A molecular biology major and global public and environmental health minor, senior Alta McQuillen’s coursework has imbued her with an egalitarian, change-making spirit. Although she arrived on campus with a passion for biology, McQuillen’s ambitious medicinal aspirations have been invigorated by Colgate University’s classes, mentors and hands-on experiences.
“I took pre-med classes from the day I got to Colgate, but I wasn’t explicitly pre-med, as in that being my long-term goal. It was more that I was just very interested in the classes that I was taking,” McQuillen said. “It wasn’t necessarily from the day I was born that I really wanted to go to medical school, but more so as time went on and through all the experiences I had, I became more and more interested.”
What began as academic curiosity evolved into a calling. Through additional biology courses and constructive summer experiences, her interest in medicine and public health deepened.
A pivotal moment came the summer before her sophomore year when she worked with AmeriCorps at a free health care clinic, serving uninsured and underinsured patients. Around the same time, she began exploring research and other opportunities with Colgate Career Services, which encouraged her to apply for the University’s competitive Golden Fellowship. This fellowship provides summer funding, mentorship and special programming for students interested in pursuing law or medical school after graduation. She was accepted during her sophomore year. According to McQuillen, the Golden Fellows program has played a formative role in her professional and academic development.
“The inspiration from watching those around me, especially as a young fellow watching the seniors move with such confidence, made me want to be like them one day,” McQuillen said. “The other fellows are such admirable people who’ve done incredible things in their respective medical and law fields, and hearing their stories and watching them take leadership roles has definitely made me more ambitious.”
Through the fellowship, McQuillen took a United States Health Policy course the summer before her junior year, which sharpened her understanding of systemic inequities in American health care.
“I’ve always been really upset with how the United States health care system works and how it prioritizes some people and disadvantages others. It allowed me to learn why that is, why our infrastructure and our system are the way they are and how policy shapes that,” McQuillen said. “It was really exciting for me to take that class and learn about Medicare and Medicaid and it also empowered me to feel more confident in the work that I was doing, and feel more capable in the career that I want to pursue.”
McQuillen’s long-term goals extend beyond the clinic.
“I want to be a physician who sees patients and also advocates for change in my community and policy change. I think healthcare is a human right and that’s really what drives me in pursuing medicine. I envision myself as a practitioner who sees patients, but is also able to find ways to make health care more accessible in my work,” McQuillen said.
She also expressed interest in conducting population or community-level research on patient treatment and disease prevention alongside her medical practice.
“Without understanding the disparities that exist, we can’t address them in the ways they should be addressed,” McQuillen said.
On campus, McQuillen has balanced mentorship, service and research. She co-leads BRITE, a mentoring group that organizes weekly visits to Madison County middle schools to build relationships with students through crafts and conversation.
In the biology department, she has pursued computational research since her sophomore year, first working on a statistical project examining thermal regulation in dogs. Now, she is conducting an epidemiology project with co-researcher and junior Max Warriner under the mentorship of Professor of Biology and Mathematics Ahmet Ay and Associate Professor of Biology and Global Public and Environmental Health Bineyam Taye. Her research examines how nutrition shapes gastrointestinal health outcomes in Ethiopian schoolchildren and how the gut microbiome and metabolome may mediate that connection.
“It’s been really meaningful for me in trusting myself and my intuition, and in how I want to do right by the data and produce the most rigorous work I can. The mentorship has been really wonderful for me, especially the feedback,” McQuillen said. “I enjoy research, because I enjoy asking questions and figuring out the best ways to answer those questions — that’s why I definitely want to include research in my future career.”
For McQuillen, success in the medical field means securing a platform grounded in equity, inquiry and advocacy — one that can be wielded to create tangible change. Her time at Colgate has been defined by insatiable curiosity and budding commitment to work toward a more just health care system as she looks ambitiously to the future.
