Harvard Medical School Application Question #4

Supplement Question #4: How has an undergraduate volunteer, extracurricular, or research experience better prepared you for medical school?

During the Covid-19 crisis, I wondered, like many other people, what I could do to help bring an end to this pandemic. While some of my peers signed up for the Moderna’s human trials, volunteered in overcrowded hospitals, or worked in the labs researching and engineering the vaccine, I decided to help out on the innovative forefront of the development of herd immunity. Along with my colleagues at other R1 research institutions, we spread the pandemic from coast to coast, hitting up every local bar, stock-photo Tinder match, and crusted-over juul, in the name of protecting our community.

At times, it was challenging to juggle my cutting-edge research and academic course load. Sometimes, I’d have to miss spitting into my university-mandated COVID tube to shoot some brewskis with the boys at the off-campus Beta Omega Omega Beta house. During moments like these, I motivated myself to continue superspreading because I knew how important my work was. If I could keep Nemerov at full capacity the entire semester, I thought to myself, then maybe we could do Mardi Gras in person this year. The stakes were too high. 

During wellness week, my colleagues and I descended upon Miami in the largest medical conference of 2021. Over the course of the week, I attended lectures by leading COVID experts such as Bethany from UF, who taught the crowds how to repurpose their face masks as trendy bikinis for Friday’s darty at the Fontainebleau, and Chad of UM, who proudly announced that the only thing he tested positive for during his mandatory screening was chlamydia. 

I was honored to be a keynote speaker at the event. During my semester-long research project, I discovered that COVID was unable to penetrate frat parties on college campuses because it simply did not know a brother. I am humbled by the opportunity I was given to present my research to people from across the globe–it was incredible that people all the way from South Africa, Brazil, and the United Kingdom flew in to hear me speak. 

Over the course of the past few months, I have been so lucky to have created such a profound effect on my community. I hope to continue giving back as I start the next chapter in my life: becoming a doctor. I thank you, application committee, for considering me for a spot for Harvard Med class of 2024