Professional Summary
Personal Statement
Some moments change your life in an instant. For me, it was watching a woman in El Salvador see her son’s face for the first time in four years, an encounter that transformed my understanding of medicine and set me on the path to ophthalmology. I was 15, accompanying my father on an ophthalmologic medical mission trip. On my first day, I helped take the history of a woman who had lived with bilateral black cataracts for over four years. Three days later, after her surgery, we removed her eye patch. After adjusting to the light, she turned to her son, and said, “My son, I can’t believe how handsome you look.” In that moment, I understood that our interprofessional team of doctors, nurses, scrub techs, interpreters were restoring far more than vision... we were restoring connection, independence, and dignity.
Why I Chose Cincinnati
As a native Cincinnatian, it was time to come home! The city offers year-round professional/college sports, great bars/nightlife, hiking trails, historic architecture with awe-inspiring murals, I could go on. Most importantly, the residency at UC has personable, world-class faculty and residents who I wanted to learn from for the next four years.