I thought that a
good place to start this adventure would be to tell you all a little bit more
about me and my path into medicine.
I grew up in a rural
county in Upstate NY. (For all of you wondering how rural anywhere in New York
can be, let me tell you! I grew up no
where near New York City and actually have only visited once. It’s a pretty good
drive, about 6 hours, into the city.) In the trailer park where I lived, many
of my neighbors were unemployed most of the time and had very little education.
Teenagers dropped out of high school at 16 and many had children around the
same time. Several of my neighbors had done time in jail. Many of us were poor,
but with little to compare it to all of us kids thought that the circumstances
were normal.
In school I sought
to distance myself from my peers from the park (as we more or less
affectionately called it). Because to many teachers, park kids were lost causes
in an already overworked school system and other kids did not want to associate
with us. So throughout elementary, intermediate and middle school I worked hard
to separate myself. I did very well and had achieved high grades and many
school accolades by the time I reached high school. Again, in high school I
excelled. I performed in several different bands, was president of clubs and
the National Honor Society. I was the first student from my school district to
become a finalist in the National Merit Scholarship program. I graduated as salutatorian in June of 2010.
Early into middle
school I realized that I wanted to be a physician. I had had some health
problems and was consistently amazed at how doctors used science (my favorite
class at the time) to help heal people. I shadowed a doctor in 7th grade and
was hooked.
I started at the
University at Buffalo for my undergraduate degree in the fall of 2010 knowing
that I wanted to do a pre-med program. Because I was an Honor's College
student, I had to take several additional courses involving service learning
during my time there. These courses were eye opening and extremely informative.
I enjoyed helping serve the inner city community of Buffalo and learned a great
deal from the people that I met. The classes themselves were interesting,
however I began to notice that in all of our readings and discussions poor was
synonymous with an inner city location. This idea felt like a slap in the face
to all of my neighbors and friends growing up. Thus began my research into
poverty. I was surprised to see that my experience was not unique. Rural
poverty is a huge issue in the United States, but it frequently goes ignored. I
began to bring these facts with me to service learning class meetings to
discuss how ideas and theories of poverty could be applied to rural areas. More
and more I found a distinct lack of interest in discussing how to improve the
lives of the rural poor. This fueled a desire to learn even more and eventually
I realized how medically disadvantaged many rural areas are. This knowledge triggered a "light-bulb
moment". I knew that I wanted to help rural citizens gain access to
appropriate medical care and I knew that I wanted to be able to provide that
care.
With that in mind, I
applied specifically to my medical school's rural medicine program and I was
ecstatic to be accepted for their class of 2018. I graduated from Buffalo in
May of 2014 with a major in Biomedical Sciences and minors in Latin language and
literature and Pharmacology/Toxicology. That fall I started at my current
school and am now in my second year.
The fact that I want
to dedicate my life to serving the very same group of people that I tried to
get away from is amusing to me. Life is funny like that sometimes.
Whew… if you made it
all the way through that you are a pro! I hope that it gave you a little bit
better of an idea of how I got here. I'm sure I will go into more detail with
some of these points at a later date, but for now if you have any questions please
let me know!
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| As a reward for making it all the way, here is a lovely sunset from my childhood yard. The park is behind me. |
