It's All About Me
One face in a crowd of over forty thousand students makes it easy to feel overwhelmed in a university like Florida State, where you feel like just a small part of an entire whole. When I was accepted into FSU, I realized that I would really need to make a difference to stand out of the crowd, and bring something to the table that would set me apart. I did my research and found one program that really interested me: the pre health living-learning community, a program that I would eventually end up joining. Even though classes haven’t been in session for a whole semester yet, I can already see benefits arising from joining this community. There are limitless opportunities in not just FSU, but other colleges as well, that have yet to be discovered. The effort put forth by students who choose to explore these opportunities will undoubtedly see greater benefits than the students who chose not to take this advantage. There are many genres within this program that provide the students with access to information that will allow LLC members to have a leg up on other pre-health freshman students.
Thankfully, after doing my own research and discovering more about this program, I was accepted, and it has given me more than just information. I wanted to find a way to make this big university feel a little closer to home, and I heard a faculty member mention something about LLCs that intrigued me into wanting to find out more about the program. After coming home from my first tour of FSU, I went online to search for more about the different types of LLCs. A couple of minutes later, I stumbled upon a website that listed all the LLCs offered at FSU and it also provided general information about each one. The website was easy to navigate, since it had a link for all the different types of LLCs, and provides short summaries of the benefits of each program, and what it could offer to those who were accepted. I was relieved after reading the benefits that the pre-health LLC could provide for me, as I knew it would make it easier for me to find opportunities to stand out in the pre-health program. Along with a short summary of the benefits of the program the website article also had a schedule of the previous year program, and it listed the major events that were scheduled for the students to attend. After observing all the events I would be able to attend I realized that this program strives for their members to succeed and to help find one’s true passion in their career. Altogether, the information on the website gave me that final push that I needed in order to apply. This program has benefitted me so far and has shown me how students need to take advantage of opportunities provided to them by the university.
Getting involved with college activities was emphasized from the minute orientation started. Orientation leaders, teachers, even random students I would meet at events would mention how starting to get involved early would be extremely beneficial, especially for students planning to go to medical school, since these schools like to see students be involved from day one. This began to add onto my stress, since I didn’t know what I could do or what clubs I could join in order to start making a difference. Thankfully, in the back of my head, I knew that the LLC would have many opportunities ranging from shadowing to other demonstrations and one-on-one experiences that would allow pre-health students to interact with doctors in person. As a member of the LLC, we are each going to be able to shadow a doctor of our choice by the end of the spring semester. This is a very important opportunity, since finding doctors to shadow can be very difficult, and being able to have that experience as a freshman is a major benefit. There is also a military suture clinic that I will attend as a part of the LLC and this opportunity will allow me to better understand what it is like to be working as a doctor in the military, by demonstrating certain skills and tasks done by military doctors. I will be shown how to do sutures and will also be given the opportunity to practice suture skills. Demonstrations like these help to to further determine which medical career I would like to pursue.
Dr. Sehgal, the main faculty member associated with the LLC, has thankfully booked many guest speakers for students to listen to. When I heard that we had guest speakers coming into class almost every time we met, I realized that the LLC has provided me with the opportunity to hear from many presenters that I would have never heard of or found on my own time. The guest speakers vary from different organizations on campus to doctors who are informing us of their research and want to intrigue any student who would be interested in similar research. In one class, the FSU medical response unit (MRU) came and spoke to our class and presented a powerpoint to the LLC members, and explained what the group was, what it did, and what it wanted to see from us. The presentation was very interesting to me, so much so that it intrigued me into applying for the program. Presentations like these allow me to further determine where I went to head with my medical career.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed in such a big university where sometimes, you don’t feel like you’re going to be noticed because there are so many faces, and it seems impossible to stand out. I am extremely thankful for joining the pre health living-learning community, as it has helped me to establish connections that I need in order to stand out and begin to make a difference at FSU. There are many different kinds of opportunities that can be provided to each student, and I will continue to search for other beneficial programs, internships, and other resources to help me gain more information about my pre-health career.
