So it’s only January and I’m already making my summer plans. This summer I plan to shadow a surgeon at INOVA Fairfax Hospital’s Heart and Vascular Institute in Fairfax, VA. I hope to see what surgery is like compared to medicine, and further understand what else it takes other than a medical education to become a surgeon. To take a term from Cris Collinsworth the “intangibles” which are character traits that make a person really good at what they do. I’m hoping I can shadow him for 2 mos. and at least 3 times a week.

I’m considering also taking an EMT-B class at Northern Virginia Community College which is twice a week from 5pm to 10pm in Springfield, VA. I would really like to get certified so I can maybe get a job the next summer actually using my skills as an EMT to help treat patients at INOVA Fair Oaks Hospital. I would save this money and put it toward medical school and also gain some clinical experience.

To add to my résume I’m looking for some sort of leadership or public relations position. I was thinking about becoming a committee member or an office of my premed fraternity. Other ideas include becoming a Hokie Ambassador and giving student tours of campus and working for the Admissions office. I’m also considering getting more involved in Relay for Life (maybe a committee position of some sort).

A doctor suggested that I should get involved in research and I have and plan to continue. I did a research project the summer between high school and college and I hope that I can still put that on my résume for college. The upcoming fall I plan to do a research project with my former Organic Chemistry teacher dealing with organic and drug chemistry. The project is also closely related to my Genetics teacher’s research project. I would like to get involved in a clinical research project and get an idea of what that’s like compared to working a laboratory. I think I would appreciate clinical research more because I will be interacting more with people and seeing more of the practical results (rather than characterizing or analyzing chemicals, even though these tests are important to perform so that it is safe for clinical testing). Other than that I think I would like to do be a statistician for a research project on evidence-based medicine which is an observational study of common medical procedures and analyzing the statistical significance.