Contributing Writer
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Jessa is a second-year medical student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN, class of 2022. In 2017, she graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in biology with a minor in international studies. She enjoys running, reading, and painting in her free time. In the future, Jessa would like to pursue a career in general surgery or OB/GYN
It’s a common scenario: a male medical student and a female resident walk into a patient’s room together, and the patient automatically assumes that the man is the doctor, and the woman is the nurse.
We shuffled out of the room, but before closing the door, I could hear her bangles ringing as her hands fell with defeat into her lap. Behind the closed office door, Dr. Altman gave us his three-word assessment: “She’s just crazy.”
Contributing Writer
Weill Cornell Medical College
Briana Christophers is an MD-PhD student at the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Memorial Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program with interests in developmental biology, health justice and advocacy, and mentoring the next generation of diverse physicians and scientists. She recently co-authored the e-book “The Free Guide to Medical School Admission” available online. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology at Princeton University. You can follow her reflections on being a Latina woman growing into the role of physician-scientist on Twitter (@BriChristophers) where she is also the co-leader of @LatinasInMed and @MedStudentChat.
