WRITTEN BY TONY QU (PEACE TUTOR AND ADVISOR)

AYYY College!:

The beginning. Coming from Indiana, I really didn’t know what to expect before arriving in Berkeley. My high school sends one person to Berkeley every four to five years, so I didn’t get a chance to ask anybody about their experiences. I didn’t even bother trying to find a roommate on the UC Berkeley page. A fresh start, I thought. As a result, I didn’t do many activities other than joining the Phalanx consulting club as a client during my first semester at Cal. I put in a lot of time bonding with my floormates, a decision I will never regret. To me, having a stable and successful career is not nearly as important as surrounding myself with people that I like. So, by running around in the hallway of Unit 1 Christian’s third floor, I established friendships that ended up lasting all four years of my college career. Anyways, let me expand a little bit on the Phalanx Pre-Med Consulting Group. As the first class of clients enter, we are divided into five cohorts of five students each, supervised by an upperclassmen pre-med student. All of these upperclassmen are rigorously selected based on academic excellence, extracurricular accomplishments, research expertise, etc. As for us, we also went through two rounds of interviews to be selected as a promising member of the Cal pre-med community. Looking back, I firmly believe this club built me the foundation for a well-rounded resume. For that one year, we met up bi-weekly to go over every aspect of pre-med life and ways to prepare for medical school: from timelines and activities to interviews and academics.

Moving on to second semester. This is when I began to dedicate the time to apply to various extracurriculars on campus. I want to especially emphasize a co-ed fraternity called Phi Delta Epsilon. I was dragged to the rush events by a friend who didn’t want to go alone, but I ended up clicking really well with some of the active members. During the eight-week process of becoming a new member of the fraternity, we received thorough trainings on professionalism, writing, class scheduling, etc. But I think what the fraternity really gave me was a community of students who share similar drive and passion. The recruitment process is designed to give you the opportunity to really bond with your class and the active members. The way I see it, you become a member of this big family that will stick with you throughout the next four years.

I Want More:

Sophomore year I pursued several things: started working at a research lab on campus, became a SLC tutor, shadowed an ENT doctor, and joined an organization called Health Advocates. My focus at the beginning of the year was joining a research lab related to my major. Luckily, an upperclassman from my fraternity posted on our group page for a graduate student in his lab looking for an undergraduate researcher. The interview process went smoothly using tactics I received from Phalanx and PhiDE previously. Regarding research, I personally think it is really important for you to express what your goals are from the beginning. Don’t feel embarrassed to get help with reading scientific papers or to get a publication. Most postdoc and graduate students at Berkeley want to take in undergraduate researchers not only because they need help with their project, but also because they really like to teach younger students interested in science. So, don’t hesitate to ask for help. As for publication, I think all the graduate students know that you would want to be published, so as soon as you make it clear in the beginning, they would try to give you parts of the project that can produce results to be put on paper.

As for SLC tutoring, in my freshman year I received a lot of help from the Math 10 series adjunct class offered by the SLC. Since I ended up doing well in the class, I was invited by the adjunct professor to tutor at the SLC for the same class. First of all, I really like teaching, not just because I can pass on the knowledge I received to my peers, but honestly, I just enjoy the process of explaining a hard concept to students using random examples.

The shadowing position that I received was also through SLC tutoring. I had become really close with my adjunct professor freshman year, so coming sophomore year, she introduced me to an ENT doctor to shadow. I ended up shadowing him weekly for a year and half, and since he worked in a public hospital, I got a lot of exposure to a diverse population of patients in the clinic and the OR. Additionally, my experience with the hospital setting really made me think about whether being a medical doctor is the correct path for me.

Health advocates, on the other hand, is a volunteering organization centered in Highland Hospital in Oakland that addresses the social determinants of health aspects in patient care. The program aims to be the missing link between patients and the vast varieties of resources they can utilize. Due to the location and patient body of Highland Hospital, I got to work with individuals and families of underserved communities with diverse backgrounds. Hearing their stories and being able to help them really reassured my decision in pursuing a career in health care. As a result, I was with the program for three years, and I ended up becoming a shift lead and was put in charge of the recruitment committee.

