Growing Up Around Medicine My name is Joyce Ho and I just finished my second year at the Stanford School of Medicine. I am currently taking a year off to do the inaugural Stanford-NBC News Global Health Media Fellowship. Stanford School of Medicine is known for accepting only a small percentage (around 3%) of its applicants, and while I am not involved with admissions in any way, I feel I can offer some insight into the application process based off of my own experiences. I can’t point to any single reason for my acceptance into Stanford. What makes a person an appealing med school candidate stems from the overall narrative of their life. Every med school student is different, each with his or her own talents and history. However, there is one factor common to them all: passion. Where did I find my passion? Well, to a large extent, I grew up around medicine. When I was 5, my brother was born. He had a condition called cerebral palsy. Ever since I was little, my family and I would go to the hospital with my brother. We’d go to surgeries and doctor’s checkups, and little by little the doctors improved my brother’s health. Seeing the effect the doctors and other health professionals had on my family, I decided I wanted to do something similar, to help people out. Were it not for all those hours spent among doctors and nurses, watching them make the broken whole again, I might have pursued a different career.
How I got involved in high school For high school, I attended Castilleja, which is right down the street from Stanford. During the summers I volunteered at the recreational center at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the Asian Liver Center at Stanford. Both were great introductions to what I could do to help patients and raise awareness of health disparities in my community.
An overview of college research and activities One of the great things about attending a big research university like Stanford is the abundance of opportunities for hands-on experience in current scientific studies. If you’re willing to take the initiative and talk to your professors about doing research, you’ll be surprised at their willingness to get undergraduate student involved. In fact, right after my freshman year I had the opportunity to work at a liver stem cell lab during the summer. After that I spent 2 years conducting research at a neurosurgery lab, which is also where I did my honor’s thesis. Your colleges want you to get involved, but you have to be willing to seek out these opportunities.
During my undergraduate years I also became interested in global health issues. I participated in a great program called Unite For Sight, which allowed me to spend a month in Ghana doing volunteer work. I was right in the villages helping with pre- and post-operative care. Even with my then limited medical knowledge I was able to help out and gain valuable experience. Later, I got to go to India with the Stanford Emergency Medicine department. India was starting it’s first consolidated 911-style emergency medical response program. They were flying in Stanford professors to teach the skills course. I got to work with a group of other Stanford students to design a leadership curriculum for their first class of paramedics. We taught the course twice in Hyderabad, and the course is now integrated into the paramedic training across several Indian states. After returning to Stanford, I founded the Stanford Service in Global Health Journal to promote on-campus discussions of global health. Support for the project was overwhelming, and the whole experience taught me a lot about leadership, journalism, and obtaining funding through grants. The journal has since grown to be a place for students and faculty to share their service experiences abroad, publish photo essays, contribute opinion editorials about current pertinent global health topics, and find new volunteer opportunities to participate in. My interest in global health has continued into medical school, as I am exploring the intersection between global health and media this year.
My life in perspective I was fortunate to be able to experiment with several facets of medicine before applying to med school. Throughout my life I’ve steadily worked toward gaining medical experience. However, I didn’t invent an AIDS vaccine; I didn’t found a billion dollar company; and I didn’t single-handedly cure an epidemic. To succeed and get into med school there are three things you need: passion, a bit of luck, and a willingness to work. If you explore what you like to do within medicine, discover and follow your passions, and end the day with something to show for your work, then all of the time and care you have devoted will come through in your application.
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