Anisha Gill
Why medicine?
After the University of Rochester and taking a science heavy class load, I was burnt out and was no longer considering medicine as a career. I was really lost in what I wanted to do, but always felt compelled to learn more about the social determinants of health. My family was one of the first Punjabi immigrants to settle in South Richmond Hill, Queens, NY. As a child, I observed my neighborhood’s demographic shift from predominantly Caucasian to Punjabi, Latinx, and Caribbean descent. While my community’s ethnic diversity shift enriched our neighborhood, we experienced unequal opportunity compared to our neighboring higher socioeconomic status communities. Due to systemic injustices, my zip code determined our access to food, housing, education, safety, and proper sanitation, which all contribute to our health outcomes, both physical and mental health. These personal exposures were my first Public Health teachers. To get formal training in this topic area, I applied to Masters of Public Health programs. While working on my qualitative thesis project at Brown University, I interacted with refugees from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Bhutan, Burma, and Iraq. The interviews and focus groups left a lasting impression on me and made two things clear: 1) this project further established my motivation to be a servant leader for vulnerable groups, and 2) this project demonstrated the limitation of my role as a non-clinician, confirming that I needed to be trained clinically and further expand my research skills to create high impact change. I worked for a few years, before applying to a Nurse Practitioner program. For me, it was important to marry my public health training with the way nurses practiced medicine, which was all inclusive of the patient’s environmental and biological factors.
What made you join MAPS?
I joined MAPS because I was looking for a community. Coming from an incredibly diverse place like NYC and then transition to a place like Rochester was difficult for me. It was further compounded by identity of being a first-generation college student. For me, community was important. MAPS provided that safe haven and also provided information and access to programs that I otherwise would not have known about.
Did you hold any eBoard positions while in MAPS? If so, what was that like for you?
I was Secretary (sophomore year), President (junior year), and Vice-President (senior year). There wasn’t a lot of infrastructure when I started off in MAPS. One of my goals as President was to create that infrastructure. It was a lot of establishing connections with people and following through with event planning. That year, we won the regional award for being one of the most active MAPS chapter. Each year, MAPS has leveled up and I am so excited to see the wonderful things that have come out of this organization.
How did MAPS help and or shape you/ the decisions you went on to making?
It helped me think about the important characteristics needed in medicine. I based some of my career decisions based on what I took away from MAPS. (For example, having research experience is usually stressed for pre-med students. In my professional life, I worked with a research group to gain more technical skills and refine the skills I developed during my graduate program.)
If you can give any piece of advice to any of the undergraduate students of MAPS, what would it be?
You belong. You matter. You are incredible. You are meant to do great things. Be gentle with yourself, your journey is not the same as the person sitting next to you. Sometimes you take a different route and realize that it was the best decision for you at that time. Whatever happens, if you are learning from experiences, then you are learning about yourself. Do not underestimate that. Also, medical school isn’t going anywhere, if you are passionate about something unrelated to medicine, go explore it. Develop your identity, because you are not one-dimensional; you are a complex human being with rich, vibrant and important experiences.
What are some of the things you are doing now?
I am in the first-year (more like 4 weeks, haha) of my nursing program, specifically specializing in Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) at Yale School of Nursing.