{"id":48104,"date":"2020-03-15T07:30:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-15T14:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=48104"},"modified":"2020-03-15T06:53:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-15T13:53:08","slug":"thriving-in-medical-school-in-business-school-and-as-a-professional-athlete-episode-355","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/thriving-in-medical-school-in-business-school-and-as-a-professional-athlete-episode-355\/","title":{"rendered":"Thriving in Medical School, in Business School, and as a Professional Athlete [Episode 355]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Listen<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Future orthopedic surgeon, MD\/MBA Aiming for olympic fencing [Show summary]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You think you have a lot to do? Our guest today is an MD\/MBA student who happens to be training to join the U.S. Olympic fencing team and compete this summer in Tokyo. How does she do it all? Let\u2019s find out.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interview with Kamali Thompson, MD\/MBA student and sabre fencer for Team USA [Show notes]<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our guest today is Kamali Thompson, a fourth-year MD\/MBA student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. Kamali attended Temple University as an undergrad, and graduated with honors after majoring in biology and minoring in psych. She has been fencing since 2006 when she was in high school. Kamali is a member of the 2019 national team completing research in the sports medicine division in the department of orthopedic surgery at NYU, and starting to become an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon. She\u2019s also a 2018, 2019 author for Doximity, and Kamali is currently training for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us a little bit about your background outside of medicine and where you grew up? How and when did you get involved in fencing, and medicine for that matter?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m from a town in New Jersey called Teaneck, New Jersey. It\u2019s 20-ish minutes away from New York City. I grew up like a regular kid. I was interested in ballet, and I danced for a really long time from the age of three. I have a younger brother, and when I was in eighth grade I was on my way to go into the normal high school in our town, Teaneck High School. And I was at our Teaneck High School open house and my mother was with me, and I was actually dragging her to the dance room because I was so excited about getting to high school and dancing and being on the dance team and all that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got to the cafeteria and there was a fencing demonstration going on. And my mom, she stuck her head in. She\u2019s like, \u201cOoh, what\u2019s this? What\u2019s going on?\u201d And I was saying, \u201cMom, who cares? Come on, let\u2019s go.\u201d And she spoke to the coach, the high school coach, and the high school coach told her about the pros, saying how fencing is really unique, and how if I was able to get involved with a team, it could really help me get a college scholarship. And that coming from a dance background, I would have the basics, like footwork and bouts and all that stuff. So my mom was sold immediately, and she told me that I was going to be fencing in the fall with the high school team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I started fencing on the high school team, I did that for two years, and then after two years I really started to like it. I wanted to get better. And for fencing, what you have to do is you have to go to a fencing club where you get a coach, and you take private lessons and you fence several days a week. My coach recommended that I go to a club in New York City called the Peter Westbrook Foundation, and that is a club that was created by a six-time Olympian, Peter Westbrook, who wanted to help minority kids in the New York City area get involved with fencing. Fencing is very expensive, so it\u2019s not something that a lot of inner city kids are looking to do. When you start off at The Peter Westbrook Foundation, you go on the Saturday morning program where you learn the basics of fencing, and they have different ages and different skill levels. So I started off in the advanced class, and my mom said, \u201cWell, I\u2019m going to go to New York City on Saturday. I\u2019m not leaving this nine year old at home.\u201d So Khalil, my brother, had to come by default. But after the first day he\u2019s like, \u201cThis is crazy. This is great. I want to go fence too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<< Check out our What Med School is Really Like Series to hear what real students are saying about med school! >><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get interested in medicine and becoming a doctor?