I am an Interdepartmental Major in Neuroscience and Music with a minor in Spanish. These three interests of mine have one thing in common: listening. Everything I do at Duke is centered around this theme. I work in Dr. Overath’s auditory neuroscience lab where I study how, when, and where we encode musical features, such as tempo and tonality, in the brain. I listen to my peers when I play the trumpet in the Duke University Wind Symphony or when I converse in Spanish or American Sign Language. Duke’s Reimagine Medicine program showed me the importance of using the humanities to show my humanity to others. As a future doctor, listening is crucial. Committing myself to STEAM has helped me realize that and put it into practice. The listening skills I practice in rehearsal and in the classroom will come in handy when I am hearing a patient’s story.
