What drew you to the field of medicine?

From a young age, it has almost been expected of me that I would become a doctor. Having been raised in a family of physicians, I was silently pressured into choosing health care as a profession. And I believed it too. As far back as elementary school, I would tell everyone that I knew that I wanted to become a doctor. But when I reached high school, everything changed. I was in awe of the countless opportunities and freedoms presented to me to explore a wide range of different careers. But what should have been an unbiased exploration of various professions, was in fact, an exploration still centered around medicine. After spending countless hours shadowing physicians, volunteering in hospitals, and reading I could find about the medical field, I concluded that despite all my efforts to expand my knowledge of the medical profession, I still didn’t know what being a doctor fully entailed. But what I did know was that being a doctor would allow me to become the person that I aspired to be from when I was a kid.

What are your future plans?

Growing up in an area dominated by health care, I hope to spend my time at the USC School of Medicine Columbia learning about the status of health care systems across the country and the world to be able to contribute to the growth and development of health outcomes in my community, the country, and across the world. Following medical school, I hope to go into cardiothoracic surgery.