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The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in January, 2001. Exploring the human mind Most traumatic brain injuries result from automobile crashes, and many of these crashes are alcohol-related. In his senior thesis, Aroop Sanakkayala ’01 is examining whether having alcohol in the system at the time of a head injury affects the severity of the injury. His research also must consider the effects of past alcohol use on the brain, he notes, because alcoholism can lead to brain atrophy, which, in turn, may affect the symptoms of a recent head injury. While there has been much speculation in the scientific community about alcohol and the brain, Sanakkayala explains, little research has been conducted to date. Thus, his work with doctors at Hartford Hospital will break new ground. “I like the idea of being able to make a difference even though I’m only a college student,” he says. A psychology major, Sanakkayala confesses that an age-old question intrigues him. “I want to know what makes people tick,” he says. In his career at Trinity, Sanakkayala has explored this eternal enigma from a variety of perspectives. In such courses as “Clinical Psychology” and a psychotherapy seminar, he has studied the inner workings of the human mind. As a researcher working with human subjects in laboratories on and off campus, he has witnessed and analyzed the brain in action. As a teaching assistant and as an award-winning resident assistant, he has helped peers to learn and solve problems. And, as the leader of a campus cultural organization, he has seen the role that ethnicity and culture play in shaping a person’s identity and individuality. Director of the Counseling Center and Associate Professor of Psychology Randolph M. Lee says Sanakkayala’s personal qualities are crucial to his successes. “He’s able to combine an incredible sense of joie de vivre with a seriousness of purpose that is unusually high,” Lee says. He also praises Sanakkayala’s versatility and “ability to relate to people effectively.” Two years ago, when Sanakkayala served as the mentor for Lee’s first-year seminar, the professor heard constant positive feedback from students. Says Lee, “It was always ‘Aroop solved this’ and ‘Aroop solved that.’” Building on previous work Sanakkayala converts every experience into a stepping stone to another, often more challenging and rewarding, experience. His research path provides a perfect example. He gained his first laboratory experience in his sophomore year. As a research assistant to Associate Professor of Psychology Sarah A. Raskin, he administered weekly memory tests to research subjects with traumatic brain injuries. Next, he landed a summer job as a research assistant to a Yale University scientist, who indicated that Sanakkayala’s previous laboratory work gave him the edge over all of the other qualified applicants. At Yale, he took on broader responsibilities and built upon his knowledge of the research process. In addition to administering cognitive functioning and memory tests, he recruited subjects, analyzed the data, and presented the findings to the laboratory group. This work, in turn, opened new avenues of opportunity, and in the spring of his junior year, Sanakkayala began working as a research assistant in the Acute Trauma Unit at Hartford Hospital. There he accompanied doctors on rounds, helped them to assess patients with head injuries, and participated in treatment. Working with some of these same doctors on his thesis research was a natural next step. “He has managed to impress not only me but also my colleagues at Yale and at Hartford Hospital with his intelligence and hard work,” Raskin says of Sanakkayala. A campus leader Growing up in a diverse but close-knit community in New Jersey, Sanakkayala says his ethnic looks and last name (his family’s cultural heritage is Indian) were never an issue. It was only when he came to Trinity that he began to think seriously about the difficulties, such as retention, that minorities often face on a college campus as well as the ways in which various kinds of cultural expression can enrich an entire community. He vividly recalls his first visit to the Asian-American Student Association’s headquarters, then located on Crescent Street. In accordance with the Asian tradition, he automatically took his shoes off upon entering the building. “This is something I do at home,” he says, “and it reminded me of who I was.” Sanakkayala became an active member of the association, soon assuming the post of social chair. In his characteristic style, he promptly applied what he’d learned as a resident assistant to the tasks of planning and organizing events for the group. As a junior he became president of the association and a member of the Multicultural Affairs Council of the Student Government Association. During his tenure, the association created a Web page; won the Special Interest Organization of the Year award; and, perhaps most importantly, saw the renovation of its new headquarters, a cultural house on Vernon Street. Sanakkayala’s term as association president is over, but his activism in support of multiculturalism continues. “Now I’m trying to make a difference as an individual student, not as a student leader representing a group,” he says. He is a vocal proponent of the proposed multicultural affairs distribution requirement, which would require all Trinity students to study diversity in an academic context. He also advocates the graduation pledge, a concept sweeping the nation that encourages seniors to consider the environmental and social consequences of jobs they take after graduation. His own post-graduation plans are uncertain, although he’s seriously considering a career in, not medicine, but the entertainment industry. His interest in the field grew out of an internship last summer with a division of MTV Networks, for which he read scripts, scoured trade publications in search of stories to buy, and helped to develop TV and film projects. Will all of his exploration of the human mind help with such a career? Of course, says Sanakkayala. “What makes a good show is psychology.”                                                          –Leslie Virostek