Episode 35: Ashley Roxanne Peterson D.O. Family Medicine Resident

In this episode of D.O. or Do Not, I interview Dr. Ashley Peterson. She grew up as a military kid, started kindergarten at age four, and attended UNC Charlotte, graduating at the ripe age of 19 with a degree in anthropology. She then went directly to the Georgia campus of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is very candid about her mistakes and successes there. As a student, she served as the Student National Medical Association's Georgia Chapter President. She was able to take advantage of and learned a lot during away rotations at the flagship PCOM campus.

At 24 years old, she earned a residency spot in family medicine at the prestigious historically black college and university Morehouse School of Medicine.

She has her own podcast called "Real Medicine with Doctor Rox" and her Instagram account has 7,000 followers. She and her family run a non-profit that supports minority students in their educational pursuits. She also continues to give back through the Student National Medical Association as a board member, ensuring the advancement of minority students in osteopathic medicine.

I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did as its host. Thanks for listening!

Host: Tiffany Carlson
Editor: Nick Buskill

Transcript

My name is Dr. Ian Storch. I'm a board-certified gastroenterologist and osteopathic physician,

and you are listening to DO or DO NOT. If you are interested in joining our team or

have suggestions or comments, please contact us at DoOrDoNotPodcast.com. Share our link

with your friends and like us on Apple Podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We hope

you enjoy this episode. Hi, I'm Tiffany Carlson, a second-year osteopathic

medical student from the Midwest. On this episode of DO or DO NOT, I interviewed Dr.

Ashley Peterson. She grew up as a military kid and attended UNC Charlotte, graduating

at the ripe age of 19 with a degree in anthropology. She then went directly to the Georgia campus

of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is very candid about her mistakes and

successes there. As a student, she served as the SNMA Georgian Chapter President. She

was able to take advantage and learned a lot while doing away clinicals at the flagship

PCOM campus. At 24 years old, she earned a residency spot at the prestigious historically

Black College and University Morehouse School of Medicine. She has her own podcast called

Real Medicine with Dr. Rox, and her Instagram account has over 7,000 followers. She and

her family run a nonprofit that supports minority students in their educational pursuits. She

also continues to give back to the Student National Medical Association as a board member,

ensuring the advancement for minority students in osteopathic medicine. I hope you enjoy

the interview. Thanks for listening.

So I'm with Dr. Ashley Peterson, who goes by Dr. Rox. Thank you so much for joining

us this afternoon on DO or DO NOT.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.

Start with what your normal day looks like, how you prepare for your shift, what you're

doing right now.

Oh, absolutely. So she said my name is Ashley. We're at St. Peterson, but everyone calls

me Dr. Rox. I am doing my residency in family medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm at Morehouse

School of Medicine. I love it. I'm a second year. So right now, like a year and a half

left before I can practice on my own. And then I actually am on night club this week.

So you know, that's the beauty of family medicine. Every week looks different. And so this is

one of our harder weeks because of the time commitment. And overall, I feel like I really

like my program.

So what and how did you become interested in medicine and decide that you really wanted

to go on that journey to become a doctor?

I'm kind of different than like maybe some of my colleagues. I didn't know I wanted to

be a doctor since I was five. I think my life would have been a lot different. So in some

ways I'm kind of happy maybe that I did not. I wanted to do a lot of other STEM things.

So at first I wanted to be a marine biologist. Then I wanted to be an architect. Then I wanted

to be a professor. And now medicine. And before it was medicine, it was pharmacy. And I did

some shadowing and I said, oh, I actually prefer the interaction with people. That's

the part that I like about it. And I feel like I would be missing that if I did pharmacy.

So I decided to do medicine and training from a physician. So this was sophomore year in

college when I made a final decision to be pre-med instead of pre-pharmacy. I came in

as a chemistry major and I was pre-pharmacy.

So where did you go to undergrad? And then when during that sophomore year, the experiences

led you to decide to go into medicine as opposed to pharmacy?

I went to UNC Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina. And so the biggest experience is

definitely the whether or not you can interact with people. That was a big wake up call.

