Pritzker Ambassadors
Pritzker Ambassadors is a committee that has been set up to be the frontline in answering any of your questions. The following are the four Pritzker Ambassadors for the Class of 2012. We have included short bios of each Ambassador not only for your interest, but also in case you have specific needs that can be better answered by a certain Ambassador. Please also keep in mind that you can also contact the Orientation Chairs, Megan and Jon.
Rashad Belin
Rashad Belin
rashad@uchicago.edu
Greetings! My name is Rashad and let me start by saying congratulations on your eventual arrival to Pritzker and Chicago. I am the president of the Pritzker chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), our nation’s oldest and largest student-run organization focused on the needs and concerns of medical students of color. I am a Chi-town native born and raised on one of the best sides of Chicago…the South Side. I am a devout White Sox fan and can still recall the good times (2005) when we won the championship. Though a true-blue “South-sider,” I have been known to check out the Cubbies, too. By far, my favorite team is the Chicago Bulls, and I had the luxury of working courtside security for the organization during their final championship run in ’98. I went to college at Xavier University of Louisiana, the only Catholic Historically Black University in the United States. Before joining Pritzker, I spent four years completing a PhD in Physiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After that, I traveled all the way to Northwestern University to work for a year and some change in epidemiology. Currently, I reside on the South Side, in an area called Morgan Park, with my Wife (Traci) and two sons Jalen (7) and Aidan (1.5). When I’m not busy teaching my oldest how to lay off pitches at his shoelaces (he wants to be a slugger now) or my youngest to throw the ball at my hand and not my face (I think football or maybe professional dodgeball is his game), I enjoy working out, playing competitive sports, and musing about future family business plans. I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you to Pritzker. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to send an email to the link below. Peace, love, and all that good stuff.
Marion Stanley
Marion Stanley
mvstanley@uchicago.edu
Hi! Welcome to Pritzker! My name is Marion and I am from Winnetka, IL, a suburb just north of Chicago. I graduated in spring 2007 with a BS in Biology from Yale University, and I took last summer off to bike from New Haven, CT to Seattle, WA with Habitat for Humanity. Consequently, I arrived on the UChicago campus with some sweet tan lines! I now live in Hyde Park and have loved my time at Pritzker. I played varsity golf all four years during college, and have tried to keep some athletic lifestyle while in med school by participating in co-ed IM sports…we had an awesome indoor soccer team this winter! At Pritzker, I also work with the Maria Shelter Clinic, one of the free clinics run by UChicago that is just south of the campus, and I am part of a program called ASAP in which we bring in real organs to local middle schoolers and talk to them about how drugs and alcohol affect their bodies. This summer I will be on campus participating in the Pritzker Summer Research Program, and I am excited to get to meet you all during Orientation! Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions that you have about anatomy, housing, Chicago, the Cubs, etc.!
Alex Soneru
Alex Soneru
soneru@uchicago.edu
My name is Alex Soneru and I’m a first-year student here at Pritzker. I grew up in Wheaton, a suburb west of Chicago, and went to college at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. At Cornell, I majored in Biology and concentrated in Genetics and Development. I graduated in May, 2007 and spent the summer before medical school traveling in Europe with some college friends. The picture above is of me in Zermatt, Switzerland. I’ll definitely need to go there again in the winter because the skiing looks like it would be amazing. As soon as school started, I knew that I had made the right decision coming to Pritzker. I couldn’t believe how warm and helpful the faculty and staff are and I quickly became friends with my entire class. I became involved with several student organizations, including the Pritzker Chapter of the AMA and AMSA, as well as Money and Medicine, our very own group that teaches us about personal financial management. I also participate in REMEDY, a group through which we raise money to bring medical supplies to underserved communities. Our fundraising is paying off and in June, around 25 of us are going to Peru with the supplies that we have collected. CONGRATULATIONS on being accepted to Pritzker, and I look forward to meeting you in a few months!
Alleda Flagg
Alleda Flagg
aeflagg@uchicago.edu
I’m Alleda Flagg and as one of the Orientation Ambassadors I’d like to welcome you to Pritzker! Congratulations on making such a wonderful choice of where to live and study for the next four years. I am a proud member of MS11, a warm and spirited group. I am a Missouri native (go Cardinals!) and after graduating from Princeton University, I moved to Atlanta and worked at healthcare clinics that provide medical care to the city’s underserved. When my fellowship in Atlanta ended I packed up and headed north to the Windy City where I started graduate school here at the University of Chicago. I joined the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) after my second year of graduate school. I did my dissertation research in a molecular cardiology lab and last summer I was awarded my PhD in Developmental Biology. I live in a condo in Woodlawn with my dog (the friendliest black lab you’ll ever meet) and cat. Outside of classes, I enjoy running (often with my dog), exploring different neighborhoods in the city, and, as of late, attending a rousing 6:30 a.m. boot camp class at the gym. If you have any questions about the MSTP program, buying a condo or having a dog while in med school or just want to know where to go to get an amazing early morning workout, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to seeing you on campus this summer.
