{"id":30983,"date":"2018-02-15T10:25:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=30983"},"modified":"2018-02-15T10:25:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T16:25:00","slug":"student-to-watch-afeez-sodeinde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2018\/02\/15\/student-to-watch-afeez-sodeinde\/","title":{"rendered":"Student to Watch: Afeez Sodeinde"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Afeez Sodeinde was 18 when he moved from Nigeria to Minnesota two years ago to be closer to his father and get a better education.<\/p>\n

Now a permanent U.S. resident, he plans to complete a biology degree from Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ in 2019 through a program that allows him to take Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ courses on the campus of North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park.<\/p>\n

What Sodeinde enjoys most about science are the labs and the kind of research he first experienced through a 2016 internship at Hamline University in St. Paul.<\/p>\n

“That was the first time I liked biology,” he said. “It was knowing that I am actively contributing to science as an undergraduate. I like asking questions with no answers and solving difficult problems.”<\/p>\n

Sodeinde hopes to earn a doctorate degree and attend medical school, becoming a physician-scientist who focuses on diseases that are less studied but no less devastating, such as Lassa fever, which is prevalent in West Africa.<\/p>\n

“Some diseases could be prevented with more awareness, especially in developing countries,” he said. “That’s one of my concerns.”<\/p>\n

Sodeinde’s transition from Nigeria has been challenging at times, yet he excels as a scholar. He spent last summer working in a cancer lab at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., a joint genomics center of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

At North Hennepin, he works in a lab with Dr. Andrew Arsham, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ assistant professor of biology. He also tutors students, serves on the NHCC President’s Diversity Council and helped start an organization for students interested in biomedical careers.<\/p>\n

“Afeez rises to challenges and does it with an open mind and heart,” Arsham said. “He embodies the spirit of collaboration needed to succeed in science.”<\/p>\n

In November, Sodeinde and two peers attended the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Phoenix, representing Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ on the national stage. He said he appreciates the exceptional fellow students in the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ program and for challenging and supportive mentors such as Arsham and his NHCC colleague Dr. Tamara Mans.<\/p>\n

“My decision for biology was partly because of them,” Sodeinde said. “I like being able to collaborate with them. They challenge me and believe that I can do it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afeez Sodeinde plans to complete a biology degree from Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ in 2019 through a program that allows him to take Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ courses on the campus of North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[958],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30986,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30983\/revisions\/30986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}