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 Hello resident biography reader. Our names are Nadya Dominique and Kendall DeFreitas. Since they’re pretty much the same, we’ve combined our bios for your reading pleasure. Enjoy. Nadya: I was born and partially raised on the beautiful island of Trinidad – the southern-most island of the Caribbean. When I was 10, my family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada for less than a year – just enough time for the snow to melt before we escaped to Toronto – the southern-most big city in Canada. It was in Toronto that I met and married my best friend and fellow resident, Kendall DeFreitas. To avoid overlap and subsequent boredom, you can get the rest of our early history below. Kendall and a bit of Nadya: I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada where I met and married my best friend and fellow resident, Nadya Dominique. We were best friends in high school and began dating near the end before heading off to undergrad at the University of Toronto where we both got our honours (yes, I used a ‘u’ in there. Remember, I am Canadian, eh) Bachelor of Science degrees. During undergrad, I went from becoming an engineer to an astrophysicist but psychology got the better of me and I turned towards the biological side of life. The biological side of life had always fascinated Nadya and she double-majored in Neuroscience and Psychology, while I double-majored in Physics and Psychology. Nadya’s parents had moved to Northern Virginia and with the accomplishment of finishing an undergraduate thesis in her final year, Nadya moved to Baltimore, Maryland to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland. Realizing that absence truly does make the heart grow fonder, I quickly got my act together and followed her down there a year later to do the same thing. Both: During that next year, we got engaged and discovered that although we loved research, we loved people even more and decided to torture ourselves with the white sand beaches and tropical sunshine of the Cayman Islands for our med school education at St. Matthew’s University. Our torture continued in our 3rd year of med school when we chose to endure the history, architecture and culture of England. After having lived in Trinidad, Winnipeg, Toronto, Baltimore, the Cayman Islands, Miami, England and various other parts of the US, we just thought that moving to Altoona seemed like the next logical step – makes sense, don’t you think? That and the success of previous residents, the happiness of the current residents, the warm faculty, the hands-on learning approach in an unopposed program, the proximity to family and the real clinchers … with those Caesar salads at Sheetz - our favourite long drive pit stop (Altoona is the birthplace of Sheetz) and those sticky buns from Altoona’s neighbour State College, we knew that even our tummies would be happy here! For those of you who are still reading this, we’ve obviously captured you and you’d probably like to know more. We enjoy eating, cooking, watching cooking shows and TV, shower singing, spending time with each other, our two nephews, our families and friends and our two puppies (we don’t have them as yet, but we’re anticipating that we’ll enjoy spending time with them), traveling, soccer, baseball, basketball, fishing, swimming, movies, theater and much more. We’re very easy going and we thought that AFP was a perfect fit for us. If you have any questions at all about us, or the program, please don’t hesitate to contact us. |