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Kickin' It With Dr: Aldwin: Trajectory to Medicine
30 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to the first episode of Kickin' It In The Lounge! Join our Technical Producer, Jared, and Host Dr. Aldwin Soumare as they get personal and discuss how Aldwin's background played a role as a medical student, financial tips as a medical student, Aldwin's experience as a resident, and more.
To share your thoughts on our discussions or if you have any questions to ask our hosts, email podcast@snma.org for a chance to be featured on the show!
Disclaimer: The opinion and views expressed on our podcast do not reflect the official stance of the Student National Medical Association.
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Transcript
Introduction and Disclaimer
00:00:00
Speaker
The views expressed on this podcast represent only those of the hosts and do not represent the views of the Student National Medical Association.
Show Purpose and Focus
00:00:24
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to SNMA Presents The Lounge. For those of you that may or may not know me, I go by the name of Jared Jeffery, and I am the technical producer of the show. DJ Absolut. And you might notice this is a bit of a different setting. This is different than what we usually do. And we would like to call this little segment Kicking It in The Lounge. And essentially, what we're going to be doing here is we're going to tackle some
00:00:47
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conversations and points of view that we may not have a chance to get to on the show. And so I'm with everybody's favorite lady killer, Dr.
Guest Introduction: Dr. Aldwin Umari
00:00:56
Speaker
Aldous Umari in the building. You make me sound like a dama.
00:01:01
Speaker
I don't got no charges, bro. I don't kill nobody. OK, OK, we're going to run it back. We're going to run it back. I'm with everybody's favorite black neuropsychologist, psychiatrist. Woo! Is that better? Is that what we're for you? That's better. OK, OK, OK. Don't call me out. I'm trying to find a wife, bro. Don't call me out. My full king. My full king. You know what? It might be true. It might not. Take over your introduction, then. Take over your introduction. It's all you.
00:01:25
Speaker
But anyway, my name is Aldon Samari. I'm originally from the Bronx, New York, family from Miley and Cameroon, a little bit about myself. So I started my undergraduate degree at Rutgers University in Newark, then did my master's at Lincoln-Moore University and then Morehouse School
Financial Struggles and Student Loans
00:01:42
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of Medicine. Shout out to the HBCU Life. Okay, okay, facts. HBCU's up. That's it. Yeah, Delaware State right here.
00:01:49
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And then I went to med school at PCOM, Georgia, and then I started residency in neurology at UConn. You know what I mean? So that was two masters. Two masters and I'm dead broke, bro. That's why I'm praying to Biden son on one knee, Paul. Try to get that.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yo, I put on my story bro, like extend the student loan forgiveness till the end of my life, past end of my life. Honestly, honestly though, honestly. They said so many times, this one was going to be that very last one, whatever, whatever. So yeah, basically what we're going to be doing here, kicking it in the lounge is we're trying to get a little bit more of an insightful view into each of our hosts and really get to know a bit more about them. So Aldwin, how would you...
00:02:34
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I do the Stevie Jam. Oh, brother.
Influences and Patient Connections
00:02:37
Speaker
So how would you say being from New York either helped or hindered you at the multitude of institutions that you've been at learning? Yo, bro, to be honest, I feel like I was moving like with a certain squad, confidence. You know, I remember when I started my master's program at Morehouse School of Medicine, I'll pull up to the school with my gold chain, my Africa joint, and people be looking like, are you all right?
00:03:00
Speaker
What is going with you? And I remember I met the dean at Morehouse School of Medicine, Dr. Anachiby, and I pulled up to the office. He's like, you have two, you have earrings on. Are you a basketball player? I was like, yo. So they had a certain standard, but I was like, yo, I'm New York all the way. No one's going to take that away from me. At the end of the day, I feel like it may have hindered me in certain situations, but people appreciate
00:03:25
Speaker
the genuineness, the realness of what you are. Authenticity. That, yeah, it was like, yo, bro, you, just you, like, I really rock with you. And then being a black man in medicine, like, you are so encouraging because you're not afraid to, like, change the narrative. Wow. Not everyone got to fit a certain mold. Not everyone with a white coat got to talk all year.
