My name is Geetika Rao and I was born in Bangalore, India. For the first few years of my life, I moved around a lot – shuffling from Bangalore to Pune, India to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, back to Pune and then to Chennai, India. I moved to the United States in December of 2002, first living in New Jersey, then Seattle, Washington, finally moving to Coppell, Texas in July of 2005. For the first 10 years of my life, I attended 11 different schools. I had to constantly learn how to adapt to a different place, make new friends, and this experience has shaped into who I am today, making me thankful for the diversity and opportunities that life has presented me.

 

Texas has now become my home, and I am lucky to be in a state and at a university that allows me to explore my passions. My love for helping people and curiosity for science has pushed me towards medicine. Volunteer experience in high school has made me want to be an oncologist – specifically for children. At UT, I have become involved in cancer research at the Dell Pediatric Research Institute. We do both lab and clinical studies, and the stories we hear are so uniquely terrifying but also extremely inspirational. I’ve developed my love for children through TexasTHON and GirlAdvocates!, both working to empower young kids in their own unique way.

 

My experiences and involvement have led me to where I am today. I have always been passionate about fighting cancer, but learning more about what it actually is, and hearing how it affects people everywhere, has truly inspired me to do whatever I can to help end it – whether this be through research, as a doctor, or as a rider on the 2016 Texas 4000 team.