Here we are. Pre-health one-on-one fall 2021. some things to note before we jump in, we are recording. So if you need to jump out, no big deal. We're in a webinar function, so please use the Q&A function. As you can see, we have many people here today to answer your questions. So do use the Q&A function. We might interrupt the presentation to answer your question or we are gonna leave plenty of time for questions at the end. And so just please, if a question comes up, let us now let's talk a little bit about who's here today. I'll start and then I'll pick somebody randomly. Maybe we can popcorn around. My name is on Ana Adinolfi, i am one of the health careers advisors on the career side in Arts and Sciences, Career Development. I see Darryl. Go for it Darryl Yes. That's the best picture of me ever. Hello, my name is Darryl Scott and I am the Director of Admissions student and create a development in the College of Human Ecology and how about if i go to Beth. Good evening everybody. My name is Beth Holland. It I'm the Director of Advising operations in the Office of Undergraduate biology. I am one of four advisors and pre-health advisors in the Office of Undergraduate biology, supporting our biological sciences students here on campus. And I will turn it over to Jen. Hi! I'm Jennifer De Rosa. I am one of three of pre-health advisors in the CALS office, assistant Director of Career Academic Support so Steve, Lori and I are available to help you with all your pre-health needs during your time here at for Cornell. I can go next. Hi everyone. I am Gabby Smith. I'm an Assistant Director in the Office of Academic diversity initiatives and an advisor in our pre-professional programs. And we serve our central unit. So we serve students in all of the colleges. Ben. Hello everybody. My name is Ben Martin. I'm an assistant director in the engineering advising office. I serve as the only pre-health advisor for the College of Engineering, helping students navigate the curriculum demands of both being an engineer in pre-health, as well as thinking through different types of experiences that can confirm this pathway. So good to be here. I'm going to turn it to Naya Thanks Ben. I am Naya Sou, And one of the advising deans in the College of Arts and Sciences. I am Ana's counterpart on the academic side, happy to spend tonight, with you all. so together we make of up HCAN or the health careers advising network at Cornell. There are, as we've mentioned, a few HCAN members who aren't here today, Dr. Chelsea Rule, who's the Director of the Health Careers Program here at Cornell, and then as some of us mentioned. We have colleagues within our offices division that also do this work. So this is a big chunk of it, of it. There are others that are part of the Healthcare advising network here at Cornell. So before we jump into our presentation, we want to get to know a little bit about you. You'll see on your screen a Poll Everywhere you can, either text using the text instructions or use your browser to go to pollev.com slash on a 2021. It takes a second to sign in the first time, but then the questions will auto populate after that. So please take a second right now to sign into Poll Everywhere. And I see people are doing it, already. Let's see who else we have here. No alumni made it. It doesn't look like, yet. All right, Great, This this presentation is intended to be an introduction to healthcare careers at cornell And so it makes sense that a lot of the people here tonight are from the class in 2025. But if you are a new transfer student, if you are new to considering the health professions, if you just want a refresher because it makes us forget things, this is a great place for you to be so glad that you're all here tonight. Just give us a second type in  for us where you're from. Mostly because I'm curious, have a guest or what's going to be the biggest place. But I guess we'll find out yes people representing their specific boroughs. Houston, Washington DC ... Chicago is really, it's really big love it. I was expecting New York City to be the biggest. we will see... Great. And I also asked, people where they are from sometimes because if you are an international student, so you're  here on an F1 visa, sometimes there's additional challenges when applying to medical school and getting into medical school in the United States. And so we want to be sure that if you are an international student, that you definitely come and see us sooner rather than later, because we have specific advice to give to you. I love how big Chicago is yay Chicago people it's making me really happy. Alright, one last line nope two last lines How are you feeling today? Mm-hm. Mm-hm. And you can clear your response if you actually accidentally dropped your pin lots of prelims happening, prelims coming up. I did this in a word cloud and a different one earlier and the biggest word was tired. lots of tired happening. So we're hanging out in the middle a few on either side. This is my last question for you. Nope. it is not my last question because thats a bad getway this way and we're just going to have to guess. Wait, let me scroll back and see if it works. Nope. We'll, just give out. The last question was, what health profession are you interested in? And there are so many health professions that Cornellians are interested in. The dominant one tends to be medical doctor, MD or DO. And so that's the apologies. If I slip or if any of a slip and say medicine or pre med, we really are here to serve all of the health professions, dentistry, optometry, a physician's assistant, occupational therapy. All of the spectrum and healthcare is exist at Cornell. And even though you usually hear about MD, and sometimes we slip and say MD, we are here to serve all students. Alright, that's, that's the introduction. So here's our plan today that we already had achieved. One thing which you met some of the members of HCAN We're going to talk about academic preparation for health profession schools, exploring healthcare career options, like I just mentioned, when they talk about what health profession schools are looking for, whether those core competencies and talk about how you can develop those during your time at Cornell. You've got resources. And like I said, we're going to leave time to answer those questions. Alright. So I'm going to kick things off a little bit and and Ana just had a great segway when she talked about, you know, we think of pre-health and pre-health careers as this broad spectrum. And one of the