Alexandra Zaleta

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"Watching my father die taught me how to live. He set an example for my family and for our friends in how he lived his life, both before and during his illness. When my mother asked 'Why us?' his response was a simple 'Why not us?'"

  • Program: 2005 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Hometown: Newtown, CT

Biography

 

Much as she tried to avoid it, Alexandra Zaleta kept being drawn toward clinical psychology. She finally concluded it was meant to be her calling. Her father had suffered from a debilitating neurological disorder, progressive supranuclear palsy, for a decade. Their family life had been turned upside down, but it was her mother, an immigrant from Slovakia, who supported them all through the hardest times of a losing battle. Alexandra still feels the impact: "My father taught me to pick myself up and carry on, but I know that I am changed by what we went through as a family."
 
After graduating from Vassar, Alexandra began working alongside Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital neurologists. As part of their research, they used magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive testing to learn how neurodegenerative diseases disrupt brain function. She also spent 20 hours a week with patients and families affected by Huntington's or Alzheimer's diseases and talked with relatives "about living with a neurodegenerative disease." She knows from experience that though neurological disorders may differ, the family's "stress and emotional turmoil" is similar.
 
Building on her psychology and neuroscience background, Alexandra aims to earn her master's degree in human development from Harvard University and ultimately a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Washington University. She hopes to study the psychological impact of serious illness on patients and their families who bear “the incredible responsibility of caring for those who are terminally ill or suffering from degenerative diseases.”

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