Samuel Arda is a Southern California native from Moreno Valley. He enrolled at the California Military Institute, a public charter school located in the neighboring town of Perris. It was during his time there that he found his motivation and passion for pursuing a career in medicine. While riding the school bus home, he peered out the window and saw that his community was “sick,” stricken with violence, death, grief, and the other negative public opinions that are assimilated with a minority populated, low-income community. This realization quickly turned into the driving force to constantly strive and seek for self-improvement, to encourage all members of the community young and old, not to demean life, but to cherish it, by achieving their dreams in meaningful, creative, and in non-self-destructive ways. Graduating as a Cadet Captain, Deputy Commander of the corps of cadets and taking the oath to support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, and expanding that oath to protecting underrepresented communities against disease and health disparities has only served as his first step in achieving his life’s purpose.
Admittance to the University of California, Merced has allowed Samuel to succeed in a myriad of opportunities. He joined the professional fraternity, Phi Delta Epsilon International Medical Fraternity, and helped found two campus organizations, Pre-Med Central and the Society for Medical Sciences, both of which help students in their journey towards achieving their goals academically and professionally. He has had the fortunate opportunity to partake in research in not only one lab but two. His first lab experiences were in a developmental immunology lab overseen by Dr. Anna E. Beaudin, where Samuel worked closely with Gabriel Leung understanding the role of the Interleukin 7 Receptor during tissue resident macrophage development. After two years, Samuel then translated his skills into an Autoimmunity lab directed by Dr. Katrina K. Hoyer through theUndergraduate Research Opportunities Center (UROC), as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Scholar. With mentorship provided by Dr. Katrina Hoyer, Anh Diep, Oscar Davalos, and the guidance from the entire Hoyer Lab, Samuel effectively workedas the lead on his own project in identifying disease correlations between Valley fever and other respiratory illnesses. These experiences in research have culminated over the past three years and has contributed greatly to his personal and professional development during his time as an undergraduate.
Obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in Molecular & Cellular Biology has marked the completion of his second mission, gaining insightful experiences and further developing his intrapersonal and interpersonal skills where he will continue on his journey following his dreams and aspirations.
“Life’s road to fulfillment can only be paved with stones of our past & illuminated by the torches set by our ancestors, echoing, ‘Never Forget.’” ~ Samuel P. Arda