And then it was definitely the beginning of sophomore year that made the decision. Because

the way that our curricula was set up for pre-meds, you kind of had to know what you

were going to be applying to by then because you start on different pre-rec paths. And

I was in the honors college, so they used to hold 13 classes for us to register for.

But to do this, you had to kind of voice what were your long term plans.

How did you first learn about osteopathic school? And then what made you choose the

school you ultimately attended?

I liked osteopathic medicine because the recruiters used to always come to our meetings when I

went to UNC Charlotte and I was the president of what they call MAPS, slash SMA. So the

Student National Medical Association, Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students. So I

was president. I had seen osteopathic medical schools come multiple times and speak to our

students. And so I started to really look up the history behind it. And like, for example,

A.T. Still, who was the founder of osteopathic medicine for anyone listening, he had black

people in his first classes. He had women in his first classes. And there was something

groundbreaking about that, which made me look more into the four tenets. And so the four

tenets of osteopathic medicine basically revolve around that the body can heal itself. And

since the body is a unit, we can help it heal itself through OMT. To sum everything up,

it's more complicated than that, of course. And I believed in that theory. I'm really

big into preventive medicine. And then I ultimately chose the DO school. Actually, it's so interesting

because I got into an MD school and I was truly trying to make a decision. I withdrew

a lot of applications because I knew I wanted to stay in the South. So to answer your question,

the location was huge because I was coming from UNC Charlotte. And so I lived in Atlanta

area previously as a high school student. So I had really missed it. And I said I would

want to move back. And then my dad's family is all in Montgomery, Alabama. So that's like

two hours away across the border from Georgia. And it just made a lot of sense to me to move

back to Georgia as a location. And then also, I know that my osteopathic school, their sister

school in Philadelphia. So the original campus has been around 200 years. And so a lot of

people, I've actually heard someone call it the Harvard of DO schools. And I said, okay,

so it was a very impressive recommendation for most people. So I said, okay, I have this

great institution, great location for me. I think that this is going to be the school

for me.

How was your experience at the school? Did you do any special extracurricular activities,

research?

Yeah, so I didn't do research. Let me tell you why. Everyone peaks it sometimes. I probably

peaked in college, so I'm just being honest. College for me, I was young. I don't know

if I said that. I was very, I was a lot younger. But it was, I'm not saying that it wasn't

hard at times, but it wasn't hard throughout. It was definitely like finals week was hard

or like a certain test was hard or a certain class was hard. But overall, I love UNC Charlotte.

I love the experience. It was, it wasn't a breeze, but it was definitely very smooth,

straight through, you know, I never felt like I failed. So then I get to medical school,

my first failure ever in life, our first failure where I feel like I couldn't cope as well.

I definitely had to seek outside sources. At the time, it was a big failure to me. And

so I did not feel like I had time to do research. I would have, but it felt like I had a lot

of time to do research actively while we had classes. So I did a summer program at Johns

Hopkins in Baltimore called the MSTAR for geriatrics. I thought that's what I wanted

to do at that time. I still love geriatrics. And it was great. It was also my alumni from

our school who helped us, basically recruited us into the program because my mentor in our

prior year, he also had gone and done the program the prior year. So that's how I did

research. I did research in the summer in between first and second year, what they call

the last summer ever of life, right? So dramatic. And I got to go and do research in Baltimore.

So I also was the president and then also for SNMA, so student national medical association.

So for MAPS, which is minority association of pre-medical students, then get upgraded

to SNMA. So I got the upgrade. And then there's like national and local positions. So I took

a local position at SNMA. I'm just so thankful to SNMA, like networking at SNMA and learning

more about different medical school, unsaid application things, whatever it is. I feel

like I learned a lot through SNMA because I'm the first doc in my family. And I didn't

feel like I had that many mentors that helped me get into medical school. And after that

helped me be successful in medical school. So I felt indebted. So I took a local, I had

a local position. I was president, my local chapter. Then I had a regional position. And

then I had a national position. I was osteopathic, co-chair, other little extracurricular things.

