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Student and Faculty Profiles

Meet Eric...

Class: 2007
Hometown: Shelton, Connecticut
Undergrad: University of Notre Dame
Major: Preprofessional Studies
Program: Post Baccalaureate Program, Fifth-Year Enrichment Program

“Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”

~Great Expectations

As the youngest of four boys growing up in Shelton, Connecticut, I branched out into various endeavors to discover my niche. I steered away from finance and accounting and staged a mini-rebellion over high school academics. Landing in advanced placement chemistry wasn’t exactly what I had in mind and initially proved to be a tactical error. Fortunately, two influential people entered my life during that course who altered my trajectory. My teacher, Kathryn Morales sparked a love for science through her enthusiasm that often skirted with eccentricity. She may be the only person on the planet who celebrates October 23 as “Mole Day” to pay respects to Amadeo Avogadro’s constant 6.02 x 1023. The celebration may involve her dressing up as the mammalian namesake. The second, my classmate Nihar Desai inspired me with his precocious commitment to medicine and passion to fulfill his dream. (In a strange turn of events, Nihar and I reunited during our surgery rotations as UConn medical students.) The seeds for my future career were planted during that intersection of novelty, science, passion, and medicine. I just didn’t realize it yet.

Unlike many who proclaim “I always wanted to be a doctor,” I did not. I entered the University of Notre Dame fiddling with the notion that I wanted to become a scientist. Excelling in brutal introductory science courses reassured me that I had the capacity to succeed, but I was not convinced of my drive. Moreover, becoming a ‘scientist’ sounded great at family reunions, but its vagueness left me with little direction. Therefore, I turned to volunteerism as a rewarding way to gain insight into my own passions. Area hospitals allowed me to interact closely with patients of all age groups. My role was one of a listener. That most important role continues today.

Lessons learned at Notre Dame extended well beyond the classroom. However, one summer training as an EMT-B and a second conducting research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center under Nicos Karasavvas, Ph.D., and David Golde, M.D., provided firsthand exposure to clinical medicine and basic science. Slowly, a career in medicine morphed from merely a plausible idea to an inevitable one. After prolonged introspection and experience, I concluded that medicine was the only field that embodied all aspects of my personality.

Continuing on the theme of service, I decided to initiate a summer service project sponsored by Notre Dame at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Working with Yale’s unique and progressive Elder Life Program, I worked directly and autonomously with patients and loved it. I was hooked. Seeing the impact I could have on patients changed my view on medicine from a career to a vocation.

Commencing with the arduous task of medical school applications was daunting. Clearly, being a Connecticut resident led me to investigate UConn. I also visited Columbia, Loyola, Georgetown, Yale, and Northwestern on the interview trail and fortunately my options were open. I chose UConn for its innovative curriculum, demonstrable advocacy for its students, performance driven by collaboration rather than competition, and family-like atmosphere.

As I have progressed through UConn, it has exceeded all of my expectations. Its clinical focus during the first two year through the Student Continuity Practice and Principles of Clinical Medicine course equipped me with the framework to hit the ground running in my third year. I could then focus on the significance of a patient’s history and physical exam rather than their choreography. Patient notes in the third year could immediately be tailored to assessment and plan without struggling over format. During clinical clerkships, medical students behave like sponges. UConn’s clinical focus throughout the first two years allowed me to absorb my maximal capacity on the wards.

My habit of self-reflection did not end with the start of medical school. Rather, the questions became more sophisticated and the answers more profound. Clinical medicine, academic research, and teaching compete for supremacy in my career plans. However, stepping directly off the Notre Dame campus and onto UConn Health Center’s, I realized I needed more experience to make an informed decision about what really drives me. Therefore, I applied for the Stanley J. Sarnoff Endowment for Cardiovascular Science Fellowship during my third year. The Sarnoff Fellowship is a national research program open to second or third year medical students who have an interest in research, but do not have enough experience to commit to it fully. Its mission statement describes my dilemma. Aided by the supportive faculty at UConn, including Dr. Bruce Liang, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine and sponsor of my application, I was awarded a one-year research stipend to conduct cardiovascular research at any institution in the country. I am currently completing my fellowship at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts in the lab of Drs. Jorge Plutzky and Peter Libby.

My path towards medicine has been steady, but filled with reflections and adjustments. That theme continues today and will undoubtedly carry me throughout my career. Meaningful introspection requires constant acknowledgment of the past and hopes for the future. I will always look back at UConn as the cornerstone of my life as a physician. Referring to Dickens’s Great Expectations, on that memorable day when I spoke the Hippocratic Oath at UConn’s first-year orientation, UConn established the first link in a long chain that will be my life in medicine.