For most people, pursuing a master’s degree in medical sciences would be challenging enough. But University of Miami graduating senior Suzie Akim-Shittu plans to pursue her master’s degree in Japan, where she’ll take advanced medical sciences courses in both English and Japanese.
“I know conversational Japanese, but the more complicated scientific terms are going to be tough,” she said. “But I’m happy. I’m ready to take on the challenge.”
This can-do attitude has characterized Akim-Shittu’s academic career at the College of Arts and Sciences, where she has majored in biochemistry and molecular biology and minored in Japanese and psychology, while also conducting research in a molecular biology lab, serving as a Dean’s Ambassador, and leading several clubs.
Biochemistry and Japanese might seem like an unusual combination, but Akim-Shittu has known since high school that these were the fields she wanted to study. In fact, the Baltimore, Maryland native chose the University of Miami in part because it was one of the few universities that offered an opportunity to study both disciplines in-depth at the undergraduate level.
Learning Japanese, which Akim-Shittu has been studying since middle school, has been one of her proudest accomplishments.
“In the program that we have here, I got to interact with exchange students, and I got to talk with professors from Japan. That was just not something I would have ever even thought of having the opportunity of doing,” she said, praising the quality of the faculty in the Michele Bowman Underwood Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Akim-Shittu’s Japanese has gotten so good, in fact, that she has earned first place in her division of the South Florida Japanese Speech and Skit Contests for the last two years.
These language skills will come in handy this fall when Akim-Shittu begins her master’s degree at Juntendo University in Tokyo, Japan, where she has been offered a scholarship. In the meantime, she plans to spend the summer completing a research project involving the mitochondria of yeast cells in the lab of Flavia Fontanesi, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Miller School of Medicine. Akim-Shittu’s interest in yeast cells was inspired by a class she took as a first-year student with Richard Myers, a senior lecturer of biochemistry and molecular biology who has since become her mentor. Her ultimate goal is to become a doctor, and she plans to attend medical school after completing her master’s degree.
Asked what she will miss most about the University, Akim-Shittu mentioned the “lively community atmosphere.”
“There’s always something going on, new people you can meet, and I know it’s not like that everywhere,” she said.
As a Dean’s Ambassador and the president of both ’Canes Chat and the figure skating club, Hurricanes on Ice, Akim-Shittu has played a role in fostering that community atmosphere.
The focus of ’Canes Chat, for example, is to bring domestic and international students together to learn about each other’s cultures and languages. “We do a lot of multicultural events over the semester,” Akim-Shittu explained, mentioning one recent event celebrating the Hindu festival Holi. “We try to travel all around the world with different activities.”
In her capacity as a Dean’s Ambassador, Akim-Shittu has advised first-year students on classes and research opportunities, hosted panels for prospective students, and organized events for current Canes.
The advice she often shares with new students is to keep their options open. “When I first came here, I was not open-minded. I was like, ‘Let me just get my degree,’” she recalled. “So, I always tell them, ‘Be open-minded and talk to everyone, not just the people in your major, because there is so much offered on this campus.’”
Learning to keep an open mind is what led Akim-Shittu to many of her extracurricular activities and to her decision to complete a master’s degree in Japan. She has even developed a passion for glass blowing, a medium she grew to love this semester while taking an art class.
Given her many academic and extracurricular commitments, Akim-Shittu said balancing it all can be a challenge.
“I like everything I do,” she said. “I want to be able to fully put my all in everything.”
