University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences MedStart Early Assurance Program
In March of 2022, I was incredibly blessed with an acceptance into the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences MedStart program, assuring me a seat in the 2023 matriculating M.D. class. As a part of this program, I joined my other 2023 MedStart cohort classmates on the University of Toledo campus in June of 2022 for a program designed to allow us to meet the faculty, tour the medical school campus, experience medical school classes, volunteer in the community, and explore the greater Toledo area. Upon completion of this program, we all returned to our respective undergraduate institutions to complete our last two semesters before graduation. Next summer, we will all come together again and join the rest of the M.D. class of 2027 as we matriculate and begin our medical school journey together. I am beyond blessed and thankful for this early acceptance into such a wonderful M.D. program in my home region of Ohio. I am so thankful for each professor, advisor, co-worker, and mentor who stood beside me and helped me make this dream a reality!
University of Colorado Pre-Med Immersive Emergency and Wilderness Medicine Program 2021
In August of 2021, I spent two weeks in Colorado participating in the University of Colorado Pre-Med Immersive Emergency and Wilderness Medicine Program where I also successfully earned my Wilderness First Responder Certification. The first week of this program took place in Aurora, Colorado on the Anschutz Medical Campus where we were taught by leaders in the field of Emergency and Wilderness Medicine through lectures and hands-on laboratory experiences. The second week we traveled up into the Colorado Rockies where we stayed at a campsite in the mountains near Golden, Colorado. This is where we participated in real-life wilderness rescue simulations and scenarios. The lectures, labs, and rescue simulations covered cardiac anatomy dissection, spinal immobilization, splinting labs, wound care, head trauma, shock, heatstroke and heat-related illnesses, hypothermia and cold injuries, pediatric-specific wilderness injuries, abdominal and respiratory rescue issues, bites and stings, general survival skills, and the effects of altitude in medical emergencies.
This was an amazing experience for me and one that I felt was extremely beneficial to my future goal of attending medical school. Not only did I build new friendships and wonderful connections with others from all over the United States as well as the knowledge and the ability to save another human in a situation with delayed rescue response time, but I also gained incredible insight and understanding to the physiology of patients that would be coming into emergency rooms and emergency surgery situations from extreme climate accidents and wilderness rescue scenarios. It also, much like the Ohio University Heritage College of Medicine Medical Academy experience, absolutely confirmed that I am indeed on the correct career path in following my dream to become a physician.
Link to University of Colorado Pre-Med Wilderness Camp Video and Information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiSgHHFRWUE
Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Prakash Microsystems and Nanosystems Laboratory 2021-2022
Summer semester of 2021, I joined the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering as an Undergraduate Research Assistant on the Microsystems and Nanosystems Engineering Biology Electroceutical Wound Healing Research team under the principal investigator Dr. Shaurya Prakash. This is a multi-disciplinary research team comprised of the Departments of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Pathology, Immunology, and Veterinary Sciences working in conjunction with the Wexner Medical Center Wound Clinic and Nationwide Children’s Hospital Pediatric Burn Unit to develop effective electroceutical wound healing bandages.
Soft-tissue infections arising from wounds are a significant burden on patients and the healthcare systems. Our team has been developing innovative technologies in wound healing. In this particular project, we seek to understand how bacteria interact with one another in soft tissue environments and devise strategies to eliminate bacteria, including drug-resistant strains. Successful progression in clinical trials with a canine subject and now rats will hopefully allow us to move to human clinical trials in the near future.
My role in the laboratory is to perform measurements for bacterial quantifications and take part in the design and development of new soft tissue assays. This experience is allowing me to gain valuable experience with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and I am looking forward to the future in participating in the evaluation of human clinical trials.