Can you just tell us a little about that organization for individuals that are minorities and may

not know where to go when they're applying to schools?

Absolutely. So SNMA was founded in 1964. Its mission is to help people who basically are

underserved and going to help other people who look like that. And so that is basically

everyone. People who are going to help other people. But historically, it is usually a

face and powerful community of black and brown doctors who gather to create more black and

brown doctors. So that is not the mission. I always felt like it was great because I

felt dumb sometimes when I would go to maybe the AMSA meeting and some of the things they

were talking about were way over my head as literally like a super young teenager, freshman

in college. And I didn't know some of the things they were talking about. And so they

were also great. AMSA meetings were great. Everyone was great. But I just had a huge

learning curve. And so I felt like people at MAPS, they also might have been the first

doctor in their family more likely. And I could ask those questions. It felt like a

safe space for me to ask those questions. So I just joined my local. It's always like

this, right? You find something in life kind of randomly. But basically, our pre-med advisor

sends out a list of emails every year to freshmen that have identified that they're pre-med.

She has a list there. And so she sent out the MAPS. She sent out the AMSA. She sent

out like the other pre-med clubs that's fine on campus. I said, oh, Honorary Association

of Proved Medical Students. I'm a minority. I'm going to go and see what's going on there.

So I went and I loved it because of that, like I said, that safe space. I always felt

like I should ask questions. And I felt like what I was asking was a dumb question. And

I never felt like it was a dumb question maybe at AMSA meetings. It's more so of you kind

of get lost in the shuffle. And like I said, it was the learning curve that I personally

witnessed. Literally, the president of AMSA at that time, kudos to her. It's nothing bad.

But her dad was a like world renowned psychiatrist. So, you know, her dad was a doctor and she

knew so much. It was amazing. But I just wasn't there. And then I would go to these MAPS meetings

and they're literally like, this is what you need to do freshman year. Like these are the

classes you need to find out for. These are the books you need. And I say thank you because

I feel like it was more broken down in personal life.

Did you decide to take both Comlex and UCMLE?

Oh, great question. So I did not. I only took Comlex. And that's because I knew what a shadow

of a doubt that I wanted to do primary care. And so because I knew I wanted to do one of

the primary care specialty, I knew I didn't want to do surgery, no ENT, no germ, you know,

radiology, or what they call the robes, which are historically hard, especially some attitudes

of radiology, ophthalmology, anesthesiology, dermatology, and any surgical specialty. I

knew I didn't want to do any of those. I love radiology. Actually, it's something I fell

in love with in the didactics years, as they call it, or the first one or two years where

we're learning from like books and such guys. And then we go on clinicals where we're actually

in in person. I knew I didn't want to do those. So I knew I wanted to do primary care. So

having a Comlex only at that time, what still made you very competitive for MD residency

programs. And then at that time, we still had the DO match. So I said, why take another

test? We're failing. Like I said, I had struggles academically. So I said, I will be risking

me a failure. I'm past. Let me just please get past like third or fourth year. I'm doing

well. And I felt that way. I feel like there's no point in it. Because I think if you I will

ask and I know if you want to do a surgical special, I really, really encourage you please

take both. You open so many more doors for yourself. You want to do like general surgery.

You need to see both Comlex and U.S.M.A. And there's gonna be someone out there who says

that's not true. My third cousin got in with only Comlex. And I'm not saying that's not

true. They probably score off the charts, you know, 750. But what I'm saying is more

so is that you keep more doors open. And in surgery, on the road specialties, you have

to keep every door open. That competitive is you could definitely be meet the qualifications

for like 99 programs, right? 100 program that actually is the one that gives you that extra

interview that helps you match like, you never know, I would, I would take it.

You mentioned some people that have been instrumental during your journey. Are there any specific

people that you met in school that were extra special people?

Oh, yeah, I think we all find our little clique. Beauty is for me, I really found a beautiful

group of about seven to eight people. We were all minority in some in some way. And it was

three guys, five girls. To this day, amazing friends. We used to all stay together. We

used to all look out for each other like, hey, remember this assignment due today, guys?

