Sat Oct 21: Decoding Med School Success: Medical Student Panel from Kaiser, Keck USC, Cornell, Mount Sinai, and Rochester

Madeleine Babb, MS I
University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry
Madeleine began her academic career at Santa Barbara City College, where she majored in Biological Sciences. At SBCC, she served as president of the SBCC Biology Club, secretary for the Pre-Med Club, and worked as a math and biology tutor. In 2019, Madeleine transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology and a minor in Genetics and Society. After graduation, she took two gap years where she worked as a Mohs histology technician for dermatological surgeons and served in the PreMedCC leadership team. She is now a first-year medical student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Madeleine’s special interests include medical humanities and decreasing disparities in medical education. She is passionate about helping nontraditional premedical students achieve their goals of a career in medicine and is honored to work with PreMedCC. 

Melissa Gonzalez, MS IV
USC Keck School of Medicine
Melissa is a fourth-year medical student at the USC Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, CA, currently applying to psychiatry residency. She is interested in decreasing mental health stigma in minority communities and providing culturally sensitive care. Melissa is also passionate about mentorship and was inspired to create her Instagram page (browngirl_whitecoat) after navigating challenges as a first-generation premed student.

Jose Barrera, MS I
Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
José is a first-year medical student at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine in Pasadena, CA. Prior to starting on the pre-med route, José was pursuing a career as a firefighter. Since then, his academic career began at San Diego Miramar Community College, where he earned A.S. degrees in Chemistry, Biology, and Physics in 2015. Following his community college experience, he transferred to UCLA where he earned a B.S. in Biophysics and a Minor in Spanish in 2018. Since graduating, he has served as a Project Manager at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego, CA, completed the UC Davis SOM Postbaccalaureate Program, and was awarded an NIH Diversity Supplement grant during his medical school application year. As a non-traditional student, José’s journey from community college to medical school spans 12 years, and he is passionate about mentoring students embarking on their premed journeys, especially those in community college.

Sungjae Park, RN, MS III
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Sungjae Park is a medical student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. After receiving a nursing degree from Utah State University, he joined the Army in 2013 and served as a 68X (Behavioral Health Specialist) in Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. He cared for service members with emotional and behavioral struggles such as PTSD, depression, TBI, and drug addiction in the inpatient psych ward. While taking care of his patients, he started to feel that he wanted to do more than what a behavioral specialist could do for his patients. He decided to become a physician and care for military/veteran and marginalized communities for the rest of his life. In 2017, he was honorably discharged as a Sergeant (E5) and moved to New York City to go to Hunter College for a Human Biology degree. In 2020, he graduated from Hunter College with High Honors. During the medical school application cycle, Sungjae was invited by 21 medical schools for interviews and received acceptance offers from 10 medical schools. The focus of his medical school application and interviews were how his military/non-traditional experiences positively influenced his leadership/communication skills and character. During the application process, he learned a lot about how to make himself stand out as a non-traditional applicant.

George Son Corpuz, MS IV
Weill Cornell Medical College
George Son Corpuz is a rising fourth-year medical student at Weill Cornell Medicine. He attended the University of Southern California (USC) where he earned a BA in Spanish and BS in Human Evolutionary Biology. During his gap year, he worked with political activism organizations to mobilize support for a diverse array of candidates. His involvement in politics extended to a fellowship in Congress during the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020.His research and academic interests include health policy and language concordance. Examples of his work include investigating the effects of large-scale national policies and how they might affect access to healthcare services. Additionally, he led a team to author a chapter entitled Current Gaps and Future Directions in Language Concordance Research and Policy included in the upcoming Handbook of Language in Public Health and Healthcare published by Wiley Blackwell. He hopes to combine his medical career with health policy and working at the frontlines to answer bedside to policy questions that can be used to advocate for lasting changes in the healthcare system that will improve care for all communities (including limited English proficiency) of diverse backgrounds.