Vanderbilt Biomedical Research Virtual Summer Science Academy 2021
Throughout the summer of 2021, I participated in the Virtual Summer Science Academy hosted by Vanderbilt University. This program is designed for undergraduate students interested in pursuing graduate study in an MD pathway, MD/Ph.D. pathway, or science-related Ph.D. program. Vanderbilt utilizes research, clinical experiences, career counseling, and advisement to help develop future leaders in the STEMM fields. Each week Vanderbilt also hosted a variety of professionals that took each one of these pathways themselves, allowing us to listen to their stories, discuss what it takes to succeed in each area, and ask questions as they arise. We also met in zoom meetings based on our particular pathway of interest that focused on the application and interview process. I participated in the MD pathway program and learned a great deal about not only Vanderbilt’s program, but also types of MD and DO programs and the variety of medical school program designs in regards to integrating clinical experiences with didactic programming. This was an incredibly helpful program as I head into the year leading up to my medical school application cycle.
OhioHealth Certified AHA BLS Direct Patient Care PSA 2021-2022
In March of 2021, I was given the amazing opportunity to join the OhioHealth Patient Support Assistant team at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus. This position has continued to give me an amazing experience in direct patient care as well as insight into the roles, responsibilities, and operations of a major hospital system. OhioHealth trains their own PSAs on-site in their training facilities rather than only hiring state-tested CNAs. I was previously certified in BLS and AED through the American Red Cross, but I also earned my American Heart Association Basic Life Support certification through OhioHealth. My position is a part-time night shift PSA in the Medical-Surgical Unit in the Orange Tower of Riverside Hospital. I work two 12-hour overnight shifts each week. In this role, I am responsible for caring for and monitoring the patients on one-half of the floor from 7 pm to 7 am by taking vitals, monitoring blood sugar levels, assisting with restroom-related needs and cleaning of catheters, completing and charting safety checks, charting each patient’s intake and output, completing bladder scans, running EKGs, setting up telemetry units, and briefing the day shift PSAs and nurses on patient progress at each shift change. I work with a variety of patient populations, including but not limited to emergency room admits, early suspected Covid-19 isolation cases, diabetic patients, nephrology patients, oncology patients, dementia patients, pre-surgical cases, and wound observation patients.
Grand Lake Health System ENT Shadowing, Andrew Klausing PA-C 2021
Throughout the month of February, I was so fortunate to be given the opportunity to shadow Andrew Klausing, ENT PA-C. Due to Covid-19, our 2020-2021 courses on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University were either all online or hybrid in delivery, with only our laboratory sections meeting in person. This gave me the amazing flexibility to continue helping out at Joint Township District Memorial Hospital in St. Mary’s in the Outpatient Clinic and The Emergency Department, as well as gaining extremely important healthcare professional shadowing time at the Vanan ENT and Sinus Center in the Grand Lake Health System. Andrew completed his Bachelor of Science degree at The University of Findlay and received his Master of Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He also holds NCCPA certification and Ohio prescriptive authority. Andrew began his physician assistant career in orthopedic surgery, preparing soft tissue grafts and suturing independently on site. He eventually moved into emergency medicine, which is where he discovered his love for Otolaryngology.
I spent 20 hours throughout the month shadowing Andrew on the clinic side of the ENT practice. We saw patient cases ranging from infant through geriatrics. Personally, I was deeply drawn to the infant and toddler patients facing pre or post-myringotomy surgery, as well as cases involving the interpretation of pathology reports. Andrew did an amazing job of briefing me on each case prior to entering the patient rooms as well as discussing the findings and care plans in-depth with me after each appointment. Post-surgical rounds are also a large part of his practice as an Otolaryngology Physician Assistant. I find Otolaryngology fascinating in that it gives the provider team the unique opportunity to work with all age groups with many different disease processes in both surgical and clinic atmospheres all while focusing specifically on one anatomical region.
Pediatric Emergency Medicine Shadowing 2021
I spent the majority of my free time in January 2021 shadowing Michael Cohen, BS, NRP, FP-C, learning as much as possible regarding Pediatric Emergency Medicine. Due to Covid-19, many facilities are reducing and/or eliminating student shadowing opportunities for the safety of all involved. However, the Heal Clinical Education Network has remained committed to providing future medical students with opportunities to shadow their network of physicians and medical professionals via interactive zoom sessions. Michael is a nationally registered paramedic and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s BS in Emergency Medicine program. He also holds his International Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DIMM) from the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine. Currently, Michael works as a Critical Care Flight Paramedic in New Mexico, performing adult, pediatric, and high-risk obstetrical retrievals and scene calls. Michael also has urban emergency medicine experience in Pittsburgh and Washington D.C.. He has worked as a flight paramedic in Tanzania as well as a Paramedic and Clinical Instructor in Haiti and Vanuatu and his clinical background includes remote/international medicine, critical care, search and rescue, and advanced airway management.
