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Student and Faculty Profiles

Meet Peter...

Class: 2008
Hometown: Aurora, Colorado
Undergrad: Tufts University
Major: Biochemistry
Program: M.D.

One night in the 7th grade, a fire truck and an ambulance woke me as they were taking my father to the hospital. My father had a heart attack in the middle of the night and required a quadruple coronary bypass operation. I felt so powerless and unable to contribute anything to help my father. Fortunately, the operation was a success and I am grateful for each day since then I have been able to share with him. I was able to witness the power of medicine not only fix individual physical problems, but also provide hope to the lives of many other people. After my father recovered, I kept in the back of my mind that I might pursue a career in medicine.

Five years later, I left my home in Colorado for college at Tufts University. As the time approached to decide on a direction with my life, the thought of medicine in the back of my mind crept forward. I knew I wanted a career that allowed me to interact with people and somehow contribute to their life, but was it medicine? I wasn’t yet convinced that I wanted to devote my life to patient care as a physician. To test my convictions I became an EMT and worked in Boston for one summer helping patients with illnesses ranging from simple transportation for doctor’s appointments to heart attacks. After the summer, something clicked inside of me. In all of my life up that point, I felt heartbroken, almost angry, when someone could not live their life in the manner they wanted because of health impairments. I considered this to be the ultimate injustice. Being able to make a difference in someone’s life, face to face, told me everything I needed to know about pursing medicine.

I consider myself very fortunate in my experiences prior to medical school. I owe all of my success to my parents who have been supportive of anything and everything I’ve done. During my junior year, I studied abroad at Pembroke College at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. That year abroad showed me that it was possible to learn at the highest level possible with peers who had similar convictions while being able to completely balance the joys of non-academic life. Pembroke had 150 students per year and this created a unique atmosphere where everybody was close to one another like siblings instead of peers.

This was a major reason in my decision to apply and come to UConn. During my interview day, it was clear to me that the atmosphere at UConn was similar to that in Oxford. Students didn’t pass each other like strangers, but readily stopped to tell stories, share jokes, or just simply talk together. Immediately, I knew UConn had the environment where I would comfortable for at least the next four years. This was the type of environment that allowed me to work my hardest academically.

I think my biggest reason for coming to UConn was listening to students, faculty, and physicians talk about UConn’s dedication to providing students with hands-on, clinical experience starting immediately in the first year and progressing through the fourth year. At the time, there was only one other school in the nation where students saw patients on a weekly basis at a physician’s practice. The students were not there to simply shadow the physician, but to be an active member of the practice with patient care responsibility. To me, this speaks to the strengths of UConn: to produce graduates who have more clinical experience, who are competitive in residencies around the nation, but most importantly who are effective physicians.