00:03:44
Speaker
Yeah. I know. Right? You know what I'm saying? Like, now I walk through, like, with your little swag. You pull up. You know what I'm saying? And people, like, actually want to talk to you and get to know you because not every patient fits a certain demographic or a certain perception. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? And I'm sure it's a lot less intimidating, too. Yeah. 100% for the patients. And I love that. I love having those conversations. Like, yo, we talk about the Knicks. We talk about New York. We talk about whatever the case may be. Like, yo, you got the J's, whatever the case may be. You know what I mean? Like, I love having that experience because they see how I move.
00:04:14
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Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely lit. That's definitely lit. So, um, I gotta ask,
Financial Advice for Med Students
00:04:19
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you know what I'm saying? You're the, uh, the, the personal host of the Financial Corner in the regular lounge. So, uh, please, you got any gems or tips for me?
00:04:29
Speaker
Oh man, yeah, for you, so seeing that you're going into, you know, you're gonna be a med school student. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And I really wanna celebrate that. Yeah, and I'm not trying to be broke while I'm being med school, please. Please. Now, I would say, like, you know, being able to, like, really capitalize, like, number one, try to limit your debt as much as possible, so if you can, even, and people think, like, the name of your med school means everything. Uh-huh. And people be like, oh, I'm gonna hit Harvard, I'm gonna hit,
00:04:57
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UCLA, whatever the case may be. But it's like, at the end of the day, medical school education is education. And it's not the name of the school, but rather the individual in which you accomplish. You've accomplished a lot. I would say, in your case, you're from New York. Like, try to hit up one of the good states. You know, you got down state right here. You know, you got- Upstate and Rochester. Yeah, exactly. Stony Brook. Like, I would say, in terms of saving, you know, money and debt, like, that's the first thing. Try to get into one of those schools. The state school.
00:05:26
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and then do your thing, hold it down. Number two, don't be afraid. There are scholarships for medical students or pyramids that are going into med school as well. You just gotta find them. NMA is a good resource. Just even Goolin, I have one of my mentors who's a neuro-oncologist, she has her own organizations for minorities that are going to medicine to get their own scholarships. And we can talk about all that. For sure, for sure. Because I want nobody else getting out.
00:05:55
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but whatever, but there's a lot of opportunities for that. But I also will say that there's ways to make bread in med school too, like doing a side hustle too.
Medical Residency Challenges
00:06:05
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I have- Yeah, I am a side hustle poppy. Right, exactly, right? Yeah.
00:06:10
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I had a couple of classmates that walked dogs. I had classmates you could do tutoring, because I know you're really smart, like you're off air, you know, you tutor someone. You could utilize that to your manager grades, they'll pay you for that. One of my man's actually started med school, he's an interventional cardiology fellow down in Atlanta.
00:06:31
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he has his own tutoring business. So he's been able to utilize that to pay off his mortgage for his parents. Oh my gosh. You know what I'm saying? So he took it from a side hustle to a legitimate venture. Yes. Wow. Okay. And he does it. You know what I'm saying? It's a little extra because when you met school and stuff,
00:06:50
Speaker
You're trying to manage and maneuver your own med school stuff, but even if you do like two, three hours a week, bro, and if you're good enough, you could charge $50, $60, that's still a little something in there. It adds up over time. It adds up. Absolutely. Absolutely. You find times where you have downtime, there's certain blocks that are more chill.
00:07:08
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So I would say finding those opportunities in the avenues, like one of my men's an EMT, doing that in med school as well. So I think there are opportunities, but you just got to educate yourself. Because I feel like if you don't educate yourself, you don't liberate yourself. You feel like you got to perpetuate the same normalcy that you see every other med student do, always studying the whole time. But if you actually galvanize the same resources and thought that you do for med school, you're limitless. You're the top 10%. Agreed. Agreed. In terms of intellect.