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to be a pediatrician<\/a> from as long as I could remember. My mom had this little dress up box where she put all her old clothes and old old high heels and stuff in it. And I remember when I was young, there was a pair of scrubs, so I walked around the house in scrubs, and I can only imagine me, four years old, this pair of scrubs is drowning me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My pediatrician \u2014 I loved her and I loved getting shots, and every time I went there I was super excited. I wanted a shot, a lollipop, a sticker. I just loved everything about it. So I always wanted to be a pediatrician, and when I got to high school I was really passionate about helping childhood obesity and combating that issue and figuring out how to help kids lead a healthier lifestyle. So I was very dead set on becoming a pediatrician until third year of med school. That was the plan. So my emphasis was definitely on medicine. I knew I wanted to be premed, I knew I wanted to go to med school pretty much immediately after college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then fencing \u2026 I fell into it. It was a really cool opportunity. And once I started training at the Peter Westbrook Foundation, all of the kids who I was fencing with were national champions, international champions. They had been on world championship teams, and they were all getting recruited to go to schools, D1 schools. They were getting full scholarships. So that was the first time that I realized that this would be possible, because my mom wasn\u2019t even thinking about that. She was thinking, \u201cSomeone will throw you a bone and give you $5,000 a year,\u201d or something. But these kids were getting full rides to amazing schools. Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State. A lot of kids were going to Columbia because we were in the city. So I wanted to be like them, and I wanted to keep fencing especially because it was a lot of fun. We\u2019re 18 years old, we\u2019re traveling around the country by ourselves. It was great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got into Temple University. I got into several schools. I decided to go to Temple University because their fencing program was really strong. I got into the honors program. I really liked the diversity of the campus; it just seemed like the right fit for me. That\u2019s when I started getting really, really good, and I was 40th in the country when I got to school, and then by my junior year I was sixth in the country in my age group. So I got really, really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And my senior year a lot of students, they have to make the decision: Do I want to keep doing my sport or do I want to go into the real world to get a real job? But I knew for sure that for med school was happening because from day one I\u2019d wanted to give those kids their shots, that was my plan. But I didn\u2019t really feel like I\u2019d accomplished anything in fencing. I had done pretty well my senior year. I was All-American after the NCAA championships, but I didn\u2019t really have anything to claim. So I just decided to keep fencing. But if you\u2019re going to keep fencing after college, the only thing for you to really strive for is the Olympics. So I guess I\u2019m going to try and make the Olympic team and let\u2019s see how it goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the hardest part of the med school application process for you?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The hardest part for me was the essay. I actually had a great mentor who was the director of the honors program, and we had 20 drafts of my personal statement. And just the fact that she was able to sit with me and go through that because by draft three you\u2019re like, \u201cThis is great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we write this essay over and over again, but the supplemental essays<\/a> were just so draining for me, and I didn\u2019t get those until August when I\u2019m going back to school and I\u2019m starting the new year. So I\u2019m trying to do my classwork, I\u2019m trying to go to practice, and then I get an email asking me for six separate, one-page essays. So that was a lot. And I definitely missed a couple of deadlines<\/a>, but I got into school so it worked out. It all worked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About how much time were you spending in fencing both as an undergrad and as a medical school student?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So undergrad, we have practice from three to six, and we did that five days a week. And then on the weekends, during the season, I went back home to train because no one\u2019s fencing on the weekends in college. So I was spending at least 20 hours a week. And then once I got to medical school and I made the decision to train for the Olympics, I just increased. So I now was going to the gym for an hour each morning before classes started. And then the commute to and from practice really killed me because I was in New Jersey traveling to New York. That\u2019s an hour both ways, and then practice itself with at least three hours, at least four days a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did you like best about your medical school experience at Robert Wood?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So Robert Wood Johnson is amazing. And the reason I chose it was because I felt like when I went for my interview, that school was interested in me as a person, not just me in terms of my stats, like my MCAT score and all that stuff. And I thought it translated really well to everyone that they chose to be a medical student. Everyone that I\u2019ve gone to school with, and I\u2019ve been in three different classes at this point, they\u2019ve all been amazing individuals. We\u2019ve had people who started their own business. We\u2019ve had people that came from Wall Street. We\u2019ve had people who have done mission trips and made a huge impact in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when you talk to them, like when you\u2019re talking to me, we\u2019re normal people. We\u2019re not extra smart where we\u2019re really awkward around people. We\u2019re not super arrogant because we\u2019ve accomplished a lot. We\u2019re just really normal people who have great goals and are really ambitious. So being surrounded by people in that environment was great, because medical school can be super competitive; it can be very cut-throat. I\u2019ve never felt like that with any of my classmates. It\u2019s always been very friendly. Everyone wants to help each other out. Everybody genuinely wants everyone else to succeed. And I think the way Robert Wood picks their students, they have a great way of maintaining that environment. If you\u2019re thinking about applying to Robert Wood, you definitely should. I absolutely love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first year, we had a presentation on different things you could do through the school and there were dual degrees. MPHs, MBAs, JDs. And MBAs just got to me for some reason because my mom always told me knowing business, understanding business, will be crucial for any adult. And they were offering a one-year program instead of two years. So I was like, \u201cWait, this is  great. Why would I not take advantage of this?