Photo by Caleb Huang

Brandon Chen is a senior at Will Rice College majoring in Cognitive Science. He is minoring in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Medical Humanities, and wants to be a doctor. At Rice, he serves as the News Editor of the Thresher.

How have your medical humanities courses at Rice shaped your post-graduation goals?

Medical Humanities courses at Rice have shaped my post-graduation goals by allowing me to explore medicine through different lenses. Coming into Rice, I really wanted to continue exploring my interests in the humanities, diving deeper into some of the questions I had acquired in high school from my wonderful mentors and teachers, as well as continue my work in journalism. Taking medical humanities classes have only cemented my desire to become a physician. These courses have created spaces for me to discuss, recognize, and re-center medicine alongside the multifaceted aspects of each patient and person. I had the opportunity to work with patients and incorporate narrative medicine to highlight the impact of community clinics, honoring patient experiences to advocate for their needs through my Medical Humanities Practicum and volunteer work at Legacy Community Health. Alongside this work, I was always drawn back to the medical humanities program (and now institute) to continue exploring my questions and the role of humanity and all that it encompasses within healthcare and being human.

What advice would you give to new Rice Owls curious about the Medical Humanities Program, or who have just begun the minor?

Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and explore all that the program has to offer! As a pre-medical student, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to explore my interests in the humanities, but I was proven wrong! Looking to balance the sciences and the humanities, not only I was able to learn about the mechanisms of action of all these biological processes and diseases, but also explore how ideas themselves could be contagious, how language shapes our thoughts, society, and communication within healthcare, how healthcare barriers and inequalities tangibly change outcomes, and so much more. I’ve learned the most by exploring these topics through small group discussions, conversations with professors, and bouncing novel ideas and projects off of each other. I know that those conversations will stick with me forever. With a plethora of topics covered and a multitude of community partners, the Medical Humanities Research Institute and people within it have shaped the person I’ve become and who I hope to be in the future. All of your interests can find a home, especially within a community of peers and professors as supportive and collaborative as Rice.

What have been some highlights of your time at Rice?

Looking back at my four years at Rice, I’m so glad to have been able to get to know the wonderful campus and the greater Houston communities. Through my roles in the Thresher, I’ve been able to uncover and tell the untold stories of the world, seek to know and understand local business owners in Rice Village, professors who served Rice and have since passed, the college experience post-affirmative action, student experiences at Night of Decadence, groundbreaking lawsuits, Black history at Rice and so much more. Each person has a unique experience that is worth hearing and telling. Each person is a story.

Stories are the core of the human experience. Stories allow us to explain ourselves-- who we are and why we’re here. Stories help us find purpose, heal, laugh, cry, and everything in between. Every field grapples with the things that literally make us human-- from cells to language to art. I’ll never forget my time conducting research in labs, sitting in Keck 100 for biology and chemistry classes, and pacing through Dell Butcher or Sewall Halls, but I’ll also never forget chatting with administration and students throughout campus, wandering the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston with my class to discuss mortality, observation, eros and suffering, or the long walk to Moody to deliberate the meaning of truth itself in creative nonfiction class. And I’ll never forget the friends that have been with me through it all.

Congratulations-- you’re graduating! What will you do next?

Thanks! Next year, I’ll be off to medical school at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. I’m so grateful for the memories and the people here, but I’m excited to see what’s next and what the future holds!