A lover of languages, arts, and sciences, Sophie Ramirez ’17 was drawn to CC from the beginning. “I was looking for a new challenge. I was looking for something completely out of left field. And that was exactly what CC offered.” Then, she encountered all the opportunities and resources, such as the Writing Center, the Career Center, and the Center for Global Education & Field Study. As a first-generation student, Ramirez says, “Having these connections to knowledgeable people…was a make it or break it for me.”
“I hadn’t had the opportunity to travel as much as my peers before college,” she says. “Any opportunity or scholarship that I found available for me to travel abroad…I took.” Ramirez went to South Africa for an internship, took a block on Shakespeare in London, received a Venture Grant and traveled around Germany for three weeks, and was in Spain and Israel for a one and a half block course. “On top of that,” she says, “I got a REU [Research Experience for Undergrads] and studied for a whole summer in France, and then did a study abroad in France with CC.”
“I majored in Biochemistry and minored in Music and French, so my schedule was super full all the time,” Ramirez says. Despite her demanding lab classes, she managed to also take three language adjuncts when she was on campus (French, German, and Arabic). “Just for fun,” she says.
Her thirst for learning and travel took Ramirez to Sorbonne University in Paris where she earned a master’s in Molecular Chemistry, the National Institutes for Health in Washington, D.C., where she did medical research for a year, Morocco with the Peace Corps, and, recently, Jordan on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship.
“I’m trying to weave all these experiences into a colorful tapestry, just because they have been so different from one to the other,” she says. “It feels like an adult Block Plan!”
Now, Ramirez is in Austria, thankful to have her foot in the door with the United Nations (UN). “It’s not an easy place to break into,” she says. “I’m so lucky to have this opportunity to do it…and be a part of important work helping others.”
She is currently the Associate Communications Officer for the Office of the Deputy Director General, part of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications. “I jumped at the opportunity to work with the UN,” she says. “You need someone who both understands science and knows how to communicate well to do a job like this.”
Ramirez is in charge of researching what the labs are doing, how the projects are going, and their success stories. In addition, she is responsible for writing the Deputy Director General’s speeches with the most up-to-date evidence about the impact the agency is having on member states.
What’s next on the horizon? “Global health, particularly women’s health, is a field of interest for me, which can be applied in the international development world,” she says.