The Blossoming of a Mentor
I took anthropology at UConn, and there was always this gentleman who sat back by himself, and no one really knew who he was. So I just went back, sat next to him, and we started talking after class about all these things about anthropology, and he asked me, what do you want to be? I said I want to hopefully go to med school. He said, I know this pediatrician [Dr. Greenstein] who would love to talk to you. Later that day, he invited me to lunch. So I started getting lunch with him, his wife, and Dr. Greenstein on Saturdays. It just kind of blossomed from there.
I just have so much respect for my mentor, Dr. Greenstein. He's a pediatrician from Connecticut, and he has provided so much insight into my life. When I told people I wanted to apply to med school, they told me, 'you're not going to get in with your grades,' and Dr. Greenstein said, 'we'll have to work on it,' but he never once told me it’s not possible. I got a chance to shadow him, and I saw parents of patients that he's had for 20-25 years, going up to him, having these conversations, bringing up things that he's done for them in the past. I loved it.
Paying It Forward
I'm all for paying it forward. You know, I always tell that to Dr. Greenstein. He provided me with such a service, believing in me and seeing something in me at that moment that I did not see in myself. I didn't see it in my grades; I didn't see it and clubs and organizations I was joining. I was that undergrad who really could use someone to just bounce ideas off of, and Dr. Greenstein provided that for me. He was almost like a hype man. He was always like, of course we can do it. If you want to do it, we can do it. He never once told me, no, you can’t do that. If he did think something wasn't the best for me, he would do it in a way that allowed me to kind of get there on my own, which I think is a really amazing skill to have. My mentee wants to be a doctor, because he sees me all the time. So I call him Dr. Fed. And I just say it. I call all these students doctor, because they need to see themselves as that. If you haven't seen anyone who looks like you, or people act like you are toxic, you feel alone, and you can't see it. If you start seeing it in yourself, it’s a game changer. So that's what it means. I'm going to keep calling these kids doctors until they want to be engineers, and then I'll call them engineers… or whatever it is. I'm here to aid in whatever they want to do when they want to do it. And so yeah, paying it forward.
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I'm a Huge Proponent of Mentoring
[My COM Mentor] has been actually really helpful. Our first conversation was probably maybe 20-25 minutes, and I think what he really wanted me to focus on at this moment, in this time, was getting myself into a space where we can have more in depth conversations about what I want to do. Because right now is not really the best time to have in depth conversations about applying to residency. He said, do your question banks, get the board score that you'd be proud of, that you're happy with, that you think is representative of that, and we can work on everything after. I one hundred percent trust that. He’s going to be very on top of it. He seemed very genuine. I really do appreciate that he wanted to try to just keep me very much focused on knowing what is directly ahead of me today. I want to make sure I'm very proud of my board score and all the effort I put into it. So I do appreciate that. He is very helpful, and I'm a huge proponent of mentoring.
That’s What Journaling Did For Me
I journal all the time. There’s a lot of brain dumping. I'm always consistently writing things down. My mentor told me about journaling and how it was really important to him. A friend of mine, Caroline, bought me the journal when I graduated. I'm very lucky that I have it because I’ve been able to document my first two years. It’s cool to look back and see all the things you've done; it's so easy to be in medical school, and just forget about all the accomplishments that you've had. You’re not giving yourself the credit of, I crossed that milestone or accomplished my goals. You're going to fail some things, and I failed a lot of things, but you need to rely on your track record. I did it. I came here. They accepted me. They saw something in me, and I want to push that forward. I think that's what journaling did for me.
The Art of Medicine
Honestly, I want to learn the art of medicine. When I was applying to medical schools, my sister said something to me. She said, “you might know that the
Student Doctor Jalil at the COM White Coat Ceremony