first things I'd like to encourage each and every one of you to do to enter this stage of your development with a really open mind and be very reflective as you move through this pre-health journey that you are on. Know that there is a wide range of university services, not only the folks on this call, but our colleagues, both staff and faculty colleagues that are available to support you on this journey. Don't resist the temptation of getting caught up into what I like to calls the pre-med current takes on a life of its own here at Cornell where, you know, you, you have conversations with your colleagues around campus and suddenly you feel like everyone is pre-med or you should  be pre-med or you should be a certain major to be pre-med. We can tell you our collective experience tells you that the most successful health care professionals are those that have arrived at their destination after really reflective process that utilize their resources have gained a lot of different types of experiences. So we encourage you to use not only us, our colleagues, your resources both within your college, within your major with an our, university wide central offices such as Oadi that Gabby is here representing today. Build your own network. You get a lot of information from a lot of different people. With the caveat that there are a lot of myths out there. The landscape of the health careers is changing rapidly. And so what may have been good advice 10, 15 years ago may not necessarily be the best advice today. So you'll see there's a hyperlink on the PowerPoint and that will link you to the main health careers advising page at the university. There's a whole page they're dedicated to mythbusting would strongly encourage folks spend time looking at that. Just like what got you into Cornell is going to help propel you to your next step in life. And that is you need to figure out what it be true to yourself, find your center, find your passion, and figure out a way to take those contributions and move forward in the world. In this large spectrum of health careers. Last but not least, take initiative and be patient. This, your journey is going to unfold. The predominant number of you are first year students here, take the full four years to learn about yourself and learn about the health career professions. So with that, you're all here, you're all set up to embark on a major or a specific academic programs. So if ANA could advance the next slide, I want to talk a little bit about, in addition to pursuing your academic plan here at the university you're attending today's session because you obviously have an interest in preparing for some sort of pre, health profession. And so one of the important things to think about is first and foremost, you need to make sure that you're staying on track to graduate and earn your degree on time. That's of paramount importance. Second to that is you want to figure out where the natural intersections with your coursework and the health careers profession you may be thinking about pursuing. Again on the PowerPoint you're going to see there are several hyperlinks. Those will take you to various resources available at Cornell to talk more explicitly about different levels of academic preparation based on your projected path. There's no right major to be a pre-health student. Know best major. What we know again from my years of experience is that the health professional schools want to see students who have pursued their passion as undergraduates. Whether that's philosophy, computer science, biology, math, history. Think about your major at Cornell as an opportunity for you to do a deep dive and a discipline that you're deeply passionate about that and around that you can wrap the require the prerequisites for many of the health careers profession. In general, as a student preparing to go into a health career, you're looking at taking a year of bio with lab, a year of gen chem with lab, organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics, a year of writing, and usually calculus or statistics. Again, there's a lot of nuance to that general landscape. In addition, that you're going to add some social sciences depending on whether you're looking at PA school, vet school, med school, DO school, each health professions is going to have a little bit of a different focus. And that's where you want to consult with the health careers advising network to talk about your specific path and how those are complimentary to your major, or that you're fulfilling those requirements because of the requirements for your initial major at the University. You want to strike the right balance between your academic coursework and all of those other experiences that you're going to get and that some of my colleagues are going to talk to you about here in a minute. So in addition to pursuing a major in earning a degree at Cornell, along the way, we know many of you may hit some bumps in the road or where can you go for some support and resources? And so I'm going to wrap up my little portion here by talking about some of the academic support resources available on campus and implore you to really think about using those. Whether that's office hours, we know time and time again, we talk with our faculty, we talk with our TA's. Office hours are highly underutilized. It's a great opportunity for you to go in and form relationships with your faculty. You may not necessarily even know how to begin a conversation, go and talk with the faculty advisor about his or her research. They love talking about that stuff. It's a great opportunity to develop relationships. You can see there's a bunch of other resources listed on this page. You can access those across many different college websites, whether it's your own home college or the pre-health advising page. But at the end of the day, the thing to remember is there is a very committed community here at Cornell to help you succeed and to help you thrive. It's the end of the day. It's why each and every one of us who are on this webinar today are doing what we do. It's because we have a passion for helping young people find their way, understand what their true calling is, make the most out of their experience here at Cornell. All of you have a home academic advising office. We have a couple representatives here today from offices like that. We have the office of academic diversity initiatives. If you are a student that either has identified student disability, a learning disability upon matriculation, or you