About Me
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Hello, my name is Dora Castaneda and I was born in Los Angeles (Monterrey Park to be exact). I grew up in downtown LA for the first seven years of my life and then moved to Orange County, where my parents still reside.
My parents are two very important and inspirational people in my life. They both grew up on a small farm in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. They immigrated separately to the USA at the age of fifteen and ended up, once again, meeting in LA and getting married (needless to say that is when I came along:) )
I went to Savanna High School in Anaheim, CA (Class of 1996). I then went on to receive my B.S. degree from UC Irvine where I was a Biological Sciences Major with a concentration in Neurosciences. After graduating from UC Irvine in 2001, I moved to the East Coast and lived in Maryland for two years.
During these two years I worked on an epilepsy research project at the National Institutes of Health and applied early decision to Stanford School of Medicine. I was blessed to be accepted and that brings us to where I currently stand in my educational training.
I have completed my first two pre-clinical years, but once again decided to take a detour from going straight through my medical training in order to continue strengthening my research training.
For the past year I have been working on a stroke project in the Department of Neurosurgery in Dr. Gary K. Steinberg's lab.
It has been a great year! I have been able to enjoy a great research environment, family and friends. I am happily engaged to my wonderful fiance, Erik Cabral (we are classmates).
I will soon complete my stroke project for publication and begin my clinic rotations in September. I plan to graduate from medical school in June 2008 and pursue a surgery subspecialty residency program.
As you read through my blog and view my pictures, you will enter my world and the people in it. I hope you enjoy it!