Hey, remember this? Hey, did you get this book? I have a PDF. Hey, I put something in

the Google Drive, I put together a chart. Hey, and then our class was pretty civil in

that I feel like everyone we had a shared Google Drive. And if someone made like a chart,

like the class is a whole, not just these eight people as the class of someone made

like a chart to help them study, they will put it in the Google Drive. So it was it was

definitely not a toxic competitive environment. Like I have seen some toxic people and individuals,

but the culture was not that way. And I think that's important to distinguish, there's always

gonna be a few now. And there's nothing new about this because medicine is just very it

attracts very competitive people. So I felt like the culture overall was one of like,

we're trying to help each other.

Where did you do your clinical rotations? And we already think you were family med the

whole way. But were there any other aha moments during those clinicals?

So the big aha moment was I was trying to decide, okay, do I really want to do primary

care? Like, why primary care? You need to confirm primary care. And I did. For me, it's

a feeling. I go to a place I'm smiling. When I'm feeling mess and I was smiling. I was

ready to get up every morning. When I was on like, don't hate me OB. But when I was

on OB, I dreaded it. It could have been my preceptor. He was classically toxic. He made

men, women, children cry. Thankfully, they made me cry. Because I knew about him beforehand.

And that's why your friends are important and your classmates. They warned me. And so

since I was warned, I was okay. Because I put up walls and barriers and just kept it

professional and moved on with my life. But he was awful. And that's true. And so I confirmed

family medicine. That was a huge leap for me. Because I was like, I can just say you

really don't know if people will tell you that. You don't know you haven't been on

clinicals. You might change your mind. I never changed my mind. And not I'm not even really

that stubborn person. I'm very open minded. I just knew I love family. I love primary

care. I thought about peas. I was like, okay, well, what about peas? I realized I love geriatrics.

I love adults as well. And I said, okay, well, what about internal? Since you love adults

so much, you love geriatrics so much. Most geriatrics are internal medicine trained.

But then I was like, nope, I love peas. And that's a real family medicine. You love everything.

And then I also thought about psych. I thought about psych very heavily because some of my

family members unfortunately struggle with mental health. So seeing that firsthand, my

dad was in the Marines for 23 years. So you can guess some of the things that he deals

with. He's great. He's amazing. He's actually doing extremely well in life. But you know,

there's behind the scenes things that definitely affect him from that experience and from his

previous career. So I've seen that. And so I thought about maybe doing psych. But when

I got there, I loved it, actually. So I love psych. Don't get me wrong. But it just didn't

give me the skills that I got in family medicine. So that was huge. Then the other like ranty

question is that I was in a Georgia campus, right? But they had a lottery for our clinical

sites. And everyone wanted to stay in Atlanta and wanted to stay in Georgia. They thought

everyone was crazy. He went up to Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, which is where I was. It

was amazing. They thought everyone was crazy for moving because moving is expensive. And

then if you have a family, I get it. Right. But I was a military kid growing up. I moved

like eight times as a kid. I'm like, I'm ready to go. I've been here for three years. I'm

ready. Which is how long I stayed in a place in the military. Three years, you're out.

So it had been three years. I was itching to leave. I love Atlanta. I would never leave

here ever again. I feel bad. I probably won't be able to listen. But we're gonna fly to

residency because I miss Atlanta. But I was like, I'm ready to go. And I told everyone

the clinical sites up north are way better for training as a med student. So, and I'll

be true. I'm at least my school and my experience and my group of friends and what they told

me. And basically up north, you're either working one on one with a doc, which was invaluable.

And then like outpatient clinic, or you're working in a hospital on like a very well

established and very well regarded team of residents. So AtlantaCare. I loved it. Or

you were in Philadelphia, you were in rotation. So I mean, that's amazing. I had never lived

or been in Philly. The furthest I had lived north was Virginia DMV area. So I thought

it was amazing and worth it to move with that experience because you got to train very well.

