How to Get Into Medical School: Pass the Mike

Hey there friends! This is Michael Le. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I couldn't be more happy to kick this podcast off today with my good, no, great, friend, Andrew Shea Afyouni. That's A-N-D-R-E-W S-H-E-A A-F-Y-O-U-N-I. He has a VERY impressive list of accomplishments, so please bare with me as I do my due diligence in celebrating his work thus far.

Andrew graduated Summa Cum Laude—that's the highest designated Latin Honors reserved only for those in the top 5 percent of College graduates—with a degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Biomedical Research Minor. Because of our overlaps in graduation year, Major and Minor, I have been fortunate enough to spend much time alongside Andyshea.

While the Bruin family will be sad to lose a brother, Andy won't be far. He is attending UC Irvine's School of Medicine in August 2020. He was admitted last year and decided to take a research year to spend some much needed time with his family before diving headfirst into medical school curricula. In that year, he works in the Endourology Research Team, working with physicians to facilitate clinical studies in the OR and translate his findings to the basic science laboratory. This past November, he traveled to Abu Dhabi to present his work on US-guided Renal Mass Biopsies, Laser Stone Lithotripsy and Endockscopes at the 38th World Congress of Endourology.

UCI has been his home for years now—not only is his family nearby, but he has many old ties with the school of medicine. He participated in the UCI Summer Surgery Program as part of the UCI Department of Urology in 2012 and conducted over 500 hours of research in high school studying autonomic cardiovascular physiology, regulation and higher level neural processing in various animal models. If many of those words don't make sense to you, don't worry, I feel exactly the same way.

And that's just in high school. When Andyshea got to UCLA, he took off running. He continued his work on autonomic cardiovascular regulation in the department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, where his work was published in the American Journal of Physiology. He then transferred his expertise to the field of Neurobiology, writing a thesis examining the role Smad1 plays in the differentiation of dorsal spinal sensory interneurons from mouse embryonic stem cells.

You may get the idea that Andyshea is a one-trick research pony, but that can't be farther from the truth. I don't know many people as generous and giving as the guy and that's exemplified by his volunteer work. He's served as the external vice president of the Saving Hearts foundation, whose mission is to prevent Sudden Cardiac Arrest through awareness, education and action. The foundation provides free preventative heart screenings to young competitive athletes to test for warning signs of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). In addition, Andy served as a Database intern for the Mobile Clinic Project,a student-run, nonprofit street-side clinic based in UCLA. He was responsible for chronicling and organizing medical and social records of clients that the Mobile Clinic Project interacts with and serves.

Hey there friends! This is Nicolas Cevallos. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I couldn't be more happy to kick this podcast off with my guest today, my good friend, Marco Rivas. That's M-A-R-C-O R-I-V-A-S. Marco graduated in 2018 from Haverford with summa cum laude with a degree in Chemistry. Marco and I met an interview during the cycle last year where he had a really successful cycle and will be attending The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Marco is a research pro with experiences from Sweden to uChicago with a first author pub in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers journal. Marco also has experience working at Federally qualified health centers as a volunteer and worked at collective health in San Francisco which simplifies employee healthcare with an integrated technology solution that makes health insurance work for everyone.

Hey there podcast! This is Michael Le. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I couldn't be more happy to kick this podcast off today with my blood cousin, Justin Nguyen. That's J-U-S-T-I-N SPACE N-G-U-Y-E-N. Justin graduated in 2018 from UCSB with a degree in Biological Sciences. At UCSB, he studied symbiotic relationships, culminating in a poster addressing the effects isopod parasites have on the rate of filtration of host barnacles. He continued his Ecology work investigating the roles of infectious processes in ecosystems, focusing specifically on novel, adaptive parasite-host interactions. He also spent his breaks from school supporting a community hospital's emergency physicians by scribing for them. Perhaps his claim to fame—and I can confirm this... I've had multiple interactions now where people ask me if I know THE Justin Nguyen—is his work with the International Medical Fraternity, Phi Delta Epsilon. In March 2015, he and 17 other UCSB students founded the Nu Chapter of Phi-D-E.  Phi Delta Epsilon is UCSB’s ONLY co-educational pre-medical fraternity—it provides a home for all pre-medical students. The fraternity is committed to supporting a new generation of health care professionals, as well as fostering an environment that promotes academic success and the formation of life-long friendships.