Our small shadowing group spent time with Michael learning about many aspects of pediatric emergency medicine as well as the ABCs of pediatric medicine. 6 of our 12 hours with Michael were spent isolating the issues of the airway, breathing, and circulation in emergency medicine and the basics of managing life-threatening conditions in regards to ABCs. Both Critical Care and Pediatric Anesthesiology are of great interest to me, therefore this shadowing experience was by far the most helpful to date. I am scheduled to attend University of Colorado’s School of Medicine Wilderness and Emergency Medicine program this summer and this shadowing experience served as a great foundation for me as I head into that certification program.
Grand Lake Health System Emergency Department and Outpatient Medical Assistant Covid-19 Screener, 2020-2021
In December 2020, Grand Lake Health System closed its volunteer programming to protect their patients, volunteers, and employees during the second wave of Covid-19. Sadly, this resulted in the end of my service as a Volunteer Floor Nurse Aide. However, the Joint Township District Memorial Hospital Volunteer Coordinator recommended me to Human Resources to be considered for an employee position as a temporary floating weekend Medical Assistant in the Emergency Department and Outpatient Clinic center while home on break. My position focus was to assess incoming patient symptoms to assist in identifying potential Covid-19 cases. This allowed us to isolate patients that were displaying possible symptoms immediately to protect other patients, staff, and visitors. I continued to serve in this position as my schedule allowed through the end of the Summer 2021 semester. This was an amazing opportunity for me to help out in the hospital in a paid position rather than just as a volunteer and gave me the opportunity to help the hospital during such a challenging period in history as we all faced the Covid-19 Pandemic.
A Moment of Magic 2020-2023
In December of 2020, I was officially cast and coronated as Sleeping Beauty for The Ohio State University’s chapter of A Moment of Magic. AMOM casts and trains Disney and Marvel characters to provide support, grant wishes, and help restore the magic of childhood to children battling pediatric cancer and other life-threatening illnesses through hospital, hospice care, and virtual call visits throughout the United States.
I am thrilled to join the ranks of college students who are passionate about this program and look forward to making magic and bringing smiles to the faces of the children and families we serve. While our visits look slightly different right now due to Covid-19, we continue to find creative ways to be together until we can see each other again: https://youtu.be/i4Ed6cb0_Rs
In August of 2021, all fully vaccinated Characters and Magic Makers were able to finally resume in-person visits. One of the most significant gifts I am gaining from being A Moment of Magic character is the training and experience in learning how to most effectively interact with children who have a variety of conditions that may alter their natural communication skills. Beyond the typical shy vs outgoing personalities, we also gain training and practice in working with verbal vs nonverbal, mobile vs non-mobile, and behavioral or mental conditions. When I joined A Moment of Magic, that was not one of the skills I even identified as a driving force for joining. However, I have quickly learned that it is by far one of the most valuable skill sets I have taken away from the program to date and will be directly applicable to my future practice in medicine.
BuckeyeThon 2020-2022
Despite the challenging conditions we are all facing in the midst of a pandemic, those of us who are passionate and committed to continuing the fight against pediatric cancer through fundraising efforts pushed forward with the annual BuckeyeThon Dance Marathon.
The mission of BuckeyeThon is to create awareness and raise funds for children with cancer. As an official program of the Office of Student Life at The Ohio State University, BuckeyeThon focuses on children being treated in the Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplant Unit at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
I am proud to have met my personal fundraising goals this year by serving as a BuckeyeThon Miracle Maker in which I pledged to raise $1000 towards the overall University goal. Our dance marathon looked very different than it did in previous years, but we still pushed forward and hosted a virtual marathon utilizing zoom meetings and interactive events with representatives of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, each fundraising team, patients and their families, children champions, and many others. We look forward to continuing our mission each year as we are committed to raising $2 Million For The Kids at Nationwide Children’s Hospital because kids can’t wait for a cure or for the curve to flatten.
