Born and raised in the Philippines, Sam Soriano's path to the University of Toronto began with a national health crisis in his home country.
In 2017, a national immunization campaign against dengue fever was suspended after the vaccine was blamed for the deaths of several children.
The controversy was followed by a rise in dengue infection rates - with the Philippines declaring a national epidemic - and cited as a factor in eroding public trust in immunization programs.
"It made me sad and scared to think that the deaths were caused by miscommunication, the misrepresentation of data and the politicization of vaccines and healthcare," Soriano says.
The episode sparked an interest in public health and medicine and led Soriano to U of T, where he is now graduating with an honours bachelor of science in immunology and health and disease from the Faculty of Arts & Science - a key step toward his ambition of becoming a clinician-scientist.
He says it's "surreal" to be graduating from U of T given he was on the verge of enrolling in an accelerated medical program in the Philippines. "But when I looked into U of T, I felt as if coming here was an opportunity I couldn't pass up - the scholarships and the opportunity to gain interdisciplinary training in the scientific and social dimensions of medicine," says Soriano, a New College member.
The transition wasn't easy, with Soriano finding it challenging to juggle academics, extracurriculars and work. "But with lots of support from my mother and younger brother, and with invaluable guidance from professors Jasty Singh and Leanne de Souza-Kenney, it was definitely a stars-aligning kind of experience - and now it feels like it was meant to be," he says.
Soriano says his upbringing in the Philippines shaped his understanding of health as a deeply social issue. "Historically, the Philippines has had its share of difficulties: civil wars and unrest, social inequality, the vaccine disaster," he says. "With the latter, I saw how many Filipinos - including myself - were traumatized and became vaccine-hesitant, and easily fell for conspiracies and misinformation.
"Because of that, I've come to see how important it is for medicine and science to be more of a social movement rather than an individualistic effort."
That belief drove Soriano's determination to blend biology, public health and social elements of health and disease throughout his undergraduate work.
One of his most meaningful experiences came in his fourth year, through the course "Health In Community" taught by Franco Taverna, a professor, teaching stream in the human biology program. Soriano helped develop and pilot a vaccine and health literacy curriculum for Indigenous youth in Thunder Bay, Ont., and taught elementary school students about how microbes spread. "Seeing how receptive the kids were to what we did was very heartwarming," he says.
The experience drove home the importance of collaborating not only with experts but people in the community. "I'm grateful to [Taverna] because he allowed me to pursue my ideas about what's missing in healthcare and community."
Soriano also found ways to connect his academic work with his Filipino heritage. This included contributing to Our Kids Health , a platform that provides evidence-based health information to diverse cultural communities and is co-led by Ripudaman Minhas, director of pediatric research at St. Michael's Hospital (Unity Health Toronto) and assistant professor of paediatrics in U of T's Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
"I've been working with them to create culturally relevant information materials, to translate this for the Filipino community [and] make the information more accessible for them and create other educational programs," Soriano says.
"It's all about decolonizing and decentralizing how health information is shared with different diaspora communities."
Soriano is now focusing on his role as a research assistant in the lab of Sam Saibil, a staff oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Care Centre and assistant professor of immunology at Temerty Medicine, where he's working on immunometabolism and cell therapeutics.
Reflecting on his undergraduate journey, Soriano says the most important lessons he's learned are to avoid comparisons with others, trust in your own abilities and follow your own path.
"As an international student coming from the Philippines to U of T, with its reputation, I felt overwhelmed and felt like I was surrounded by so many smart, amazing people doing things I couldn't even begin to fathom," he says. "But eventually, after a lot of introspection, persistence and eagerness to learn and grow, I ended up finding and doing what I love."
