Malena is an incoming freshman at Yale University as a member of the class of 2027. She intends to pursue a double major in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Economics. She intends to utilize the overlap between her two majors to help her discover niches in the Biotech market and solve them accordingly. 

Malena’s high school transcript is a bit unconventional: after initially being accepted into and attending Queens High School for the Sciences, one of New York City’s specialized high schools, Malena transferred to Hopkins School, a private prep school in Connecticut. In August of 2020, she moved to Vienna, Austria, where she attended Bundesgymnasium Fichtnergasse, a German-speaking public high school. Malena completed her Matura in June 2021 and graduated with high honors. Malena’s academic career is supplemented by her extracurricular achievements: she has founded her own UNICEF-affiliated non-profit, completed neuroscience research at Columbia University and has tutored the SHSAT, the SAT, and the Austrian Matura. She is currently taking a gap year, where she is working full-time as an assistant at a pediatric practice to gain further hands on experience in the field of medicine.

As a former international applicant, Malena understands the importance of crafting a perfect application. She hopes to help students present themselves authentically, but attractively, to elite undergraduate institutions.