Volunteer Hospital Nurse Aide Experience 2019-2020
From March 2019 through December 2020, I had the great pleasure of serving as a volunteer hospital floor nurse aide for Grand Lake Health System’s St. Mary’s Hospital. I logged over 100 hospital volunteer hours working as a member of the new pilot program of placing aspiring physicians and nurses in volunteer roles on the actual patient floors in aide positions under the guidance of the floor nurses. Our main purpose was to ensure that the needs of the patients were being met as requested by the floor nurses. We took a brief pause in the program for two months during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but as we resumed our volunteer duties we were also dispatched to the Emergency Department to serve as temperature checkpoint volunteers for incoming patients and their family members. Sadly, this program was eventually shut down due to the second wave of Covid-19. One of the greatest takeaways from this volunteer experience for me was the confirmation that I have a deep love for working in the hospital environment. I enjoy the fast-paced climate as well as the role of serving patients that have been displaced from their families and home lives due to their medical care needs.
The Ohio State University R-Lead Program 2020
Prior to the 2020 fall semester, I was selected to join the R-Lead program for Ohio State students with proven leadership experience in our hometowns, communities, and schools. It proved to be an amazing experience that definitely helped shaped me as an individual and build my future leadership goals. One of the most valuable aspects of R-Lead for me was the process of identifying our greatest character strengths and evaluating when we have used these in the past along with how we can apply those strengths to our experiences in college and beyond. My greatest strengths involve fairness (justice), appreciation of beauty and excellence (transcendence), honesty (courage), kindness (humanity), and the love of learning (wisdom). These traits are very evident in everything I have done up to this point in my life and will continue to serve me well in the future. R-Lead definitely helped to inspire me to achieve my highest personal potential as a leader among The Ohio State University student body.
National Society of Collegiate Scholars Leadership Summit 2020
Due to Covid-19, the 2020 National Society of Collegiate Scholars Leadership Summit was moved to an online virtual experience, but it still proved to be an amazing experience that connected us to several incredibly inspiring leaders in the United States. We were given the opportunity to participate in Zoom meetings with CNN Legal Analyst Laura Coates, brain and memory coach Jim Kwik, Co-Anchor of ABC’s Nightline Byron Pitts, and photographer, writer, professor, director, and CEO and founder of Madoff Productions Jeffrey Madoff. All four of these individuals were extremely inspiring in motivating us to follow our dreams and passions while also giving us incredible insight into decisions and traits that allowed each one of them to achieve success in their own lives.
Laura Coates drove home the importance of resilience and patience and how to apply those traits to our future challenges in both life and career goals. She emphasized the importance of embracing the moments that force us to wait as those moments are not coincidental. Understanding what happens in our lives and why will allow each one of us to thrive.
Jim Kwik has worked with famous actors, producers, writers, physicians, researchers, and professors to help them improve brain function, memory, and decision-making. As students, he taught us about his four keys to supercharging our brain which allows us to learn faster and absorb more information. This method focuses on the FAST acronym, which stands for Forget, Active, State, and Teach. Forget focuses on our need to forget about our distractions, what we think we might know about a subject as it isn’t always accurate, and our limitations. Active reminds us that learning is not a spectator sport because our brain learns through creation, not absorption. He emphasized that we should always continue to take handwritten notes and follow those notes with the creative translation of those notes. State focuses on emotion and the issue regarding our feelings at the moment. When we combine information with emotion, that information becomes a part of our long-term memory and therefore all learning is state-dependent. Teach incorporates the importance of internalizing information by teaching it to others. Jim concluded his time with us by discussing the 10 keys to memory which will allow us to learn any skill or piece of information better. Those keys are diet, killing ants or negative thoughts, exercise, brain nutrients such as vitamin D and B as well as Omega 3, positive peer groups, clean environments, sleep, physical brain protection, reading to learn new things, and stress management.
Byron Pitts focused on manifesting our dreams and using hardships and struggles to change the world. He discussed the dangers of indifference and how it truly is a deadly weapon. Most importantly we should never be indifferent to our own opportunities to change the world for the better. In the year 2020, we are living through a very challenging period in human history, but the greatest opportunities to change the world can come in the midst of these difficult times.
