G.O.L.D. Spotlight: Anya and Riya Juneja ’22

Anya Juneja '22

This summer, I participated in the Project Healthcare program at NYU Langone/NYC Health + Hospitals Bellevue, the nation’s oldest public hospital and a Level 1 Trauma Center. I volunteered as a patient advocate in the Adult Emergency Department and other areas, where I learned from physicians and built meaningful relationships with patients from diverse backgrounds. I also presented on toxicology at a community health fair and contributed to a Health Promotion Initiative research project on chemical hazards and chronic illness.

This coming school year, I will volunteer in the Emergency Department at MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, Maine. I will also perform in the Bowdoin Theater Department’s production of Guys and Dolls and co-lead Bowdoin Bear Buddies, a group for children with disabilities in the local community.

Riya Juneja '22

This summer, I volunteered as a patient advocate through NYU Langone’s Project Healthcare program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. I rotated through the Adult and Pediatric Emergency Departments, Operating Room, Emergency ICU, triage, social work, urgent care, and the cardiac catheterization lab. In the emergency department, I provided comfort, blankets, nourishment, and a listening ear for patients while learning from physicians. I also contributed to research on children’s literacy in the Pediatric Emergency Department, which concluded with two community book fairs, and presented on sexual assault/domestic violence at a health fair. Bellevue’s role as a Level 1 trauma center serving a highly diverse population exposed me to everything from gun violence to patients in need of basic resources like food and shelter. This experience deepened my understanding of the healthcare system, highlighted the importance of compassion in medicine, and strengthened my passion for pursuing a career in emergency medicine.

Heading into my senior year at Williams, I will continue volunteering in the Emergency Department at Berkshire Medical Center, while also performing in musical theater, choir, and dance, and serving as both a campus tour guide and board member of our student theater group. Academically, I will be completing a senior honors thesis in computational neuroscience, focused on developing methods to identify burst events in neural spike trains and applying them to both healthy and Parkinsonian rodent data. This project bridges my interests in computer science and medicine, with potential applications for the study of neurodegenerative disorders.