Conference Helps Students Learn About Path to Medical School

By Eric Breier

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Allison Newell had thoughts about medical school throughout her undergraduate studies at Cal State San Marcos. But it was always challenging to envision herself actually in that field.

It wasn't until she had a conversation with Robert Iafe, one of her biochemistry and chemistry professors, that she gained the confidence to pursue it.

"He was the first professor where I actually went to his office hours and we talked human to human instead of purely professional," Newell said. "We talked about issues I had going on in my life at the time, struggles with self-doubt and feeling like maybe I want to do medicine but I'm not sure if I can. And he was really supportive of me. I felt like if Dr. Iafe believes in me then why don't I believe in myself?

"My conversations with him played a formative role in me changing the trajectory to end up where I am now."

That would be UC San Diego, where Newell is a first-year medical student. And now that she's in medical school, Newell is working to help other undergraduate students understand that they belong in the medical field.

It's what led Newell back to CSUSM on April 18 to participate in the university's second annual North County Aspiring Medical Professionals Conference (NCAMP). The conference, a one-day event for CSUSM and community college students, is supported by a grant through the California Medicine Scholars Program. CSUSM is a partner in the grant, which is led locally by UCSD.

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"The purpose of the conference is to help students learn about the different steps that are needed on their pathway to medical school," said Richard Armenta, who is the associate director of the Center for Training, Research, and Educational Excellence and leads CSUSM's efforts on the grant. "We have workshops on applying to medical school, transferring to four-year universities, and just help students think about the different things they need to do to be successful in getting into medical school.

"We want students to be able to be here and know that we have the resources and support for them to become medical students and future doctors."

This year's conference drew about 80 participants primarily from CSUSM, Palomar College and MiraCosta College. In addition to hearing from Newell and other medical students, participants got first-hand experience with clinical skills, including ultrasounds and medical evaluations.

"I think they really enjoyed it, especially the interactive session," said Newell, who graduated from CSUSM in 2021. "I didn't use an ultrasound until I got to medical school, so a lot of them had never used it before and never seen it before. They got to see their blood vessels and the inside of their eye. It's very illuminating for them. Especially as undergrads, I remember you feel so far removed from that kind of thing unless you have a special job, which is hard to get. So it was nice to give them kind of that perspective of the light at the end of the tunnel."

Newell was joined at the conference by two fellow CSUSM alumni who are in medical school at UCSD, Vince Adair and Austin Powell. Seeing people from a similar background is an important part of showing current CSUSM and community college students that they, too, can successfully navigate the path to medical school.

"It took me until almost the end of undergrad to build up my confidence and say, 'Yes, I want to pursue medical school. I want to be a physician. And I believe that I can do it,' " Newell said. "I feel like if there had been something like NCAMP back then that I could have gone and actually mingled with medical students and realized, 'Oh, they're just regular people. They don't have some special thing that I don't have.' I think that could have helped build my confidence earlier."

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