Background & Education

From a young age, I, Ella Etchandy, have always been classified as the question-asker: in classes, conversations, uber drives. This tendency demonstrates my most fundamental personality trait- curiosity. I am constantly probing at unanswered questions, large problems and fascinating stories with the goal of not only learning “what” but how- how did this happen, how was this built, how does it affect me? While very annoying to all my classmates growing up, this practice of constantly questioning what I was being taught as the “norm” proved to be a very fundamental skill in my future education as a Biomedical Engineer.

I grew up in Orange County, California and my family works in agriculture, more specifically the strawberry farming business. Thus, I spent a lot of my extracurricular time in strawberry fields - conducting lab experiments, developing new methods for sustainable farming, and, ultimately, planting the seed for my love of science. It was through farming that I gained my initial awe and respect for biological systems. Learning about how a plant knows how to conduct photosynthesis in a perfect rhythm and utilization with our environment made me realize the most open-ended, informative and interesting questions were in science. Eventually, I learned I would rather ask these questions about human biology, leading me to pursue Biomedical Engineering.

Along with pursuing Biomedical Engineering, I am a BME Design Fellow, which includes a hands-on curriculum in building medical devices. Through my education, I have learned about many applications and innovations within healthcare, but I started to wonder about the delivery & functionality of the whole system. Learning about how revolutionary medicines and therapies were created was fascinating, but I couldn’t help to wonder then what? How are people getting access to these medicines? Asking questions about the system inspired me to pursue the innovation & entrepreneurship certificate with the goal of learning “business”.