Like my surgical rotation, I felt like I was in there doing surgery, or maybe strike. I

close layers, I put, they asked me what order would you want to put in? I mean, they put

in the order I learned about. I held the scope. If I wanted to do surgery, that rotation definitely

could have been like the starting ground for a letter and like confirming that I want to

do surgery or like being able to really work on my surgical skills. Because if you want

to do it on that rotation, you could do it. I just had no interest in surgery. And so

I was able to work hard and help them as they needed as opposed to in Georgia, there was

a different experience. It was as hands on, it was only one type of surgical practice.

So let's say bariatric maybe, and they only had like three surgeries a week. So imagine

doing three bariatric surgeries a week, that's it. And then a little bit of surgical clinic,

that's your surgical rotation. The experiences were like day and night. And that happened

to someone I know who wants to do surgery. So it's kind of like, wow, I actually made

a post the other day, top five things that like changed my life or like career. And I

think moving to Philadelphia and Atlanta city for that year and a half was one of them.

I totally got trained really well. I think it's helping me now in residency, especially

OB. He taught us C-sections backwards and forwards. So you were first to C-sections,

which is what made it so hard because you're doing like five first to C-sections a day.

It was great in that aspect. And so when I went on my OB rotation this year, everyone

was like, wow, did you want to do OB? OB for you? And everyone on my board was top five

and my OB score was one of my highest scores. And that's because I got the training. I know

because every day I used to go home in like a sweat full of nervousness and like tears

probably. It was high stress. I went home and studied every day because of that though.

Let's talk a little bit about residency. How is your application process to getting into

a residency? And then how did you ultimately choose your program? Like what made it stand

out? Well, my program is at Morehouse School of Medicine. I can't say their name. And so

their mission is to help minority communities and underserved communities. So that historically

attracts a lot of minorities and underserved residents. And so a lot of people see it as

like a HBCU or a historically black college or university. So because the Morehouse School

of Medicine, which is different institution, different entity actually than their Morehouse

College counterpart, they're still very interlinked, I think, in people's mind. And so I was looking

for that actually, because to keep it short, I had had other experiences at other places.

And so I had decided I needed a place where I felt safe to learn. And so I think institutions

sometimes they really undervalue how important it is to foster a safe environment for certain

students, whether that be our LGBTQ plus community, whether that be, you know, black and brown

people, or however people identify that minority, women even. And just knowing that there's

a safe space in medicine for you. I was really looking for that wherever that was. It did

not have to be HBCU, but it had to be that. Like my whole application was talking about

black and brown. Like before this was a trend. This was like, when I went into medicine,

I wanted to help underserved communities and people who looked like me, who looked like

my grandmother who literally pit cotton. And so her health is affected by, so I made sure

I put a lot of that in my personal statement. So people would know when I came from the

interview that I was serious. So the application process, as you asked, I put very heavy what

I was looking for in a program and what a program can expect for me. I think that's

important for people to say as well, like, these are my strengths. That's why I feel

like I can bring to your program. For me, it was research. I also can work hard, no

matter what. I told them look back on my emails. I know I failed first year and I had to repeat.

I know that I have very average board scores, but I improved from level one to level two.

I actually had, I think like an 18 or 20 percent improvement. So look at that. I'm trying to

improve better every year. First year I failed, second year I passed through, third year I

did better on my level two. Fourth year, you know? And then fourth year I honored all my

evals. Look at all the evals and read them. They're all honor. So I just kept being better.

And so I told people that too, I have resilience. So those are my three things. And then I'm

going to give back to the community no matter what. No matter where I am, I'm going to be

a community service chair. I'm going to be like giving back or whichever I'm going to.

And then I was a natural leader. So those are the five I kind of went off of. Service,

leadership, research. I'm resilient. No matter what you throw at me, I'm going to work hard.

And then I'm just a positive person too. So those are kind of like the five things that

I built my application around. And I put it in my personal statement through evidence.

Always show evidence in your personal statement. So if you're going to say, I love serving

others, well then your next sentence should definitely be the evidence. So you should

just say, for example, I'm the president of my local Humane Society. Oh, okay. Evidence.

