Martial arts and medical outreach
Training for a black belt in karate requires patience and focus — and, above all, support. While in high school, MIT senior Christina Lalani would practice for more than 10 hours a week at her karate school in Scottsdale, Ariz., but never without her partner, an effervescent mother in her 30s. When her training partner passed away from colon cancer, Lalani harnessed her grief and turned it into motivation. “She passed away in the middle of training, and it was the first time I had to deal with loss,” she says. “That experience pushed me to get involved with cancer research at the end of my time in high school, and to continue at MIT.” Lalani, a biology major who will graduate in February, spent her freshman year in the lab of Michael Cima, the David H. Koch Professor of Engineering, where she researched a drug-delivery device for treating ovarian cancer, the...