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I AM A MEDICAL STUDENT: Beatriz Folch

I have two genuine passions in life: ballet and medicine.  My interest for ballet came at a very young age.  I started dancing at the age of 6 and, ever since, ballet became a great part of my life and biggest passion for some time.

As a ballet student, I had the opportunity to train and dance with some of the best schools of the world, American, Cuban and Russian.  At the age of 15 I earned a scholarship with The Washington School of Ballet, and by the age of seventeen I was dancing with a professional company in Puerto Rico.  These experiences not only gave me the opportunity to travel to different countries where I learned and explored different ballet techniques, but also allowed me to explore other cultures, thus widening my perspectives towards life.

I am a firm believer that the art of classical ballet taught me about self-control and commitment, widening my will and disposition to work hard towards any goal I set in my life.  Long daily hours of training and practice helped me become a more organized and disciplined individual, therefore enhancing my ability to work in a group, and to adjust and balance my time between studies, work and ballet.  I learned to make advantageous use of my time as a result of discipline and great effort.

Even though ballet absorbed a great deal of my energy and time, it did not impede me from focusing on a professional career in science and the pursuit of my goal to become a physician.  Both disciplines—my ballet and my academic studies--definitely complemented one another in my life, with positive results.

My decision to become a physician was greatly influenced and empowered by both of my grandfathers, who served as very positive medical role-models, as well as a result of personal experiences with disease, volunteer summer work with autistic children, and ballet teaching to disabled children.  Ultimately, I was drawn into the medical profession by my commitment to serve others in need, especially those underserved.

In preparation for my goal, a career in medicine, I participated in summer medical and investigative programs, specifically, the Summer Medical and Dental Educational Program (SMDEP) at Columbia University and the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program at The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.  I also participated in hospital clinical experiences (shadowing) in various fields in medicine in Puerto Rico and United States.  As a result, these experiences increased my genuine interest in the care of the disadvantaged, disabled and those in need.

I firmly believe that the biopsychosocial emphasis at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry will provide, develop, strengthen and enable me with the necessary skills and tools to give others in need the best health care.

Source: http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/education/md/admissions/medical-school-overview/folch.cfm

I AM A Medical Student: David Paul

Hello everybody, seeing as this is my first post I’d like to quickly introduce myself. I grew up in Michigan about 30 miles from the lake, loved playing with Legos as a kid, and participated in several sports. I am currently conducting research between my second and third year of medical school.

PIMP-ed [verb] – Put In My Place, a term used to describe the feeling when an attending physician asks the lowly medical student a seemingly impossible question for which the student replies, “ughhhhhh, hmmmmm.” The student proceeds to scratch their head and wait for even the most dim of light bulbs to flicker on.  An eternity of time might pass before the professor replies; “blah, blah, blah, blah… didn’t they teach you anything in medical school?”

Being pimped is pretty much one of the most humbling things a medical student can experience. Sadly, with so much knowledge to learn, it is easy to feel like a deer lost in the headlights much of the time. Getting used to thinking on your feet, while acquiring seemingly vast amounts of material is definitely a daily challenge. As an academic research tract student, temporarily removed from the clinical aspects of medicine, I somehow managed to escape this tradition. That was until two days ago. This week I fell prey to a hungry attending, while recruiting patients for a research study.

30 minutes before lunch the attending physician turns to me and says; “I think it’s about time I start torturing you with questions…” He pulls up an MRI of the brain and asks me to find the insula. Feeling slightly confident, I scroll through the MRI and point it out.  Easy enough – wrong.  From there we begin discussing the venous drainage system in the CNS, “Tell me where to find the Great Vein of Galen, what drains into it.” By this point I was literally shaking in my boots and much less confident about anything that came out of my mouth. Now here was the killer, “What drains into the Internal Cerebral Vein?” My response, “ughhhhhhhh, hmmmmm.” It felt like almost 5 minutes of silence had passed before the attending replied,  “either you know or you don’t.” Now, beaming with a smile, he turns to the resident, who strongly answers; “Thalamostriate.” Duhn Duhn Duhn.

In that brief moment, after two years of medical school and having studied the entire human body, I realized that my journey has only just begun. Sometimes we need these reality checks along the way to solidify knowledge and accurately assess our level of competence. Without attending physicians or tests, etc., we will never know what we don’t know.

So, for the moral of the story: Find somebody in your life that is willing to tell you the truth. Someone who can help you grow by giving you honest feedback. I think we get too comfortable with where we are, and this hinders us from moving forward. Who plays this role in your life? Are you moving forward? If you don’t know where to start, you can learn more at the conference.