I worked as a Project Manager in advertising on Madison Avenue before deciding to go into medicine. Because I was a French and Psychology major at Wellesley, I had to do a pre-med post-bacc to get the required courses. While I did my post-bacc at Hunter College, I first worked as a Clinical Research Assistant at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, then waited tables. Now I’m in my second year of medical school at the University of Vermont.
How has your career changed since you originally envisioned it at Wellesley? What other careers did you consider as a student?
I considered medicine for exactly one semester. Spring of first year, I took biology and chemistry. But between my horror at never seeing sunlight that whole spring and being discouraged from continuing by a couple professors, it didn’t feel right for me.
It helped that I absolutely loved psychology. So for most of Wellesley, I thought I would become a clinical psychologist. But a month before graduation, two of the psychology professors who knew me best pulled me aside (independently!) and said, “You know, you spend 90% of your time directing the arts. Maybe you should try something more creative before settling down to a life in research.” So I graduated, went home to Texas, worked in retail, and did every CWS questionnaire out there, all of which recommended I become a stage manager or producer. During an informational interview with a former stage manager, I was offered the chance to interview for a job—working for her as an assistant project manager at an ad agency. I got the job, but unfortunately the recession had just hit, and their budget fell through. I kept following up with her, and at the end of 6 months, I received a phone call: “I just joined a global start-up, and it’s going to be all hands on deck. How fast can you be up here [in New York]?”
Within a few months, I had received a baptism by fire, overseeing the final production of online and print ads for our company. It was pretty fun. There’s no feeling quite like seeing your banner ad run on the New York Times home page and knowing you helped make it happen. Despite the many exciting aspects of working in advertising, I began to realize I was a bigger nerd than I originally thought. I spent my lunch hours poring over New York Times health and science articles, and when I started venturing into the New England Journal of Medicine free articles, I knew something was up. I hadn’t realized just how important science was to my life until I was working full-time in a creative career.
So I began volunteering at a local hospital on Friday nights in ED Psychiatry. Those were the most intense 5 hours of each week. Nothing felt more real than what those patients were going through. After that, I knew I couldn’t go back to the corporate life.
How has Wellesley contributed to your career?
Oddly enough, the lessons that truly lasted—those I carry with me each day—were not from any class, but were from my fellow students. Wellesley students are absolutely extraordinary. They come from all walks of life, are passionate about what they do, and care deeply about each other. You can’t have this many smart, passionate, supportive peers without learning a thing or two about how to live life, find yourself, be part of a team, and run an organization.
That last one is probably the biggest lesson and the most generalizable to any career. Having the chance to lead organizations that cherish their work was an incredible privilege at such a young age. And leading groups that were fiercely democratic (process-wise) taught me how to work toward consensus while managing expectations and feelings of individual members/stakeholders. This was a skill I called upon every day as a Project Manager in advertising, have used every day since, and no doubt will be invaluable to my career in medicine.
What is a typical work day or work week like for you?
When I was in advertising, it was filled with conference calls, meetings, and gently nudging my creatives/bosses/clients to keep a project moving. When I worked in clinical research, it was much of the same, except for those treasured days when I got to spend time in clinic or the OR, absorbing as much of the fascinating stuff around me as I could.
Now that I’m in medical school, it’s a bit surreal. Though it can be very tiring at times, I still can’t believe I get to spend all my time learning about this. Throughout the week, I attend lectures and small groups, which usually involves carefully inspecting and prodding preserved organs, looking at tons of cells, and learning clinical skills like auscultation (listening with a stethoscope) or how to read an EKG. In addition to this, I can spend anywhere from 0-10 hours on any given day studying. I also attend meetings/events for my projects, workshops, and student groups. A few times a month, I get to spend an afternoon with a physician at a walk-in care clinic. Those are some of the best days.
What piece of advice would you offer students looking to get into your area of interest and expertise?
There will be people who will discourage you from going into medicine. And unless you are a stellar student, there may be people telling you that you can’t get into medical school. I’ve had a premedical advisor, a professor, and the Director of Admissions for an Ivy League post-bacc program tell me I probably shouldn’t pursue this path because I didn’t have much of a chance. (The latter told me flatly, “Don’t bother applying to our program again. Or our medical school, for that matter. You might get into an international school, but only if you get all A’s in your post-bacc and some significant experience.”)
It took 5 tries and 2 years to finally get into a post-bacc program. But I got into one. And while applying to medical schools, I received more interviews than I could attend and multiple acceptances. The moral of the story is, as Geeta Patel said to us in a Women’s Studies class, life may be a normal curve, but “you can’t have the middle without the ends.”
What do you wish you had known as a student?
I would say “Don’t worry about grades,” but I actually didn’t worry about them while I was there. It never occurred to me that they would matter in my future. I always prioritized big life conversations with my friends and rehearsals/meetings over my grades, sensing that there was something valuable to be learned from them. And I don’t regret a single minute. Not only did I forge tremendously strong friendships and bonds at Wellesley, but I learned about how people work. Those soft skills can be tough to learn once you’re mired in a job and your time is not your own. (Ironically, whatever difficulty my grades at Wellesley may have caused me in trying to get into a post-bacc program was probably was to my benefit. Instead of uprooting my life and paying private tuition, I ended up attending a public university that was 2 blocks from my office and allowed me to work full-time while taking classes nights and weekends.)
If you could come back and take one class at Wellesley what would it be?
Studio art. I could use a creative outlet these days.