December 2021 Issue
This was the prompt sent to students, faculty, and staff in the College of Medicine to solicit contributions for this issue: "To the Root of It All"
Looking forward to winter break, many of us will go back “home.” What does home mean to you? Is it a place, certain people, a familiar scent or sound? Does home ever change? Do you ever change? Tell us about your “roots,” the groundwork for your growth and who you are today. If you went back “to the root of it all,” what would you find?
portrait of my family as four rooms
Background photo by Siddharth Parmar
Unfinished
Background photo by Mateusz Butkiewicz
Childhood Holiday
Background photo by Braden Collum
Home is a running stitch
Background photo by Helena Lopes
To: Ông Ngoại (Grandpa)
Background photo by Evie S.
Making Cancer History
Background photo by Angiola Harry
Surgery Clerkship Dos and Don’ts
Background photo from the National Cancer Institute
Roots
Background photo by Emma Gossett
Memories Are Your Home
Background photo by Tyler Nix
*Accompanying artwork/photographs were selected by the design editors
Synapse Board Members
Thomas Nguyen Chairman
Rahul Tharoor Acquisitions Editor Jordan Garcia Senior Columnist Brianna Covin Senior Copy Editor Ahad Azimuddin Senior Copy Editor Alexandra Powell Senior Copy Editor Roger Garcia Copy Editor
Lena Ayari Managing Editor
Sarah Elmer Senior Staff Writer Darby Ballard Staff Writer Cerci Hammons Senior Design Editor Ksenia Vlassova Design Editor Christian Encarnacion Senior Social Media Manager Minhal Zaidi Social Media Manager
submit to us!
Share your work with the Texas A&M medical school
community. Please email us at COM-synapse@tamhsc.edu to submit work, make suggestions, or ask questions. We
are looking forward to hearing from you!
thank you:
A special thanks to ...
Dr. Karen Wakefield for being our faculty editor, and
Dr. Barbara Gastel for serving as editorial mentor.
The Synapse is sponsored by the Department of Humanities in Medicine at the Texas A&M University College of Medicine.