encounter difficulties during your journey here such that you want to explore, possibly having some learning differences that could be addressed, why you're here. The student disability services office is a great resource. We have several representatives from our large network of Career Services. And then last but not least, I represent the Office of Undergraduate biology, which serves our biological sciences major on campus. And collectively, we really want to think of ourselves as your network of support as you go through your pre-health experience here. Hi, I'm going to take over here and talk a little bit about exploring health careers. So as Ana and, Beth both expressed it's a big health world out there. There's lots of options for you in finding what you're looking for. So as noted, we cover and help all pre-health areas. So dental, physicians, assistant nursing, genetic counseling, art therapy. Whatever you might have an interest in and that you want to explore, you can come talk to us and we can help you explore what you need to do to prepare for future education in those areas. And how to find opportunities and experiences to explore them and get some hands-on experience with them. Some of you might still be exploring. Some of you might still be thinking, I know I want health care, but I'm not quite sure what capacity yet. And again, that's okay. We're here to help you on that. You've heard the term journey multiple times on this is a journey, right? Oh yeah, we are here to discover and try things on. And that's one of the best ways of finding things and experience things and validating your fields. So we, in the career office of student services, offices are represented here today, can help students explore their options. Taught the right fit for you. And what fits your values, your interests, your personality, your skills, and finding that right fit, and how to do it and how to explore and move towards that. One resource that might be really helpful for those who were in the exploration stage is, is a great website. Explore health careers.org. It's all one word, explore health careers.org. And it is great profiles about a wide array of different career options out there in all different fields. So it might be a great place for some of you to start the next slide. So you're going to hear things about preparing, right for your experiences and preparing to build your application and gaining those experiences to do that. So in preparing what we have for pre-health first, second years and pre-vet we have some guide information online that focus to those target areas that are often very popular with students. And it's a great resource. And that, Oh no, no career development toolkit. Looking at some of that information, but don't rely on just those as resources, especially if you're looking at some of the other areas. So make sure you're looking at a variety of reputable resources. not some of those on reddit, but some things that you might find on. So the more social media they've make sure they are reputable organization websites to find out what specifically might need for your interest area. So for example, those who might be thinking about physician's assistant or nursing. While for medical school in our guide, we might say that is a recommended higher bio course for those going for PA or going for nursing. Anatomy and physiology are actually required courses. So, or for those who might be looking for dentistry. You know, medical school guy, just might take quality over quantity, you know, get some good hands-on clinical experience. But for positions like dentist or physician assistant or an our pre-vet students, there might be required numbers of hours that you need. So for dentists it's usually around the 100 for it prevets its 400. So knowing those nuances to those different programs. And again, we can help you with resources and identifying those areas of figuring those out and how to move them. So speaking of experiences, we'll segue into that. We get a lo t of questions about that within our areas. And there's no one ideal list of experiences that you can pursue, right? So you might kind of have this checklist of classes out there. But when it comes to your experiences, there's no one way or best way of doing it. It's finding what works best for you and your interests. So don't view activities as those checkboxes, but ways to explore the Career and build your skills and knowledge in a way that's meaningful to you. So use some initiative and finding experiences, right? Thinking out of the box finding. something a little creative on. Look for things that you're genuinely enthusiastic about. So we're going to go into some of those key bucket areas of what those experiences are and what they might look like. So again, keeping that open mind, looking for a variety of ways, there's no one way of doing that. So that being said, I'm going to pass things on to the next person in the line-up to start going through some of those experience areas. Thanks Jen. I will pick up on this slide. So Beth talked a little bit about the academic planning, which is important. So when you are thinking about any of the health profession schools, they think of this list that is on the the slide the help professional competency. So it is divided into a couple of categories of the pre-professional Competencies. Look a little different than the critical thinking reasoning, as well as the science competencies. There's not a course that you can take to develop social skills or your service orientation. This is a list constructed by the AAMC, but it's very similar to other health professions and actually even any environment in employment environment. So this is very broad, but when, as you think of it as a rubric for evaluating candidates, so the academic pieces are important, but your activity, you should hit these couple of these areas. As a matter of fact, all of them, if possible. Again, like Jen said, don't approach just as a checklist. But you want to think about activities that will expose you to the service. piece. so why is service important? and while medical profession is a , is a service-oriented profession. So they want to know that you really like working with people that you care about, people you good at working with people. So that's one example, but you can go down the list. And this is where I would recommend that you talk to a pre health advisor. As you are planning your extra curricular activities, to make sure that you are hitting some of these areas. Some