Shannan Moore, MS IV
Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
Shannan is a fourth-year medical student at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine in Pasadena, CA. She is a part of the school’s inaugural class and currently applying to Ophthalmology residency. She grew up 30 minutes outside of Atlanta, GA and moved to Ithaca, NY to start her academic career at Cornell University, graduating Cum Laude with a degree in Biology and Society. At Cornell, one of her biggest accomplishments was co-founding The F Word, a general feminist organization. After graduating, Shannan took a gap year working as a cashier at Sears and Assistant Manager at Dollar General while applying to medical school. At KPSOM, she is involved in the admissions committee, research, and community outreach. She is passionate about reducing health disparities, advocacy, mentorship, and increasing diversity within the field of medicine (and hopefully Ophthalmology one day). Come May 2024, she will be the first physician in her family.

Mariana Cabatu, MS I
Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
Mariana Cabatu is a first-year medical student at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Mariana grew up in the East Bay before attending Vanderbilt University for college, where she double majored in Spanish and Medicine, Health, & Society with a minor in Sociology. Following the completion of her undergraduate degree, she worked as a Research Assistant at Northwestern University where she studied postpartum sterilization rates based on insurance status, and vaccine hesitancy in pregnant individuals living with HIV. Beyond this, Mariana has a passion for community service, including volunteering as a Spanish interpreter at free clinics. She greatly enjoys mentoring pre-medical students, especially those without healthcare professionals in their family, to help guide them in the same way she once was.

Brandon Deras-Guerra, MS II
USC Keck School of Medicine
Brandon Deras-Guerra is a second-year medical student at USC. He started community college at De Anza college before transferring to UC Berkeley as a political science major. After graduating he took 3 gap years. During that time, he took a 1 year DIY post bacc to complete his remaining pre med courses, worked on getting clinical experiences, and studied for the MCAT. In medical school, he is the community service chair for LMSA and the president of the Vascular Surgery Student Interest Group. At USC, he is currently interested in Vascular Surgery and does research on how socioeconomic disparities affect vascular outcomes.

Jordan Cornwell, MS III
Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
Jordan Cornwell is a third-year medical student at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine (KPSOM). She attended Dartmouth College for her undergraduate education, where she majored in psychology, minored in anthropology, and played varsity volleyball. After sustaining multiple concussions, she became passionate about concussion research. Following graduation, she took two gap years to be the research associate at the Stanford Brain Performance Center, coordinating and leading research on sports-related concussions. Additionally, Jordan is passionate about mentorship, serving as an interview coach for Cracking Medical School Admissions, an admissions ambassador for KPSOM, and a KPSOM interviewer. She finds joy in advancing the diversity of the medical field by helping students who are underrepresented in medicine fulfill their potential. In pursuit of this mission, she also served as the Vice President for the KPSOM Student National Medical Association and is currently the co-president and co-founder of Women in Surgery at KPSOM. Jordan hopes to pursue a career in surgery and continue fostering her passion for mentorship, research, and diversity in medicine.

Tomaia Pamplin, MS I
USC Keck School of Medicine
Thomaia Pamplin is a medical student at Keck School of Medicine. She attended University of Texas at Austin where she received her Bachelor of Arts in English and then the UT MD Anderson/UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences where she received a Masters of Biomedical Sciences in Cancer Biology. She is especially drawn to Health Disparities Research and Narrative Medicine, which centers on approaching healthcare as an art to better encompass the needs of patients and providers. She is currently drawn to Hematology/Oncology as a career interest but is keeping an open mind for her future specialty.

Alex Serrano, MPH, MS I
USC Keck School of Medicine
Alejandro is a first year medical student at USC Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. He graduated from USC undergrad in 2016 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences. After graduation, he worked in the healthcare field for several years exploring a wide variety of specialties such as emergency medicine, orthopedic surgery, reconstructive surgery, and pain management. However, after being involved in a community-based hospital, he developed a passion for public health. As a result, he returned to his alma mater where he obtained his MPH in 2019, prompting a career at Los Angeles County Department of Public Health as an epidemiology analyst. Initially assigned to COVID-19 outbreak management team, he subsequently took a new position in HIV surveillance to focus on molecular epidemiology techniques. He is passionate about the intersection of public health and medicine to decrease health disparities among special populations.