What are you most looking forward to during your time at UC Davis School of Medicine?
I think what I was most looking forward to was all the connections/friendships I would get to make! And getting to study material that I’m super passionate about that would make me a better physician!

Do you have any specialties you are interested in?
During my gap year I did clinical research in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and I really enjoyed it so that’s definitely a field that I’m thinking about! I’m not set on anything though, there are so many more fields that I haven’t been exposed to yet so I’m probably going to wait until 3rd year to start thinking about it!

What is your favorite quote/motto?
“Great things never came from comfort zones!”

What are you most looking forward to during your next 4 years at UC Irvine School of Medicine?
I’m looking to build a community of friends while becoming a physician who is skilled in observation, critical thinking, and communication. I’m also extremely excited to serve the OC underserved in clinics and in jails. I wanna find what kind of doctor I wanna be. Also I’m excited to hang and make new experiences with other med students.

What specialty are you most interested in?
I’m not interested in any specialty just yet because the only exposure to medicine I have had is student run clinics. But if someone were to ask me to choose today, I’d love to become an internal med doctor with a specialty in emergency medicine.

What is your mantra?
I believe that once I stepped foot into medical school, I am not only becoming a doctor for myself. This isn’t a goal that is purely mine. I am studying, laboring, and giving away years of my youth for my future patients. I remind myself every day of this, and I can’t wait for the day that I can use everything I learn to help others.

How did you know you wanted to pursue medicine?
When I was growing up in Stockton I got into a little bit of trouble and had to spend a summer away in Mexico. During that summer I was with my uncle, a physician in a rural town. I spent the summer shadowing him and being his assistant (handing stuff, taking notes etc.). I saw how he treated people and the impact he had on their lives and it made me want to do the same with my life. So when I came back I went to community college, transferred to UC Davis, and now I’m at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

What specialty are you interested in and why?
I’m interested in trauma surgery. I love the adrenaline rush that you get with it and also the fact that it requires an extensive knowledge of human anatomy. It’s one of the surgical fields where you actually get to operate on the entire body.

What is your favorite quote/motto?
“If you want to be a lion, you must train with lions” - Carlson Gracie, Sr.

What are you looking forward to most in medical school?
Hmm well I think the first thing would be finally learning the content of a medical professional but I’m always really excited to work with the schools in the area to create different programs to interest kids in the health field!

What specialties are you leaning more towards?
So I am keeping an open mind since 70% of med students change their mind but if I had to say now I’m interested in surgery or psychiatry! This is because I like procedures and using my hands but I also like making connections with patients and working with mental health.

What advice would you give to undergrads?
I would say be strict with your time management and create good habits in that regard in undergrad so it’s a breeze when you’re in med school.

How did you know you wanted to pursue medicine?
To be brief and honest, I didn’t really know I wanted to pursue medicine until after I got involved with PhiDE in Fall 2014. I know that pursuing medicine is something that is asked about on the PhiDE application, but when I was a sophomore in 2014 I had only vague ideas as to “why medicine”. All I knew about my interests was that science engaged my curiosity, Dr. House solved pretty cool medical mysteries, and I did not want to be a pharmacist (after having a go with a Health-Related Internship at a Rite-Aid in 2013.) I still applied and thankfully—I became on Omicron. Becoming a PhiDE member immersed me in an environment of motivated individuals, with diverse passions for pursuing medicine. My peers inspired me to figure out why I wanted to put myself through “10 more years”. And ultimately, it was the tiny experiences I had here and there—5 AM HRI shifts in the ER, tutoring undergrads in Ochem, advocating for students referred for academic misconduct, facilitating syringe-exchange under JVMC, and many others—that I developed my passion for pursuing medicine.

What is something interesting you have learned in medical school so far?
One of the most interesting things I have learned in medical school so far is the acoustic reflex. There’s a structure in your ear called the oRgAn oF CoRTi that is involved in hearing. When there is excessive sound stimulation (such as at a concert), there’s an involuntary muscle contraction in your middle ear that allows for some protection of this structure.

What is your favorite motto/quote?
“Be a little kinder than you have to” - E. Lockhart

How did you know you wanted to pursue medicine?
I always wanted to work with children with disabilities and after considering other careers I thought I would have the strongest impact by becoming a doctor.

What is something interesting you have learned in medical school so far?
I was surprised to learn about all the specialties and how different all the paths are. There’s so many different things you can do as a doctor that fits your personality and life priorities.

What is a quote/motto you want to show our viewers?
“I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them.” - Andy Bernard (From The Office)

What are you most looking forward to during your next 4 years at UC Davis School of Medicine?
Hmm, I’m looking forward to taking classes that literally teach you how to be a doctor, applying what I learn in the classroom to help patients, and going on rotations where I’ll be in a clinical/work setting instead of a classroom. There’s a lot that I’m excited for haha, especially being able to start narrowing down what specialty I will apply to in a few years!

