took AP Biology and received a 5 on the exam, and is currently taking AP Chemistry, AP BC Calculus, and AP Statistics, as well as Honors Literary Journalism I. Sophia received a 790/800 on the SAT Math exam and a 790/800 on the SAT Reading/Writing exam. During her free time, Sophia enjoys reading, photography, and volleyball.