I interned with Morgan Stanley in New York City during the summer after my junior year in their Fixed Income Sales and Trading division. Although a non-traditional decision for a premedical student, I wanted to expand on my economics major and further explore my interests in trading and investing.

This internship taught me how economic decisions made at the government and institutional level affected average Americans' lives, such as my future patients. My training at Morgan Stanley gave me an entirely new perspective on how a holistic approach to medicine and better understanding of economics can positively affect patient care.

In addition to practicing clinically, I plan to continue my involvement with healthcare policy. Doctors bring a unique perspective to government and advocacy. I plan to use my clinical knowledge and understanding of health systems to create change at a national level.

Medical school has been so much more fun than I expected! CWRU did an awesome job of selecting the class, and we all mesh extremely well together. Work hasn't gotten too hard yet, so my friends and I have been going to downtown Cleveland a lot and hanging out around campus. Our next set of exams is 11 weeks away, so there is plenty of time for relaxing and picking up meaningful extracurriculars!

My biggest piece of advice is to make sure you find your interests outside of medicine. The pre-med track is pretty straightforward in terms of "requirements," so I think it's important you follow your passions outside of medicine.

A common misconception is that you have to commit all your time to pre-med activities -- this is so false! In order to avoid burnout and diversify your application to medical school, you want to be a well-rounded individual that cares about things outside of medicine. Fortunately, you can likely incorporate these interests both in medical school and after you receive your medical degree.

For example, I plan to find another economics internship in medical school, and ultimately pursue an MBA. This is because I think they will be helpful for my personal development/career, but also because I find economics/finance totally interesting!