Its Guiding Principles are: Philanthropy, Deity, Equity & Education

and its Motto: Facta Non Verba, Deeds Not Words

Justin served as the working President of the Chapter, responsible for all outgoing messaging and internal affairs. His team has supported many non-profit organizations through fundraisers and have engineered opportunities include a scribing program with the neighboring Cottage Hospital and the annual William Gelfand Lecture, a lecture series designed to educate the public on current scientific topics related to medicine, ranging from social issues to new discoveries in medicine. Of the last couple of Gelfand Lectures, a talk led by Dr. Vania Manipod, a psychiatrist, caught my eye. She spoke on maintaining mental health and overcoming burnout among pre-medical students and medical students across the country.

And that was all just in undergrad. Justin has been just as prolific on his time off preparing for medical school admissions. He scribed and doubled as a medical assistant for an Orthopedic Clinic, gaining critical insight and serving as a crucial cog in a well-oiled clinical environment.

Hey there friends! This is Nicolas Cevallos. Thanks for tuning into yet another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I'm super stoked to be able to start this podcast with one of my great friends and research Gurus Humza Khan. That is H-U-M-Z-A SPACE K-H-A-N. Humza is a rising senior at UCLA pursuing a degree in what is the longest named major known at UCLA which is Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and will be graduating two quarters early. He's not one to shy away from taking 20+ units.

Humza and I met during our hospital program and during our first meeting I knew there was so much potential to him, he felt like the student version of the avatar and just needed to take time to master the 4 elements or college scene before he went super saiyan.

During his tenure he served as alumni mentor for his high school, leadership board for the Bruin Xperiment which mentors 30+ underserved children one-on-one in scientific topics of their interests, he was able to raise over $10,000 for the club! and pours countless into his craft researching Common Variable Immunodeficiency and has been published in Frontiers in Immunology.

Can't forget to mention Humza speak many languages including R, python Spanish, C++ also has 3,000 karma points on reddit and has recently posted a major guide to assist other fellow bruins.

Humza's passionate for mentorship is bar none, from the Xperiment, to high school, to fellow anonymous classmates on reddit, Humza is always looking out.

Hey there friends! This is Michael Le. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. This episode is a wonderful reunion because we have my second-year, Rieber Vista, Rendezvous partner-in-crime roommate Dhiraj Nallapothula. That's D-H-I-R-A-J N-A-L-L-A-P-O-T-H-U-L-A. Dhiraj graduated in 2019 from UCLA with a degree in Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics. I am ecstatic that I can say that Dhiraj has earned a well-deserved seat in UC Davis' NIH-funded MD/PhD program. Dhiraj is going to be a Dr. Dr. Congratulations again man.

Hey there friends! Nick here. I want to thank you for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I'm super excited to have one of greatest friends on the show today Victor Escobedo. V-I-C-T-O-R SPACE E-S-C-O-B-E-D-O. Victor graduate in 2019 from UCSD with a degree in Human Biology and has just finished a post baccalaureate at UCSD. Victor is a meme and food aficionado and even has a food Instagram called thiccomode eats where him and his girlfriend cook up and find SD's best food.

Victor is currently applying to medical school and when he's not working on drafting primary/secondaries he is teaching medical Spanish to UCSD med students and working at a free clinic.

Victor's initial path to medicine started interpreting and from there he took on larger roles like serving as Clinic Director for the Flying Samaritans UCSD chapter (Victor inspired me to join the Flying Samaritans chapter at UCLA) and also incredible research for Dr. Adler's cardiology lab where he is on the path to cure Danon Disease and has numerous presentations and recently presented at the International Society of Heart & Lung Transplantation Conference in Orlando, FL. On top of all that Victor was a part of 1st place dance teams and founded his own dance team at UCSD.