We got it. So they said. And I know you're not serving, so you can put it in your personal

statement, but just show the evidence of what you're saying.

Can you talk about some of your work in the community, like what you're doing?

Oh yeah, absolutely. So right now I am the resident association president for all of

the Morehouse programs. It's actually like so humbling because it's exactly what I said.

Like when I got to Morehouse, like previously I had maybe some more negative experiences

where I felt like when I would bring up minority issues, I might not have been supported. And

that's happened throughout my whole life, honestly. Like I said, I think people are

now more and more aware and now more comfortable. But my whole life, like my grandmother walked

with King because my family is from Montgomery, like I said, my dad's family. So we were huge

on like social justice. Like people could definitely call our family like a social justice

warriors, right? So that led to some uncomfortable conversations and uncomfortable asks sometimes.

And so since I had some experiences in that way, I got to Morehouse. I was so happy. I

was like, this is what I was looking for. Like I could literally cry tears of joy now.

That's why I came there. Like everyone is a social justice warrior. If anything, I'm

like very kind of like cold, like cold feet compared to everyone else. I remember I went

on my OB rotation, or gyne rotation, let me say that. And the first, like literally I

met the doctor that's in there. I never met her before. She's historically not cold, but

just focused, serious, very serious, stoic doctor. And she said, oh, hi, nice to meet

you. And the next question she asked me was, did you vote? And that's a pretty, like, in

this climate, like kind of emotionally charged question. But that was supposed to show you,

she didn't ask me who I voted for or anything like that. But more so, did you exercise direct

to vote? And I love that. That's what I love about being here. So even when I got here,

I received an award within six months, which to me is so crazy. It's so crazy, because

the same things that helped me get this award here at Morehouse, like the same questions

I was asking, the same programs I was implementing, the same leadership that I was talking to

about certain ideas. And so that, I was like, it was confirmation. I was like, okay. And

so some of the things I'm doing are Hill Clinic, which is health equity for all lives. And

so it's a free student run clinic that we help the Morehouse School of Medicine students

run. And so we basically act like they're attending. And we sign out to attend. But

the first year you're getting this experience, saying like you're a leader over other learners.

So that'll help you learn very quickly. And so I was a volunteer, family medicine volunteer

co-chair last year. That was one of the big things we pushed. We're doing lots of drives

in the community. And now, as the resident association president, I'm over all seven

programs and the three fellowships. And I communicate our resident fellowship needs

to the GME, also known as the graduate medical education. So basically like the chair of

all the departments, the PD of all the apartments, the assistant PDs, and then the chair of those

chairs. So that will be Dr. Linda Wimberley, who's over all of GME. She's amazing. She

was like Atlanta's top pediatricians every year. She's amazing. So as a second year,

that's huge because it's usually a third year.

Morehouse is an allopathic institution. Do you think your experience is different there

as a DO?

So my family medicine class, family medicine was the first program here. And it was founded

in 1978. So since 1978, there has never been a class with more than one DO. And before,

actually, my mentor who was a DO, now a graduate of the program last year, his name is Roger

Stewart. I met him, guess where I met him? Through SNMA as an occupational coach here.

So that's why I say those programs and those positions helped me network more than anything

and not network in a way of like, I'm going to meet you so I can like, you can help me

get things. But rather just people, you make real connections, you make real friends. And

I went on the website for Morehouse because sometimes what we call DO-friendly programs

and DO-unfriendly programs, like for example, we'll call out any names, but there's a program

in New York. And I remember listening when they were on Dr. Radio and they said they

never take DOs. They decline all DOs. This was like five years ago. Who knows? They have

changed right now. You know, a lot of people change. Leadership changes. That's a big thing.

And they kind of push those people out and they're like, maybe some more open minded

progressive leaders. So things are changing, right? But when they said that, I said, okay,

DO-unfriendly programs. So it's really out there. It's not actually as common as people

make it out like, these MDs don't like us. I actually feel like that's not true. At least

not where I am. But you know, I'm coming from like Morehouse, which is like very open minded

and then Emory, who similarly makes a temporary hospital. I would say a progressive school

as well. And then some of the surrounding places, Wellstar, etc. They're very progressive

overall as a program. So it's hard to be like, is there really a stigma, like let's say another

program that might not have ever taken a DO? I don't know. But Morehouse had taken a DO

from my understanding in the family medicine program in like eight years, maybe even more.

