Meetings Blog
2022-2023
Here's some information and a quick summary of our past meetings with guest speakers!
All meeting recordings are in Google Classroom.
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Ria
PA Student
April 27, 2021
Ria is an incoming PA student who pursued her undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics at VCU. Ria talked about why she chose the PA route instead of physician—mostly because you would have more freedom to switch fields. She detailed her experience working as a medical assistant at a dermatology clinic. Lastly, she answered our questions about VCU and the classes she took there, along with what she did in a typical day at the clinic.
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If you would like to reach out to her, you can contact the email address in the button below :)
Dr. Abhyankar
Family Medicine Physician
March 23, 2021
Dr. Abhyankar is a family medicine physician in NY. She spoke about her journey, starting with why she wanted to be a physician and then moving on to why she chose to specialize in family medicine. She advised us to take a gap year after undergrad as that will allow us to be introspective and help us understand what type of physicians we want to be. She also answered our questions pertaining to her clinical and the healthcare setting experience.
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If you would like to reach out to her, let us know via email and we can send her your questions :)
Dr. Singh
Epidemiologist
February 23, 2021
Dr. Singh is an Epidemiologist working as a Malaria Surveillance Specialist with the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr. Singh talked about how he provided support to the Ebola outbreak response in Liberia while working with the WHO. He also spoke about his work in Mesoamerica, where his team monitored infectious diseases and provided numerous training workshops on epidemiological analysis and malaria-specific control measures.
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If you would like to reach out to him, let us know via email and we can send him your questions :)
Mrs. Grilliot
Pediatric Physical Therapist
February 9, 2021
Mrs. Grilliot is a Physical Therapist at INOVA working in Pediatrics and the NICU. She also teaches the health sciences and language of medicine class at the academy in Chantilly High School. Mrs. Grilliot talked about her journey of becoming a physical therapist, starting as a college student to working at various medical facilities. She also gave us a briefing on her daily schedule at the hospital and answered questions regarding physical therapy.
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If you would like to reach out to her, you can contact the email address in the button below :)
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Benita, Jessica, Nathan
Pre-Health Students at Virginia Tech
February 2, 2021
The pre-health students (who are all majoring in Neuroscience) from Virginia Tech gave us insight on pursuing a medical career through college. They spoke about the classes and extracurriculars that they are currently taking along with the certifications/licenses needed for becoming an EMT or CNA. They also answered our questions on what high school students can do—shadowing, volunteering, etc.—to be better prepared for a pre-health track.
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If you would like to reach out to them, you can contact the email addresses in the button below :)
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Dr. Deshwar
Emergency Medicine Resident
January 26, 2021
Dr. Deshwar is an Emergency Medicine resident at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program. The meeting was mostly a Q&A, starting off with a quick introduction of Dr. Deshwar and then delving into club members' questions. He mainly discussed his unique experience as an international student (from Canada), and tips for us as high school students interested in the medical field.
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If you would like to reach out to him, you can contact the email address in the button below :)
Dr. Gong
Researcher & Professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine
December 8, 2020
Dr. Gong is a researcher and professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, and most of her research involves the study of the brain. During the meeting, Dr. Gong talked about her journey through college as an immigrant and her research of cell biology. She also talked about the pros and cons of pursuing research, delving specifically into her case study with brain development. Lastly, she gave us tips to pursue a medical career pathway.
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If you would like to reach out to her, let us know via email and we can send her your questions :)
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Mr. Casias
Emergency Medicine Technician (EMT)
October 20, 2020
Mr. Casias is an Anatomy and Biology HN teacher at Chantilly. During his meeting with FHL, he detailed a day in the life of an EMT and explained why he chose to become an EMT rather than a paramedic. When speaking about this, he introduced us to the mentally taxing side of being a healthcare worker. He also spoke in-depth about the process of becoming an EMT and which colleges have programs related to it, such as the University of Pittsburgh.
If you would like to reach out to him, let us know via email and we can send him your questions :)
Dr. Darsh, DO
Physical Medicine & Rehab Resident (PM&R)
October 6, 2020
Dr. Darsh is a DO and is a PM&R resident. During his visit to FHL, he talked about the difference between an M.D. and D.O. degree and why he personally chose to go the D.O. route. He even showed us an interesting case study as we got to diagnose the patient along with him! Lastly, during our Q&A session, he said that some important advice he would give us is to major in anything you're interested in, even if it's not typically a 'pre-med' major.
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If you would like to reach out to him, you can DM him on Instagram @doctor.darsh :)