Above: Gerardo Santizo and family. Submitted photo

The Northwestern Mutual Foundation has named Gerardo Santizo of East Greenwich one of its 2022 Childhood Cancer Sibling Scholarship recipients, receiving a $5,000 renewable scholarship (for a total of $10,000). 

When Gerardo was a child, he had a vivid imagination that turned sticks into swords and his  sister’s radiation machine into an alien. However, he quickly learned that his sister’s cancer was  not a monster he could slay in his daydream. Since then, Gerardo became fascinated with  understanding the disease that uprooted his family’s life and began to grow an appreciation for  the radiation that was responsible for saving his sister’s life. 

Gerardo is a member of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACSCAN) and is conducting research at Dr. Wafik El-Deiry’s lab, Dean of Cancer Biology and leader of Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University.  

“Growing up wanting to learn everything about my sister’s disease, I knew science would be the  way I impact the world,” said Gerardo Santizo. “I am extremely grateful for this scholarship from  Northwestern Mutual Foundation and the opportunity it gives me to further my studies and reach  my goal of finding a cure for childhood cancer.” 

Congratulations, Geraldo!