Mia Soviero recently graduated with a degree in neuroscience from Barnard College at Columbia University. Alongside her studies, Mia is a certified EMT and the founder and CEO of Research Girl, a non-profit organization providing accessible resources to low-income STEM students. From a thriving research and pre-medical career to a widespread social impact with her non-profit organization and social media presence, Mia’s perseverance, dedication, and passion for helping others are evident in all that she pursues.

As a high school student acting as the Head Coach of the Special Olympics Maryland Figure Skating Team, Mia worked with neurodivergent athletes and subsequently fell in love with the field of pediatric neurology. She notes that “[her] experience with young students made pediatric neurology an obvious choice of a career.” After completing a shadowing internship at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, her passion for neuroscience flourished. She reflects on this moment, stating, “there was never any other choice– nothing else came close to being as electrifying as studying medicine.”

Mia dreams of becoming a pediatric neurologist in the near future. She notes her desire to get the most out of her medical knowledge by working with neurodivergent patients and to become someone who can help patients like her former students and herself.

Guided by outstanding role models and mentors, Mia’s passion for medicine dates back to her experiences as a young patient in the pediatric neurology department at Children’s National Hospital. She describes the care and compassion she received while being treated for chronic migraines. She reflects back on her time there, “While there was no magical cure that could make my headaches go away, I will never forget their dedication to determining the cause for my condition and making the experience as painless as possible.” Inspired by these individuals throughout her career, Mia became a role model herself.

Mia began pursuing Research Girl, her non-profit organization that was recently named a 501(c)(3), in April 2024. Since then, it has grown into an impactful platform helping STEM students from underprivileged backgrounds. She works full-time and manages all of the organization’s board members and volunteers, a testament to her dedication. Discussing her motivation to start the organization, she states that, “Research Girl was born from [her] experience as a disabled low-income student at an elite research institution.” She saw that many students didn’t have access to many resources equipping them with the necessary knowledge to pursue research. “It seemed like a no-brainer to use my platform to help bridge this accessibility gap in science,” she says. 

While navigating a successful career, Mia also acknowledges the challenges that come alongside working in the medical field. She mentions that, “One of the most challenging aspects of pre-med is staying focused on why you want to be a doctor.” She candidly notes, Over the years, my love of the profession has waned at moments—when I’m buried in final exams for multiple challenging STEM classes, when I’m working multiple jobs to cover both my research and clinical experience—but it’s interacting with patients that has always brought me back to all the reasons not to give up.” With an onslaught of challenging classes and long nights of studying, many pre-med students struggle with the mental tax of academic burnout. However, Mia’s challenges did not end here. During undergrad, she was diagnosed with OCD and bipolar, and she experienced severe PTSD. Regardless, she persevered and now uses her social media platforms to break stigmas surrounding mental health and medicine.

Since starting her neuroscience-focused TikTok account in 2020, she has gained over 190,000 followers. She consistently embodies a supportive perspective, making neuroscience accessible to others in the online community. Mia notes that she has constantly been uplifted and supported by fellow female scientists at Barnard and Columbia, but she warns that “social media has no such guardrails. I’ve received countless comments from faceless men questioning my competence, belittling my accomplishments, and telling me to quit,” she says. Mia learned to grapple with these experiences by staying true to herself. She mentions the difficulty of existing within an online sphere full of critiques and criticism, but she discounts these uncomfortable experiences and acknowledges the complexities and accomplishments of her own career: “All of the difficulties which you have pushed through for your achievements are ones which you survived—not them—and their comments fall flat when faced with the infinite subtleties of your lived experience.”

The thrill of hands-on experience drives many aspiring doctors through the medical field. In July 2023, while questioning whether she wanted to continue pursuing an EMT certification, Mia experienced something that wouldn’t allow her to give up: having to use her EMT skills off-duty. “I witnessed a four-car accident on the highway,” she recalls. “I ended up pulling a girl out of the car wreck, and the sense of right when I was conducting trauma protocol on the patientmade it impossible for me to quit.” She notes the most important aspect of medicine: her patients, emphasizing that, “It’s moments like these that remind me of the why behind studying medicine.”

For all of the young scientists in the world, Mia offers this advice: “Get hands-on experience, as much as you can…The earlier you can begin getting experience, the more you will be able to make professional decisions with clarity.”

Mia continues to illuminate the world of neuroscience, cultivating a vast audience and paving the way for the next generation of leaders in science.