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About Me
ABOUT ME:
I was born in a city called Suzhou in China (close to Shanghai!) and moved to the US when I was 2. We moved all across the country growing up, but when asked, I consider Los Angeles home. Anyone who knows me knows how die-hard I am for USC: I went there for college, studying public health and Spanish, and became a two-time Trojan by going to USC for medical school. I even have a brother who is at USC now! As someone who decided on ortho "late," I took a research year between third and fourth year of medical school to do arthroplasty research with Dr. Nathanael Heckman at USC, which ended up being one of the best professional and personal experiences of my life.
MEDICAL AREAS OF INTEREST:
I'm looking forward to being convinced by all my rotations to go into those subspecialties! That being said, I am somewhat biased towards joints given how awesome my research year was—it is easy for me to want to follow in the footsteps of people I admire. Non-subspecialty specific areas I am interested in include socioeconomic disparities in health care and diversity in orthopaedic surgery.
INTERESTS & HOBBIES:
Utah brings out the outdoorsy person in me—I love to snowboard, hike, trail run, and play tennis. But I also am deeply committed to taking it easy with wine nights with my friends, lounging at the pool, and tending to my plants. It's all about balance!
WHY UTAH?
It was my research mentor who first put Utah on my radar during application season, but it wasn't until I interviewed that I knew that it was a program I would thrive at. On paper, Utah met all my goals. It is a strong academic program with thought leaders and high research productivity in every subspecialty, operative training that prioritizes resident learning, strong infrastructure of associated staff to work alongside residents in providing patient care, and is located in a beautiful and easy-to-live-in city. However, it was seeing the dynamic between residents and attendings and between residents that gave me the gut feeling that something special was happening at this program that I shouldn't miss out on. There was a clear and natural commitment among everyone in the program, residents and attendings alike, to invest in one another, not just to become the best surgeons, but also to become the best versions of ourselves as people and have the most fun while doing so. The days are long and years are short in residency, and picking the right people and environment to spend this time with, I think, is what makes it work.
HOMETOWN:
South Pasadena, CA
MEMBERSHIPS:
AOA