BIOGRAPHY

Hiya! My name is Viraat Goel and I am a senior studying Bioengineering at the University of Illinois. After graduating next May, I’m planning to pursue an M.D. or M.D./Ph.D. at the Icahn School of Medicine in NYC. Outside of Illini 4000, I keep busy through involvement with other student organizations around campus. I’ve been a part of the Biomedical Engineering Society since my freshman year and serve as its Technical Projects Director, allowing me to coordinate projects for my favorite UIUC event of the year, Engineering Open House. I am also a part of Engineering Ambassadors, Model United Nations, Dean’s Student Advisory Committee, and a student startup called PhantomCor. I enjoy teaching and aspire to be a professor one day; as such, I teach the College of Engineering’s freshman orientation course, ENG 100. In my free time, I enjoy reading, watching movies, or playing intramural volleyball with my friends. Although I’m a Central Illinois native, I love traveling and seeing new places, so I can’t wait to forge a lifetime’s worth of memories with I4K this summer. College has been a terrific experience, and I’m excited to round it out raising money and awareness to fight cancer!

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Although I’ve been fortunate enough to not have had immediate friends or family afflicted by cancer, I’ve learned that cancer touches everyone’s lives in one way or another. As a Bioengineering student, I’ve studied cancer from a scientific standpoint for several years and had the opportunity to research new cancer therapies at Harvard Med School this past summer. However, despite all the classes, projects, and research, I realized how detached I was from the patient experience and the human ramifications of the disease. Illini 4000 enables me to supplement my understanding of cancer with the human stories at its core, all while giving me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to challenge myself and give back to others. Thus, I’m riding to support cancer survivors, researchers, and everybody else whose lives have been impacted by cancer.