July Scholar of the Month Elita Farahdel Shares Her Experience at Yale and Her Cool Summer Plans

Join us in reading about the first two years of Elita's time at Yale and the amazing projects she is working on this summer!

1. Tell me a little bit about yourself and your college experience.

I am a rising junior at Yale University and a double major in Comparative Literature and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, as well as being on the pre-med track. What drew me to both these majors is my love for languages and literature, as well as my interest in how our body works and all the mechanisms behind that. Yale seems like a very big place at first, especially coming from such a small high school, but it feels like home as soon as you find your friends and the classes and activities that inspire you. I am an aspiring pediatrician, and I can’t wait to apply what I have learned from my time at Yale, but also from my peers, to my work with children and medicine.

2. What have been the most rewarding activities/academics you participated in?

My first year, pre-COVID, I would volunteer a few times a week at a local preschool and daycare not too far off from campus. I would help the kids with their learning activities, as well as translate for those children for whom English was not their first language. I also participated in a selective academic Humanities program my first year where I took Literature, Philosophy and Historical and Political Thought classes, that went through the whole Western Cannon in one year. I try to challenge myself both inside and outside of the classroom, as I push myself to connect with all kinds of people, children, and literatures alike.

3. I hear you have some exciting summer plans. Can you tell me about them?

This summer I have decided to work from New Haven as I juggle a few different jobs. I am working as an RA in the campus dorms, serving as a voice of guidance for my peers that are taking classes this summer. I am also a research assistant to two different research projects. For the first project, I have been working remotely for more than a year researching resilience, early care and education and trauma-informed care. My second research job is working at the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center, where I am working in a lab that focuses on child and adolescent self-regulation, as well as looking at child anxiety, avoidance, and risk-aversion.

4. What is some advice you have for incoming freshman/ underclassmen to help them navigate their college experience?

One piece of advice I have for incoming freshmen is to try and take a variety of classes your first year, don’t stick with what you know! If you are more comfortable in STEM, then take a cool humanities seminar, all in an effort to get out of your comfort zone. Your first year is the perfect time to explore new subjects and passions, and see what really speaks to you, because chances are you will find a new class that you never would’ve thought to take, and now you want to pursue that subject in your future college years.

5. What are you most excited about for your junior year at Yale?

I am definitely excited for the campus atmosphere to be more back to normal, post-COVID. I am excited to be able to go to classes and to my extracurriculars in person. I am really looking forward to being able to travel around the east coast with my friends and visit the nearby cities like New York and Boston, and explore the different museums and restaurants that are around. I am mostly just looking forward to spending some quality time with my friends and to enjoy all that the east coast, as well as Yale, has to offer in a year that is not surrounded by a pandemic.