Aashi Rathod

About Me

I'm Aashi (she/her) and I live near the Bay Area in California. I'm a sophomore who's interested in pursuing a career in the medical field in the future. I've been interested in becoming a psychiatrist, an OBGYN, or a surgeon, and I hope I can decide what I want to become soon. In my free time, I love reading, doing art, traveling, and gardening. At school, I'm involved in medical related clubs and play water polo.

Research Experience

At the beginning of the program, I questioned my ability to write a whole paper and highly doubted that I'd finish it in time. I was also nervous to meet my mentor, Dr. Novak, and a little confused with the topic I had chosen. Fortunately, throughout the program, I pushed myself to meet deadlines which increased my confidence that I'd be able to finish the paper in time. I also communicated with my mentor when I was confused and she was very helpful in explaining what I didn't understand.

Participating in research with Talaria has influenced my future plans. My dream job was to be a psychiatrist for the longest time. However, Talaria actually made me realize that there are so many interesting medical fields that I don't know about. My research related to the OBGYN field and now I'm interested in this career path as well.

Overall, I enjoyed this experience greatly and hope to do it again. I can see myself wanting to do my own research in the future and do research in person someday.

Mentorship Experience

Working with my mentor was very beneficial because I learned so much from her. I discussed research projects with her and she met with me more times than required to help me complete this project. We'd also talk about school and extracurriculars I did as a way to bond and get to know each other better.

Favorite Part of Talaria

My favorite part of Talaria was being able to speak with a mentor who is skilled in the field of study I want to go in. I enjoyed our meetings and Dr. Novak was very supportive of my work. This was a whole new experience for me and looking at real lab data, finishing a research paper, and presenting it were all things I never imagined I'd do.

Who I Recommend Talaria For

I would recommend Talaria to a student who is interested in the STEM field or wants to see if they could have a passion for this field. Also, it's a program for people who are ready to put in time and effort to complete the paper and do their part in order to finish.