Dental? Medicine?:

After establishing several extracurricular activities in my sophomore year, my junior year was dedicated to continuing these activities and becoming a more invested member in each one of these clubs. Junior year is also when I decided to switch from medicine to dentistry. After shadowing the ENT specialist for a while, I started to realize the flaws in being a medical doctor in a large hospital. For example, on average my doctor sees about 40-50 patients per day, meaning about 10 minutes per patient. Although you are able to screen many patients very efficiently like my doctor did, I personally would want to build a more personal connection with each of my patients. Additionally, my visits to the dentist made me realize that dentistry is a profession that requires dexterity, which I preferred. Lastly, I see that dentistry is an art form that leaves patients with detailed carvings that also have functionality. After I made up my mind, I began to take steps to prepare for a career in dentistry. First, I took my Dental Admission Test during my second semester of junior year. Then, aiming to become a research clinician, I began to research laboratories at Berkeley and UCSF that focused on oral and craniofacial research. After cold emailing numerous labs, I began my research internship at UCSF during the summer of my junior to senior year.

Last Touch:

Here comes senior year. I did a few more things during my final year: working at a dental clinic, initiating an educational mission trip to China, and joining PEACE. I got to say, it was a very bold decision switching from medicine to dentistry. Although I didn’t have to abandon most of my knowledge acquired from my pre-med club/fraternity before, I had to prepare for another test and adopt a different timeline than I previously had planned for (for example, dentistry requires one year of general chemistry, so I am still taking Chem 1B now even after having graduated). But shadowing at dental clinics put me at ease regarding my decision. I guess the lesson learned here is, really do try out different activities/fields as you never know which one is really for you. On the other hand, after quitting SLC due to my packed schedule in junior year, I have always regretted not being able to tutor more during my time at Berkeley. So, when the opportunity of joining PEACE came around my senior year, I decided to take it without hesitation. PEACE stand for “Peers Espousing Amiability Cooperation, and Education”, aspiring to foster a community for students by students. A mission I truly believe in.

Lastly, I want to dedicate a bit of time to talk about the mission trip I planned to China. Since I was born and raised in China until eighth grade, I have always wanted to give back to my community, especially to students who have limited access to the western world. For the few of you that may know, the Chinese education system is created for a large population. Thus, it focuses mainly on academic excellence and from there, cultivates a group of elite students with high scores. The benefits of having an education system like that is you will have a really good foundation in math, science and other STEM courses. But at the same time, creativity and social responsibility are sometimes neglected. My goal is to bring a sense of appreciation for diverse cultural and social perspectives to some Chinese high schools. During my junior year summer, I proposed my idea of the trip to a friend, and after a whole semester of planning classes, trip details, personnels, and finances, we launched our first trip during winter of 2017-2018 to a high school in the city that I am from. What I got out of this trip was way more than what I expected before going into it. First of all, the amount of difficulties we faced were completely beyond me expectations. From finding sponsorship to contacting the school and finalizing personnels and tasks, we certainly encountered some bumps in the road. This experience gave me a better understanding of the qualities of a great leader- something I wouldn’t be able to comprehend from reading books or sitting in class.

Final words?

Holy cow four years went by so fast. I feel like I still don’t know a lot things, but here I am writing an article reminiscing about my olden days. I guess if I have to say two things that I really learned from being in Berkeley is: first, take your time. Life is actually pretty long, and if everything goes as planned, we will still have 30-40 years of working after graduating from professional schools. But if you ended up doing something that you actually don’t like, you would just feel stuck. So while we have the time to explore our interests, why not try different things? Personally, I am looking to pursue both a DDS and PhD in the future, because, I like both, so why not. And second, make time for your friends. I know that you are busy, and you want to make 30 hours out of your 24-hour allowed time per day. But I believe at the end of the day, we are what the people around us made us to be. So, show them your appreciation, while they are still around.

I loved my time at Berkeley. But it’s time to move on, PEACE.