Posted by Sharon Schendel on Jul 30, 2017
Daniel Ojeda presents on his connections to Rotary
 
Daniel Ojeda, a second year PhD student in Marcus Kaul's lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, joined us at our July 27, 2017 meeting to talk about his connections with Rotary.  Daniel grew up Oaxaca, Mexico and was first introduced to Rotary through his godmother, who is a Rotarian. Daniel was volunteering for a Rotary-affiliated project that was helping to repair cleft palates of local children. Daniel’s godmother encouraged him to apply for a Youth Exchange opportunity. He said he originally thought he’d go somewhere exotic- maybe Russia, somewhere in Europe, or Japan, but eventually he was offered a spot in Michigan. During the 2010-2011 school year he lived with three host families as part of the Rotary Club of Cedar Springs Youth Exchange program.  Daniel thinks of this year as one of the best of his life. He developed life-long friendships during his exchange year, and remains in close contact with host families.  Through Rotary Youth Exchange he met exchange students from all over the world and learned to adapt to various situations because his host families each had children of different ages and different approaches to parenting.  He also experienced winter temperatures and snow for the first time!  During his exchange year, Daniel challenged himself by taking the SAT. He scored well, and his strong academic record, together with his talent for long-distance swimming, earned him a swimming scholarship to Fresno State.
 
After swimming competitively for a few years, Daniel suffered a stress fracture that ended his tenure on the swim team and his athletic scholarship. Fortunately, he was awarded an academic scholarship that allowed him to continue his studies and earn a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology. Daniel was a summer intern in Jason Bush’s lab at Fresno State, and was supported by a partnership grant from the National Institute of Health that aimed to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in biomedical research.  Daniel said he always wanted “Dr.” in front of his name, and through this internship he met the Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Guy Salvesen, who encouraged him to apply to their PhD program.
 
Daniel’s research focuses on the mechanisms of AIDS-related neurodegenerative diseases. He explained that many of the changes seen in AIDS patients with neurodegenerative disease mimic those of other diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Thus, findings from his research could have broad-ranging applications to a variety of neural diseases.
 
Throughout his talk, Daniel emphasized how much Rotary’s support helped in his academic endeavors, and how much he enjoys having the opportunity to tell about Rotary activities can make lasting impacts.