of the many of you are first year. So when you are just starting out, It's kind of fun to just sample a couple. And then for the sophomore, juniors, and seniors, it's time to sort of sit down and think about how your activities are fitting into this framework up the core competencies. So even though this is designed, constructed by the AAMC, it is pretty much the same for those interested in dentistry school, pre-vet, PA, NP, any of the fields really , Ana do you mind going into the next slide? So what are some of the categories of activities that you should focus on as a student. So as a student, you have exposure, you have the opportunity of getting, gaining some clinical experiences. So if you are a pre-vet student, you want to definitely want the human and animal interactions. If you are interested in dentistry, definitely shadow or work in a dentist's office. And if you are thinking about DO again, make sure you are shadowing a DO. So why, why are these activities are in they are important because they show medical school that you are committed to the field, as well as demonstrating some of those core competencies that we just talked about. So basically the, the piece about clinical experience, think of it. There are two ways to gain those. One is shadowing. I'm actually going to leave that alone for a little bit. But back to as you're thinking about the activities, community service is one of those things that's available. Research and TA are also readily available as a student. But there are certainly other opportunities and you can, you can embark on and just you want to talk to us about it as you're thinking about. And this is where like Jen said, once you map out your interest with the expectations from, from health professional school, I'm going to pass it on to my colleague to talk about the next slides. So like Naya was saying clinical experience, one of those very important things, for any health profession that you're interested in. It's essential. No matter what health profession it is we want you to have experience working with patients and being of service to them. So there's a difference between clinical experience and clinical exposure. Exposure is like shadowing. It's when you aren't directly interacting with the patient or with the animal or with the animals owners, whatever it might be. So we want you to be working with people who are not well and directly interacting with them Obviously, you're not licensed to do anything or most of you are not licensed to do anything, and that's completely fine. We want you to be interacting as you are able. We've had students tremendously impactful experiences working the front desk at a free clinic, for instance, or. Volunteering at a chemo, therapy outpatient treatment, talking to patients while they're hooked that. So their chemotherapy, There's a wide variety of things that you can do where you're learning more about the world of health care, talking to people who are not well, it really can be tailored to your interests and whatever health profession it is that you happen to be interested in it. We also encourage students to take a step outside of their comfort zone. Might be an experience that you had in high school, for instance. And the temptation sometimes is to go back to that experience that you had in high school and just keep doing that thing and accumulating more hours. What I encourage students to do is go back to that volunteer coordinator from your hometown hospital and say, Hey, I'm college now and I'm a pre-med, I'm taking these classes.  What else can I do? Can I move to this different floor? Can I be in a more high acuity? Unit is there's something else that I can be doing that is a little bit more advanced, a little bit more involved. And so be asking those questions. These stepping into those experiences are and maybe feel a little scared on day one, we want you to be having that experience because in that experience is growth. And the health profession schools love to see that growth in your time in college. So that is a conversation we love to have with you. It's not just shadowing, it's not just volunteering at your local emergency department. There are so many things that you can do with clinical experience. And that is absolutely a conversation we want to have one-on-one with you. Alright. Everybody im going to talk a little bit about community service. I find when I often talk to students or addressing pre-health pathways are very focused on clinical experience. And obviously we've talked about how important that is. But community service is also something that's very important. Establishing service orientation is both an important competency that we looked at a little bit ago. But I think it's also personally rewarding endeavor as well for you to be involved in that. When we think back to the slides and a couple of that we looked at in terms of the AAMC competencies and talks about this demonstrated desire to help others and the sensitivity to others needs and feelings. The desire to alleviate distress of others. Idea of you're able to recognize and act on your responsibilities to society. Whether that's right here we are at right now in Ithaca or back in your home or even abroad. or wherever you are. So it's a really important thing I think to be thinking about and to be incorporating into your time. It allows you to build other competencies as well, such as interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies, oral communication, cultural competence, reliability, dependability, just to name a few. So many student organizations on campus. The great thing about then I'll, Is it a great experience, a fun way to connect with your people on campus? But it also provides, I think, volunteer opportunities as well. I mean, as we talked about, you know, this idea of choosing, what you're passionate about, choosing those experiences that are going to get you out of your comfort zone. So you know what is impactful for you based on a hobby you have or a skill you have, a particular population or social issue in anything really. I've talked to students who've worked with make a Wish Foundation or volunteer at a food pantry. There's so many opportunities in the Ithaca area. And beyond that, you can be involved in nonclinical, volunteering  gets you the opportunity to be involved in your community. Now just spend your time on campus to get to know the Ithaca area, your community back home, get out your comfort zone, get to know different areas where you're from. Is