1. Tell us a little bit about yourself .  My name is Kenean Bekele, I was born and raised in Ethiopia. I came over to the United States with my mom and two younger sisters when I was 13-years-old. The goal was to join my Dad and other family members as well as pursue a quality education that would enable me and my sisters to work anywhere.

2. Who was your favorite teacher in school & how did he or she impact you?  My favorite teacher came along when I got to Junior year of High School. I had an AP US History teacher named James Wright, he truly had a passion for US History and loved teaching it, this resulted in making his class one of the few classes that my peers and I really looked forward to. We all loved the fact that he loved US History, and slowly began to love the subject as well! He not only taught me but showed me how to love to learn.

3. What area of medicine are you interested in? The area of medicine I am interested in is Pediatrics, I love children, being with them and spending time with them makes me a better human; I believe we can learn a lot from them too. I want to be able to use medicine to help heal and ensure a steady developmental process for children and their families.

4. What’s the coolest experience you’ve had on your premedical journey? The coolest experience I have had in my premedical journey so far would be when I attended a scientific symposium held at my university campus that featured students who participated in scientific research and medical mission trips. Since I will most definitely be doing medical mission trips myself, getting to hear the students’ experience, insight and to be advised by them was really cool.

5. What is your favorite book? My favorite book is “Corrupted Science” by John Grant, an overview of how the beginnings of science were filled with error, scandalous events, and subject to manipulation by those who had both ideological and political agendas.

6. Tell us one thing about you most people don’t know.  Something interesting about me that most people don’t know is the fact that I know a good amount of conversational Hindi and understand it even better than I speak it.

7. If you couldn’t be a doctor, what would you want to do? If didn’t become a doctor I would become a clinical psychologist, it’s actually one of my majors along with pre-med Biology.

8. What do you like most about PreMed STAR?  What I like most about PreMed STAR is that it allows students who are passionate about medicine like me, interact with one another, learn from each other, prepare for medical school and create a unique support system for them that they can count on.

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