A Visa lottery winner finds her path to medical school

Growing up in Albania, Sonola Burrja never imagined that she would move to Mamaroneck, New York, and study in the United States. But when her family won the U.S. government’s Diversity Immigrant Visa program lottery in 2018, the plan changed.

“The plan was that my younger brother and I get educated outside of Albania, which would probably result in our … not going back, [but]when we won the U.S. lottery, my parents saw it as a great opportunity for the entire family to stay together,” says Burrja, who graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in May.

Now, just five years after moving to New York, she’s a first-year student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. And she can’t imagine not having gone to Fordham, where she joined the pre-health program, majored in biological sciences, minored in German, and was part of the University’s inaugural group of ASPIRES scholars. Partially supported by the National Science Foundation, the program—which stands for Achievement in STEM through a Program of Immersive Research Experience and Support—provides a select group of undergraduates with scholarships for their four years at Fordham, guidance in and out of the lab, and funding for their undergraduate research. 

Conducting Ethical Research

Through ASPIRES, Burrja began collaborating with professors and conducting research almost right away—albeit not in the way she expected. It was March 2020, when COVID-19 spread to the United States, so her plan to conduct in-person research had to be put on hold in favor of a virtual research project.

“I was supposed to meet up with a researcher at Fordham that week that everything got shut down,” she recalls. Instead, she spent the summer working with Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., a psychology professor and associate dean for strategic initiatives at Fordham College at Rose Hill, studying statistical data on diabetes and COVID-19 comorbidity.

Burrja went on to earn three undergraduate research grants from Fordham to support her work with biology professor Marija Kundakovic, Ph.D. She joined the Kundakovic Lab to study the epigenetic effects of hormones in female brains. 

“I never knew that there were so many differences between female and male brains—and that somebody at Fordham was actually tackling this issue,” Burrja says, explaining why she asked Kundakovic to be her mentor. “I really thought it was very interesting because some conditions, for example, depression and anxiety, have a sex bias of females during their reproductive stage. There are some huge differences, and we still don’t know enough about this topic—and the brain generally is a very unexplored area.”

To help her navigate the ethical questions that need to be taken into consideration when conducting research, Burrja took Ethics and Research, a course that allowed her to “discuss some very difficult dilemmas” and think deeper “about some issues that don’t really come into our lives, but if you go into medicine or if you go into actually doing research, those issues might come up—and there are actual consequences to being on one side or the other.”

And they will come up: Burrja plans to become a doctor. She’s not yet sure what her specialty will be, but one thing in particular is a must.

“The patient interaction part is something that I would not want to sacrifice,” she says. “I would like to be able to speak with them and just be an advocate for them, especially working with underserved populations.”

Read more “20 in Their 20s” profiles.

“Everyone brings something important to the table, regardless of the level of education you have,” said J.D. Lewis, Ph.D., a biological sciences professor who is leading the Fordham team in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Inclusive Excellence 3 Learning (IE3) Community. “Through this collaborative effort, we want to figure out how to teach STEM in a way that is accessible, relevant, and interesting to all our students.” 

Fordham is among more than 100 institutions involved in the IE3 Community. The goal of the initiative is to improve STEM teaching and learning in higher education, especially for first-generation college students, transfer students, and students from underrepresented backgrounds. 

More Inclusive Intro STEM Classes

After applying to be part of the initiative in 2019, Fordham was accepted into the inaugural cohort in 2021. The institutions were grouped into seven clusters, each with an assigned goal. The goal of Fordham’s cluster is to make introductory STEM course content more inclusive. Ultimately, Fordham wants students who better reflect the racial and intersectional diversity of the Bronx community to enter STEM disciplines and graduate at rates comparable to those of majority students, said Lewis. 

Lewis leads Fordham’s IE3 leadership team, which is currently planning the details of the project. They are joined by Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center Laura Auricchio, Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill Maura Mast, Associate Professor of Chemistry Robert Beer, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Patricio Meneses, and CSTEP Director Michael Molina.

One of the team’s goals is to build on the University’s previous successes with mentoring and early research experiences, especially Project TRUE, the ASPIRES Scholars program, the Calder Summer Undergraduate Research Program, and Fordham’s Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, said Lewis. For example, they are currently working with CSTEP to include more CSTEP students in research opportunities earlier on in their time at Fordham, said Lewis. 

The team will also assess the University’s data on students taking STEM classes, starting with the biology department. They are planning on studying student outcomes, including the DFW rate—the number of students who earn D’s or F’s or withdraw from the course, said Lewis. They may also interview introductory biology instructors and students to understand the support they might need, said Lewis. 

“From them, we can get a sense of what’s working, what isn’t, what they’re struggling with, what they’re concerned about, and where and why they may not feel included,” Lewis said.  

Earlier Research Opportunities Built Into the Curriculum

In addition, the team is working on integrating student-directed research earlier in the STEM major. Upperclassmen typically conduct their own research in labs on campus, said Lewis, but their team is revising the curriculum so that they can introduce research to students as early as their first year of college. For example, the biology department recently introduced “research modules,” a new component in an introductory biology lab that gives students more creative freedom, said Lewis. 