that that opportunity to look beyond your current sphere, I guess is I want to close this slide is talking about health professions, as Naya said. I mean, these are service professions. So demonstrating a commitment and a compassion to serve underserved and vulnerable populations is important. Thanks so much that my colleagues have done a terrific job of creating a framework and laying a foundation and helping you see structure for how all of this can come together. And and part of this is understanding where these pieces fall into place. And it is not just because it's alphabetically sound, but truly the clinical and the community-based service or meaning of a, probably the most meaningful ways for you to create purpose and find a fit. And to think about whether you're a good fit for a health profession, which health profession? And as my colleague, Jen de Rosa. And how to think about your values and what's informing your sense of purpose. Research is an activity that is a part of that. I think all of us who advise or always. Students really sort of think about all how am I going to find this research experience making that a priority and it is a valuable experience, is probably one of the most intimate and learning experiences you've have as an undergrad. And you'll want to be thoughtful about again, what, what, what do you, what questions do you have? How deep in the world of inquiry do you want to go? What skills will you gain as you can? And finding a place, it's a good fit for research. There are all kinds of ways to do research. There is clinical, there is independent research, there's academic research, a whole range of fields that needn't be in a wet lab. It is about the depth of inquiry. It is about taking on a scholarly project. It's about being independent in an area of inquiry, how you use data and that can happen in any sort of field. And so having a sense of excitement about going deep in a particular area, understanding what that's like and having the fluency to do that, but also being able to translate that to people who don't get your particular area of study. But you can communicate that in a way so that what you're learning is connecting to all the other things that you're exploring through the course, that experience, you will find that research is not. I had a student who was very deeply engaged in research on their way to medical school and always trying to help this person balance the clinical experience and exposure, the community service and the researched. This person really was interested in at things didn't, and a stellar, stellar student. And it was very interesting as they move toward medical school. And they were very convinced that research was really compelling part of their experience. It wasn't necessarily compelling part of their package. Because the physicians were saying, Well, we don't know why it's not going to get a PhD. Really balancing what it is you're doing and why you're doing it, and what's a good fit and understanding what as my colleagues for being with people in their most vulnerable moment understanding what that means and being able to connect is really important. The research plays a role in your understanding the technical aspects of the work. How to be an able technician, how to be a facile thinker, how to engage with the research. But choosing to be a sensitive care provider is what balances all the technical expertise that comes with the depth of scholarly activity that you're pursuing research. So always think about that research activity in relationship to what you're learning, how you learn, and what you can communicate, and how it informs your path forward for the kind of career you want and how it informs your sense of purpose as you pursue that career. And there are all sorts of ways to also identify how you can map onto the competencies that are really important. So you have lots of opportunity to do lots of things at Cornell. You can't do everything as grand as it is. And as much as we sort of soldier on all the breadth and depth of Cornell. Really being purposeful about how do I identify with those competencies? Where I am energized? Where am I exhausted? How do I sort of really focus on the things where I will energize. How do I balance the things that exhausts me and how do I put together a package, a resume of experiences that become a professional narrative for me. I pull those things together and I, and those people who talk to me about my prospects as I move forward in the health careers can understand what's informed my experience as a TA and a student group leader, you're going to be engaged with others. You're going to be focused on the depth of inquiry and command and mastery of a subject area. But also how do you work with a variety of and a diverse group of students who are coming to that discipline with different needs in different ways. And you get to talk about how you provided leadership, how you've engaged, how you met diverse needs in a different, in a distinct way, and how you've grown from that. The same is true with leadership. We are always quick to help you think about the measure of commitment that you have toward anything that you're apart of. Your involvements and engagements can become commitments when you have identified how deeply you want to be involved and how much effort you want to put toward that. And where you can emerge as a leader is certainly by attaining some role within the organization. But the depth of your commitment, the ability in which you could make a contribution and, and transform your organization, really is the most meaningful way that you can provide leadership as well. So certainly will help you think about the places where the opportunities that open up for you to advance those skills of leadership and you think about how you'd like to grow as a leader. Do I need more? Better communication skills. Am I in a effective at working with diverse populations? How do I delegate and help others grow as I'm participating? How did I grow as part of this as well? So it's not just taking the positions, but it's how you performed and how you grew and help others grow and the, and the organization as well. Mentoring and teaching others is linked to the TA. It's the same sort of thing. Just finding communities, individuals, communities, populations with whom you'd like to be engaged around and enterprise around. Something that maybe you have mastery in it, or maybe you have a passion about, or that informs your sense of purpose. You really want to be