♪
I was over the moon.
This was, by far and away, my first choice.
When I came here, it was so large and intimidating,
and there were so many people and so many things going on.
It creates this environment
where there is so many opportunities.
I remember feeling like I was a kid in a candy shop.
The Lerner College of Medicine really attracts
an individual who's really curious,
who's really passionate, but also are excited
to be part of the medical innovations that are happening.
I couldn't imagine coming to a different school
that shaped me and how I envisioned my career differently
than being here at the Cleveland Clinic.
The Lerner Program gives you five years,
where you have a whole year for research,
and you're going to be a doctor,
so I was like, hmm, that's pretty cool.
♪
We receive extensive verbal and written feedback
from our faculty mentors and also from our peers.
You are doing all these reflections on,
where am I in my process?
What are my strengths and my weaknesses?
You're getting told that every week.
There's never anyone just telling you what to do
or working you through an equation,
but rather you're collaborating,
working off of each other's knowledge,
and leaning on your colleagues
to really learn and provide care.
If everyone was sitting in a lecture hall,
they're only invested in their own learning,
but in PBL, you can teach others,
you're responsible for them learning the concepts,
every student is accountable.
Not having grades was very different.
You have to switch your thinking from,
okay, how do I get an A on this test,
to how do I know that I'm learning this?
In medical practice, there are no tests,
there's just how you take care of your patient.
Having that structure just sets you up
and prepares you better.
♪
All the way throughout my early training,
I kept hearing, it's so different here,
there's no other place like this,
you would never be able to see this anywhere else.
I'm sewing on the heart as a third-year medical student,
something that no one else can do.
It has been an unbelievable privilege
to be able to work side-by-side
with these incredible physicians.
The mentors have been the thing
that has really just stuck in my mind
as what has set my education apart
and prepared me better than anywhere else.
I've found really great people who I'm really gonna miss.
♪
Research is the canon of medicine.
It's the only way that we can drive things forward.
We found that giving DMOG reduced avascular retinal areas.
Standardization would significantly ease
machine learning pipelines.
I worked with world-renowned leaders
in IBD and in Crohn's disease,
getting to learn from them, design studies.
Menopausal.
I did a project on aortic biomechanics
to help us better understand who needs
to have surgery right now
and who we can wait a little bit for.
My interest has been primarily in bladder cancer,
and we actually looked at the urinary microbiome.
These cells actually act as antigen presenting cells
to the local immune system.
I've been focusing on systemic lupus erythematosis.
I think it's helped give me a lot of perspectives
on how much research there needs to be
before you can really understand a disease
and create a good therapy.
♪
I think one of the beauties of our school is
we're a class size of 32
which really allows close camaraderie.
To find a niche group of friends
who are so supportive, not competitive, and so inspiring.
You get to know each other's life and family
and what they're interested in pretty early on.
There's always somebody that's up
for going to the gym, rock climbing,
playing racketball, grabbing a bite to eat.
We've had cookouts, went on camping trips.
Jacob would always host
these Christmas ugly sweater parties,
which was a lot of fun,
and then as the pandemic shifted
and we created little bubbles,
that kept me sane during the pandemic.
They're, I guess, quote unquote, normal people,
but they are some of the smartest people that I've ever met.
♪
Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought
that I would be in medical school during a pandemic.
That really exposed to us the heart of medicine,
and the heart of what we do.
I really felt like I was hands on
and contributing on the front lines
with these unbelievable intensivists,
and learning from them and seeing
that, even during a crazy pandemic, they can take time
for a medical student to learn
and participate in the care was really special,
and I'll never forget.
We saw how we, as future physicians, can step up
and make meaningful contributions to a society.
One of the amazing projects that I was able
to be a part of with, actually, two of my classmates,
we actually built an emergency ventilator
at the beginning of the pandemic.
We were able to publish these findings so
that other people can build a ventilator.
Being at an institution that supports those kinds
of projects, especially when they're student led,
that really makes me feel
like this is an awesome place to be.
I see how the effect of having access to care
and access to high quality care is incredibly important
throughout all domains of health.
We saw the statistic of maternal
and infant mortality in Cuyahoga County.
We saw that there were stark racial disparities.
A group of students and myself came together
and put together the Minority Maternal Health Initiative.
We are assigned one-on-one
to a pregnant mother who is black or Hispanic,
and we just help connect her to all the resources
that she needs to make her pregnancy wholesome.
It's a mix of all the things that you want
to see in medical education,
or just being a great physician
as well as a great humanitarian.
♪
It's a lot of work for us; five years to this point.
Now we just wait.
Very surreal.
I don't think it's hit a lot of us yet.
It feels a little nerve wracking.
Finding out where we're going soon.
So it's great to see how people have grown over time
and kind of found their specialty of choice.
Just really excited to see where I'll be,
and waiting for the hour.
And so recognize, right now,
this is a great start to a journey for you into residency.
Congratulations to everyone, I can't wait til noon.
Five, four, three, two, one.
♪
I am going to New York Presbyterian,
Cornell campus, for anesthesiology.
I matched back home to Stanford.
Very happy.
I'm going to Denver Health for emergency medicine.
I feel very excited.
I did great, I'm going to Tufts for dermatology.
I did really well, I matched with my number one,
Cleveland Clinic, for urology.
I'm so, so excited, dream come true.
I matched to Columbia,
which was my number one choice, neurology.
So I matched in OB-GYN at Stanford.
Very overwhelmed; it was my number one.
Thomas Jefferson, neurosurgery.
I'm going to Michigan.
I'm so excited, this was my number one choice.
I matched Cleveland Clinic in thoracic surgery.
So excited.
I matched at Stanford, internal medicine.
I'm so happy for everyone.
I matched at University of Pennsylvania
for internal medicine.
I'm very excited.
We're couples matching, and I've matched
to USC for neurology.
I matched at UCLA for ophthalmology.
It's my top choice.
♪
We're at a very exciting time entering medicine now.
We're going to see so many amazing innovations and advances,
and I want to be a part of those innovations.
It's not the smartest person in the room,
it's the person who really loves what they're doing
and is going to be, day after day after day, really working
to improve on themselves.
Empathy is one of the biggest values
that this Cleveland Clinic Lerner College
of Medicine really instills in us.
The best physicians I have seen are those
who effectively use silence.
Patients are really deep in their emotions,
and the physician doesn't rush them,
doesn't keep talking, and effectively use the silence.
They have this trust and belief in us
that we're going to go forth and carry out their hopes
and carry out the mission of the Cleveland Clinic.
And the responsibility that I hold
that knowing each patient is coming
from a different walk of life,
that they're coming with their own personal story,
and that we're not just treating that disease,
but we're looking after the patient who happens
to have that disease.
♪