“Instead of students simply following a manual type of lab activity, they are doing research where we don’t know the answer beforehand. They are experiencing those eureka moments, while still learning biology skills,” Lewis said. “Instead of waiting to work in a lab as a junior, they’re doing research that is yielding an unknown result—now, as a second-semester first-year student.” 

This fall, Fordham will finalize its project plan in collaboration with 14 other universities. Over the next six years, they will work together to achieve their goal through nearly $8 million in shared funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a science philanthropy organization founded by aviator and industrialist Howard R. Hughes. 

“We want all Fordham students and prospective students to see and feel that they can be successful in a STEM major and career,” Lewis said. “I hope that our data will lead us to what that should look like.”

“Programs like ASPIRES are game changers,” said Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. “Through this type of support, women—and others who are underrepresented in STEM—see themselves as belonging, see themselves as mathematicians and scientists, and see themselves as successful.”

Through the NSF-funded University program, first-year students receive annual scholarships, which range from $1,000 to $10,000, for their four years at Fordham; guidance in and out of the lab; and funding for their undergraduate research. Scholarships for their first year of study are funded by NSF; the remaining three years, the scholarships are funded by Fordham. In total, the grant will sponsor four student cohorts. The first will serve as mentors to incoming scholars. 

Last fall, the University was awarded $1 million to be granted over five years for ASPIRES, which stands for Achievement in STEM through a Program of Immersive Research Experience and Support. Awarded by the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program, the grant is intended to help increase the number of college students pursuing careers in STEM, especially those who come from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the field.

“In the analysis that was done for the grant, a disproportionate number of Fordham STEM majors or students intending to pursue a STEM major leave STEM or don’t go on to STEM fields,” said Robert H. Beer, Ph.D., associate dean for STEM and pre-health education at Fordham College at Rose Hill. “The idea behind the grant was that if we put this program in place freshman year, students that might be at the risk of leaving a STEM field or major would stay.” 

To qualify for the program, students must indicate an interest in a STEM major on their college applications, demonstrate strong academic performance in high school, and show financial need. 

“This is really early exposure and access to faculty, research, and the idea of research,” said Christie-Belle Garcia, assistant dean for student support and success. “The way the program is set up is to give them an upper hand in being able to access these [resources].” 

Early Exposure to Lab Life

ASPIRES not only pays for part of students’ tuition, but also funds their future research projects, offers a year-long research seminar that shows students how to create their own research projects, and hosts a six-day Summer Bridge Program that introduces students to the campus before the semester starts. 

From Aug. 18 to 23, this year’s ASPIRES students explored the Rose Hill campus and toured the chemistry, biology, and physics departments. They saw several lab experiments performed by professors and student research assistants, ranging in subject from crystals to cell mitosis to electrons. The students were also treated to meals in Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as activities like zip lining at the Bronx Zoo and navigating an escape room in the city. 

“In the first week of the students being here, they were exposed to faculty in a small group setting,” Garcia said. “Throughout the course of the year, the goal is to provide them with the necessary skills to be able to participate in research by the end of their first year of college.” 

The First Cohort

Twelve undergraduates were selected from approximately 400 candidates, said Beer. 

One student, Sonola Burjja, is originally from Europe. As a high school student in Albania, she said she placed among the top three students in several biology state olympiads. But it wasn’t until she moved to the U.S. in her senior year of high school that she was able to conduct complex science experiments in her classes. 

“In Albania, we didn’t have much research or opportunity,” said Burrja, a biology major on the pre-med track. “[At Fordham] I’ve already scheduled an appointment with one of the deans involved in research to talk about different opportunities. I’d like to do something that is related to people’s lives … to the medical field.” 

Most of the ASPIRES students live on campus. But a few students commute from the Bronx, like Dogunhe Trawally, who rides the Bx15 to the Rose Hill campus several times a week. He said he’s taking five courses this semester: one in English composition, one in Islamic history, one in sociology, and two in computer science. 

“Technology is this evolving theme that’s part of our lives,” said Trawally, a computer science major. “So I thought, what other way to make a change in the world than to do something that people are already into, that has changed so many lives?” 

Another ASPIRES student, Ora Kalaj, said she’s fascinated by the chemical makeup of cosmetic products. Last summer, she interned at a French skincare company called Biologique Recherche, where she not only learned about the marketing side of the business but also the technical side. 

“There was a seminar where the executives of the company came to talk to the estheticians-in-training about the chemical makeup of the products,” said Kalaj, adding that the experience helped narrow her interest in the field of chemistry. 

In the future, she said she envisions herself as a chemist or chemical engineer. But for now, Kalaj—a chemistry major from Eastchester, New York—is concentrating on the next four years. 

“I’m really excited to participate in scientific research because I never did anything like that in high school,” she said. “I’m excited to work with people who are as passionate as I am.”