What specialty are you most interested in?
I really like ENT (otolaryngology) and plastic surgery right now, but we’ll see! I really like being in the OR, solving problems with my hands and seeing immediate results.. but I also like spending time in clinic, so I feel like plastics and ENT both have a good balance between medicine and surgery. I also really enjoy the creativity of plastics—there’s some really amazing surgeries utilizing our own anatomy to remold and rebuild, especially reconstructive ones. ENT also has the opportunity to specialize further in reconstructive surgery and I like the precision and more specific anatomical area that comes with head and neck surgery. I feel like things could change in the coming years but right now, that’s why I’m interested in both.

What is your favorite motto/quote?
NEGU! Never ever give up. It’s a little cheesy but it means a lot to me because it’s a phrase used by a non-profit organization to help and remind kids fighting cancer to never ever give up. (https://negu.org/) It’s a little tribute to my baby brother, and it has truly helped me stay persistent and overcome some challenges I’ve faced, including the journey to medical school.

What are you looking forward to most in medical school?
Alongside with clinical rotations and applying knowledge to disease, I’m looking forward to seeing how I can apply OMM towards my future patients—I can already feel the difference when my class and I all practice our techniques on each other!

What specialty are you most interested in and why?
I’m interested in OBGYN because I was a part of the Women’s Clinic at Willow Clinic. I’m also interested in internal medicine because there are a wide range of diseases to know about.

What is your favorite motto/quote?
“‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.’ - Wayne Gretzky” - Michael Scott

Why did you choose to attend podiatric medical school over an MD/DO school?
So I chose podiatry for a couple of reasons. The first is because I actually found out that lower extremity pathologies are something that I’m very interested in, particularly those dealing with sports-related injuries to the foot and ankle. In podiatry, do a lot of surgery on these injuries, and staying in the realm of sports medicine was pretty important to me. Secondly, I wanted something with a balance between surgery and clinical work, where you can both develop surgical skills that’s kinda “the fun stuff” while still being really involved with patients in their day to day lives. And lastly, it didn’t make sense for me personally to go into a DO/MD program since I already knew what I wanted to do. What I mean is, if I had went to an MD school, I would have just wanted to become an orthopedist anyway to do the stuff that I want to do/can do in podiatry. So it circumvented a lot of extra stops and time in my life.

What is something interesting you have learned in podiatric medical school so far?
Hmm. Maybe some biomechanics, like I guess it’s interesting that how the position of your arch in your feet can directly cause or be caused by problems higher up in the ankle, knee, hips, or back. or how systemic diseases have presentations in the lower extremity, like gout and different types of arthritis.

What is your favorite motto/quote?
Be better every day.

What was the hardest part about your journey to medical school?
I think that I always thought that whatever challenge I was facing at the moment was the worst, and then I’d get through it and look back and realize that maybe it wasn’t that bad? I try to look at the positives and not regret things that I’ve done since they were all learning experiences. I would say the hardest thing for me was taking the MCAT because I actually took the exam twice and studied for it while taking multiple classes. It was definitely hard to stay motivated and I felt that I had to constantly remind myself that it would all be worth it in the end.

What is something interesting you have learned so far in medical school?
Something interesting that I’ve been learning in medical school is how to talk to patients properly in an empathetic way. It’s so important and can often be harder than it sounds, especially when you’re put into uncomfortable situations. We’re actually trained to do encounters with standardized patients and are given feedback on our rapport, style, order, and history taking skills. Being able to see every student’s varied style is so interesting and I love being able to learn from my peers.

What is your favorite quote/motto?
“Have courage and be kind”

What was the hardest part of your journey to medical school?
My hardest part of this journey to medical school was convincing myself that I needed to take a break after college and not going straight through but I’m very glad I committed to that decision.

What is something interesting you have learned in medical school so far?
I think one of the most interesting things in medical school is being able to truly understand myself and how that will shape my professional identity in the future. Such as figuring out how to effectively study, what do I value within the realm of medicine (patient care, research, community service, health policies, etc.).

What is your favorite quote/motto?
“Limit your always and your nevers” - Amy Poehler

How did you know you wanted to pursue medicine?
From working at Paul Hom actually, I decided pretty late. (also realized how much I hated wet lab research lol).

What is something interesting you have learned in medical school so far?
That medicine is such a well rounded field with a mix of applying what we learn from the books and connecting with people in ways that I don’t think any other fields can. It’s a very challenging career path but also incredibly rewarding!

Any tips for balancing studying with other hobbies?
You just need to have really good time management. I still go to shows and travel pretty frequently and see my friends every single week, but you definitely have to prioritize what you want to do vs. what you need to do.