Interview with Dr. Etsemaye P. Agonafer,
White House Fellow and Class of 2014 CDU / UCLA PRIME Alumna
You’ re the daughter of two Ethiopian immigrants?
Dr. Agonafer Yes, my father came to this country when he was 15, during the reign of Haile Selassie, and my mother came in her late 20s, fleeing the socialist regime. They sort of met serendipitously in Albuquerque, New Mexico, fell in love moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, had me and my younger sister. We lived in the Bay Area until I was about 10. And then we moved to Southern California. I grew up in Torrance. I excelled in school was valedictorian of my high school and went to USC for undergrad.
Did you experience culture shock when you went to USC?
Dr. Agonafer Absolutely, as a first-generation college student I did not know what to expect or how the experience would show me the differences between my own upbringing and my peers. I didn’ t have peers that were working four jobs while studying biochemistry full time. I was a research associate in a genetics lab. I worked in the USC mailroom where I sent out acceptance letters and financial aid packages. I worked for No Child Left Behind and actually went into the homes of kids throughout LAUSD to teach them math, science, reading and writing. And finally, I worked alongside my mother at Nordstrom’ s as a sales associate; a job I still consider to be the most challenging I have ever worked.
So how did that experience form you along the way?
Dr. Agonafer Each and every one of my responsibilities really shaped me into the physician, educator and researcher that I am today. The discipline it took to fulfill my personal and educational responsibilities— from studying long nights to develop critical problem solving skills; to paying attention to small details as I pipetted whole blood samples; to going into student’ s homes and trying to assess their learning abilities and help them progress; to providing customer service to like my mother does to this day to make sure our family had basic needs. All of those things really were the building blocks to the tools I needed become a physician in service of others.
I graduated from USC with a terrible GPA and was told that I had no chance of getting into medical school. But I was fortunate to have many folks along the way who believed in
my vision of being a servant to my community. After USC, I was accepted into the UC Davis School of Medicine Post- Baccalaureate Program where I strengthened my GPA with upper division and graduate-level science courses and took a MCAT prep course.
What about your experience with Dr. Calmes. How did how did that first interaction go?
Dr. Agonafer The first time, I met Dr. Calmes was during my PRIME-LA interviews. This was when the multiple mini-interviews format was a brand-new thing. In the 9-minute interaction, instead of following the prompt that I read before walking into the room, to my surprise she went off script to understand me as a person. I walked out of that long interview day uncertain of how it went and definitely had no idea what Dr. Calmes thought of me. In fact because I didn’ t hear back from the program, I thought I had blown my shot. It wasn’ t until many months later, during orientation week, where we sat down for our one-on-one and said something to the effect of—“ Look, despite the flags on your application, we believe in you. We know you’ re resourceful. You know how to ask for help.” She was my biggest champion throughout medical school, especially during my residency application, and someone that I continue to reach out to for guidance.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 12