Meet Neena Patel, a senior student majoring in microbiology with a pre-med co-major. She’s that girl on the go you always see dashing in and out of Pearson Hall, coffee in hand. When she’s not doing research, in class, or working as a pharmacy technician at CVS, you’ll find her organizing events and choreographing dances as the social chair of the Indian Student Association or hanging with her sisters in Kappa Delta. Those who know her love her fun, witty and sassy yet caring personality and we at Her Campus do too! Keep reading to learn more about Neena’s noteworthy advances in her research, career aspirations, and experiences while here at Miami.
Her Campus: So tell us a little bit about your involvement with the Indian Student Association, particularly your role as a dance choreographer.
Neena Patel: I’m head choreographer of the Diwali show, which takes place every November. It celebrates the Indian Holi Festival of Light, one of their biggest religious holidays. There are usually around nine dances from all over India representing the different regions intermixed with a plot and acting. I help all the directors and make sure all the choreography is on track. I also help with the costumes and dress rehearsals.
This year I am choreographing three dances with help from others: The classical dance, because I’m classically trained; the Garba dance, which is the dance from the region of India I am from. (It’s a celebratory dance you do for special occasions. You always do it at weddings.) And the senior dance with all the seniors.
I love it. I did it all throughout my childhood so it brings a piece of home back to Miami. Come to our show, it’s on November 20th and 21st in Hall Auditorium!
HC: What are your career aspirations?
NP: I want to go to medical school; I’m currently applying. I also want to go abroad and spend some time in the Peace Corps or work for Doctors Without Borders. I want to help doctors around the world get the education and resources they need like we have here…I just want to make a difference.
HC: Is there anywhere in particular you want to go?
NP: I speak some French, so Africa maybe. It’d be nice to go to India too, but it’s an international issue so I want to be internationally present.
HC: Can you tell me a little bit about the research you’ve been doing on campus?
NP: Sure. I’m doing research in the Microbiology department. I work with Dr. Mitchell Balish. We’re studying the bacteria that infects HIV positive patients and people with weakened immune systems. The bacteria makes the HIV virus replicate a lot faster which causes AIDS to occur more quickly. We’re looking to find out how to prevent the bacteria from doing what they do, because it could help develop a cost efficient way to prevent AIDS. But that’s a long way off.
HC: I understand you made a recent discovery in your research. What was that?
NP: I was working on a side project taking high resolution microscopic photos and we found out that when these bacteria are under certain conditions they change their shape. That might not seem like a big deal but we’ve never seen them take this form before, which is a big deal. The conditions in which they change shape are theoretically what the bacteria would be exposed to when they’re inside of a [human] cell, which is where they do most of their damage.
If we can identify and locate a protein in this bacteria, then you can make drugs to target that protein to slow it down or prevent infection in general.
I’ve been conducting research to collect that data since my sophomore year. I got the Hughes Summer Scholarship to continue the work over this past summer, and I’m still working on that now.
HC: That must take up a lot of your free time.
NP: I spend probably at least six hours in the lab every week but it can vary. Occasionally I go in during the evening or weekend.
HC: What do you like to do in your free time?
NP: I love to hang out with my friends, go uptown, watch movies and have wine nights.
HC: Now that you’re a senior, what’s one thing about Miami that you’re going to miss?
NP: I’m going to miss all my friends being super close to me and everything being within walking distance. I’m going to miss the environment Miami has the most, though. It kind of has its own bubble, its own place…its own box. You don’t get much of the real world, but I kind of like it like that. And I’m going to miss Mac n’ Joes. (laughs)
HC: What’s one of your favorite memories of your time at Miami?
NP: That’s a hard question… I spend so much time at the library that most of my friends know that if I’m referring to my boyfriend it is generally King. There was one night I was studying at the library like a very good child when a couple of my friends were on their way back from uptown. They specifically stopped by the library to come and find me in their going out clothes. I hadn’t told them I was there—they just knew I’d be there. They walked around the entire building being hilarious looking for me and started yelling when they found me. It was really funny.