Jeffrey Madoff was by far the most inspiring individual for me personally. He spent a great deal of time discussing the importance of creativity in everything we do. Often times we forget the importance of infusing creativity into everything and that can lead to conformity. Conformity is essentially more highly valued in our world than creativity is, but the problem with that is it can often prevent us from pushing through boundaries and seeing the world through a different lens. Jeffrey spent some time dispelling the neuropsychology myths regarding left and right brain hemisphere dominance theories determining our personality traits. He also could not emphasize enough the importance of having a great team of people around you who motivate, inspire, and believe in you. Attending plays, musicals, concerts, films, and art shows as well as reading, listening to music, and watching the world around us should also be a part of our regular routines to enhance our mind’s creativity. During our question and answer portion with Jeffrey, several of us asked about how we can infuse creativity into the field of medicine. He talked with us in great length about this being one of his favorite subjects as people often overlook the importance of creativity in medicine yet it is one of the most important fields to utilize our creativity in. At that moment, 140 different vaccines were in testing for Covid-19 and he used that as a great example of how we must consistently create, design, and experiment in medicine and how our failures in this process determine our next decision. Those next step decisions are truly a combination of medical knowledge and creativity. Also, patient diagnosis, surgical methods, emergency medicine, and research are all real-life art forms that rely heavily on our brain’s creative process. He inspired those of us that plan to pursue a future career in medicine to never stop believing in ourselves, to never say no to our ideas and creativity despite others saying no to us, and to allow ourselves to become the next generation of leaders in medicine by using our creativity just as anyone in business, design, communications, journalism, or the arts would.
Physician and Health Professional Shadowing Experiences 2019-2020
As an active volunteer for Grand Lake Health System, I was able to begin my shadowing experiences in 2019. Throughout 2019 and early 2020, I shadowed in the Department of Anesthesiology and followed the day of one of the hospital’s Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists making pre-surgical patient rounds, scrubbing in to observe surgery, and watching a variety of local anesthesia procedures. During this experience, I was also able to shadow an Orthopedic surgeon performing knee surgery. I particularly enjoyed the pre-surgery anesthesiology consultations with patients and found the “cockpit” role in surgery absolutely fascinating. I am an extremely detailed-oriented individual and the Anesthesiologist perioperative surgery role is an amazing fit with my natural personality.
On another shadowing day, I spent a day with the Grand Lake Health System Hospital Director of Pharmacy. We sat in on patient appointments with the clinical pharmacist, explored the hospital pharmacy environment, and discussed the variety of roles and responsibilities of a hospital or clinical pharmacist. The most interesting portion of this observation for me was developing an understanding of the role of a clinical pharmacist in the team during medical rounds and how important it is to have the depth of specialized knowledge of the pharmaceutical expert participating in the overall patient care, discussions, and decision-making process of the hospital care team.
Heritage College of Medicine and Ohio Health Dublin Medical Academy 2019
My healthcare education experience actually began before I arrived on The Ohio State University Columbus campus as I had the great honor of being selected as one of 50 Ohio high school students interested in pursuing a career in medicine to join Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Dublin 2019 Medical Academy Cohort. This highly competitive program was by far one of the most profound experiences of my high school career and solidified my deep desire to pursue a career in medicine. The Heritage College of Medicine partners with Ohio Health and LabCorp to offer this program and it is designed to allow students to work directly with physician assistant and medical school students, doctors, emergency medical personnel, and technology health professionals to explore and learn about medical evaluation, diagnostic reasoning, interpersonal dynamics of the doctor-patient interactions, human anatomy labs, hands-on clinical skills, robotic surgery techniques, care flight, ambulatory services, ultrasound, intubation, x-rays, endoscopy, phlebotomy, suturing, casting, and the various roles and responsibilities of each medical professional. We spent a week participating in intensive daily labs, lessons, and training in June, followed by periodic follow-up programs throughout the year. It was an amazing experience and an excellent foundation to build upon as I begin my undergraduate education at The Ohio State University.