And that's like 1978. Like, there's not that many other years in there. So 1% of all residents

at Morehouse, which really is usually between 180 to 200. So all the Morehouse programs

are fellowships. 1% were DOs. Six years ago, 1% were DOs. The next year, 2% were DOs. The

next year 3%. Then it dropped back down 2%. And then 3%. And then this last year was the

highest percentage in the last six years, 5%. And they all are funneled through my school.

They were all from my school. My class, all 5% of the DOs that they had were from my school.

Everyone wanted to stay in Georgia, right? The first two DOs in Morehouse's family medicine

program. So kind of like breaking barriers a little bit. And so that was exciting. But

my experience is different. I historically, if I'm honest, I historically do really well

on the OMT. That's one thing my school, I will give them credit for. They taught us

OMT very well. Experts. They're world renowned.

Medical school is a big price ticket. How did you finance your education? And then do

you have any advice for students thinking about medicine or are already in medicine

to finance that that big piece of their education?

Yeah, so I tried to be a very good person, right? So I had a lot of help from my parents.

And that's by the grace of God. My parents, they, we all they both worked and they are

both educated. My dad was a Marine, as I said, and my mom was a teacher slash school counselor

at one point. So they always had at least enough income to help us. I went to a state

school so UNC Charlotte. My tuition every year when I started as a freshman at UNC Charlotte

because they historically used to be a commuter school was about 2500 a semester. That's very

reasonable. It's a lot of money. Don't get me wrong, right? But compared to when I hear

some of my friends who went to like Baylor, they were paying 40k for tuition and room

board or whatever. I was like, I got really lucky. So I didn't have a lot of like undergrad

debt that helps, right? But that means that you're able to borrow more for private loans

if you have to, whichever. And then also there's a cap. People don't realize there's a cap

for federal loans. I think it's something like 400 or maybe 500k. Some of my friends

met at a medical school because they had not only done their like, expensive, unfortunately,

undergrad debt, but they also had debt from a graduate program if you just own the two

year master's programs to raise your GPA. So now that I'm in the medical school, so

they capped out like halfway through third year or second year. So that's huge. I didn't

have undergrad debt. My parents paid for it for me. But also if you're an undergrad trying

to think about how to pay for stuff, there's Pell Grant. If you meet the qualifications,

it's basically like federal loans from Pell Grant. Applying for your institutional scholarships,

as soon as you find out that you're accepted to a place, apply for scholarships next. It's

not done. You should post your acceptance video and then you should go apply for scholarships.

So my parents picked up a lot of the tab. That allowed me to be able to pick up a little

odd jobs to pay for stuff like undergrad. My tuition was like, I always used to sometimes

be like, what if my parents didn't help me? What if something happened to me? I also still

felt like I could pay my tuition. You don't see Charlotte was great for me. Oh, and one

more thing. My dad was military, right? He received GI Bill, but he could transfer it

to his kids. So God bless that man. So my sister got the use of GI Bill from her school

and I used it for one year of medical school. So now getting the medical school. There's

multiple things. They have programs where I applied for the health service course. I

wanted to do primary care, right? The health service course is very fair. It goes in tiers.

