Lorenzo Sewanan is an aspiring physician assistant from Queens, New York. He earned his B.S. at Trinity College-Hartford in 2012 and is a recent MD/PhD graduate from the Yale School of Medicine.
Our Shadowing and Experiences coordinator Kevin Chen ‘24 had the privilege of speaking with Lorenzo about his experiences. As a child of immigrant parents with a passion for service, he gives very inspiring and real insights into what it’s like to pursue an MD/PhD.
Transcribed by Shadowing and Experiences coordinator Isabelle Han ‘24.
KC: So to start off, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself?
LS: So to start off with, I'll just give a bit of my personal background. I'm an immigrant. I grew up in Suriname, which is a country in South America part of the Caribbean, and I came to the US when I was 16 with my parents and I moved to Queens, New York. And you know the reason we came was the same as most immigrants, basically trying to get more options, a better future, and have some economic and social mobility.
So I went to college and I decided to major in physics, but there's always a side of me that was into a couple of different things beyond science; I've always been really interested in working with people. I worked in my parents’ store from as young as I can remember, assisting customers, and it was always kind of fun to do that. And so I think I always enjoyed that and even when I started college I was involved in a lot of service oriented projects. And I think the other part that also fascinated me was activism and getting involved specifically for immigrants rights in New York because at that time when I was there was like in the late 2000s It was like sort of a Bloomberg era.
I guess there's sort of three themes; service to people, activism, and also a deep love and interest in science.
And in terms of my academic development and like sort of choosing my career pathways. I wanted to do research, and basically after working in a lab, I ended up being exposed to a neurosurgery resident, and other doctors that were also like MD/PhDs there and then I realized that, you know, maybe this could be like a viable thing to do so then I decided I would kind of look into it more.
KC: So why did you decide to pursue an MD and a PhD?
LS: I kind of wanted to have that clinical experience of serving people and learning how to help people in their conditions and suffering, and I also wanted to kind of have a really protected time to do research and grow intellectually. And so on one side; I had a good idea, like maybe I could kind of make things come together and it would make sense long term. But on the flip side, I was a bit indecisive, which is okay. Like, you don't have to figure everything out the day you start. We're allowed to evolve and change our minds and kind of feel things out.
KC: Now that you’ve been through your 8 years of MD/PhD, can you explain how it was like for you and what are your plans from this point onwards?
LS: Yeah, so maybe recap of what MD/PhD is, it’s a super interesting degree. Even more interesting at Yale. So, you kind of do everything that you do as an MD and you also get a PhD and they're pretty separate actually. In the first one and a half years, you spend a lot of time on the MD, like in the classroom or in simulated situations where you're kind of learning those skills and the knowledge to be a doctor. Then, for me, I did basically six months of clinical rotations to start developing those skills. And I really enjoyed it, actually. And when I started my PhD after two and a half years of med school, I took all the classes the PhD students would have to take and then the main part of your PhD, which is why it can have variable length, is your research. Your research is sort of based on luck. You know, like, you could get really lucky and finish through four to five years or you can get really unlucky and take six or more years. And then you return to the last part of med school, the last one and a half years, which is pretty much just clinical work again, finishing up your regular rotations and then doing advanced rotations that get you ready for practicing in residency.
So now I'm going to go to internal medicine residency and I am really interested in maybe pursuing a cardiology fellowship. I want it to be cardiology because I feel like it’s a field that has a lot of evidence based research and people are constantly churning out like evidence based research clinical trials. And we know a fair amount about the heart but there's so much that we, you know, don't know how to bring from the sciences into real world medicine. And I'm really interested in seeing how I can kind of bring that experience with me and bring my kind of interests and apply them towards maybe clinical trials or clinical interventions in the long run.
KC: That sounds awesome! So throughout the process of getting your MD/PhD, what was the hardest part for you?
LS: Yeah, I guess, a few things I would say that are difficult. I think one difficult thing that I got lucky on, was figuring out who to do your PhD with. There's a lot of importance in selecting the right mentor and the right lab environment. I kind of got lucky in a way and just met someone that I really liked. Another thing I think was hard was actually starting med school. You know you're part of this big community of like med students and everything, and a lot of your friends will graduate. So I definitely felt the loss of a lot of my friends. I think it's important to kind of have the reach out to the services that can support. So I'm a big advocate of therapy, and I think everyone should get therapy. I think the times of pretending that we're all like these like infallible heroic people is in the past. So, maybe not a super cool answer but a very real answer of “yeah man, stuff gets hard out there someday and you need help and you got to get it.”
KC: All right, and then the last question we have for you is what advice do you have for any undergraduates that are interested in possibly pursuing an MD or an MD PhD?
LS: Yeah, I think a couple things are important as an undergrad. I think the first thing is to really examine your motivations. Make sure you're really doing it for the right reasons, because you want to do it. And I think the best way to think about that is to be exposed. So, you know, if you really think you might want to be a doctor, you should definitely spend time in a clinical setting. Could you imagine yourself working for 16 hours or 24 hours, which doctors often do straight, and not having the time to actually take care of themselves; not using the bathroom when you want to and eating when you want to. You know these things are all part of being a doctor.
Like, it's a great privilege that we get to play a big role in people's lives, but it comes with a lot of sacrifices personally, and you should definitely make sure to establish those things in yourself. And I think the other part is, in terms of PhD, if you actually think you're interested in science you should just do your research. But I think in everything that you do, make sure you're doing things that you are really interested in. It's really easy to tell people that are insincere.
So I would say you should definitely have a checklist. Make a plan of things that you need to have in order to apply, but don't make that your whole life. You have to do other things I've taught like seven or eight courses at this point with the undergrads and you guys have a lot of diverse interests, a lot of you guys are very well rounded. And I would say you should keep that up as much as possible, because that makes you like a more interesting person, and gives you the life experiences that will make you a better doctor and scientist. To solve problems or help people in the long run, we need to have people with all kinds of backgrounds.
KC: All right, thank you so much for that. That was amazing, and very inspirational ! Definitely many Yale students are interested in many different things and I think it's really important to pursue all your different interests, especially since you’re going to be dedicating yourself to four to eight, or many more years of medicine. Yeah, thank you so much and it was really great to hear from you!
LS: Yeah, thanks a lot for asking! I don't know if I said anything too interesting. But hopefully, you know and people know that even if you come from some random background, like my family who never had someone go to college, I’m going to med school. Hope it shows that if you are willing to work hard and are willing to kind of figure out how to achieve your goals, you can definitely get there eventually.
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