By Charlotte Smith, Gopika SenthilKumar, Paulina Gutkin Fostering a community intended to elevate women medical students is vital not only for increasing representation within surgery, but also build...
Blog
The Identities We Choose
By: Heather Wachtel, MD Growing up in Vermont, I had one person who looked like me – my sister. The children of a first generation Cantonese immigrant and a second generation Russian Jew, we loved...
Blog
THE MATCH EQUATION: AN IMG’S PERSPECTIVE
by: Anjani H Turaga, IMG The day starts at 5 am on an unusually cold morning in Los Angeles, where we see our protagonist, an IMG (International medical graduate) brushing her teeth furiously, trying...
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Finding Myself: A Korean-American Adoptee’s Reflections on Identity, Loss, and Purpose
By: Elizabeth Lilley, MD, MPH Many people are surprised to learn that I am both a surgeon and a palliative care doctor. Although the number of surgeons pursuing fellowship training in palliative care...
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How an Arab American Made It to a Surgical Residency
By Shadin Ghabra, MD As an Arab-American female of Syrian descent, who lived in the Middle East, applying to medical school was a no brainer. I grew up in a household that believed knowledge is the e...
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Diversify Ourselves
By Dr. Chantal Reyna How well would you handle not being able to perform surgery anymore? The real question is “How much of your identity is based on being a surgeon?” We tend to define ourselves...
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International Medical Graduates in Surgery: Attending an Offshore Medical School
By Jamesa Fabien My (Jamesa) first-semester class was comprised of students from all walks of life. Some of my classmates were decades older than me, grateful for the opportunity to finally pursue th...
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It Takes a Village
By: Ana Sofia Ore, MD MPH My journey away from home started before residency, when I moved to Boston to start my research training. I had fears of how welcoming the city would be to a hispanic woman ...