Lana Sumner-Borema

I was born in Jacksonville and moved to Cuba on my fourth birthday. We lived on the base, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where my dad was a doctor for the Navy until I was nine years old. Then we moved to Santa Rita Guam for two years (4th and 5th grade). We moved to Jacksonville Florida when I was entering middle school (6th grade). I definitely call the islands home more than Florida. Florida is nice and I’ve gotten many opportunities by going to high school in Florida, but I really appreciate the cultures of the places I had lived growing up and the places we got to travel to when living in Guam.

What’s the dorkiest (or nerdiest, goofiest, silliest) thing about you?
Probably the jokes I make since adding my second major. I don’t think the rest of the world would find the same humor as me or my classmates in my chemistry courses. Probably the dorkiest thing I have done recently was over the summer when I went to a rocket launch and an air-show in the same weekend (but it was pretty awesome).

When did you first know you had a passion for chemistry?
I was really drawn to it in high school in tenth grade. At first I got a bad grade on my first exam because everyone had told me Chemistry was hard so I think I was overthinking it. Then I recognized I just wasn’t studying right and then I started to ask questions and love chemistry. I understood everything and kept asking more questions, I was very curious. However, when I got to college I thought maybe I just had a good teacher in high school and chemistry wasn’t what I liked. It wasn’t until my second year at Barry that I took general chemistry with Ms. T and recognized I did love it (that’s when I added my second major). I love the math and the precision and how you can learn why things work as they do. Physics has similar concepts, but with chemistry it is more relatable to the medical field which I want to work in.

What’s the most exciting chemistry topic you’ve studied so far?
I’m taking Biochemistry right now and that is definitely the most exciting class I’ve taken so far. I am interested in every lecture because it just feels so relatable to how everything works as it does. I love the connections I can make between organic chemistry and real life with the class.

What has been a particularly meaningful way you have engaged in a community – either on or off-campus?
At Barry I feel like I have a lot of different communities. The community I see the most is probably my rowing team. I wake up with them every morning for 5 am practices and then I see them again around 5pm for our second practice of the day. My teammates and coach have always supported me and that is why I feel I was able to take on a second major. It is kind of unusual for a coach to push you to take a hard-academic workload because they know it might impact sleep/ performance on the team. My coach however always tries to make sure I am getting all of my credits completed and doing well in my classes which I am really truly thankful for. While my teammates, most of them don’t take the same classes as me, though they always encourage me whether it’s making sure I’m eating breakfast or helping me review on the van ride back to campus before an exam. I really appreciate them. Other than that, my classmates as I’ve gotten into higher chemistry classes have really become a community I trust. Since Barry is small, when you get into your major classes you end up with the same people in most of your classes. I feel like I can depend on my classmates and they also bring light into my day by joking with me even when I feel very exhausted.

What do you want to change about the world?
My mom has always worked in refugee resettlement since we lived in Cuba. I had always been in the back of her ESOL classes and her students always told me their stories and how they had daughters “just like me” back in their home countries, hoping one day they can reunite with their families. In other cases, it was kids my age, telling me that they hoped to be reunited with their parents soon. When I got into high school I started accompanying my mom to work in the summers and working along side social workers that were resettling families. This is when I decided my goal was to become a social worker, maybe open my own non-profit and help refugees. It wasn’t until my senior year that I met my best friend. She is from Burma and because of struggles in her own country she came to America without parents. She is the most strong and independent person I had ever met. We met because she was also volunteering as well and accompanying another case worker. She had been here for a couple years and her English was very good and she was so smart. She had to start school (and English) from square one when she arrived a few years earlier but she was able to make A’s and B’s in her grade level which was just insane to me. The high school she had just switched to in Jacksonville wasn’t helping her with college, it was in a part of town with less income and they were not as passionate as my public school about getting their students into college. Long story short, that summer she moved into my house and we spent senior year taking AP Calculus and other classes together at my high school where she became a student. That year was probably one of the best years ever for me. One thing was that I trusted anything she told me. She had gotten so far and worked so hard to help people back home in her country by going to school and focusing all on her own, I realized I wanted to do the same as her. She told me that it would be nice to become a social worker, but the social workers really need doctors that will care for refugees who have no money. She told me about the conditions back in her home country and the lack of medical help. She told me I have the resources and the intelligence to become a doctor and that is what I needed to do if I really wanted to help her people and refugees all around the world. That is now my goal. I want to become a doctor in the Navy and help abroad, eventually however I want to work in refugee camps and lead medical tents. My goal is to give hope to all people who have felt they have been forgotten by the world.

What would you love to be doing ten years from now?
In ten years I would like to be a doctor.

Which television show or book from your childhood defined you the most?
My mom, as I mentioned is an English teacher and since we were little she always told my sister that the one thing she will give us whenever we want is books. She allowed us to always get many books when we would visit the U.S. to see my grandpa. We always read lots of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket. Music-wise my parents always played a lot of David Bowie and The Talking Heads which I love.