Andrea Tran

Andrea’s unwavering curiosity and desire to know how things work has always guided her in life. It’s what drew her to science. “I was ecstatic when I received a science experiment kit as a birthday present. While I was excited about doing the experiments themselves, I was more drawn to the booklet that explained the science behind it all.”

Growing up as a first generation Vietnamese-American, Andrea’s parents dared her to dream big. “Dreaming big for me meant getting a college degree, a privilege neither of my parents had after immigrating to the United States.” She thought this dream would be easy to achieve once she was accepted to college, until she failed her first college exam. “It was the first time I felt I wasn’t good enough for UC San Diego, like I was an imposter whose acceptance was a fluke. It was the first time I felt that I wasn’t worthy of the sacrifices my family had made for me.”

Soon after, the John Muir College General Biology major joined the First Generation Student Alliance as their secretary. “I was part of a community that supported me through my struggles with my mental health, academics, and personal life.” This led Andrea to become co-president of the Tri-Alpha Honors Society’s inaugural class, an honor society for first generation students.

As she learned more about the medical field, Andrea realized that there is a lack of treatments for mental illnesses. Through working in a lab, she came to realize that the lack of treatment came from a lack of understanding of how the brain functions. She conducted experiments investigating the circuits in the brain that encode both physical and social pain. Her sights are set on graduate school to keep investigating. “Pursuing an MD/PhD will allow me to be involved in direct patient care while also potentially improving their lives through scientific research.”