Hey there friends! This is Michael Le. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I couldn't be more happy to kick this podcast off with my dear friend, Sophia Nguyen. That's S-O-P-H-I-A N-G-U-Y-E-N. Sophia graduated in 2019 from UCLA with a degree in the Physiological Sciences. Next year, us Californians are going to mourn her transition to Midwestern University in Arizona. As an important aside, Sophia has long renounced her birth certificate name for So Phi Phi and will respond to nothing else.

If you can't find her on stage performing for the annual Vietnamese Culture Night, you may find her in a dashing Yellow Polo supporting UCLA Health patients or you might find So Phi Phi serving as a bouncer—letting patients 150 - 175 only into the health fair venue. If you've tried both of those, you might find her screaming volunteers' names asking them to sign a waiver or with her Theta sisters doing some hooligan shtuff or with her brothers and Bok Bok back at home. If all else fails, she is guaranteed to be snacking on popcorn in the corner of the room, dancing to herself. I'll make sure we get these stories out of So Phi Phi because I think she personally is the epitome of work-life balance. I can't think of a person better to exemplify to any and all premeds that you CAN get into medical school AND have a whole lot of fun doing it. You can have your cake AND eat it too, both of which Sophia is guilty of.

Hey there friends! This is Michael Le. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I am STOKED to record another episode with one of my closest friends, Nicolas Cevallos. That's N-I-C-O-L-A-S space C-E-V-A-L-L-O-S. Nick and I graduated from UCLA in 2019; he did so with a major in Human Biology and Society and a Minor in Global Health. Although the Bruin family is sad to be losing him, he'll be joining his family up north studying medicine at UCSF. The two Cevallos brothers are going to be making some noise up there for sure.

To date, Nick has been involved in a variety of activities—I'll make sure we touch on those today—but they include serving as a Special Olympics Coach, a Public Health Intern for the Flying  Samaritans, an Intern for TEACH which stands for Together Educating and Advocating Community Health, a CPR & First Aid Instructor, a Clinical Research Volunteer within the Assessing Residents CI-CARE or ARC Medical Program, a Recreation Aide at his home community's Parks and Rec Center. Finally, and these two activities are where I have had the pleasure of interacting with Nick the most—he's also served as a Peer Learning Facilitator for the Academic Advancement Program at UCLA and as a Lab Manager for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

But, I'd be doing him a disservice if all I did was read out a list of all that he's been involved with. What you won't see on paper are the times that Nick is in the first person in lab, often before 6 AM to prepare for big surgery days. What you also won't see on paper is Nick's love for mentorship—he and I co-authored "Your Bruin Guide to All Things Pre-Med," a 40-page e-book that discusses what students should be focusing on in every year of their journey and discusses frequently asked questions like: "How do I get involved with research," or "how do I choose the right extracurriculars?" Lastly, you won't see the number of IM Championships the guy has won. I'm only aware of his ridiculous speed on the basketball court and the flag football field, but I'm sure there's more where that came from.

Hey there friends! This is Nick Cevallos. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I am STOKED to record another episode with my closest mentor and father, Dr. James Cevallos. That's J-A-M-E-S space C-E-V-A-L-L-O-S. James graduated from UCI and he did so with a major in biology. He then completed a Masters of Arts in Biology at CSU Dominguez Hills and a subsequent Medical Degree at UCSD. He then completed his Family Medicine Residency at Kaiser Southern California and worked for Kaiser for a few years following residency where he then transitioned to work at San Ysidro Health center serving as a clinic director for 9 years and is also is volunteer faculty for UCSD where he serves as a preceptor for medical students. He also serves as volunteer faculty for Flying Samaritans at UCLA which runs a free clinic in Tijuana, Mexico (and is even featured as the cover)

There’s a long list of education roles and leadership but Dr. James Cevallos is also a proud father to 3 kids and is also the head varsity basketball coach for Kearny high school home of the Komets. His impact in the clinic and community is outstanding.