Tram Truong ’24 began her global college search knowing she wanted the freedom to explore multiple subjects. Four years later, she’s nearly finished with an interdisciplinary major of her own design, biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) and business, and has post-graduation plans to put what she’s learned from both disciplines into practice.
Truong hails from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and attended high school in Australia. When she began her college search, she knew she wanted to live in a big city and was drawn to the liberal arts and sciences, so Rhodes was a natural choice.
Fascinated by the science behind it, Truong immediately gravitated toward the BMB major her first year at Rhodes, with the goal of pursuing a career in healthcare. However, she soon realized that she didn’t see herself taking a purely scientific route in the industry. With her background as an international student, accessibility to healthcare was at the forefront of her mind, serving as the common thread connecting all of her professional endeavors – from leading a mentorship nonprofit in her Vietnamese community to serving at Church Health as a Summer Service fellow at Rhodes. She wanted the same commitment to accessibility in her pursuit of a career in healthcare.
“The true challenge in healthcare often lies in taking innovations to a marketable stage where they can actually benefit those in need,” says Truong. With this shift in focus, she began to lean towards studying business with the intention of later entering the pharmaceutical industry.
She didn’t want to sacrifice the depth of her scientific understanding, though, believing it would facilitate important conversations later on. She debated her options until it clicked, “Why not do both?” She then worked with faculty in the BMB and business departments to design her own interdisciplinary major spanning two divisions of the college.
Despite the challenges of venturing into uncharted academic territory, Truong found the combination of subjects incredibly valuable. “Studying both makes you approach every problem with outcomes in mind while not being afraid of delving into dense, complex materials,” she says. “At the end of the day, the fields share the same approach to problem-solving, just with different jargon. You come to appreciate this after a while, and it goes to show that we should not be afraid to learn from one another.”
Throughout her time at Rhodes, Truong has taken advantage of numerous opportunities to put her studies into practice. In addition to interning at Church Health, she recently completed an internship with Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Boston to learn more about the business side of the industry and has also spent the past year working in a BMB research lab.
Now, with years of interdisciplinary study, internships, and research under her belt, Truong is excited for what the future holds. She plans to enter the healthcare industry in a business capacity and looks forward to carving out her own niche, just as she did at Rhodes.
By Hannah-Elsie Meit ’25