Stethoscopes, studying, donuts: Student blogs record first days of school
BY ADITI RISBUD
Adam Tenforde
Brandon Seagle
Nina Patel
Each fall, the new MD students arrive at the medical school, bringing diverse backgrounds and viewpoints to the Stanford community. Six incoming medical and PhD students are blogging on the school's Web site about their initial experiences in class and outside, including the student backpack trip and the ceremony in which the first-year students receive their stethoscopes. What follows are excerpts from their writings. For the complete text, visit: http://med.stanford.edu/blogs/students/fall06.html.
Adam Tenforde, 26, came to Stanford as an undergraduate from Richland, Wash. A five-time Pac-10 All-American in track and cross country, he hopes to qualify for the 2008 Olympic trials.
Sept. 7: "My house consists of Jess, Alana, Kate, and me. We've all become obsessed with the show 'Grey's Anatomy,' and in passing conversation learned that our classmates have become infatuated with this television drama. It has been exciting to start a 'Grey's Anatomy' night. The first episode of the third season begins on September 21st, and to gauge interest I started a Grey's night sign-up sheet to see about making the first episode a medical student event. I was surprised to find that out of 86 students, 56 signed up (more surprising for me is that the other 30 didn't sign up)!"
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Sept. 6: "After a pretty rough night, I decided to ask classmates how they felt about the material. I was relieved to find that everyone, even students with a microbiology background, was struggling with the material. It's not just me—we are being asked to learn a great volume."
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Sept. 3: "Whenever people heard that I was applying to med school, they would tell me that it was going to involve a lot of work. In addition, people questioned my ability to continue running professionally. After graduating from Stanford in 2003, I was given an amazing opportunity to run professionally for Reebok and be represented by an agent. However, injuries have prevented me from competing for the past two years. Going into medical school, I decided that I would make a goal to qualify for the 2008 Olympic trials. I've looked at my running as an extension to my life as a student. Yet, I am not Superman, as I have humbly learned my first week of classes. Eight hours of sleep is hard to come by as our schedules are filled with classes."
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Aug. 28: "At the conclusion of our backpacking trip, we were filthy, dehydrated, smelly, and starving. When we sat down at Lake Alpine Lodge and saw ourselves in mirrors, we were impressed . . . The discussion arose regarding who was the most grizzled. As we sat and enjoyed a pitcher of beer, ate burgers and fries, and joked together, no one in our group seemed to mind this transformation."
Brandon Seagle, 22, an MD/PhD student, grew up in Leesburg, Ga. and was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. He arrived at Stanford in June to work in the laboratory of Justin Du Bois, associate professor of chemistry.
Aug. 18: "Part of the research effort in the Du Bois lab is to synthesize sodium channel toxins and analogs of known toxins. What I have been doing the last few weeks of summer is computer modeling of different toxins where they are known to bind. Once a good model is established that is consistent with the known experimental data published to date, then we will be able to use the model to test and compare binding affinities of natural and unnatural toxins that have yet to be synthesized. . . . [B]eyond just building a model, I am trying to use my model to make movies. I never thought that so soon after moving to Cali I would be contributing to the model industry and dabbling in movie production."
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Aug. 17: "Here at Stanford, I feel driven to work out, run around, and be in good shape. The guys I work with in the chemistry department talk as much about going to work out as they do about chemistry, and these are chemists! . . . [S]ince moving here I have lost over two inches off my waist line and gained an appreciable amount of muscle."
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Aug. 17: "I like to rollerblade, lift weights, drive my car, watch TV and movies and work. So I am a pretty simple guy. Dinner menu at my Lyman dorm room: pepperoni pizza or cookies-and-cream ice cream? Since I ate ice cream for breakfast, I decided to go with pizza. I have eaten pizza every day for the last three weeks. Pretty soon, when I run out of what is in the fridge, I am gonna switch over to a straight powdered donut diet."
Nina Patel, 29, grew up in London and Orange County. After graduating from UC-Berkeley, she worked in finance in New York and did public health research in India.
Aug. 31: "Our stethoscope ceremony was last night. There was inspiration, free- flowing wine, good cheese, lots of shiny new students and their loved ones. My mom and one of my best friends came as my guests. . . . Dean Pizzo welcomed us and among other things talked about the new policy being implemented to get pharma out of bed with the medical center (I'm putting that in my own words and oversimplifying), which I thought was a great start. Coming from Berkeley, I don't generally think of Stanford as a hotbed of progressive action, but here we are taking a firm stance on something that's pretty screwed up in the system. Good to know."
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Aug. 28: "My advisor warned me to focus on school and not get overly distracted by all the other things there are to do here. Good advice. Can already see that I'm going to have a hard time following it. This place is a candy store."
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Aug. 27: "I drove on campus Friday for the first time. Got all kinds of happy looking at the med center, labs and hospital, thinking that it's all mine."
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Aug. 24: "Rumor has it that I start med school Monday. I have a truck full of my earthly possessions sitting on my driveway, to be driven to Palo Alto in a few hours. I have an apartment there waiting. It's a trip that it's finally happening. Feels a tad surreal at the moment. But pretty damn exciting."
Aditi Risbud is a science-writing intern in the Office of Communication & Public Affairs at the School of Medicine.
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