April Banayan will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Studies and a Master of Science in Global Medicine on May 12-May 13. (Photo/Courtesy of April Banayan)

April Banayan has been to more than 100 coffee shops throughout Los Angeles during the course of her studies to earn a bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Studies and a master’s degree in Global Medicine.

All that time studying has paid off: April will be one of the Keck School’s undergraduate commencement speakers.

As a progressive degree student, Banayan found time outside of the classroom to do far more study teaching health education with USC’s Peer Health Exchange and spearheading legislation in student government. She also performed diabetes research in the laboratory of Scott Kanoski, PhD, assistant professor in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, where she learned firsthand about the need for multidisciplinary approaches to health challenges.

“The people at the University of Southern California have taught me to believe in my abilities and have pushed me to strive for more and think bigger,” Banayan said. “The courses I have taken in policy, business and abroad are the ones that have served to alter my perspective.”

This fall, Banayan will pursue her medical degree at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She is eager and ready to become a triple Trojan and plans to find new coffee shops to help her along the way.