There was no life-changing event or catastrophic injury that ignited my passion for medicine. It started out as an interest that grew as I grew. Through volunteering in the healthcare field as well as leadership at my university, I was able to eventually put into words why I so dearly wanted to devote my life to medicine; simply impact and leadership.
My interest in becoming a physician was always there, I loved the idea of being able to apply my scientific knowledge to help heal people. However, the majority of what I saw in medicine previously was superficial. When I shadowed doctors, visits were abrupt and conversations were short. The information I gained from the experiences were valuable, but the long lasting impressions evaded me. This
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At the time, this was discouraging because I knew that one of the main things I wanted to take away from a career in medicine was close and meaningful relationships. This is exactly what I saw and was involved in at Community Volunteers in Medicine (CVIM).
CVIM is a non-profit organization that specializes in treating uninsured and minority members of the community. Coming from a successful suburban family, I never saw this side of medicine. I didn't even know it existed. Having the opportunity to work with underserved populations has sparked my interest in an area of medicine I previously did not know about. As a volunteer, I served as a patient advocate. As part of my responsibilities, I sat with the patients before, during, and after their visit to make sure their needs were met. Not all of these conversations were intense and deep-rooted, but to see the overall impact I was able to have on the patients as a volunteer was what caused me to be enamored with medicine. In addition, being a patient advocate was a great way to provide help to those that needed it the most. One example that highlights the help I provided involved a patient who had chronic back pain. She had been in before and continued to have issues performing daily tasks because of the amount of