London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Educational/professional background

I completed an Associate of Science (AS) at Kent State University in 2017, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in microbiology and premedical studies at Miami University in 2019, and a Master of Science MSc Medical Microbiology at LSHTM in 2020. I am currently a fourth-year allopathic medical student at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and will graduate in May 2025 with my Doctorate in Medicine (MD). Most of my post-secondary education has been dedicated to the study of medical microbiology and clinical infectious diseases. I have spent considerable time caring for patients over the last 18 months with all types of infections, including bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic.

What I enjoyed most about studying at LSHTM

I think the MSc Medical Microbiology program is unique among similar courses at rival institutions in the United States and Great Britain because of its intense laboratory component. Lectures usually run in the mornings with at least several hours of lab time in the afternoons. I think learning about oftentimes obscure microorganisms in didactic lectures directly followed by hands-on instruction in the laboratory allows for an intimate learning environment. This course structure is particularly helpful for visual and tactile learners. For example, I have never forgotten the horrible smell of Citrobacter spp in culture and have linked that fun fact to clinically relevant information, like how it can cause urinary tract infections in humans. I would be remiss not to mention my classmates and how much fun it was learning alongside them.

What I have been doing since graduating

Since graduating from the program in 2020, I have completed 3.5 years of medical school in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the fall of 2024, I submitted my application for internal medicine residency, which lasts 3 years. I will be traveling to Peru in the spring of 2025 to study the magnitude of tuberculosis-intestinal parasitosis coinfections in Lima. I plan on pursuing a career in adult infectious diseases and applying for the Epidemic Intelligence Service program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.