- Joined Student Government: sanctuary campus committee under the Academic Affairs Commission
- Took Biochem (don’t do this your first quarter)
- Took the biomedical research introductory course (5HA) and applied for the minor
- Joined the UCLA transfer mentorship program as a mentee
- Joined the Biomedical Research Minor, and started searching online for PIs whose research I’m interested in
- Joined the UMMA volunteer project, which allowed me to gain clinical experience at health fairs, as well as provide health education lessons for middle school children
- Shadowed my primary care physician
- Joined a basic research lab
- Joined Unicamp (so fun!!)
- Helped launch a club on campus with my friends that provides ESL tutoring for the local Syrian refugee community
- If there is something you would like to do on campus that is not being addressed, I highly encourage you to take the initiative and make it happen!
- Applied for the Transfer Mentorship Program
- Signed up for the MCAT
Summer
- Studied for the MCAT and took it in mid-September
Year 2 Fall Quarter
- Joined a second research laboratory to explore clinical research
- Joined Student government as part of the transfer student representative office
- Started volunteering at the transfer center
- Became a transfer mentor
- Joined a soccer IM team
- Became a site coordinator for SOS
- Joined Unicamp, again!
- Joined a volleyball IM team
- Presented my research at Neurology poster day and Undergraduate research poster day
- Med School apps consumed my life (don’t wait until spring quarter to ask for letters of rec)
Gap year:
- Part-time paid position at my research lab
- Volunteering
- Spending time with my parents and visiting my family back in Lebanon