Alejandro is enrolled in Brown’s Program in Liberal Medical Education, an eight-year program that allows students to combine their undergraduate and medical education. He co-founded the Cuban Brunonians Association and is a co-host of the weekly Outta Pocket Podcast series.

One of the goals that I set for myself when coming to Brown was to avoid being boxed in. Even though I’m pursuing biotechnology as a career, I love to write and play guitar — I think being multifaceted is satisfying for the soul. I took a really fun music theory class. I took a fiction class that was enlightening.

I’m really glad I did the Third World Transition Program (a pre-orientation program that centers the student of color experience). I met a lot of upperclassmen friends who were facilitators and made a lot of friends on campus early on. Brown is a very loving and supportive place and community is very central to it. That was something I had been searching for. The moment I got here, TWTP confirmed I had found it.

The Program in Liberal Medical Education will help me chart a course as a physician-scientist, working with patients on new technologies that will make their lives better in some way, possibly developing new technologies for amputees from a computer science approach. 

My overarching goal for life is to help make people’s lives better in some way. That’s the common thread that ties the Cuban Brunonians Association and The Outta Pocket Podcast together, to create spaces for people to be in community and have fun being themselves. I love bringing joy and engagement, which we all need. I hope that thread will run through my career as a physician-scientist.