I was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, which is most significantly different from Baltimore in that, in Montgomery County, we're Redskins (three Superbowls), NOT Ravens (who cares?), fans. I am, however, an Orioles fan, as the Nationals did not yet exist in my formative years. That said, I don't understand Ravens fans over the age of 10, but I digress...
I spent my K-12 years at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville (Go Lions!) but then left my home state to attend Princeton University. Those were 4 great years. I learned a lot about economics, sang some a cappella, and had a generally great time writing my thesis about Napster. You see, I had known that I wanted to be a doctor since about age 5, so I wanted to use college as my last chance to study something as "unsciency" as possible aside from my pre-med requirements. I did do some summer NIH-ing in Bethesda, working for the NIAID, but economics was my main thing until I started medical school.
In my first year out of college, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was kind enough to let me defer my acceptance for a year to serve as a youth counselor for British 18 year olds taking a gap-year in Israel with FZY/Young Judaea YearCourse. Though I had a fabulous time there, I did have some unexpected exposure to Israeli EMS, disaster medicine, and Magen David Adom - Israel's Red Cross affiliate. Feel free to ask me about that some time! I also developed my British accent repertoire to near-stand-up-comic proportions.
Upon returning to the states, I started medical school at the University of Maryland, where I not only had amazing classmates, but had such a fantastic experience with the Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics programs, as well as the categorical and combined EM/Peds residents, that I decided I would like to stay. I also decided that, despite my initial worries about the place, I quite like Baltimore, and would be sad to leave only 4 years into my exploration of this cool little town. Fortunately for me, the match decided similarly, and here I am!
Now that I am done with residency, I can say with some pretty good authority that I couldn't be happier with my residency choice. I would recommend this program strongly to anyone interested in not only excellent training, but an excellent work/life environment.
- Medical Informatics
- Emergency Department Work Flow
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Disaster Medicine
