Dear MS1 Class,
I would first like to welcome you all to the Perelman School of Medicine! We are so excited to have an incredible new class of medical students join us here in Philly.
I felt particularly passionate about sharing with you all a few takeaways from my experiences during my first year at PSOM. So, if you would be so kind as to indulge me, I wanted to offer some advice on how to make the most of your time here at Perelman on your journey to becoming the next generation of physician-leaders.
- Medical School is a Toolbox
I like to describe medical school as a toolbox. It is our responsibility to learn a seemingly insurmountable wall of material thrown at us in the form of lectures, small groups, patient interviews, self-reflections, and clinical skills. Our education culminates in a toolbox that we will be able to draw upon in the future as fantastic physicians who are confident and creative in response to whatever challenges are thrown our way. However, it is crucial to understand that we will not come out of Penn as identical cookie-cutter doctors. Certainly, we are all given similar tools. However, it is in what we ultimately decide to take a more in-depth interest — such as organizational leadership, clinical research, or patient advocacy — that will help to define our unique careers.
For example, you will acquire many intangible skills that will allow you to advocate in innovative ways for your future patients. I decided to spend some of my time at Perelman learning more about how clinical research can be leveraged to bring about positive social change. I am conducting a research project looking at racial/ethnic outcomes disparities for a particular spine surgery. Am I passionate about the specific surgery for Degenerative Lumbar Spondylolisthesis? No, not exactly. However, I am adamant that I must learn how to study racial disparities perpetuated in our medical system in the context of surgery. Overall, advocating for patients and working to bring about positive change can be accomplished in a number of ways. It is up to you to define what that looks like and how to accomplish it.
Once you decide which tools to sharpen and how you want to implement those tools, you’ll have made great progress already. Medical school is the perfect place to become a skilled lifelong learner and to leverage the abundance of resources available while filling up your toolbox.
- Spend Time With Those Whose Job You Want in the Future
There is a clichéd saying that goes, “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Now, whether this statement is true in its entirety is quite debatable, but this is the message that I gleaned from it: Our friends, colleagues, and mentors have a profound influence on our interests, work ethic, and success.
You all will have exposure to incredible faculty at Perelman and in the Penn Medicine system as a whole. They will be there to offer world-class mentorship. The sheer diversity of interests and responsibilities will hopefully give you some insight into what you want to pursue in the future. However, emulating these individuals from afar can only accomplish so much. It is only when we take a genuine, in-depth interest in the mindset, systems, and values of our mentors that we can hope to emulate them in the future.
For example, as a result of a CHOP mentorship opportunity offered through the Perelman pediatric interest group, I had the privilege of being matched with a prominent physician-leader. Starstruck by the pedigree he presented on his CV, I felt my imposter syndrome creeping up, muttering that this would be a dead end. However, I was surprised to realize how many values we shared, such as the importance of family life and leaving work at the office or clinic at the end of the day. Meeting with him gave me confidence that I will not have to compromise what I want in my career.
When you find mentors at Perelman and spend time learning from them, I urge you to reflect on what aspects of these individuals you want to incorporate into your own career. Similarly to the process of building a medical school toolbox, explicitly defining those admirable qualities will clarify your path toward achieving them. You can’t emulate something if you don’t know what defines it!
- Ask for What You Want
This advice is seemingly simple but quite difficult to accomplish. I have noticed that there is usually a large amount of activation energy needed to ask for what you want. This can be due to a number of reasons, but the one that affected me most was the fear of rejection.
The prospect of being told “No” can be daunting. Rejection in any form is one of the bitterest pills to swallow. However, toward the end of my college experience, I realized one important thing: The potential gains earned from asking for exactly what I want (and just possibly facing rejection) far outclass the meager benefits of attempting to achieve the same aims via prolonged deliberation and waiting for “the perfect opportunity.” To put this advice in more specific terms: Asking for what you want makes clear your intentions from the start; this will save both parties a lot of potentially wasted time and energy. Although your diction may change based on whether you are contacting a long-term mentor or a prospective one, the principle of specificity remains the same. Rejection is hard to take, but the feeling that comes from actualizing any successful mentorship, project, guidance, etc. is worth it many times over.
Perelman in an environment where you can take full control of your future and pave the pathway for success, however you define it. And one of the first steps to doing so is asking for what you want.
You are one of the best. Believe it, but do not rest on your laurels. Medical school is the time to prove it twice over while being challenged by and lifting up all of your fellow students. My hope is that this advice brings you excitement for what you and your MS1 class will accomplish. I look forward to seeing you all develop into fantastic physicians who will no doubt do any number of incredible things — including making momentous biomedical discoveries, altering the landscape of healthcare delivery, and introducing positive change in the many social issues that ail our fellow humans.
I’ll be rooting for you along the way.
Sincerely,
Brian Cortese
Brian Cortese is an MS2 at the Perelman School of Medicine. Brian can be reached by email at [email protected].
