Julia Santini ‘21 epitomizes the interdisciplinary approach we strive for at URI in today’s interconnected world. Growing up in URI’s hometown of Kingston, Rhode Island, she decided to enroll at URI after hearing her friends’ good reviews, as well as taking into consideration the distance from home and her acceptance into the Honors Program. She entered her freshman year as a Biology major. “I had taken biology courses in high school and loved it,” she says. “I entered on the pre-med track, too, and bio fits really well.” It was then that her collegiate plan got an upgrade. While initially enrolling in Professor Helen Mederer’s SOC 100: General Sociology class on a whim, Santini left with a newfound attraction to the discipline. As she explains, “Dr. Mederer made me completely fall in love with Sociology, and she even convinced me to become a major.”
Santini was now officially a double major, but she didn’t stop there. Instead, her formative year at URI reintroduced her to another discipline she carried over from high school and her family’s lineage: Italian. Although she only planned to take one or two Italian courses during her time at URI, it was Professor Catherine Sama from URI’s Italian department who saw Santini’s potential, encouraging her to take on the task of triple majoring. Over the course of her time as an Italian major, Santini notes that her language skills greatly improved, thanks in great part to the unique, immersive approach URI takes to foreign language studies. This included an opportunity she took part in during her freshman year that’s offered in select Italian courses, involving taking part in video calls with an Italian pen-pal her freshman year. “The conversations really inspired me,” Santini says. “It was great to communicate with someone in a completely different culture.”
Even saddled with all three of her majors, Santini remains steadfast on the pre-med track. After her expected graduation (with honors) in May of 2021 with degrees in Biology, Sociology, and Italian, Santini will begin the Early Identification program for the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. “I want to practice medicine and do work in policy, specifically advocating for public health policy,” she explains. “URI has definitely helped. The pre-med advising is incredible; I’ve had really great experiences with all my advisors. They are the greatest support system. I can talk with them about anything.” To future students ready to advance their studies at URI, Santini advises them to take a leap of faith into the unknown. “Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone,” she says. “Going in, I had no idea what sociology was. I had the general idea, and I took the risk. Now I’m absolutely in love with it.”
~Written by Chase Hoffman, Writing & Rhetoric and Anthropology Double Major, URI Class of 2021