able to help guide others and inform their path forward in that particular area. And being a good mentor is also about knowing how to be a good mentee. Because you're also interested in being a student, being open to being taught and having people in your life who can help inform your path forward, who can give you authentic and useful feedback that you can grow from. And so being a good mentor and teaching others should give you insight into yourself as well. How have I played that role? And how long from the experiences of others and when you communicate those things, you can talk from both places of mentoring and teaching others, but how valuable It's been, having the advice and guidance of others. Along the way. And life experience again, informs all the things that you've been doing along the way. But how you communicate, what your life has been, what's been impactful along the way, how it has been contoured by the challenges. Don't be afraid of those challenges. In fact, embracing them is really, really important. It demonstrates your ability to be vulnerable and your ability to weave that into one of the threads of the whole cloth of your life, become those challenges they make you you sometimes there our students who are so focused on being competitive as candidates that you forget how to be compelling as a person. And these life experiences, how your family's organized, the communities you come from, the institutions and organizations that have that had a part and played a part in your becoming who you are and how you're moving forward are so important, and having that organized in a narrative that is professional is really important and we can work with you to do that. I talk to students all the time and, you know, you'll talk about some things and you'll hit a nerve and it will become emotional. And students will go "oh I'm so sorry" this is the place to do that, I don't want you to get in your interview and have it supports reacts. And it is, I want to know this is the place to sort of talk through that, to get there and understand that your life experience comes with you. It shouldn't be anything you leave behind. It should inform your professional path forward and it will make you a better care provider when you can reflect on your own experience and connect with your patients. Thank you, Darryl. I am not going to be as eloquent and inspiring as you just were. That was beautiful. So being on the pre-health track takes planning and forethought. And so it is really important to take the time to kind of create a roadmap for yourself. And it's always okay to change that roadmap when you hit a roadblock. First and foremost, at Cornell, you are a student. So your academics should be the first priority. It takes time to build up your endurance to the rigors at Cornell.  from the the question that Ana asked earlier. I see most of you are first-year students. This year. It's a transition year and it takes time to figure out how to study, how to study in the ways that your professor requires. And so cut yourself some slack, give yourself some patience and stick to it. Access the resources you have, and you will figure it out. But it takes time. It's really important not to overwhelm yourself. Our pre-health students are a little over achieving and you go to club fast and everything is interesting, of course it is, but there also you can't do everything while you're here. And it doesn't necessarily serve you well to do so. If you think you have to be in a pre health student organization, that's not necessarily the case. Follow the interests and passions you have in your heart. Pick a couple to really focus on, and you're going to get more out of it if you go in depth. With the involvements that you have, rather than kind of superficially be involved in a lot of different ones. So pick a few and go deep. Don't do this alone. This is not an easy path, but it is completely doable. And there are a lot of people here to support you. It can feel like a very competitive environment, but there are places where you can relax and not feel that competition. So use your advisors will become part of your support team. Lot there are a lot of mentorship programs out there. Lots of student organizations that have a pre-health focused that also embed mentorship. So find your community of people that you're doing this with and support each other and cheer each other on. Use your breaks. I'll talk a little bit about some ideas, but it's important to stay engaged during your winter and summer breaks. Definitely take some time off, rejuvenate and rest and get a vacation in. But also use that time wisely to try to engage in different ways that you're not able to during the semester. When you apply to any graduate program, you are going to need letters of recommendation. And it is really important that you find ways to build relationships with your professors, with your supervisors, with somebody who, who knows you well and can speak to your character and your experiences and your competencies for graduate school. Though. Whether it's in a smaller class or a larger class, whether your TAinf for Professor doing research with them, find ways, go to office hours, strike up conversations and try to get to know a few of your professors really well. And again, if that sounds really terrifying to you, come talk to an advisor and we can walk you through it. I know I was terrified to speak to my professors in college and then apply when it's right for you. Everybody is walking their own path and it's really easy to compare yourself to other people who are going straight through to vet school, medical school, or a master's degree. You know, you have to walk your path and create your own path according to your needs, your desires, and your bandwidth. Though, it's... try your best not to get caught up in what other people are doing. And know that, you know, this is your journey. And you get to set the timeline for your own journey. Next slide, please. Over summer and winter breaks, there are lots of programs out there. Some are clinically based, where you're shadowing. Some involve, for example, Mcat preparation or some give you a little bit of preparation to go into organic chemistry in your second year. So you just have to, you know, Google pre-health clinical programs and they're all over the country. There are research-based programs. Again, there are lots of acronyms. There's REU, SURF, SURE and SROP it and you can see what they all mean in that little box there. But again, these are