Congratulations to Jonathan! Premed of the Week!

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.   I am entering my senior year as a full time student at the University of St. Thomas where I will be receiving a degree in Biology under the pre-medical program. Like myself, everyone who pursues a career in medicine has a unique story about how they achieved their dream. The hardships and the lows are what motivate me in this competitive field. From having teachers laugh in front of me when discussing my goals, to not being given a chance due to my speech impediment when I was younger or because of my background. This causes the release of adrenaline to prove many wrong and is one of my motivations to not quit on this enduring journey to becoming a physician.

In addition to the educational side, I am an avid photographer and heavily involved in fitness. I love to lift weights, play basketball while training and educating friends and clients about living a healthier life, without entirely giving up all the delicious food and desserts.

2. Who was your favorite teacher in school and how did he or she impact you?  My favorite teacher would have to be a tie because they both have helped my so much in my pre-medical journey. They are Dr. Amin and Dr. Ribes. They both have the heart to elevate students to their potential and assist the student in accomplishing their goals. Dr. Amin would be harsh and criticize you to the point where you are depressed and want to drop out of the university and find another career path. But when he is done he will make a plan for the student can improve and grow as an individual. For Dr. Ribes, he also helped with making a plan for the student to succeed and will give advice that is best for the student, not from the eyes of the professor, but as a father and someone who has witnessed the same pre-med to medical school journey time and time again.

3. When did you first decide you wanted to become a doctor and why?   Becoming a physician was just a thought in high school because I was always fascinated with how the body works. While I lift weights and especially when I do powerlifting, I think about what is causing the lactic acid buildup the next day after a workout? Or how much rest is really necessary between sets for my muscles to get sufficient oxygen to have peak performance? While in college, my reasoning changed a bit. Seeing that my culture is underrepresented in the medical field, I want to be a role model, and more importantly a voice for the younger generation, to end the cycle of hispanics dropping out of high school and working jobs that cannot maintain a healthy family.

4. What area of medicine are you interested in?  Since I currently work in the emergency department as a scribe, it is a toss up between emergency medicine and family medicine. But I do plan on undergoing a fellowship in sports medicine to work with athletes and sports related injuries and prevention.

5. What’s the coolest experience you’ve had so far on your premedical journey?  Besides the random and crazy stories from my time in the emergency department, the coolest, or most eye-opening experience as a pre-medical student was when I volunteered at HOPE Clinic. This non-profit clinic is run on volunteers and is huge on nondiscrimination, making people of all shapes and color welcome; they offer around 15 different languages as all the employees speak at least 2 languages and many translators on site. With the increasing cost of healthcare, people cannot afford to be sick. At HOPE Clinic, they worry about treating the patient instead of the dollar signs. They offer payment plans, reduced plans, or even free visits and prescriptions depending on the patient’s income and situation. This showed me that in medicine, one must have heart and compassion and goes beyond the general and overly used, “I want to be a doctor because I like to help people” motto.

6. What is your favorite book?  At the moment, Kaplan’s 7 book MCAT review since I have the exam coming up pretty soon.

7. Tell us one thing interesting about you that most people don’t know.  I am very interested in movie production. On how the music such as that of Frank Sinatra and how it blends into a particular scene and how the use of technology changed the way movies are made. Which is one reason why there are so many reboots being made to make the scenes more realistic.