Oluwadamilola Oladeru ’11

Student Profile: Oluwadamilola Oladeru ’11

Oluwadamilola “Damilola” Oladeru ’11 spent her high school years in New Jersey cultivating interests in biology, medicine, and research. She participated in the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP) and interned with the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Merck & Co., the National Institutes of Health, and Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology. When it came time to apply to college, her A.P. biology teacher, Dr. Shani Peretz, encouraged her to consider Yale. “Dr. Peretz earned her Ph.D. in biology from Yale and thought it would be a good fit for me,” she said. “I wanted to attend a school where I could receive a well-rounded liberal arts education that also had a strong biology program.”

Now, Damilola is a junior in Silliman College and taking full advantage of Yale’s diverse curriculum. Majoring in biology, she has participated in Professor Scott Strobel’s Rain Forest Expedition as well as the Science, Technology, and Research Scholars (STARS) program, and she serves as president of the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students. She is also pursuing interests outside of science, working toward a second major in African Studies, and taking classes in creative writing.

Below, Damilola shares more about her experience at Yale so far and her plans for the future.

I chose to attend Yale because:

I came to Yale for three reasons: the people, the opportunities—both academically and in preparing for professional studies—and financial aid.

My best class:

I have two best classes. Last fall, I took Introduction to Medical Anthropology with Professor Sean Brotherton. The course provided a global view of the many factors influencing the health of individuals and populations. I learned about concepts of body in health and illness, how people interpret and experience distress and illness, and medical traditions and cross-cultural medicines.

Last spring, I took Professor Scott Strobel’s Rainforest Expedition and Lab. It was an exciting and unique research experience. We traveled to the Amazon in search of plants that would lead to novel endophytes, which can then be used in screening for biological activity against various disease-causing parasites. It was my first opportunity to be in charge of my own research experiment from start to finish, and it made me a more confident person. Now I am working in an infectious disease lab in the Yale School of Medicine to screen compounds from the course for antiplasmodial activity in hopes of finding a drug target for malaria.

The greatest book I read at Yale:

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, Adjunct Professor of English and Francis Writer in Residence.

It brilliantly explores issues that are dear to me—medicine, immigration, and cultural sensitivity—and has encouraged me to share my short stories, most of which revolve around those issues and are based on true stories. I am currently enrolled in a fiction writing course.

My favorite place to study:

The Silliman library.

My study or work abroad experience:

I was born in Ilesa, Nigeria, and my first time back in Africa was after my freshman year. I went to Ghana with the Unite for Sight program. We visited fourteen villages, screened for eye conditions, observed sight-restoring surgeries, and gave eye health seminars at local secondary schools. It inspired me to dream of more ways I could make and be a difference in any community. It also made me more passionate about going into medicine and confirmed my choice.

After that I started to think about what I could do to give back to my homeland while I was studying to become a doctor. So I submitted a proposal to the Clinton Global Initiative to build a library back home in Nigeria. Schools in Nigeria are often closed because of teacher strikes, and a library provides a place for kids to go and to learn when they can’t go to school. I spent this past summer traveling and giving speeches about the project. In December, I am going back to Nigeria for the opening of the library, and all of the books will have been donated from people here in the northeast.

My preferred extracurricular activity:

I am the president of the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students, a national group that provides support to encourage minority students to continue with their pre-medical studies. In Yale’s chapter we offer tutoring, opportunities to hear speakers from different areas of medicine, and access to mentors from the Yale School of Medicine. We also publish bi-weekly newsletters to keep students abreast of scientific breakthroughs, hot topics in public health, and summer internship opportunities and help students attend and present at national scientific conferences.

I also tutor biology through the STARS program and Spanish at the Center for Language Studies. And I recently launched a Web site called passyourtorch.org, which provides a place for aspiring scholars to share information about scholarships, research opportunities, volunteer opportunities, and more.

After graduation, I plan to:

After graduation, I plan to attend a medical school with a strong focus on research. I am very interested in evidence-based medicine, and I believe my personal experiences, research experience, and exposure to clinical settings in the U.S. and abroad have prepared me for this. I also hope to set up outreach programs to increase diversity in math and scientific fields, especially biomedical research and medicine.

Ultimately, I would like to go back to Nigeria and work as the Minister of Health to increase the number of health professionals, improve the quality of health care, increase access to it, and advocate for the poor. Also, I want to combat the brain drain crisis in Nigeria by increasing educational opportunities, resources, quality training, and jobs.

Something I learned at Yale that I will always remember:

The best time spent is one invested in others.

(Oct. 28, 2009)