So there's tier one and tier two. Tier one is for underserved dependents. That's the

other thing. You have to give your parents financial information. You have to. There's

no way around it if you're under 26. Because you have to give your parents information,

basically show that I had no financial need and my parents helped me. Don't get me wrong,

but I had to take out loans. They couldn't help me pay. So it's like financial need and

like how strongly you want to do primary care. So any other primary care is OBP, family,

or internal. I think they're considering emergency medicine and psych now as well in the health

service court. You'll have to look at us. But that's invaluable because you get a spike

in every month. I think it's like $1,500. And if you commit to serve for four years after

residency graduation, they'll pay for your medical school. That's tier three. So tier

two, then it's like you're committed, financial need. Then tier three is like you're committed,

but there's no financial need. So I was ultimately determined to be in tier three. And a lot

of states also have those types of programs. There's programs that you can apply to in

fourth year at medical school. Georgia has one. If you're thinking about doing family

medicine, apply it as a fourth year. You get a spike in your residency. I know people are

doing that one where they have to give back for four years as well. There's other programs,

very similar. There's a military where if you do the same thing four years of service,

then you get four years back. And then you get to do the military match. There's a lot

of different programs, honestly. But the blessing is I knew that I wanted to do primary care.

A lot of primary care places would do like sign-on bonuses. So they'll pay your loans

off for you over time. And then if you work in an underserved area, I knew I wanted to.

And remember one time I was a nonprofit as a residency. They count. So my residency

was three years. If you work 10 years, you can do loan forgiveness. So those are some

of the options. I would look into all your options. I think planning and knowing what

you want to do will help.

Do you have any individuals that are very significant to you that support you on this

journey?

Yes. So I have a boyfriend. He's actually a surgical resident. So he's influential because

he gets it. I think that really helps. But you don't have to be in medicine to get it.

I think just be supportive of your partner. A lot of times, especially in residency. Family

medicine, actually, we do significant hours. But like compared to the surgical fields like

OB, general surgery, etc., ENT, etc., etc., some of the hours are a little bit more flexible,

like more like 60 hours versus 80 hours. And those 20 hours a week matter. So if your partner

says that they don't have time, they really might not have time. I know it's really good

being in like this, but really learning your love languages. I'm not sure if everyone knows

what love languages are. But look up the five love languages. It really helps with communication

for partners. So like mine is quality time. So it's great, actually, because I'm so busy

that I don't know if he's busy. So the time that we do have like when we have days off

together, like actually today is the day that we have off together, we have plans. And so

we already have those plans and we never change those plans. So just planning really well,

I think that matters. Versus like his is like at the surface. So he likes when I cook, like

on a day where I know I might not see him, like physically, because he's on nights and

on days. I'll cook and I'll just bring it by his place and just leave it in the fridge

and then just come back to my place. And so when we get off, you'll see it, right? So

that means a lot of stuff like that. If you know any person who likes to do it, so like

work affirmation, leave it unknown, stuff like that. And then also my parents are amazing,

very supportive as well. I used to see my mom like every six weeks, just a running jump,

because they live in Virginia. They live in Virginia. Now they live in Vegas. But the

people are always like, it's like your parents live here. And my mom calls it her vacation.

Because literally, he's like, and then like, is that my dad's family's in Montgomery, forever

for like home sick. That's happened a couple of times, especially intern year. Now they're

taking it so I haven't seen anyone in a while. But I still go to Montgomery all the time,

just go get a home cooked meal.

What has made you successful? And like, what would you define as your superpower?

I think my resilience has made me successful. One of my biggest quotes is, if you fall nine

times, stand up 10. Another common one, if you fall seven times, stand up eight. And

that's definitely my life. Like I said, I fail and I struggle. I think we all do. Mine

is more obvious. If you look at my resume, like you can see that I was in medical school

for five years. It's kind of like, oh, wow. There's a lot of explanations. But mine is

very simple. I had academic struggles my first year. But that didn't stop me. Like I'm an

improver. Once I learn something, I'm not someone who kind of like gets down on themselves.

I take what I've been through and I learn from it. I think that's very important. I

think that's my superpower. Because unfortunately, and fortunately, it's good and bad. A lot

of people in medicine are type A. I think they would identify with type A. I'm more

of a type B with maybe some type A features. There's certain stuff like the ONT I was saying

that I'm more type A about or more anal about. Like I said, most people seem to delay that

pretty quickly.

Well, thank you, Dr. Rox for your time, especially after having a night shift. Thanks for coming

on the podcast. I know you're on social media. Are there any things that you want to share

with our listeners?

No.