Medical School: Rocky Vista University COM
I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. So, undoubtedly, I am proud to be one of the few able to claim to be a NATIVE of that amazing state! I left Denver to complete my undergraduate degree at Loyola University New Orleans (which also means I am a proud SAINTS fan…WHO DAT!). I spent one of my undergraduate years living abroad in Tilburg, Netherlands, just south of Amsterdam. I returned to my home state to attend Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine. After medical school, I decided it was time to venture back out of my lovely state for residency. While I was raised with the mountains and wonderful Colorado landscape, I have always been a beach bum at heart, so Corpus Christi caught my eye.
I love to travel and move around. I feel very blessed to have had the opportunities to live in and visit so many places around the world, Corpus being one of them. I am always up for a trip to somewhere exotic or to go to the next big event, whether it is a concert, sports, or other sort of festival. My friends know if they ever need a travel buddy, my passport is always ready and my suitcase is always packed!
As a medical student, I rotated at the pediatric hospital in Corpus Christi and fell in love with the city. I was fortunate enough to return as a fourth year and work at Christus Spohn in the ED for a month. There were multiple reasons why I fell in love with this program. In the end, I chose this program because it felt like home. The faculty loved to teach and always did so in a constructive and supportive environment. The residents were welcoming…and I couldn’t help but notice, they were also HAPPY! Another aspect of the program was the unparalleled acuity of both medical and trauma patients. As an unopposed program (which is rare in EM) this means the EM residents run all trauma codes, get all procedures, and are responsible for the sickest of the sick. I rotated at many large academic centers and the amount of procedures and EM resident involvement with acutely ill patients was by far the largest at this program.
When it came down to choosing a program in Emergency Medicine I asked myself…”Do you want to do an insane number of procedures? Do you want to be responsible for sick patients from the beginning of your intern year? Do you want an unopposed program with unparalleled trauma exposure? Do you want to be HAPPY? Do you want a camaraderie with your fellow residents and attendings? And finally…do you want to do all of this with the beach as your backyard?” The only program that had a YES for every single question was Christus Spohn-Texas A&M in Corpus Christi and I could not be more thrilled to be a part of this amazing program!