Sofia Lara

What’ve you enjoyed most about your area of study? Was there a particular discovery, new skill or way of thinking, or insight that you found especially valuable? Please share an example from your favorite class or experience.

What I’ve most enjoyed about studying Spanish is how it teaches precision not only in grammar, but in empathy, how to listen for nuance, how to hold multiple meanings at once, and how language reflects ways of thinking. In Spanish for Public Health, for example, we analyzed how medical translation shapes patient understanding. That exercise, transforming technical material into accessible communication, felt like engineering with language. It mirrored my work in biological engineering, where clarity can determine whether data or therapies succeed. Spanish has given me a framework to think across systems: linguistic, social, and biological. 

How does the knowledge from this field, or your interest in it, combine with your other major or minor studies at MIT?

For me, Spanish and biological engineering are two languages that describe life, one through molecules, the other through culture. Both demand precision, context, and translation. In the lab, I study immune pathways like cGAS-STING, tracing how cells interpret molecular signals; in Spanish, I study how people interpret each other. The bridge between them is communication. In both fields, misunderstanding has consequences. A misread gene can lead to disease just as a mistranslated phrase can distort care. My coursework in Spanish for Medicine deepened that connection: translating medical guidance for diverse communities requires the same systems thinking used in engineering, turning complexity into clarity without losing accuracy. Whether designing experiments or communicating with patients, I see language as the channel through which science becomes empathy and understanding becomes action.

An MIT education includes study in the scientific, technical, social science, arts, and humanities fields. How do you think that wide range of knowledge and perspectives will be valuable to you – for your career success and for your enjoyment of life?

Engineering gives me the tools to measure the world; the humanities teach me how to interpret it. That balance has shaped both how I do science and why I do it. In one week, I might model immune pathways, lead a dorm community discussion, and analyze a Spanish novel about memory. Each experience trains a different kind of attention: data teaches precision; art teaches patience; leadership teaches empathy. Together, they develop the ability to see the same problem from molecular, social, and human scales at once. That mindset will guide my life in medicine. Science can heal the body, but understanding heals trust. 

What are your plans for the future?

I want to become a physician-scientist who builds medicine around the people it serves. In the short term, I hope to train in clinical care while continuing research on immune signaling pathways. My goal is to turn those insights into smarter, safer therapies that reflect biological diversity rather than erase it. In the long term, I want to design clinical trials and treatment frameworks that account for the differences we’ve too often dismissed as “noise.” Through medicine, policy, and education, I hope to ensure that inclusion becomes a scientific standard, not a footnote.