Sabina Spigner, MD

Medical School: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Residency: OBGYN at Northwestern University

What do you hope to accomplish with your medical degree?

I plan to use my position as a physician to lend a voice to the underserved patients in the field of OBGYN and beyond especially those who look and identify like me. I also hope to continue improving medical education to facilitate training the next generation of physicians to be inclusive social medicine-minded providers.

What is your best piece of advice or biggest learning to share with pre-meds and students currently going through medical school?

Enjoy your time through all of this. It FLIES by and there are definitely the lowest of low valleys, but there are also incredible moments throughout the journey that you should celebrate! When you reach the finish line, you will be proud that you didn’t lose yourself along the way and proud of who you’ve become.

Breeann Lansiquot, MD

Medical School: Meharry Medical College

Residency: Psychiatry

What do you hope to accomplish with your medical degree?

I hope to help continue the work of destigmatizing mental health care, especially in minority communities. Mental health is health and I hope to help educate and build trust between psychiatrists and the public when it comes to patients maintaining their mental health and seeking additional help and treatment, just like you would with a PCP.

What is your best piece of advice or biggest learning to share with pre-meds and students currently going through medical school?

My biggest piece of advice to pre-meds/medical students would be to stay encouraged. This process can be very long, lonely, and discouraging but you are pursuing this for a reason! Be intentional about staying connected to the people and things that ground and inspire you to keep pushing forward. Try not to allow the stresses of school to have a negative impact on your self-care and joy.

Alex Wilkinson, MD

Medical School: McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston

Residency: Anesthesiology at Duke University

What do you hope to accomplish with your medical degree?

I hope to train to become equally compassionate and knowledgeable as a physician. I have a passion for both medical education and innovation and hope to have opportunities to practice during my time at Duke in residency! I ended up where I am today due to countless mentors and I hope to help others in their career pathways, whatever that may be.

What is your best piece of advice or biggest learning to share with pre-meds and students currently going through medical school?

First, realize the reason why you are going into medicine. It’s a long and hard journey, which is why it is essential to push through the many years of hard work required to succeed. Second, realize that hard work can beat talent any day. You do not have to be the smartest in the room to achieve your dreams, but simply the one that is willing to work the hardest to achieve it!

Samari Blair, MD, MPH

Medical School: University of Florida College of Medicine

Residency: Categorical Pediatrics at the University of Miami/Holtz Children’s Hospital

What do you hope to accomplish with your medical degree?

I really hope to provide quality care for underserved communities and serve as a role model for minority kids and teens and show them that they can and deserve to be in these roles. In addition, I will continue to pay it forward by providing mentorship for the pre-med and medical students that come after me. One of my biggest values in life is to leave every single place that I occupy better than I found it and that’s exactly what I intend on doing as I continue to progress in my medical career.

What is your best piece of advice or biggest learning to share with pre-meds and students currently going through medical school?

Always remember your why! Medical school is an incredibly difficult journey and it is SO easy to get lost with the back-to-back exams. Always take some time to reflect on why you started this journey and the many lives you will impact in the future.

Gabby Brauner, MD, MPH

Medical School: Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University

Residency: Stony Brook Medicine

What do you hope to accomplish with your medical degree?

I hope to use my medical degree to treat the person with the disease (as opposed to the disease itself). I want to incorporate my learning about public health into every interaction with each patient to try to provide better care. Eventually, I hope to be a medical oncologist focusing on breast cancer.

What is your best piece of advice or biggest learning to share with pre-meds and students currently going through medical school?

Try not to get completely sucked into medical school—don’t forget there are things you love and people who love you outside of medical school, too!

Ahmed Elhawary, MD

Medical School: Faculty of Medicine/Al-Azhar University in Cairo

Residency: Internal Medicine Residency / Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC / Queens Hospital

What do you hope to accomplish with your medical degree?

I’m aiming for a Gastroenterology and Hepatology fellowship and planning to continue my research work in Gastrointestinal and Hepatic diseases. In addition, I like tutoring students, which is why I created my YouTube channel.

What is your best piece of advice or biggest learning to share with pre-meds and students currently going through medical school?

First, don’t compare yourself to others online—after all, others are more likely to post their successes than failures. Also, try not to beat yourself up if you fail an exam, since we all failed one or two exams at a point in time.