00:07:37
Speaker
So that little rant actually just reminded me of that time you accidentally went viral on IG with your rant about how, let me not say how much, how little you were making actually as a resident. You wanna dive a little deep, I know you touched on it on the show a little bit, but I wanna say spit your piece, spit your piece. He did good, he did good. I feel like I'm gonna pop an episode where I'm getting set up.
00:08:08
Speaker
Come on, man. I'm just trying to get your ideas, man. I'm just trying to see what you got on the mind. Of course, bro. At the time, how I was feeling, bro? Honestly, I felt like I was putting in so much time and effort. How many hours a week were you doing? Probably 70, 80 hours. My gosh.
00:08:25
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Yeah. But that, you know, a lot of people do that, right? But in the context of doing that, you get overtime pay. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You get time-nap, whatever the case means. We didn't get that, bro. You're like a salary worker. You're a salary worker, bro. So it doesn't matter. But there's not many industries where you're working that many hours. Not being compensated for it. Yeah. And then on top of that, you don't have lunch. Oh, my gosh. I can't tell you one day that I had a full one-hour lunch, bro. My gosh. Wow. You know what I'm saying? I can't tell you one.
00:08:55
Speaker
I can't tell you one day that I have more than 30 minutes of lunch, you know what I mean? Like, you always on the go trying to do stuff for, you know, corporations that don't necessarily, you know, they're not, you know, really interested in your best interest at the end of the day. No, honestly, because living that kind of life, so it sounds like to me, let's say you're doing 80 hours a week, that equates to what, like, if you're doing five days a week, I hope, I hope you, do you get weekends?
00:09:19
Speaker
No, I mean, all right. So presidency how it works, right? So if you want an on-call block, which is a block where you are in inpatient service where they basically need you. Yeah. You get max four days off that whole month in that. Oh my gosh. Okay. So you're working basically most you get in six thirty seven, seven thirty.
00:09:38
Speaker
And you work all the way through till sometimes five, six. And then even then, there were a lot of times I had to stay beyond those hours because you might get a patient coming in. Right as you're getting ready to go and stuff like that. Exactly. Or emergency, you got a cold, or I got to pull up, run up there with the other residents and then see what's up. So that made it a challenge.
00:10:00
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There wasn't like no certainty, like if you attack or whatever, like if you're in the outpatient office, like five, boom. You see patients and you stop seeing people, that's it. When the hospital, things go down, they rely on you and you gotta be there, you don't show
Self-Care and Personal Time
00:10:16
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up. So what does that kind of workload do to you as a person? A lot.
00:10:21
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It seems like, you know, self-care is out the window. For me, it was out. Scheduled eating is out the window. It was out. Sleep is out the window. It was out. What was your mental hitting for after? In the midst of it, let's say it's not even after, it's not before. Let's say you actually get to go home. What is your mental hitting for?
00:10:44
Speaker
Bro, there was times where I pull up to the crib, I literally walk in the door, I fall asleep on my floor in my scrubs, bro. And then get up, it's 1 a.m. Like, yo, what happened, bro? Like, you're just deliriously, I didn't even eat. Deliriously tired, yeah. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? I go eat real quick and then it's like,
00:11:04
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Time to get ready for the next day. Yeah, I came to sleep, bro. Like, I had two, three hours. You try to take you two, three hours to fall asleep at 1 a.m. You got to be back at the hospital at, like, 6.30. And it's like, bro, what am I doing? No time for personal interest. No time for... I mean, I tried, bro. I ain't gonna lie to you. I was outside. I went to San Francisco. I was in Atlanta. Okay, okay. I mean, it was a time I was like...
00:11:27
Speaker
Forget it, bro. I pulled up to the lounge in the Hartford and my scrubs. We just came from work. It had the doctor on it. I was just like, I need to be outside. I need to have an escape. It made it a real challenge for me to really acknowledge what I was going through. People was telling me, bro, you changed, bro. I feel like you're depressed. You're not happy there. Where you at?
