Alexxandra Hurtado, HBCU MD Student at Stanford Cancer Institute

I come from a Mexican immigrant household in Los Angeles County, where I grew up surrounded by diverse socio-economic challenges. From an early age, I witnessed the barriers many families face in accessing healthcare, and those experiences shaped my commitment to return to my community and serve. I’m currently studying medicine at Charles R. Drew University (CDU), located in the heart of South LA, which aligns with my passion for addressing health disparities.

In high school, it was pretty common to be discouraged from pursuing medicine, especially if you didn’t have family members who had gone to college or were physicians. Despite that, I chose a pre-med major in college, and once I got started, I realized how much I really enjoyed it. 

When I was 16, I joined the COPE Scholar Program, which gave me the chance to volunteer at the hospital throughout college. That experience introduced me to many people on the physician track and showed me how valuable it is to have support along the way. Because of that, I’ve made it a priority to mentor others, whether through programs at CDU, my undergrad, or with MiMentor. At the same time, I’ve learned how important it is to keep finding mentors for myself as I move forward in this journey.

During undergrad, I worked in a biochemistry lab, and after graduation, I took a gap year to intern at City of Hope through the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. That experience gave me hands-on exposure to translational cancer research and really reaffirmed my interests in cancer biology, immunology, and research.

At CDU, my classmate first brought the idea of an asylum clinic to our Physicians for Human Rights chapter, and as co-director, I’ve been leading the effort to establish it. The clinic will operate as part of our student-run clinic and provide forensic medical evaluations for people seeking asylum, including both medical and psychological assessments, with medical students serving as scribes.

This summer, I worked in Dr. Amanda Kirane’s lab through the HBMC Summer Program. Our project used the Lunaphore COMET, a sequential immunofluorescence platform, to develop a spatial analysis pipeline for studying tumor-associated macrophages in the melanoma microenvironment. The work was very translational, combining basic science and immunology with the opportunity to shadow Dr. Kirane and see how this research could ultimately guide patient care.

It is really exciting work. It's cutting-edge, and everyone I worked with was so hardworking and passionate about what they do. That was really motivating, and I learned so much from both the team and the field.

About the author

Catherine Wu is an undergraduate student at Stanford University interested in biology and the humanities. On campus, she enjoys writing for The Stanford Daily and other ways to learn and share stories of members in her community. She hopes to pursue a graduate or medical degree on a pre-med track.