\u201d And so I applied to the MBA program<\/a>, and I did it between my second and third year, and I think it was a great, great opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you see yourself using this degree at all?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For sure. I think one of the most important things I actually learned was more about personal finance. And especially right now, Millennials, we are behind in terms of how much income we\u2019re making compared to our parents and our grandparents. That combined with student loans, it\u2019s really easy for someone my age to fall behind in terms of financial planning. But business school was great in terms of teaching me what I should be doing. Even if you can\u2019t do that much, you can still do a little bit here and there, which adds up. So that was great. And then I learned a lot about healthcare, pharmaceutical decision, supply and demand of healthcare, and just amazing things that I think everyone should learn in medical school, but we already have so much crammed in it. It\u2019s hard to fit one more semester of business stuff in there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What could be improved at Robert Wood in terms of your medical school experience?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I decided that I was going to go into orthopedics during my third year of medical school, and that was really difficult. It was a huge transition. And I feel like if I would\u2019ve had a little bit more exposure to ortho or any other field, maybe anesthesiology, those rotations that we don\u2019t have third year and those things that we don\u2019t get to see until the last minute, I think I would\u2019ve been more prepared earlier. So, if there was a way that we could just have more exposure to every single field. I don\u2019t think I have any interest in radiology, but you never know. So if I would\u2019ve seen something first or second year, maybe I would\u2019ve gotten radiology. I don\u2019t think our school and a lot of other schools have a great way of introducing students to every single field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You had this dream to be a pediatrician, and year three, you switched to orthopedic sports surgery, which is quite a switch. How did you go through that switch and why? And then the other question is, you seem to be taking a rather long time to get through medical school. How has that worked?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The way our schedule is for third year of med school, things are grouped differently. So pediatrics, family medicine, OB-GYN and psych are in a different semesters then internal medicine and surgery. So my strategy was to do the rotation that I was most interested in last, so I could show them how smart I was after third year; \u201cI know all this stuff.\u201d Which meant that internal medicine and surgery were first for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I finished internal medicine but was not feeling it at all. And then I get to surgery, I\u2019m super nervous. Surgeons have this reputation for being really blunt, really mean, really forward, moving at a really fast pace. And I have no interest in this. So I\u2019m just going to sit here. I don\u2019t even care what\u2019s going on. But little did I know, it was amazing. The first day, these people were moving like me. I\u2019m very Type A: \u201cLet\u2019s get this done. Why is it taking so long?\u201d So I saw me, and all of the surgeons that I encountered and the residents and all the stuff I was seeing was just so cool. I\u2019m cutting into abscesses, I\u2019m holding people\u2019s intestines, I\u2019m taking out spleens and gallbladders. I was like, this is really awesome!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so I was telling my mom every day I have another cool story for her and after two weeks (orientation was eight weeks), she said, \u201cI think you should really consider going into surgery because I\u2019ve never heard you sound so passionate about this.\u201d It just so happened, the people who I actually follow the most are pediatric surgeons, so maybe that was adding to it too. The little kids, they\u2019re so adorable, and we\u2019re fixing their hernias, I love this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we had electives that we could choose for the last two weeks of our rotation. And I chose ortho, because even though I wanted to do pediatrics, I was thinking about sports medicine, pediatrics and sports medicine. So I said, \u201cAll right. Well, ortho, it\u2019s kind of like the surgical side. Let me see how that goes. That should be interesting.\u201d And my whole class apparently wanted to do ortho, so all these people were trying to take my elective from me. So after six weeks of people wanting my elective, I was like, \u201cNo, I want to see what this is about, because what\u2019s so exciting, what\u2019s the hype about?