structured opportunities for you to engage in research. During your breaks. You can work a job that you can volunteer at the hospital, or you can design your own journey. You could go abroad, do Habitat for Humanity. Lots of options and your advisors are here to help you think about what you're going to enjoy and what experience you're going to find meaningful. And then lastly, there's so many resources at Cornell to help you. So a good place to start is Career Services. If you are not on Handshake, get on Handshake and check off things that you want to receive notifications about. So if you're on the pre-health track, check that off and you'll get different, whether it's tops on campus or an internship opportunities, research opportunities, that's a really great place to find opportunities for you to either attend or apply to. There's a whole canvas course, the Career Development toolkit. So if you're wanting support with resumes, with interviews, anything kind of professional development related. It is a skill set that you have to practice and develop over time. I'm still learning how to interview well, so like these are Career Services is a great place to go to practice these skills.  CUeLinks is  a platform that connects you to alumni. And you can filter by what career path they're in or whether they were a first-gen students. There are different ways to kind of identify people that you might be interested in reaching out to and networking with. Informational interviews, mentorship program, there, again, lots of resources. One of the programs in our office, office of academic diversity initiatives, that we call Oadi is the pre-professional programs. So if you are underrepresented and, or low-income students, this is a great support program that you might look into next year. If you are looking for support along your career path. Hey, hello again. Jennifer DeRosa back and im going to talk to you a little bit about a bridge year. some of you may have heard of this as a gap year. We like to shape things up, so we're calling it a bridging, but they're interchangeable. So students who are not planning on taking any gap time, we'll be applying to medical school. If you are going to med school in spring of your junior year. Those for vet school, other areas might be then more on the other, graduate track, applying senior year. So something to keep in mind. So what is, what a gap year or a bridge year is when a student decides that they don't want to go into medical school or higher education straight out of undergrad, but want to take some time off. So one to two years is not uncommon. Is or whether it's med school, graduate school, veterinary school. I worked with law students and law school and gap years are not uncommon. In fact, are stats show from for those for medical school Cornell applicants, that last year is somewhere between 13 and 14 percent were juniors, which means 86, 87 percent are taking gap time. So it is not uncommon. So why do people take it? There's a lot of reasons and it can be very individual. So often, students take it from more time to prepare to relieve some of that stress of trying to do everything by hand that spring of junior year. So whether it's more time to have more grades and other degrees in the system to work on other academics get the required course is done, of course work done before taking the Mcat, more time to study for the Mcat, more time to spread out in gaming experiences. Students often take it sometimes if they want to do a study abroad. And have that be a non-stressful experience. By going on in taking that and had some extra time To do the rest of my coursework. Some students don't take a break. They just want to break in between. I'm going back to school and maybe they'll travel or they'll do volunteer work. Some students say I want to make some money to pay for my application fees or to have some extra money before going on some students because they want to validate that one extra time to decide if this is really what they want to do before they make that commitment So there's a variety of reasons why someone might take a bridge year. So when do you have to decide? So really. You have time to make that decision. You don't have to be deciding freshman year, sophomore year, beginning of junior year, right? As long as you've decided before you hit that submit button on your hand, CAS application or your bank as whatever your application processes, you can change your mind. You can say, I don't think I'm gonna do this. just yet. I think I need more time. So, you know, have discussions with us, talk about any concerns. Think about what's best for you. You're on your own timeline, nobody else's. So really think what works best for you in helping you work through this process and have the best. application possible when you go to apply. But as I mentioned, it's fairly common right So taking gap time, in particular for med school is more common And one thing to keep in mind, especially those who might decide to take two gap years because you want to get a master's degree or go do the Peace Corps or Teach for America. For a couple of years. Our services at Cornell follow with you. You do not lose our services of pre-health advisors once you graduate, we support alumni as well. So keep know that that is not something you lose if you decide to do this , we're still here for you. So finding out what's best for you. And we're here to support you throughout the time as a current student or as an alum. Okay. Next slide. all of the slides that we have for you, the Q and a is open. You have about four or five minute that we did have a couple of questions come that would like to ask the group But if you have a question, this is a great time to type it in. One question that came in while we were talking was, if I already have a five on the calc, AB, BC, and stats AP exams. Do I need to take math still this is a student in the College of Arts and Sciences. I can take that one away. So as an arts and science student and you have the 10 distributions. And two of those distributions are in the math and statistics areas. So you can, you can, if you choose to use your APs  you will have to take additional courses to satisfy those two areas because AP credits don't count towards the distributions. So what I have been recommending students do is to think about the pros and cons of using your APs for those particular areas. And you want to come talk to me. or your advising dean to kind of map out an academic plan and make sure that you distributions also included in the planning. We have one question that was partially answered. I think I'm going to take the part that wasn't answered. It was what kind of summer activity should I pursue after my freshman year, I think we did cover that. And at what time should I start looking to plan those activities? That was the piece. I don't think the covered thoroughly. So first I'm going to send a list of links. After with this PowerPoints tomorrow, you're going to get links. We were alluding to a bunch of them. You're going to get all of those, that email from us. Now is a lovely time, but we don't need to be thinking about it now. if we start at the end of November, December ish there might be some deadlines coming up.  