00:11:51
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Outcoming a hospital like one in a fight Wow Like you're building tension Interesting interesting Wow, um, I hope it gets better
00:12:16
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It will get better. Absolutely. Absolutely. God is good, bro. I'm in a good place right now. You know what I'm saying? Say that. Say that. I mean, I want real like exactly what's going on. For sure. But like personally, like I'm getting into space. He's always in the plans. He's always in
Advocacy and Representation
00:12:28
Speaker
the steps. That's it, bro. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So let's switch gears a little bit. What does when you do get personal time, what does your personal time look like?
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah, bro. Personal time looks like reading. Even coming through out here, I was on the train reading a book on trauma and how that affects our bias, how we live our life, how we get connected to other individuals, and stuff like that. I love writing too, so I'm writing a couple books.
00:12:56
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, working on that, like a little bit about what I've seen, what I've encountered, and also like inspirations of the pre-meds and med students. I like doing yoga, which is another meditation. Traveling, obviously I'll be going to Paris in a couple weeks. Oh my. Like. International. Okay. My full bro.
00:13:17
Speaker
Try and get money with you. I mean, I got money, you know what I mean? I don't know how to use more money. I mean, this plan a couple of weeks ago, you know what I'm saying? OK, OK. You know what I mean? But some of the things, podcast and obviously, SME podcast. Taking a trip on short notice is absolutely a former self-care. Don't never let nobody tell you different. That's right.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dropped like $500 for a trip to Atlanta, like, yeah, right there. We outside, bro. We outside, bro. You know what I'm saying? OK, OK. So let's get into something just a little bit more serious. So I know you're a, I'm going to have to put this delicately. I don't want to offend anybody. You are an advocate, I would say, for colored individuals getting into medical school, the medical space, doing any type of
00:14:11
Speaker
thing in these spaces at all, right? So I wanted to elaborate on an idea that I was pondering after one of the podcast episodes. And that is, do you think that medicine should be portrayed as the only end goal for STEM students? So like,
00:14:38
Speaker
I'll say myself personally, right? Everybody that was around me in my major, I majored in biology. Everybody that was around me, yeah, I'm trying to be a doctor, dentist, PA. That's it. I don't know. Let me know your thoughts before I chime in.
00:14:53
Speaker
I honestly feel like there needs to be more exposure to other fields, other interests, because I feel like you are limited by what you see. If you don't see enough, then that's what your focus is gonna be on. And oftentimes, even for yourself, myself, immigrant, coming from immigrant background. Absolutely, first generation, yep. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? It's like, either doctor, a lawyer, you know what I'm saying? Oh, Bomanisha. Right, exactly.
00:15:20
Speaker
But I feel like now there's more to it than that. And I feel like not everyone has to fit a role that society expects them to, or their family or community expects them to be in. There's multiple ways in which you can influence your communities and then play a positive role in what you want to accomplish in navigating towards that, especially in the undergrad field. I think it's oftentimes very limited, is that you just set focus. So I'm not going to lie. The reason that I bring that up is because
00:15:50
Speaker
Back when I was in undergrad, I remember, you know, started out with a real big crop of freshmen, you know, 700, you know, everybody says, you know, filter system, all of that kind of good stuff. And for me, it was really like the guys that were dropping out, you know, because I had a decent amount of guys, you know, we lived in the same dorm and we, I thought we'd come up together, you know, go through the struggles and all that kind of good stuff. Right. And essentially I would ask him, yo, what was the thing that made you like,
00:16:17
Speaker
drop the major. What made you actually change? A lot of the times they said, yo, I went to my environment meeting, and they said this was a dead end for me. If I was to try to keep going, I'm not gonna get into med school, you're gonna have a degree, no job, and that's gonna be it.
