PERSPECTIVE
vice as a way to give back. As Grimaldo applied to colleges, cousins and friends left for Iraq, further motivating him to serve. Grimaldo was accepted to top premedical programs and to the U.S. Naval Academy, where admissions counselors bluntly told him not to attend if he was committed to medicine. Naval Academy students serve five years of active duty after college and need the military’s permission to defer service for medical school. Only 10 to 15 of the strongest students out of each class of about 1,000 are granted “I grew up in the Army; I know the culture and the deferment. demands. I want to serve families like mine.” Grimaldo went to the Naval Academy any— Mechelle Miller, MD way. “My priority was the military. Medicine had to come second.” In the end, he was allowed to apply to medical school. languages, but also to new antigens in every environment. The milk chocolate in an M&M, the preservatives in lunch meat and myriad other foods could send Miller into anaphylactic shock or A Pritzker Education trigger an asthma attack that left her blue in the face. Grimaldo’s and Miller’s paths converged when both were At each new home, she managed her allergies with the sup- accepted to Pritzker and received Health Professional Services port of a different Army physician. “If it weren’t for them,” Program scholarships. For Miller, the program became appealshe said, “I wouldn’t have made it through kindergarten.” ing as she considered financing medical school. “I grew up in She was so grateful for her military doctors that she chose the Army; I know the culture and demands,” she said. “I want to emulate them. to serve families like mine.” For Grimaldo, the scholarship was the obvious next step. After residency, he will serve a total of nine years as an active From the ER to the Naval Academy Grimaldo started considering a medical career during high school, duty physician — five years for his Naval Academy education while interpreting for Spanish-speaking patients at MacNeal and four for the health professionals program. Though he is Hospital in Berwyn, Illinois. Then, the aftermath of September excited that his residency will give him the emergency train11, 2001, pushed him to embrace his family values. His father, ing critical to war zones, Grimaldo struggles with living a civilian life while his closest friends are deployed. “I’m just who came from Mexico as a teenager, always told Grimaldo how grateful he was to the United States: He saw military ser- glad that soon I’ll get to give back,” he said. ■ ent experiences. Grimaldo wanted to serve the country that welcomed his parents as immigrants; Miller, a self-described “military brat,” was inspired by the physicians who cared for her growing up. Miller split her childhood among five states and two countries as her family moved with her father’s military posts. At each move, she adjusted to different schools, houses and sometimes
from five to one. Nwadei was so nervous she couldn’t open her own envelope and, instead, asked a classmate next to her to swap envelopes. When he read “Emory” out loud to her, she screamed and jumped. “It really dawned on me: We’re not just matching in residencies, we’re becoming doctors,” said Nwadei, who was among the 81 percent of matched U.S. fourth-years placed in one of their top three choices. “It’s like coming home, but moving forward at the same time.”
Fresh Start in a Familiar City Rows away, Sogyong Auh, AB ’03, PhD ’09, MD ’11, handed her youngest son, to whom she had given birth while applying to residency programs, to her husband. The MD-PhD student had applied to programs across the country in dermatology, one of the most competitive specialties, but she wanted to stay in Chicago. Her
stomach churning, she opened her letter. She’d been matched at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn for her transitional year, then at the Medical Center for dermatology. “We could have ended up in so many different cities,” Auh said. “We had talked at length before the whole process: Wherever I matched, we had to go. I was relieved we were going to be in Chicago.”
nal medicine, at 25 percent. General surgery and pediatrics were the next most popular, at 11 percent each. “The placements speak for themselves,” Humphrey said. “This was a spectacular class.” ■
A Spectacular Class The highest percentage of this year’s fourth-years, 22 percent, will begin their fi rst year of residency at the Medical Center. The rest will join programs in 22 states and Washington, D.C. Ten percent of the graduating class matched at programs affiliated with Harvard University; 5 percent matched at Stanford University programs. The most popular specialty among graduating Pritzker students was inter-
Sogyong Auh, MD-PhD graduate, (left) with her son Theo Han, her husband, Tom Han, and her baby, Samuel Han. Photo by Bruce Powell
Medicine on the Midway Summer 2011
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