Nathaniel Boateng, a senior majoring in biochemistry, was determined to make the most of his time at Rice University.
Originally from the Austin metro area, Boateng first thought he wanted to go to an out-of-state college. But during his application process, he realized Rice, only a few hours from home, was the fit he’d been looking for.
“It is close to the Texas Medical Center,” said Boateng, who is a premed student in Hanszen College. “I liked the idea of being assigned to a residential college and remaining with a group of students for all four years. That made for core friendships and very good memories. And I liked the tight-knit community and the close interactions with professors.”
Boateng said he also liked that Rice had the feel of a liberal arts university. In high school, he learned about the Renaissance men — those who sought broad educations resulting in cross-disciplinary influences in their work — and set out to create such an education for himself, seeking, as it were, unconventional wisdom. He already knew he wanted to be a doctor, but he realized he wanted to be one informed by more than his numerous science classes that covered the biology of human life and diseases.
“My minor is in medical humanities, which tries to challenge the dominant narrative of biomedicine and emphasizes the storytelling aspect of medicine,” Boateng said. “That led me to anthropology, which led me to sociology, which led to me politics, law and social thought. I also took classes in English and psychology.”
This well-rounded approach was reflected in Boateng’s research experiences. In one lab, he studied the allergenicity of raw shrimp; in another he studied thoracic aortic disease. Then in a clinical internship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, he studied how patient’s perspectives can reduce avoidable readmission after hospitalization, focusing on the psychosocial aspects of health care.
This holistic view of health and community is evident in Boateng’s extracurricular choices. In his freshman year, he worked with upperclassmen and peers to bring back a community space for Black men, resulting in the Rice Black Men’s Association. There, Boateng collaborated with the Social Justice Learning Institute and the Houston Area Urban League to develop a program where Houston high school students shadow Rice students, seeing themselves as part of the campus.
“I seek to build community not only for myself and my peers but also for those who come after us,” Boateng said. “I want to add to the legacy left by the resilient community builders who came to campus at the start of the second founding.”
Boateng also served as a career peer adviser for the Center for Career Development, helped facilitate writing workshops as a club officer for ACE@Rice and coached students at the university’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders. He said he hopes to take these experiences and the resiliency, imagination, curiosity and empathy Rice imbued him with to a career as a physician-scientist, where both science and storytelling will inform his approach.
As he looks at how Rice will help shape his future, Boateng also considered the impact he made on Rice.
“I hope people remember me as kind,” he said. “And they remember me showing up for others. I hope I’ve built connections that last forever.”