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The two University of Pennsylvania seniors met during their first week on campus freshman year, both living in the Quad’s Ware College House, both planning to major in neuroscience and minor in chemistry, and both on their way to hoped-for careers in medicine.
“I started seeing Amanda in all my classes, in fact in every single one, from the big lectures to the small writing seminar. And I was thinking, ‘Are you following me?’ Everyone is looking for a friend, and I was lucky to have found Amanda,” says Christina Miranda, from Milford, New Jersey.
“We have been a dynamic duo ever since,” says Amanda Moreno, from Miami, who has a second minor in French and Francophone studies.
After a year of life amid the coronavirus pandemic, many Penn State students continue to feel alone and isolated.
Erika Saunders, a professor of psychiatry and chair of psychiatry and behavioral health, stressed the importance of a studentâs well-being and cited art as a way to help relieve stress.
Saunders obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan before going to the University of Iowa for medical school. She returned to Michigan to complete her psychiatry training with a specialty in mood disorders.
Since then, she started working for Penn State in 2008, making her way up to chair of psychiatry and behavioral health in 2015. During this time, she established various programs like the âMood Disorder Program.â