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So my first day, I\u2019m doing an osteotomy and we\u2019re cutting this 16-year old girl\u2019s leg, and there\u2019s two surgeons. And one of the surgeons is like, \u201cI don\u2019t know if she\u2019ll be able to put the screw in.\u201d And then the other says, \u201cI think she can do it, I think she can put it in. Do you want to put this screw in?\u201d I said, \u201cOf course I want to put the screw in.\u201d So I put this screw into this girl\u2019s leg, and half of me is like, \u201cI\u2019ve got to do this because this man over here doesn\u2019t think I can,\u201d but the other half is thinking, \u201cThis is the coolest thing I\u2019ve ever done in my life.\u201d And then that\u2019s when it happened. I was like, \u201cI can do this every day for the rest of my life. Just fix people and cut into them and put screws and drills, and this is amazing.\u201d So, that was it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would say about 50% of my long path through medical school is because of fencing. So I try to make the 2016 Olympic team, and in pursuing that, the year of the qualifying year, I was going to be in my third year of medical school, and that just wasn\u2019t really conducive to me training. Third year of medical school, you have all these rotations. For me, a lot of them were in South Jersey, which means it would be much harder to get to New York City to train. You\u2019d never know when you\u2019re going to get let out. And more importantly, you have to be present. So you look at the clock and, \u201cWell, can you let me out now so I can make the train and get to practice,\u201d and all this stuff, and you\u2019re only allowed a certain number of absences. And I have eight World Cups that we\u2019ve traveled to Europe and Asia and all the other places, so that wasn\u2019t going to fly either, me asking, \u201cOh, I know I have to be here, but do you mind if I go to Korea for a second?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I decided to get my MBA in that time because it would be a very useful degree for me to have. It\u2019d be a great use of my time. It\u2019d be closer to practice, and I wouldn\u2019t feel stressed out trying to juggle too much stuff. So then I come back to med school after the Olympics. I didn\u2019t make that team, but I was the alternate. I come back to med school, I finish my third year, and then I decide on orthopedic surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was advised to me that I should not graduate medical school, especially entering a competitive specialty, until I\u2019m ready to apply to residency<\/a>. But it\u2019s 2017 and I\u2019m trying to make the 2020 Olympics. A lot of my mentors and my Dean told me the best thing for me to do anyway, to match an orthopedic surgery, would be to do research, and that\u2019ll be perfect for me needing to wait until after 2020 to apply residency because it would just take a couple of years. So that\u2019s why I\u2019ve been in med school for a very, very, very long time. But it\u2019s worked out really well, and I think all the decisions that I\u2019ve made have been beneficial to my career in fencing. Not being able to graduate until 2020 has actually helped me realize all these things are useful and I\u2019m glad that I\u2019ve done it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Robert Wood has been fairly supportive of your ambition?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Oh, they\u2019ve been extremely supportive. Every time this happened, I was so nervous because I was like, \u201cWell, what if they say no? What if they\u2019re just like, \u2018No, you need to finish medical school and we\u2019re not going to do this.'\u201d But my dean has been very supportive of my dreams, and she knows that I have huge dreams. I\u2019m sitting here telling you I just want to go into orthopedic surgery out of nowhere. All of my deans have been very supportive. They guide me along the process. So I did two years of orthopedic surgery research at NYU, and this year I\u2019m taking off of school cause I\u2019m just training. And my Dean still checks in with me and reminds me that I need to start applying for certain things, like away electives and all that. So they\u2019ve been great. I definitely could not have gotten this far if my school did not want me to get this far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, I\u2019m fencing full-time. It\u2019s been amazing. I\u2019m so used to running around like a crazy person; \u201cI only have six hours.\u201d This research stuff that I have to be as efficient as possible and now I can get sleep, because I definitely did not get sleep before. I\u2019m always super early everywhere I have to go. But before I was always just making it because I\u2019m trying to maximize my time in every location. Now I\u2019m meal prepping. I\u2019m bringing my food with me. I\u2019m not eating out all the time. This is a great life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you currently also writing for Doximity or not this year?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

No. I was a Doximity author last year, which was a really great experience. But the only reason I didn\u2019t want to do it this year is because I\u2019m not in the medical field. I\u2019m a summer blogger. I have a blog called Saber & A Stethoscope<\/a>. And because I\u2019m not in the medical field right now, I thought it would be a little difficult to get ideas to be blogging about just because I\u2019m removed. But I will love to do it again in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was there ever a time, in either medical school or even when you were doing research or now that you\u2019re fencing, when you thought about leaving medicine?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

