2023 Senior Awardee: Enrique Rodriguez, E23

Hometown: Lake Worth, Florida

Major: Biomedical Engineering

Enrique Rodriguez is a Cape Verdean and Puerto Rican American, from Lake Worth, Florida. Enrique is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering. Enrique’s Tufts experience began with the Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts (BEST) Program, which laid the foundation for them to succeed in their next years at Tufts.

Upon entering their first year, Enrique quickly became involved on campus, starting as a Learning Assistant for the Physics 1 and 11 courses and becoming the Freshman Representative in the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). Soon after, Enrique began
giving back to the community as a STEM Ambassador and a member of the Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program (KDSAP).

Since then, Enrique has served the school and the greater Boston Area in myriad ways. Enrique has a strong affinity for diversity, equity, and justice, and one way they pursued their passions
was through teaching. They served as a teacher of robotics and coding to children at the YMCA in Malden, MA, as an Equity Learning Assistant for ES-2, as a mentor and tutor for BEST, and as a laboratory TA for the BME 34 lab. They also joined in advocating for diversity in Tufts admissions as a diversity admissions team member.

They also devoted a lot of time to research in projects such as modeling the blood-brain barrier in Kaplan lab, creating a 3D hybrid brain tissue with the Timko lab, optimizing single spore germination analysis pipeline in the Shen lab, and testing lipid nanoparticle compositions for selectivity in lymphatic endothelial cells in vitro in the laboratory for lymphatic biology and bioengineering.

In their final years at Tufts, Enrique joined the TCU Senate to advocate for their community and bring about positive change on the campus. While in the TCU Senate, Enrique was also a member of the Allocations Board (ALBO), in which they along with the rest of ALBO allocated the student activity fee to the 300+ student organizations. Enrique also found resistance through movement as a member of the BlackOut step team, performing at numerous shows and educating the community about the history of step as a black dance form. In the future, Enrique hopes to continue to let their passions guide them to promote change and pursue a career in the biomedical research and healthcare space.