Growing up in Los Angeles, Katelyn and Lorelei Santa Maria shared a love of science and the outdoors. At Stanford, the first-generation, low-income Guardian Scholars found parallel paths spanning healthcare and research.
Since spring quarter of her frosh year, Katelyn has been a primary caretaker for about 500 poisonous frogs in the O’Connell Lab, including the golden poison frog that is the subject of her honors thesis. For Katelyn, a pre-veterinary student with a focus on comparative medicine and animal science, tending to the tiny, colorful frogs is one part of her immersion in campus animal care. Stanford’s Veterinary Service Center introduced her to techniques used to keep research animals safe and healthy, while coursework and research on invertebrate zoology and marine animal physiology at Hopkins Marine Station taught her to see animal health as inseparable from ecosystem and human health. “Animals, big and small, can tell us so much about our changing world,” she said.
Katelyn’s passion for animals shaped her Stanford experience outside the lab, too. She helped revive the dormant People for Animal Welfare (PAW) student club, raising more than $15,000 for animal-centered nonprofits over two years. And when she found no off-campus volunteer opportunities involving animals, she created one: The Animal Service Project has sent more than 100 students to work with shelter animals, therapy farm animals, orphaned wildlife, and rescued horses. Transportation to all partner sites is covered through grants from the Haas Center, which also supported Katelyn’s summers training search-and-rescue dogs and working as a vet assistant on a military base.
“I saw this gap both on the Stanford campus and within nonprofits in the community – organizations doing phenomenal work but needing volunteers,” Katelyn said. “I also thought about students like me, who might have to choose between a volunteer opportunity and sending money home. If we can remove that barrier, we open this up to so many more people.”
Images by Andrew Brodhead
Katelyn (right) heads to UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in the fall; Lorelei will teach at a nursing school in the Czech Republic on a Fulbright grant before applying to medical school.
Lorelei (second from right) and Katelyn (third from right) with friends at Meyer Green. “It’s so inspiring to be around people who are passionate about so many different things, curious about so many different things, and willing to share it all with you,” said Lorelei.
Katelyn with Gillian, a friend’s golden doodle. Through the Animal Service Project, Katelyn helped connect Stanford students with volunteer opportunities at Bay Area nonprofits working with shelter animals, rescued horses, and therapy farm animals.
As an animal care associate in the O’Connell Lab, Katelyn worked on several research projects before landing on the one that became her honors thesis. Lorelei said of her sister, “My favorite part of seeing her in the lab is seeing her interact with what she loves.”
A resident of the O’Connell Lab, where Katelyn has worked since her frosh year.
The imitator poison frog allows researchers to study the neural mechanisms behind pair-bonding and tadpole care.
In the Baumer Lab, Lorelei studied the brain mechanisms underlying rolandic epilepsy, a childhood form of epilepsy whose seizures occur during sleep.
A cap fitted with 128 EEG electrodes allows researchers to collect data while patients play a word game.
As an event coordinator for Memorial Church, Lorelei helped serve Stanford’s many spiritual communities, opening and closing the church’s doors for gatherings across faiths.
Lorelei, who plans to become a pediatrician, found her path in research studying rolandic epilepsy, the most common form of childhood epilepsy, under Fiona Baumer, assistant professor of neurology. Children play a game while wearing EEG electrodes, generating data that Lorelei analyzes in MATLAB, a programming language she taught herself. “The most fun part,” she said, “is working with these wonderful kids.”
In her time at Stanford, Lorelei has also helped run a peer support group for people with traumatic brain injuries, worked the phone line at The Bridge Peer Counseling Center, and served as an event coordinator for Memorial Church. “I’ve gotten really good at listening,” she said. “It’s a great skill to have in life – and in medicine.”
After graduating, Lorelei, a Fulbright grant recipient who also earned a master’s degree in community health and prevention research, will teach at a nursing school in the Czech Republic before applying to medical schools. “I think it’s important to explore everything,” Lorelei said. “Stanford has taught me that in a big way.”
Katelyn, who starts at the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine in the fall, agreed. “If you have a dream, Stanford will do everything to support you,” she said.
Writer
Rebecca Beyer