After this 5-week program, my main takeaway is that this is the right path for me. Hearing all these different journeys and seeing how happy those now doctors are with their job really inspired me to keep going. I have been going back and forth about the decision of applying to medical school in the past months specially because things feel more uncertain as you approach your time of applying. However, I have realized that nothing excites me more that the idea of becoming a doctor. — Micaula Rodriguez Moncayo
Through this program, I learned more about other fields that are available for anyone to learn more about. It is great because now I know that are other fields that meet my vision to life, specially how I want my life to be like where there is a balance between family and work. Endocrinology is a field that is very interesting because I enjoy learning at the molecular level of biology and chemistry and that I can continue applying that as an endocrinologist. Aside from that, all the doctors that presented were great at breaking down their life, and why they chose to become a doctor. It is great to learn more about the aspects and characteristics that come to being a doctor, to accept the hard work because at the end of the day it matters to everybody. It has been great attending virtual rounds. — Darrien Smiley
My current understanding of self in medicine has really changed while in Virtual Rounds. I was able to learn what really matters to me in medicine which is advocating for the POC and black community. I learned that it is important to ask myself what I am doing to help these communities. My views have changed as this is something I never gave much thought to. Now I am asking myself questions like how I can help to advocate for the POC and black community as a future physician? What makes me different from other inspiring physicians? And how can I make a chance for the better in healthcare? — Sumaya Hassan
These past few weeks, I have learned a lot of advice that I don’t think I would have heard from others if I wasn’t in this amazing program. I have learned how to build better my academic profile and how to build connections with others. I really like how honest each healthcare provider was, it just shows that being in the healthcare field takes a lot of work and commitment. They took time out of their schedule, to help students figure out what they want to be and what advice they can give them. I hope within the future I can be a mentor for someone else who is also in my shoes. I want to be able to be someone that others can look up to, just how I look up to these wonderful healthcare providers. — Esmeralda Vazquez-Sagrero
Over the last 10 weeks, there have been many lessons, tips, and facts that have helped me guide myself on what I want to do in my career. There are also a lot of opportunities that can not only benefit me but my community when I know how to look for them. I also have found that my identity can play a large part in how effective I can be, I am a 1st generation immigrant of Mexico who can communicate with other Mexican-Americans who speak Spanish, but who knows what it's like to be in an underprivileged group within healthcare. My presence as a healthcare professional will not only be cultural support for my peers but a proper representation of our ever-evolving country. — Jordi Sherrer
My current understanding of self in my future career in medicine remains stagnant. I am hoping that as I move along in the program I am more sure of what ‘self’ means in this context of medicine. I am still unsure of what path I will choose, where I belong, and where I will be led on my journey. This week has in fact cemented that I want to be part of the community of healthcare workers. My family group is filled with women that are absolutely destined to be great physicians one day and that to me is is incredibly inspiring because they seem so ready and determined to be doctors one day. It’s that type of mindset and groups of people that I am honored and grateful to be around. I cannot wait until I work with them one day in some capacity!
During this week, I was mostly personally impacted by Dr. Singh and his words. He said that we are needed in medicine, we are the future of medicine, our journeys were all not as we thought to be non-traditional. That was one of the things I noted, that he didn’t invalidate or tear us down or speak condescendingly to us. I’ve noted that people who aren’t even in medicine tend to get people like me down for not having a 4.0. I felt better about the unique journey, the road less traveled. I think throughout this session, I was also happy that Dr. Singh didn’t give me false hope. He wanted us to take another approach if we were truly serious about joining the medical field, to get our foot in the door we need the grades and the MCAT score. It is not impossible and we should keep putting in our efforts if we believe this is where our space is.
I feel that if I could see the difference between my first response to this question versus now, I could note some differences. While I still don’t know my place in medicine, where I am supposed to go, and who I am supposed to become in medicine; I’ve learned that is okay. I don’t know if I’ll ever be sure of my place but I think that this program made it clear that it is within medicine and that I will stay on the journey in healthcare. While I wish that I could go back and correct my mistakes, it’s made me who I am and I know that I am smart and capable enough to keep going. I have made it this far and I am determined to continue. — Caritina Sanchez
I learned that applying to medical school is going to be a little different for everyone because not everyone will have the same experience. And that’s okay because you don’t want a boring application. I learned about how as a specialist it sometimes feels as if you’re solving a case. There are so many different specialities within medicine as I have learnt over the five weeks. What you choose can depend on the work-life balance you want or how you want to help. The goal in medicine is to help and you can do that through so many specialities not just one. I’m interested in neurology and I never thought about how closely they work with endocrinologists. — Joumana Barbakh
Overall, this program helped me learn a lot more about the field of public health. Before doing this program I didn't have much knowledge of what public health was, but thanks to this program I learned that the public health field has various branches that connect to one another. There were speakers that talked about environmental health, community health, global health, epidemiology, and social/behavioral health. . . .
My self in the field of public health has certainly changed during the program of the virtual round. Thanks to this program, I was able to understand just how unfair BIPOC people are being treated in the health field. Learning about this unfairness had me enraged as it's not fair that white people are being provided with top-notch health care while people of color are being given the bare minimum. This anger that I had helped me realize that in order to change this unfairness within our health care field, we need to speak up about it have more BIPOC working in the field. By having more BIPOC working in healthcare facilities, we'll be able to also provide more comfort to patients who are BIPOC as they'll realize that someone that has the same skin color as them is working in these facilities. — Zareen Hazel Gesmundo
I think this week reminded me of why I chose public health and how I hope to work in a diverse community that acknowledges what has been done historically and how they are being proactive about it. I want to work in public health in as antiracism lens and work to address these injustices for people who's voice cannot be spoken out. I want to serve as an advocate for those who cannot. In topics like we had this week, of racism and oppression in medicine but also speak on taboo subjects like mental illnesses in marginalized communities because someone needs to begin changing generational traumas and work to address these issues. — Lauren Morales
Something I had not considered is the fact that doing internal medicine is far from a surgical type of path. I had always heard of cardiovascular doctors, but had never understood the difference between that and a cardiovascular surgeon. Hearing the different paths of internal medicine, as well as how they differ to their counterparts was especially interesting and helpful. This will benefit in my planning when entering medical school. Additionally, I loved Dr. Chin’s openness to speak as a mother. I really do think it would be amazing to have an individual session for just this conversation with multiple physicians who are also mothers! — Claudia Covelli
Dr. Chin's presentation helped me to understand the difference between professions in healthcare and internal medicine. One important lesson I found from this presentation was how internal medicine is different from other healthcare professions; this is that internal medicine only focuses on adults, but other healthcare professions include pediatric, family medicine, general medicine, focus on both adult and adult children. I learned there are many healthcare professions that I can look for before and when I go to medical school. — Mastewal Enyew
The Wednesday session with Dr. Kilgore-Martin led me to realize that there are many medical specialties that I do not know about. While my current aspiration is to be a pediatric neurologist, I want to remain open-minded as a future medical student. However, regardless of the specialty I choose, I want to remain committed to eliminating health disparities and forging a path towards health equity. I see myself educating others on the health disparities that exist and volunteering my time at community health centers.
Several family members have hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, and I recently saw an endocrinologist about my thyroid, so it was fascinating to learn more about endocrinology from Dr. Philip. His last clinical case on acromegaly was especially engrossing and I loved the problem-solving aspect of it.
I’m currently in the application process and throughout the past few months, I’ve felt discouraged many times with my application–to the point where I almost withdrew my application. Ultimately, I decided to move forward and see what happens. — Nikki Delgado
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