For Joseph Sadler, MD, a physician affiliated with Crockett Hospital in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., the decision to attend American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) opened up doors to multiple opportunities—and ultimately allowed him to pursue his dream of becoming a pediatrician.
After deciding to take a gap year between undergraduate and medical school, Caitlyn Gottwald was anxious that it might hinder her goal to become a physician. But she used that year to help strengthen her application through work experience, and in doing so, made an invaluable connection.
Growing up, Meredith Harrison would do extra chores to help sponsor a child through World Vision, a nonprofit that fights poverty and injustice. In her spare time, she fostered rabbits for the Michigan Rabbit Rescue, taking them in after their original owners weren’t able to care for them.
First-semester AUC student Stefanie Rulli—a Farmingdale, NY native—believes that great doctors don’t just care for their patients. They care about their patients.
While he was in junior high, Matthew Lew went on a medical mission trip to Tijuana with his dad (a Los Angeles family medicine physician), his family, and some of his father’s colleagues. The goal: provide quality medical care to the area’s underserved populations.
“Whatever circumstances lead you to choose AUC, it is important to realize you have an opportunity in front of you. AUC provided me with the opportunity to start fresh and make a new commitment to work and study harder than I ever had before in pursuit of a goal I was passionate about.”
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Emran Hassanzada’s parents fled the country. Like so many refugees, they left everything behind—careers, a home, friends and family—for a shot at a better life. They were chasing the American Dream.
It was January 1, 2016. After an 8-hour flight from Detroit, Michigan, I landed in St. Maarten for my very first semester at American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC).
Kanchan Tiwari, MD ’16 had never pictured leaving her home state to pursue medicine, much less going international. But today, this AUC grad is an internal medicine resident at MedStar Health in Baltimore, and couldn’t be happier with the path she took.
“AUC did a lot to prepare me for everything I saw in clinical rotations, and it made me feel very comfortable in that environment,” says Class of 2016 graduate Brandon Lewko, MD.