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Not long into Alyssa Romano’s pediatrics residency at a hospital in Friedrichshafen, Germany, a teenager arrived presenting puzzling symptoms.

He was weak, coughing and short of breath but didn’t display outward signs of disease or illness. Otherwise healthy and lithe, he should have been on his feet. When Romano examined him, she couldn’t hear breathing in his right lung.

Perplexed, she filed through the medical training she received at Eberhard Karls Universität in Tübingen, Germany. Then she hit upon the relatively rare cause: a pneumothorax — when air trapped in the cavity outside a lung creates pressure that causes it to collapse. Romano and physicians repaired the lung, and a few days later he left the intensive care unit to return to an active life.

“It felt like all the study, training and work I’d done had come to fruition and prepared me to do my job well,” said Romano, a Lumen Scholar who graduated from ���ϲ����� in 2016 with a biochemistry degree and a minor in German studies before following those paths into a medical career overseas.

Medical school is already intense: arduous studies, research and long hours in post-doctoral residency. Romano — a native of Allentown, Pennsylvania, who learned English as a first language — did it all in German.

“I studied German seven days a week, as well as studying medicine,” Romano said. “It took a lot of discipline, but I knew what I wanted to do and that I was very blessed and lucky to be admitted to medical school.”

From a young age, she knew she wanted to work in medicine, following in her nurse practitioner mother’s footsteps.

“She always made a point that each day was a blessing. It didn’t feel like work to her,” Romano said. “There’s nothing more rewarding than helping people live and live in better ways.”

She graduated from medical school in 2023. Now one year into a five-year residency in pediatrics at the Klinikum Friedrichshafen GmbH, she reflected on the ways ���ϲ����� prepared her for the journey.

While at ���ϲ�����, Romano spent a semester abroad in Heidelberg, Germany, and realized quickly how much she appreciated German culture and that she wanted to pursue medical studies there. She attained what was at the time the highest score ever achieved by an ���ϲ����� student on the Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang, a language entrance exam required of foreigners studying at German universities.

Her Lumen Prize research under the mentorship of Professor of Chemistry Karl Sienerth examined synthesizing metal catalysts used in drug development. She also won a highly competitive summer research fellowship through the German Academic Exchange Service’s RISE program, allowing her to spend 11 weeks at the University of Heidelberg’s Organic Chemistry Institute. Connecting to her Lumen Prize research, she joined a team that worked on synthesizing new gold catalyst compounds and how they speed up chemical reactions.

Those experiences led her to efficiently complete her doctoral thesis exploring ultrasound diagnostics for musculoskeletal diseases.

She gets emotional when she discusses her ���ϲ����� professors who supported and encouraged her, especially Sienerth and Associate Professor of German Scott Windham.

“They really believed in me and that meant everything to me,” Romano said. “Dr. Windham gave me a German-to-English medical dictionary, and I kept it with me through my entire medical studies. I knew if these people believed in me, I could do it.”

When she isn’t practicing medicine, Romano coaches a youth swim team, hikes and climbs in the nearby mountains, and visits with friends.

“If I have a day off, I’m not typically sitting at home,” she said. “It’s a huge highlight to get to be social with friends, and that motivates me to get through difficult days.”