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Annie Robinson Annie Robinson (52 Posts)

Curator of Inside Stories and in-Training Staff Member

Columbia University

Annie Robinson completed a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University in 2014. She previously studied the healing power of stories as an undergraduate at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Annie works as Narrative Coaching Specialist with Eating Disorder Recovery Specialists, helping individuals in the early stages of eating disorder recovery through mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and narrative practices. She is also the Program Officer at Health Story Collaborative, a non-profit that creates forums for individuals to tell their stories of personal health challenges, and curates another oral narratives projects called On the Road to Recovered: Voices from the Eating Disorder Recovery Community. Annie is a coordinator and full-spectrum doula for The Doula Project in New York City, providing compassionate care for women during experiences of abortion, miscarriage, and fetal loss. As a yoga teacher, writer, educator, and co-founder of NYC-based wellness community Pause, Breathe, and Connect, Annie shares her passion for integrative approaches to wellbeing. She is dedicated to creating spaces for people to explore the healing potential of interweaving of stories, spirituality, and somatic experience.

Inside Stories

Inside Stories is an oral narratives project which invites medical students to share their experiences in medical school in the form of brief podcasts published and archived on in-Training. The project aims to provide a means of personal healing, self-realization and empowerment through the sharing and receiving of personal stories, as well as to cultivate community among students in the often isolating medical school environment. The title Inside Stories reflects the project's mission to encourage students to go inside themselves and bring forth things that often go unspoken. It also represents the inside look listeners are granted into the sometimes private, challenging and confusing experiences students may have. Made possible in part by a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and FJC.




Olivia

Published by Annie Robinson

How can doctors-in-training support patients and colleagues who are transgender? Olivia, a third-year medical student in Chicago pursuing a career in facial reconstructive surgery, transitioned from male to female while she was applying to medical school. As one of the few openly trans medical students in the country, she speaks about the stereotypes and logistical challenges trans people confront in medicine. Olivia aspires to use her own experiences as a trans person in the medical system – as both consumer and provider – to positively impact others in similar positions.

Gladiolus (2015)

Published by Paulette Pham

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this piece celebrates the female form and the metaphor of nature as it relates to revival. Special attention was given to the flora, specifically the flower gladiolus, which can be said to symbolize strength. The use of pink, while a nod to the familiar campaign color, evokes a mood of optimism and hope.

Figuring Out What I Want to Be “When I Grow Up”

Published by Emilia Calvaresi

As a newly-minted third-year medical student, I’m now reaching the point where I finally have to decide what I want to be “when I grow up.” (I use that term very loosely since I’m in my late 20s, have spent 23 years of my life in school, and already have one doctorate degree). Which areas of medicine should I pursue? Do I want my future practice to be clinically-oriented, research-oriented, academically-oriented or all of the above?

Big Pharma in Medical School

Published by Jon Zaid

Most medical students understand the preclinical years barely resemble anything they will encounter for the remainder of their professional careers. Beginning in the third year, learning is done in the hospitals and the clinics, and is no longer confined to the classrooms and laboratories. During this time, many of us will be thrust into the middle of a complex network of relationships between physicians, nurses, staff, administrators and patients. Our relationship with these various groups is often well-defined. There is, however, a hospital presence that we get little to no information regarding: health industry representatives.

Golf: The Greatest Tool for the World’s Greatest Teacher

Published by Trevor Mooney

My dad taught me how to swing a golf club at an early age. No, not with the overbearing exactitude of an Earl Dennison Woods. Robert Mooney Jr., a brilliant emergency physician with a respectable high school swimming career, never wished to live vicariously through my future sporting exploits. Perhaps having personally authored the genetics of scrawny paleness into my genetic constitution, he knew a losing battle when he saw one.

On Fear, Failure, and the Future: What Medical School Can’t Teach You

Published by Jennifer Hong

As I settle into my second year of medical school, I’m confronted with the fact that I’m one-fourth of the way to an M.D. — that an entire year has passed, and unsurprisingly, all those predictions my deans made at the very beginning came to pass: time flew, we learned more than we thought we ever could, and upon close self-examination, we’re very different from how we were this time last year.

Dr. Ben Carson, Would You Let Me Be Your Doctor?

Published by Hammad Khan

The President of the United States of America cannot be a Muslim. This was the message Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson relayed on national television last week. Carson, who afterwards surged in the polls and saw spikes in campaign donations, went on to add that the religion of Islam is also “unconstitutional” — thus blatantly smearing and demonizing the nearly seven million Americans who identify as Muslims with words that were discriminatory, inflammatory and, somewhat ironically, unconstitutional.

A Question: A Personal Encounter with Gun Violence in America

Published by Aishwarya Rajagopalan

I was sitting in class on Tuesday, October 6, when one of my friends showed me a link about a local college that was under lockdown, as we often do with current events. But this time, after seeing the message, I felt my stomach sink. My heart was in my throat. My mind instantly flooded with thoughts. Did my mom go to work this morning? Was she teaching today? I hadn’t heard from her since last night. The school was the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP).

Kira Neel (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer

Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Kira is a second-year medical student at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.