Rohit Aita
Major: Genetics
Certificate in Computational Genetics
Graduation Year: 2021
How did you decide on your major?
I chose Genetics because I found the advancements in the field, especially with computational genetics, to be exciting.
What did you like most about it?
I loved the overall collaborative and encouraging nature of the faculty in the department. I owe my mentor, Dr. Michael Verzi, for providing me with a platform to pursue computational genomics research as part of the major.
What is your current position, what do you, and what do you enjoy most about it?
I am a second-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. I worked during my two gap years as an NIH NIDDK funded research technician under the Verzi Lab and clinical research assistant under the mentorship of Dr. Lea Ann Chen at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
What was your first job after Rutgers and how did you get it?
I was able to first get hired as a clinical research assistant in the department of Gastroenterology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. I owe this offer because of the strong collaborative nature between the Rutgers Genetics Department and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
How did you move from that first job to your current position?
I balanced the various experiences, including research, service, and clinical, to an end goal: becoming a clinician-scientist.
Looking back, what classes or experiences at Rutgers would you point to as contributing to your successes?
I attribute the inaugural offering of the Honors Computational Genomics class to starting the path I have taken until today.
What advice do you have for our current Arts and Sciences students?
I think it’s important to take college as time to find your purpose. When activities, classes, and experiences become a part of that purpose, opportunities follow. For me, I found myself coming back to my aspirations of becoming a clinician-scientist and wanting to help others with chronic illnesses like myself.