Jad Hamze is a double concentrator in Middle East studies and Health and Human Biology while also being a part of Brown's eight-year combined Baccalaureate-MD medical program, Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME). Jad grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, but is of Lebanese descent and spends every summer there immersing himself in the culture and spending time with family members. This past summer Jad did exactly that while also traveling to Turkey and spending a month working at the Tripathi Laboratory for Microfluidic Diagnostics and Biomedical Engineering as an undergraduate research assistant. After witnessing all the turmoil that his home has gone through in the past three years, Jad has made it his mission to understand the region better and hopefully commit to helping it someday in the future. This upcoming semester, Jad is excited to continue his studies with the course America and the Middle East: Histories of Connection and Exchange and participate in the Brown Political Review.