00:16:37
Speaker
Because the thing is, I realize, like for me, I wasn't even a bio major, bro, I was a psych major. I had people in my med, you see there's miseducation that's going on in the undergrad level. And you gotta find the right people. You can't talk to somebody that's never been through med school and never took the MCAT, that never, you know what I'm saying? Where you trying to go to, that's not even a doctor. That's never attempted anything of the sort, true. Yeah, you feel me? A lot of these counselors, they just shoot down, especially black men and black women,
00:17:06
Speaker
because they see the potential and they see the power in you. Having that melanin in your skin is the most powerful thing that you could have. And I feel like oftentimes, because we hear it once,
00:17:16
Speaker
done. But there's so many stories where, even for myself, even for my pros, where they've been told similar things and it's like, yo, nah, you're not going to stop me, bro. No, it don't matter. Perseverance, resilience, believing yourself, having faith. God will always provide for you. If that's what you want to do, there's a will. There's a way, like I said before,
00:17:36
Speaker
Goku said that So I think that finding the right mentors like when you get into men's undergrad and finding those people that look like you that want to support you and Those are the ones that could put the battery in back versus these, you know
00:17:52
Speaker
and you know, random, anonymous people that don't have any affiliation with what you got going on and have their own entitlement.
Perseverance and Learning from Failure
00:18:00
Speaker
That's what's going to change the game, honestly. And knowing that you don't have to be a bio major, you could be psychic, you could be art, you could be a business major, you could still get to med school. There's still ways that you could finesse your way toward med school.
00:18:12
Speaker
There is a politics behind that too. It's not about what you know, it's also about who you know. Of course you got to do well in the MCAT, but you got to show face. You got to really be invested in the game to show, like, yo, this is what I want to do. It's kind of like when you're talking to a shorty that you like, you know what I'm saying? If you really like her, you're taking an interest in her interests, you're showing up to the places that you know you can find her.
00:18:35
Speaker
Hit her phone constantly, different things like that. You kind of got to, I don't want to say become obsessive, but it has to be something that's at the forefront of your attention. Yeah, of course. Agreed, agreed. Don't be hitting up like that, bro. You got to chill, make sure. She got to come to you, too. You know what I'm saying? Oh, it's got to be mutual. The race school is going to call out to you. It's got to be the right energy. Got you, got you. Same thing, residency, med school, you know what I'm saying? You can't put too much energy. Show them the love.
00:19:02
Speaker
You are going to be where you're meant to be at the end of the day. That's really how I feel. And everything that happens in your life, it's a lesson, but it's also a blessing, whether negative or positive. And I think that- Wow, that was a bar. Oh my gosh. It's a lesson, but it's also a blessing. Okay, keep going. I'm sorry I cut you off. Keep going, keep going. Bro, but honestly, how I feel about things, situations, and things that happened to me recently,
00:19:26
Speaker
How I feel about things is that it's really a matter of how your mind, like how you train your mind to perceive of it. And how do you internalize and then learn from that and educate yourself and utilize that knowledge to move to the next step where you need to be.
00:19:42
Speaker
So, especially for pre-meds and med students, like failure, like, oh, I got an F on it. Like, bro, I got a 19 on my physics exam, bro. If you ever told somebody you got a 19 on my physics exam, would I ever be a doctor? Would they ever even say yes? No? I did it.
00:20:01
Speaker
I got Mr. Vina. I got stuff on my... But I still made it shake because I knew that that's where I wanted to be at the time. And I think that oftentimes we give up because there's one situation that happens like, oh, it's over. I feel this class is over. Nah, bro. Failure is a part of success. Oprah took and took Oprah and she had to go to 12 different production companies
00:20:26
Speaker
to let them know like, yo, I want to have this show, the Oprah show. Here's like the outline of what I want to talk about. Here are the people that I want to connect with. Here's the energy that I want to bring. 12 Pro, you know, the 12 production companies that are hard for studios. We'll put the bread in. We'll see where we go with that.
00:20:44
Speaker
Like, you know what I'm saying? Obama lost his first, you know, election race. Yeah, his first, I think he bit that senator, right? Yeah. He lost that joint, bro. Everyone goes through some type of failure, but the people that are successful is how you deal with that joint, bro. It's how you bounce back, absolutely. Absolutely. I agree.
00:21:03
Speaker
OK, I think we're going to wrap this one up. Thank you, everybody, for kicking it with us in the lounge.
Closing and Engagement Invitation
00:21:10
Speaker
Make sure you follow the podcast and follow the SNMA on all social media platforms. If you have a topic that you would like to hear us discuss, please email us at podcast at snma.org. And we will see you next time.