Phew! The interview season has been quite a whirlwind! I'm just finally catching my breath. 19 interviews in 3 months has made for a VERY busy few interview season, but it wouldn't have been possible without all my wonderful friends throughout the country who offered me their couches, rides to the airport, dinner, and even ironed my suit when it was deigned too wrinkly to be worn. Now we begin the process of ranking programs and then we sit tight till Match Day.

In the world outside of medical school, a lot of other things have been happening. We experienced a polar vortex here in Michigan… and when temperatures dropped below freezing, many people (including my parents) woke up to burst pipes and a waterfall gushing into our living room. Fortunately we were home so we were able to limit the damage, but it was a reminder that sometimes, despite our best efforts, nature trumps us all!

This month, in addition to traveling for interviews, I'm student teaching a course on Global Health at Harvard Medical School for first and second year students. I got a chance to take the course last year while I was doing my MPH at Harvard and it was such a wonderful experience I decided to go back. The course was a really pivotal moment in my training because it focused on applying clinical knowledge to under-resourced settings. It was really cool to think about how to take the intense clinical guidelines and algorithms I had learned during 3rd and 4th year and think about how I would change them and still care for my patients if I didn't have all the resources of a large university hospital. I realized during that course that I wanted my career to focus on practicing in an underserved setting. I'm really excited to be able to go back and offer guidance as a student teacher.

Another thing I'm really excited about is that I have the opportunity to give a student lecture. I decided to talk about my experience this summer in Haiti and focus on the pathways of aid after the earthquake. As we were making the guest lecturer schedule, I realized one of the guest speakers in the course is Dr. Kobel, who I learned about during my rotation in Haiti and is famous for leading humanitarian efforts after the earthquake. I'm thrilled to have him be part of our course and to finally meet him!

For the next month I'll be based in Boston, working on things for the course and finally making headway on a bunch of research projects that I've been slowly working on for the past year and of course, looking forward to the match! Will keep you updated in the meantime! If anybody has any questions about pursuing dual degrees, getting an MPH, global health, living in Boston, or how to manage burst pipes, send them my way ☺