At a young age, Sophia Kantejeva learned firsthand how socioeconomic status impacts healthcare.
“Growing up in Illinois in a tiny, subsidized-housing neighborhood with limited access to healthcare, and noticing how characters in TV shows could go to emergency rooms and urgent care without any concern over money, I became aware of how economic and structural barriers shape who receives care and when,” she said.
Once at Vanderbilt, her childhood experience led Kantejeva to major in medicine, health, and society and minor in biological sciences, where she could dig deeper into understanding the cultural, economic, demographic, and biological factors that affect health and the policies surrounding it.
Over the last four years, Kantejeva has been deeply involved in research and community-based work to expand her knowledge. In the MacGurn Lab, she conducted research on cell signaling, or the process by which cells detect and respond to external stimuli. Through her Medicine, Health, and Society Honors project, she investigated how errors in protein translation intersect with popular diet trends and shape broader public health outcomes. Outside of the lab, Kantejeva served as vice president for the student organization Hip Hop Public Health, which teaches health concepts to local elementary students through music, making the material more engaging and accessible.
But it was Kantejeva’s experience as a patient care technician in the emergency and psychiatric units at Tristar Centennial Hospital that gave her a deep understanding of the relationship between science, education, and access to care.
“In the hospital, I began to see how gaps in understanding—whether due to language, health literacy, or fear—can directly impact patient outcomes,” she said. “I also noticed how certain populations are vulnerable to diseases or mental health crises more than others. I found myself drawn not only to clinical care, but to the moments in between: explaining procedures to the best of my ability, answering questions in my scope, and helping patients feel a sense of clarity and control in unfamiliar situations by being able to relate to them. These interactions reinforced my belief that basic health literacy shapes effective healthcare and effective communication is a critical component of care—and both are often overlooked and unnoticed.”
Kantejeva said this perspective shaped both her academic interests and her work outside the classroom, motivating her to pursue initiatives that improve access to health knowledge and empower individuals to better navigate their care. She even shaped her Immersion Vanderbilt experience around it.
She started by having conversations with emergency room patients and quickly learned that the housing insecure struggled when they were discharged because they lacked basic practical supplies to support their care, such as socks, gloves, a reusable water bottle, and hygiene products. So Kantejeva assembled more than 700 health kits that included these items, as well as a resource card in English and Spanish with community resources, wound care instructions, and advice on when to seek additional medical attention. She distributed the kits to Centennial Hospital’s emergency room and the Nashville Rescue Mission, where they have been provided to housing insecure patients.
“This project taught me that access to care does not end at the point of treatment—it depends on whether patients have the knowledge and resources to carry that care forward,” Kantejeva said. “Designing these kits shifted how I think about healthcare. I began to see education not as separate from care, but as a fundamental part of it. Academically, this experience reinforced my interest in studying health beyond molecular biology alone, shaping my focus on the intersection of communication, access, and patient outcomes. It has also influenced the direction of my future work, motivating me to continue developing initiatives that improve health literacy and to approach medicine with a greater emphasis on patient understanding, not just treatment.”
Kantejeva’s Immersion project was one effort of Movement in Medicine, a nonprofit organization that she founded that aims to provide resources in both Spanish and English and supplies to underserved communities to support their mental and physical health. Under Kantejeva’s leadership, Movement in Medicine has received funding from Vanderbilt’s Nichols Humanitarian Fund and the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy’s Creative Inquiry Grant. One project funded by the Curb Center, “Paint the Flow,” helped to provide feminine hygiene products, resource cards with breathing exercises and positive affirmations, and mini watercolor sets to those in need while aiming to reduce the stigma around menstruation. Kantejeva also partnered with a local business back in her hometown in Illinois to provide over $700 worth of swimming supplies to a local community center. In total, the organization has delivered over 1,200 health and care kits across the Nashville and Round Lake Beach, Illinois, areas.
Her Vanderbilt experience has had a profound impact on her future goals. After graduation, Kantejeva plans to work as a research assistant or a clinical research coordinator at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, while remaining actively involved in community-based education.
She eventually wants to attend medical school and pursue a career as a trauma surgeon in a rural community to continue 
addressing gaps in healthcare access and understanding by promoting health literacy and patient-centered education.
“Based on what I see in the emergency department, the patients who arrive in those moments aren’t random; their injuries often reflect broader structural issues like limited access to care, unsafe environments, or gaps in health literacy,” she said. “That perspective is personal for me.”
Growing up with scarce resources, Kantejeva said she understands how critical it is to have someone step in who is capable, decisive, and present. She plans to use her background in education and community health to address the factors that put patients in these situations in the first place. She credits her degree in medicine, health, and society with teaching her that health is not just biology, but it is shaped by access, environment, and lived experience.
“My whole Vanderbilt experience is something I would have thought impossible,” she said. “I remember being 9 years old and waiting in line at my local food pantry, hoping I could get my little hands on an expired birthday cake without any health concerns. I remember being 16 and being excited to be able to start working and getting a job to help my mom financially to buy fresh fruit from the store. Now, I’m 22 and excited to do what I could have never dreamed to do: be able to fund an organization devoted to helping underserved communities, like mine at home, while being able to further my education, thanks to Vanderbilt University.”