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Each is also part of the innovative STEM Scholars program at Bates, which provides mentoring, coursework, and community to a select cohort of students, including those traditionally underrepresented in science and mathematics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s thrilling to have our first double Goldwater be two talented STEM Scholars. What makes this moment so meaningful is that both Aleisha and Mohammed have combined scientific excellence with a demonstrated commitment to equity and service,\u201d says Robert Strong, a lecturer in English who is director of national fellowships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSTEM Scholars made me interested in research,\u201d says Mohammed, who plans to pursue advanced degrees in medicine and public health. \u201cIt helped me grow as a young researcher and gave me the space to explore and define my interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sandoval will use her Goldwater support to pursue her goal of becoming a physician-scientist focused on cardiology. \u201cEver since I was a kid, I feel like there’s nothing else in the world I want to do,\u201d she says. \u201cYou know how people have plan A and then plan B? I don\u2019t: Ever since I was 5 or 6 years old, I’ve been telling my mom, \u2018I’m going to be a doctor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April Horton, the Wagener Family Professor of Equity and Inclusion in STEM and director of the STEM Scholars program, says students like Mohammed and Sandoval embody the confidence and persistence that the program aims to cultivate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou don’t really get anything you don’t apply for, and we’re all going to get \u2018nos\u2019 in this world. But we surely aren’t going to get a \u2018yes\u2019 if we don’t apply,\u201d Horton says. \u201cI try to help the students cultivate that attitude, from when they apply for that very first internship or research experience to applying to something like the Goldwater.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sandoval, who grew up in Mexico, attended a specialty high school in Texas for students interested in healthcare. There, she trained as an EMT and paramedic and treated patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI realized that I have the capability to actually help people on their worst days,\u201d says Sandoval, who has been an active member of Bates Emergency Medical Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Bates, she has gained extensive research experience. She has worked in the lab of Associate Professor of Biology Larissa Williams, examining the effects of the chemical pollutant perfluorooctane sulfonic acid on the cardiac development of zebrafish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last summer, she conducted cardiovascular research at Boston Children’s Hospital while on a Harvard\/MIT program that offers research experiences for underrepresented students interested in pursuing a combined M.D.\/Ph.D. program. This past semester, she studied abroad in Copenhagen, conducting research at the University of Copenhagen on stem cell models for Type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last fall, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Daniel Slane mentored Sandoval during an independent study that looked at how specific genes in the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana <\/em>contribute to heat stress memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slane saw early signs of her determination. \u201cShe was persistent,\u201d he recalls, in setting up the independent study, \u201cand that was good. And she would come in again in the evening after dinner to finish something that might not have worked out. That overall drive and enthusiasm \u2014 that struck me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slane encouraged Sandoval to consider a research path alongside medical studies. \u201cI saw fire in her eyes for research, and I thought, why not go down the track to being a doctor who does clinical research at the same time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a politics major with a focus on public health equity, Sandoval understands how systemic inequalities \u2014 from environmental exposures to gaps in healthcare access \u2014 shape medical outcomes for underserved communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPolitics is engraved into medicine,\u201d Sandoval says. \u201cWithout proper laws that protect patients or that protect research, there’s not going to be any advancement in medicine. I think that we need to protect research, and we need to protect science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mohammed, who is also a trained EMT, first became interested in medicine and research as a child growing up in Sudan during ongoing civil conflict and unrest in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before moving to the U.S. at age 9, Mohammed looked around and noticed that the conflict was causing healthcare and medicine shortages. He wanted to understand why and, since coming to Bates, has pursued numerous research opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNaturally, I’m a curious person,\u201d Mohammed says. \u201cWhen something captures my interest, I can’t help but ask why. I enjoy digging deeper into things I don\u2019t fully understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Mohammed has channeled his curiosity into research across disciplines. After his first year, he studied breast cancer treatment plans at the University of Florida College of Medicine through the Summer Health Professions Education Program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Following his sophomore year, he conducted peptide synthesis research at the University of Mississippi\u2019s Department of BioMolecular Sciences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During his study abroad, also in Copenhagen, he conducted research at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen on DNA sequencing and recovery techniques for degraded forensic material. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This summer, Mohammed will conduct endometrial research at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, investigating therapeutic responses to patient-derived tumors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He is also interested in bioinformatics \u2014 the use of computation to interpret biological data \u2014 which he has supported at Bates through a minor in digital and computational studies alongside his biochemistry studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back at Bates this fall, he\u2019ll complete his senior thesis in the lab of Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jen Koviach-C\u00f4t\u00e9, exploring chemical synthesis \u2014 the construction of complex molecular compounds through targeted reactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Koviach-C\u00f4t\u00e9, who became Mohammed\u2019s advisor after teaching him in organic chemistry, has watched his interests evolve and mature. \u201cAs he has taken classes and learned new topics, new tools, his interests have led him into thinking about things that could be combined in other ways,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s where I\u2019ve really seen him grow as a student and as a scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Koviach-C\u00f4t\u00e9 notes the significance of his journey. \u201cI am so proud of him, just really thrilled for him. He has worked really hard. He\u2019s overcome a lot of barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bates juniors Aleisha Martinez Sandoval and Mohammed Mohammed, who are both Bates STEM Scholars with a lifelong passion for science, have earned prestigious Goldwater Scholarships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1827,"featured_media":169333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":["jennifer-l-koviach-cote","daniel-slane","april-l-horton","larissa-m-williams"],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11011,44,1,217],"tags":[4087],"class_list":["post-169323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-awards","category-enewsletter","category-batesnews","category-science-technology","tag-harward-center-for-community-partnerships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1827"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169323"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171566,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169323\/revisions\/171566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/05\/241121_Menstrual_Products_Bank_0995-2.webp\")
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