A Surprise Email Made My Day

When I was in graduate school I worked after hours as an MCAT teacher for the Princeton Review. I really loved teaching. I especially enjoyed when I met and connected with students who stayed in touch after the class was finished. One such student was named Luna and we met in Spring 2015. At the time that she was in my class, I was really into podcasts and had just started listening to the short series "Serial" about a man wrongly convicted at age 18 of murder. The story was well told and I mentioned it to my MCAT class one evening. Luna started listening and told me that she enjoyed the podcast as much as I did. 

After the class finished I lost touch with Luna. Like many students, I wondered how she did on the MCAT and whether she achieved her dream of getting into medical school. She wrote to me in 2018 after seeing me on LinkedIn. I let her know that I was almost finished with my MD/PhD program and would soon be headed to Ohio for residency.

Today I got a surprise email from Luna; the first one in nearly five years. Today it made national news that the accused killer from the Serial series has been cleared of all his convictions forever because of weak evidence (and possibly prosecutorial misconduct) during his initial trial. Luna wrote me because she remembered our shared connection over "Serial" and she wanted to make sure I saw this good news. It absolutely made my day to reconnect with her. It brought back all kinds of memories of what my life was like -- good and bad -- back in 2015!

I started teaching as I was graduating college in 2007 and continued to do it until 2018 when I was finishing my MSTP in Houston. By that time, I was certified as a teacher trainer for Princeton Review. During internal medicine residency, I got asked by the Ann Arbor and Columbus TPR offices to train teacher candidates on about 4 occasions. That was a lot of fun, too. My last training happened in late 2019 shortly before the pandemic started. That's the last time I've actively worked in MCAT prep and teaching. It's something I miss, but it feels good to have made several long-term friends along the way.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Whirlwind of Service, Scholarship, and Gratitude

Image
Today was supposed to be an academic day—a chance to recharge, catch up on work, and make progress on scholarly projects. Instead, it turned into a whirlwind of commitments, unexpected challenges, and a few bright spots that reminded me why I do what I do. The morning started with a short meeting for the health, safety, and nutrition subcommittee of our daughter’s daycare board. From there, I jumped into a 45-minute interview with a journalist writing a story for the American Medical Association. By 10 a.m., I was catching up on patient messages before heading to the university campus to serve as a judge for an undergraduate poster session. While I was engaged with the students, messages piled up about a patient at our treatment center whose orders needed urgent attention. As soon as I left the session, I put out fires and made it back to my office just after noon. I thought I’d have time to regroup before my 2 p.m. meeting—but life had other plans. A colleague, a head and neck surgeon...
Read more

Final Day of Fellowship

Image
This morning I saw the last patients of my fellowship. It's been a fun three years! The Scripps hem/onc fellowship program was the perfect place to train to be an oncologist, and it helped set me up for a really exciting university position. I will start as a melanoma and sarcoma specialist at the University of New Mexico in August. The people in the picture below (and the two classes that preceded them) were great colleagues and friends during my journey, and I will remember all of them fondly.  This is also the end of my journey as a Chief Fellow. I really enjoyed giving back to the program this year and helping to make it a better place for all of us. Our program director announced a few months ago that she is also leaving to take a new opportunity at the University of Minnesota. We are all very happy for her, but she will be missed. She did an exceptional job leading this program and advocating for the needs of trainees.  It seems like just weeks ago that I was writing my ...
Read more

Full Circle: Reflections on 20 Years in Research

Image
This week, I’ve had the privilege of attending a research conference in beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona—an event co-sponsored by Northern Arizona University, the University of Arizona, and the University of New Mexico. The goal of this gathering is clear and inspiring: to increase exposure, interest, and opportunity in the fields of science and medicine, particularly for students from underrepresented backgrounds. It has been a joy to speak with several of these students—each bringing fresh energy and curiosity as they consider careers in research, medicine, or both. Yesterday, I participated in a small group discussion, and someone asked me how I first got started in science. That question sparked a memory I hadn’t reflected on in quite some time: my very first research experience, exactly 20 years ago. That summer, I was a rising junior at Austin College, a small liberal arts school in Sherman, Texas. I spent 10 weeks in a biochemistry lab, working closely with one other student and a...
Read more