Healthcare Spotlights

Kali Smolen '17

Kali Smolen '17

Employer
MD-PhD Student

LinkedIn Profile
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kali-smolen-mdphd/

1. Tell us about your journey since graduation.
After graduating from GVSU in April 2017, I moved to New England to pursue an MD-PhD dual degree at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. I am currently in year eight of nine in my program. For those not familiar with an MD-PhD, it is when you pursue both doctoral degrees, usually at the same institution. The standard structure is two years of medical school, three to five years of graduate (PhD) training, and then two years of medical school (clinical clerkships). After this, you typically apply to medical residency or pursue a postdoctoral fellowship. You may be thinking: “That is so long!” or “That sounds so hard!” While you’re not wrong, let me tell you why I chose this path. The goal of MD-PhD training is to become a “physician-scientist,” or a doctor who not only sees patients/understands the clinical setting but who also is trained to perform research, plan experiments, read the literature, and pursue answers to questions related to human disease. You’ll often hear the phrase, “translational research,” which refers to investigating mechanisms of disease or therapeutics that will translate to helping patients in a clinical setting. At the heart of it, this is why I chose to pursue a dual degree. I love seeing patients and hearing their stories, and I love data and generating evidence for clinical guidelines. Another key benefit of the dual degree is the tuition waiver and stipend. Most programs waive your medical school tuition and provide a living stipend, making the eight-plus-year commitment financially feasible. Going to school for me is like my job, and I’ve really enjoyed pivoting between the lab and the clinical settings. The eight years have flown by, and I’ve grown so much as a person during this time and have been involved in so many things. For example, I founded a group at our medical school called Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, a student organization dedicated to healthcare sustainability. What does this mean? It basically means finding ways to practice medicine that are less harmful to our planet because current methods of both medical practice and research generate a lot of waste and a lot of carbon emissions. Doing waste audits and waste education events at our hospital has been a highlight of my time at Dartmouth. Instant gratification is hard to come by on this path, but I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.

2. Share a favorite Grand Valley memory.
My favorite memories at Grand Valley were made at the Sustainable Agriculture Project (SAP). That is where I met my best friends, learned how to cook, became passionate about sustainability, and learned to keep bees. Every Friday after farm volunteer hours, we would cook food in the farmhouse kitchen together and share in a delicious meal and vibrant conversation. I’ll never forget sitting around the bonfire, singing Avett Brothers’ songs, and munching on freshly harvested turnips.

3. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
I’ve been lucky to receive a lot of amazing advice, so it is hard to choose. The best is probably as simple as don’t be afraid to ask for help. This goes hand-in-hand with don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know. Medicine, science, and every other aspect of human existence is a collaborative effort, and no one person can know everything. Every one of us can learn from and teach others. The beauty is that most of us love to help other people. I love it when people ask me to read personal statements, for advice on running western blots, or how to talk to a patient about hard topics. I am not an expert in any of these areas, but I have experience that I can share with others, and I am always eager to learn from those with more experience than me. I once witnessed a fellow medical student say that all physical exam findings for a patient were normal, but they missed something obvious: a perforated eardrum. The student didn’t know how to find the eardrum with an otoscope, but they reported a normal finding instead of asking for help. It’s ok to ask how to do an exam like this, because it will help you learn in the long run and in turn help your future patients.

4. List three words you would use to describe your Grand Valley experience.
Empowering, Transformative, and Close-knit.

5. What difference would you like to make in the world?
I would like to help reduce the environmental impact of medicine and scientific research, empower patients to advocate for their health, and encourage people to have hard conversations. Being human can feel hard, and it is better to human together than to human alone.

June 2024

Interest Area(s)
Cell and Molecular Biology

Categories
Honors College

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Page last modified June 1, 2024