BioE Student Spotlight: Juliana Magarelli
Juliana Magarelli is a sophomore from Monmouth County, New Jersey. She loves running, going to the beach, the color pink, crocheting, and ice cream! Here at Lehigh, she is majoring in bioengineering with a concentration in biopharmaceuticals and also planning on pursuing an MD-PHD in the future.
Magarelli expresses that since coming to Lehigh, especially in the college of engineering, she has appreciated the collaborative nature of her courses; whether that be from joining study groups, going to office hours, or even just doing work with her classmates and peers: she enjoys being surrounded by passionate, driven individuals. This translates to her involvement around campus as she is a Global Social Impact Fellow, and in LUAMSA. Magarelli truly believes that she wouldn’t be where she was today if it weren’t for her peers and professors that push her to do her best: “Compared to some other environments where students can be super competitive with each other, it's refreshing knowing that all of my classmates are there for me, and me for them.”
Magarelli’s best memories from her time in Lehigh Bioengineering have simply been the people around her. She emphasizes how it’s the little things that make Lehigh bioengineering so special. For example, the night before she had an exam in her BIOS041 class, she was at the library studying and having a difficult time. When she was close to giving up, she ran into a classmate who was studying for the same exam; they decided to sit down and work on it together, and they both ended up doing well! Magarelli says: “Sometimes you just need someone to sit down and brainstorm with you, and since joining Lehigh Bioengineering, I’ve met so many great people who are willing to do just that.”
Magarelli has always wanted to pursue a career where she can have a direct impact on people’s lives, which led her to lean towards the healthcare field. She also really enjoys science and math classes, so combining these two passions makes bioengineering the perfect major for her! She is planning on pursuing an MD-PHD after her time here at Lehigh so that she can become a physician scientist. Bioengineering at Lehigh gives Magarelli the ability to develop her technical skills and use them to pursue research and develop new innovations to advance medical technology and practices.
Studying and doing homework between classes is something that Magarelli swears by. Being a bioengineering major, taking medical school prerequisites, and also staying involved on campus, she has a lot on her plate: “It’s easy to get burnt out if you're up super late every night doing homework and not getting good sleep! Try to spend as much time as you can between classes during the day doing assignments. This way, the only time you’ll have to really cram and stay up super late is if you have an exam coming up!” Staying on top of your workload and learning how to time manage is something that Magarelli emphasizes is super important for the future bioengineering students at Lehigh, since it was something that it took her a while to get used to herself.