No, thank goodness. Especially because there are people that get to medical school and say, \u201cThis is actually not what I wanted to do.\u201d One of my research colleagues at NYU had just graduated, and he said he did not want to be a physician. He just didn\u2019t want to practice. So, no. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that it\u2019s going to be exciting for me in my career because I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to be only a doctor for 30, 40 years. I definitely know I\u2019m going to have my hands in other pots. I\u2019m not sure what those pots are, but I think we live in a great time now where Millennials, we can pick and choose what we want to do, and when we get tired of something, we just move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love medicine, and especially going to orthopedics, I haven\u2019t decided what I want to do, if it\u2019s pediatrics or sports or whichever. But whichever I pick, probably sports, I\u2019m going to have a lot of variety, and I\u2019m going to see different types of patients and be in different types of arenas, hopefully literally and figuratively. So I won\u2019t be tired of medicine at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you see yourself continuing to fence after the Olympics in 2020?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Yes and no. It\u2019s funny because a lot of people who stopped fencing still fence. They\u2019ll come to the fencing club. My fencing club, we have a lot of Olympians, like a lot, a ridiculous amount of Olympians. They\u2019ll throw their stuff on for fun, and they actually have a veterans\u2019 category that starts at 40 years old where they go to world championships and stuff like that. I\u2019m definitely not going to go to the Olympics and then leave the Olympics and leave my fencing stuff in the venue. I\u2019m definitely going to keep fencing. It\u2019s just a matter of on what type of level, and I don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll figure it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You mentioned your blog, Saber & A Stethoscope, and you also have a very active social media presence. When did you start writing the blog and why?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Originally, I wanted to start writing my blog the qualifying year of the 2016 Olympics because we\u2019re traveling all over the place. Like I said, we have eight world cups and we have four national competitions. We\u2019re all over the world, and I just thought it\u2019d be really cool to write about. But there was just so much going on, I was exhausted, and I couldn\u2019t get it done. So my third year of medical school I was like, \u201cOkay, this is great, this is a great time to start my blog. I\u2019m going to see a lot of things on my rotation in the hospital.\u201d I started my blog third year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an education aspect, a fitness aspect, and this year there\u2019s a Road to Tokyo aspect. It\u2019s just been a great outlet for me to see things and write about what I see. And a lot of my fitness blog posts that I write are struggles that I have. How do you maintain a workout regimen when you are traveling all over the world or just working all the time? And it just seemed like so much work to get to the gym. For me, I feel the same way, but it\u2019s so important, if anything, I have to find a way. So I write a lot of posts I think are relatable to other people. And then I have travel pictures. All the places that I go, I post in my travel gallery and I\u2019ve been to some really, really cool places. So it\u2019s just been great to, also, for me, just look back and see all the crazy stuff I\u2019ve done in the last four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you see your career evolving? You obviously have several years of residency. Do you see yourself working for a large practice? Going into your own practice? Working for HMO?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A lot of fellows that I\u2019ve spoken to in orthopedics suggest going to a private group practice. It\u2019s just how you can recoup your funds quicker. Also, after my two years of research, I actually really like research. So going into academic medicine is definitely an option too. And then I really, really, really, really, really want to work for an NBA or a WNBA team. So whichever avenue helps me get there faster, that\u2019ll be really cool too. I really like, obviously, being around athletes, so just to be around high-caliber athletes, it would just be amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would you have liked me to ask you?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It takes about $30,000 for athletes to become Olympians in the U.S., so a lot of things that we have to do are funded by ourselves. And I have an athletic trainer, I have a sports psychologist, nutritionist, my own personal coach, and we have to pay for all that out of pocket. Thankfully some of our trips are paid for, but then a lot of times this year, I\u2019m doing international camps where I just go to another country and fence with their national team, and that\u2019s on my own accord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m looking for people to help me raise $40,000. You can find my link, the donate page is on the homepage of my website. And if you go to www.kamalithompson.com<\/a>, it says \u201cdonate\u201d at the first button, and it\u2019s got exclamation points!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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