Krystinna Arevalo

Krystinna Arevalo is an alumna of the Governor’s STEM Scholars Class of 2024. She is a first-generation college student entering her third year at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is pursuing a double major in Neuroscience and Health & Societies. She has been actively engaged in scientific research since her sophomore year of high school. Her research experiences have spanned studies of the actin cytoskeleton in epithelial cells and the ultrastructure of engineered skin tissue. She currently conducts research at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, where she conducts research on intestinal epithelial and paneth cell biology. At Penn, Krystinna serves as an Associate Editor for the Penn Bioethics Journal and as Recruitment Chair for the Special Needs Swim Program, which provides adaptive swim instruction and support for children in the Philadelphia area. She is also an advisor with Matriculate, where she mentors low-income high school students through the college application process, helping them navigate access to higher education opportunities.

Krystinna is passionate about connecting low-income, first-generation students to transformative opportunities in STEM. She believes in the value of diversity and bringing students of different backgrounds together. She aspires to become a physician-scientist using her research background to advance STEM policy and healthcare accessibility. She is particularly interested in the applications of cellular and molecular biology, and bridging the gap between science and policy. Her goals center around serving underserved communities and learning across a breadth of fields to become a flexible leader.