I also have a lot of students who are planning to be home for that first summer after their first year, and also are planning to be home for winter break. So they use that winter break to start going around town looking for places that they might want to be over the summer. But there's no specific timeline which is also frustrating because some people might be looking for summer experiences in March or April or May. And that is absolutely something we want to talk to you about. If you're trying to sketch out your summer, you're not sure exactly what you want to do. We can help you with the timeline. ok. great. The next question is, what should a freshman be doing right now? Is it okay to take the first semester easy to get better grades? I'll let that one go out into the group. Be happy to answer that one. And I'm sure it's on the minds of a lot of your colleagues. So thanks for asking it. An absolutely the most important thing actually for your entire duration of Cornell is for you to really listen to that inner voice that you have about how things are going. And absolutely this first semester, under normal circumstances, particularly given the past year and a half that everyone has been enduring, is to just get acclimated. Now, figure out, you know, who your people are, really delve into your classes. Get to know faculty, make sure you're balancing your academics with some non-academic things. So you're having a good balance, you're getting enough sleep. You're figuring out which of your study skills, or lack thereof, translate and do not translate to this environment. What does learning mean in the Cornell environment? So absolutely take, do not keep your foot on the gas pedal like you've had for the last three or four years. Take it off. Listen to that inner voice and just be really patient and kind to yourself. I want to acknowledge that it is six o'clock, so if anybody needs to leave, please feel free to do that. We have two more questions. I have time to stay. If you don't, go ahead and leave. there is   one question is what people can write a recommendation? Is it just professors or advisors in school, can write it. I'm happy to take that. Jen. Anybody, Ben, Go for it. Yeah, I'll jump in and I value your thoughts as well. I would say in terms a letter writers I think has already alluded to someone who can really speak to you, your character. Maybe they can speak to some of those competencies we talked about, but what are your motivations? What are your passions?  right, what is your work ethic? That's really important that you can think about these letters as a piece of the application process that in some sense sort of humanizes the process, right? When I'm just looking at MCAT scores, if you will, or GPAs like this is where admissions teams can get to know you a little bit. I mean, I do happen to think it's good to have at least one professor to be a letter writer. I mean, someone who can speak to your academic capabilities as well. I mean, it's obviously going to be important part in your next step in schooling. But that's typically the advice I give to students. And looking for those. There's a difference between a good letter of recommendation and a strong letter of recommendation. And the difference is how well the person writing it has gotten to know you. So well a Good letter. Yes, the student did well in my class, showed up, asked some good questions. That's a good letter, but a strong letter. Is going to say, Wow, this student, I really got to know the student and this student stood out to me for these reasons. So being able to allow that person to write some depth. And you can do that by office hours, TAing for them. Having coffee, chats and informational interviewing. Just building that relationship to have them get to know you a little bit more than the person who was sitting in their class and did well. And you can find a variety of ways and faculty don't be afraid to approach them and don't be afraid to talk to them about what they do and what they're passionate about, pick their brains, they love it. So they're are humans they remember when they were in your shoes. So this one thing I'd say about faculty here at Cornell that I've found is they are very approachable and they  love to work with students. So think about ahead and over time how you can build those relationships and get to know some of those faculty members in a variety of disciplines that are of interest to you. Then the last question we have can you take calculus for the life sciences.  instead of calc one for various medical school requirements I mean, yes, is the short answer there is a longer answer of which yes it depends on what your major requirements are. If you have a specific requirement based on other things that you've got going on that aren't pre-med. I'm happy to have somebody else put another sentence, on  that yeah. What I'll say else is there are  two Calc 1 classes on campus, S1110, and math 1106 Both of those are equivalent in the world of professional schools. So it doesn't matter which one you take. Some of our life science students obviously gravitate towards the Math 1106, because it's calculus presented in a life science context. So and then beyond that, generally the recommendation is taking statistics. So I know I'm delving off the calc question, but I think everyone on this call would agree that for all of you that are considering going to a health profession program, it is critical that you take statistics. Right? That was the last question that we have. Thank you for everyone, especially for those who have stuck with us. So as we go four minutes over, we so appreciate your questions. We can't wait to meet you and talk to you throughout all your time at cornell. So have a nice night, everyone. Thank you so much.