It was an incredibly busy and fruitful four years for Madison Canfora (B.S. Neuroscience, minors musical theater and Chemistry ’21), who had already completed her pre-med track prior to graduating in December.
Through her mentorship with Dr. Monica Lemmon at the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics, Canfora researched physician-patient communication in the neonatal intensive care unit and created an original codebook for brain imaging that screened data for relevant descriptions of brain imaging to support further research.
The future physician’s research outcomes included outreach development regarding palliative care initiatives at Duke Health that advocated for open and empathetic communication with healthcare practitioners and members of the community to ensure that patients receive the treatment that best aligns with their care preferences, values and advanced-care planning directives.
And if that wasn’t enough, she still found time to be a research member of the REGAIN: Roadmap for Evaluating Goals in Advanced Illness Navigation with the Bass Connections team, a Rainbow Volunteer with the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit at Duke Children’s Hospital and a wish granter with the Make-A-Wish Organization
At the same time, Canfora was performing in Theater Studies’ Love Life Musical Theater workshop, writing two musicals, recording with the voice acting group Freshly Squeezed Pulp and playing flute with the marching and pep band.
Since graduating, Canfora has been busy studying for the MCAT and presenting research at the International Newborn Brain Conference in February — but she’s still made room to audition for summer acting intensives.
Below, she discusses why she made a conscious effort to include musical theater in her studies.
While at Duke, did your Theater Studies courses benefit your neuroscience studies?
Absolutely! My love for the arts began when I started playing piano at six years old, and I discovered acting in middle and high school, singing in leading comedic roles — including Yente in Fiddler on the Roof. And I might have been spotted in lab sporting the candy-striped, knee-high socks I wore as the Cat in the Hat in Seussical.
With that solid background in performing, I still wanted to be a physician because I love people, and it brings me joy to bring joy to others. I thrive on social interactions and am fed by conversations, so performing and telling stories has always been enjoyable to me. I sing, play music and act — all to connect with others.
These personal connections that were nurtured in my theater courses are what complete the human experience, and creating and performing fulfill me. My studies would have been incomplete without it.
Why was it important to include theater courses in your studies when your career path was clearly STEM-focused?
I believe that art is life-affirming, and that’s why I minored in musical theater.
I can be cerebral and have the capacity to learn the science of medicine, but more important to my success as a future physician is my ability to feel. To write impactfully, to create authentically and to act convincingly, we need to understand people. The more people we engage with, the more we learn about life — and lives that are different from our own.
My motivation is to touch lives, and I firmly believe that the better I can empathize, the better I will be able to treat patients. There’s no better place of “feeling” than the theater.
I’d love to be a physician. I have a zest for life that lends itself to working with children and would love to work in a pediatric capacity. But life is mysterious, and if the right muse calls — I could be persuaded (wink).
Theater Studies