1. Tell us a little bit about yourself.  My name is Melodi Harfouche and I am currently majoring in Anthropology with a minor in French at the University of Tennessee in my junior year. I am originally from Princeton, New Jersey and can speak 3 languages fluently (and am learning a 4th one!). Those languages are Turkish, English, French, and I’m learning Spanish! My parents immigrated to the States before I was born so in addition to being American I am Turkish, Lebanese, and Iranian. I am very invested in fitness and my overall well-being, and would consider going to the gym as one of my hobbies. In addition to the gym, I like to paint in my free time, and have recently gotten back into reading for pleasure.

2. Who was your favorite teacher in school and how did he or she impact you? My favorite teacher in University came last semester in my first Organic Chemistry class. His teaching style was amazing and he really made the class enjoyable from the start. It was obvious that he cared about the subject and really wanted his students to succeed in his class. From the first week of class I went to his office hours because I wanted to get ahead of the material before it started getting very difficult (as Orgo is notorious for). He was really helpful and made me try to understand and learn rather than telling me the answers and sending me on my way. From that day on I was in his office hours constantly, even when he didn’t have them scheduled! He made me truly love Organic Chemistry and made me really enjoy coming to class every other day. He really believed in me and encouraged me to keep practicing and keep studying and would sometimes even overestimate the difficulty that I was capable of. After the semester was over, he told me that there was a position open in the General Chemistry Lab to work as a stockroom assistant and he told me that it was an open offer because he knew how dedicated and how hard of a worker I was. Happy to say that I took it and now I get to be helping out in the stockroom every Tuesdays and Thursdays. Although I’m no longer in his class, he encourages me to pop by at any time and is always ready to help with Organic 2 material. Having a professor believe in me so much really made me more determined than I already was to succeed.

3. When did you first decide you wanted to become a doctor and why? I think that I knew I wanted to be a doctor since I was in high school. I’ve always been interested in puzzles and mysteries since I was a little kid and the human body is exactly that to me. There are so many unknowns still yet to be discovered about us, and I would love to be a part of that discovery. Being a doctor is exactly like building a 1000pc puzzle (yet definitely more difficult than that) because you are constantly presented with pieces of the puzzle (symptoms of the patient), and it is our job to look at the pieces and put them together in order to form a proper diagnosis. I love critical thinking and am rewarded by the satisfaction of being able to put together a challenging puzzle. Being a doctor would not only fulfill my love for human connection, but also my passion for critical thinking.

4. What area of medicine are you interested in? I am currently interested in Forensic Pathology (being a Medical Examiner), but am entertaining the idea of being a Plastic Surgeon where I would be able to aid in helping patients have reconstructive surgery. However, my options are completely open and I don’t plan on deciding until the last round of rotations 🙂

5. What’s the coolest experience you’ve had so far on your premedical journey? I wouldn’t say that any particular experience on my pre-med journey has been the coolest out of all of them considering they were all so cool. However, one that stood out to me was my experience visiting Icahn School of Mount Sinai in New York. Over my winter break from school I had arranged a meeting with an admissions officer and when I went to meet with him I had such an amazing experience. He gave me a tour of the school, told me about the admissions and interview process, and even showed me the dissection room for the medical students. It was honestly amazing and made me so excited about the school. I am going to have some pretty cool experiences lined up in the future as I will be shadowing an anesthesiologist pretty soon, and will also be shadowing my sister who does trauma surgery in Philadelphia! I think those two experiences alone will not be topped.

6. What is your favorite book? A book that I have read recently that was amazing is called “A Thousand Naked Strangers” by Kevin Hazzard. It is essentially the author, Hazzard, talking about his crazy experience as an EMT and Medic in one of the dangerous parts of Atlanta. It was hilarious, extremely real, and so enticing. I really couldn’t put it down and I think it will definitely be in my top 10. I am currently reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” by Mark Haddon and right now I love it! Would recommend both books if you get a chance. If that’s not enough here’s one more: “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach.

7. Tell us one thing interesting about you that most people don’t know.  One interesting thing about me is that right now I’m a volunteer at the Body Farm at my University! It is technically called the Anthropological Research Facility, and I get to help Grad Students with their theses on human decomposition and what happens post-mortem. Essentially the ARF is in a forest, and we have bodies who have been donated to us (just like organ donors would do) placed all around for the purposes of studying human decomposition. Grad students and other project leaders who want to study a certain aspect of human decomposition would then place their subjects in various places and under different environments. For example, one of the people I work with wanted to study how extreme heat affects human decomposition, so she is eventually going to place her subjects in a sauna and observe what happens over time. It is extremely fascinating to see the different projects happening on the “farm” and even see the affects of diseases post-mortem. One of the most interesting things I’ve observed is raccoon scavenging. Raccoons, although nasty, are actually really interesting creatures. Unfortunately they do scavenge some our subjects, but they’re very selective about which muscles and which people from whom they scavenge. If a person had a disease or deficiency prior to death, the raccoons will generally steer clear.

8. What would you be if you couldn’t be a doctor? If I couldn’t be a doctor, I would be stuck between at least 4 career paths. I’ve been interested in so many things since being at school and I would struggle with picking a path if I couldn’t be a doctor. I would either be a lawyer, a chemist, a computer scientist, or a forensic anthropologist.

9. What do you like most about PreMed STAR? What I love most about PreMed Star is the ability to interact with a bunch of other students who are also on the pre-med track. It’s refreshing to be able to talk to so many people about similar things and give each other feedback and advice. I think the webinars are amazing as well because they can be very informative. Furthermore, I love how we can add to our profile and it not only identifies who we are, but makes our application process a lot easier considering all of our information is on one page. Honestly though, being able to make new friends from miles away based off of a similar career path is what makes me happiest about PreMed STAR.

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