‘A Stranger in a Strange Land’ ‒ the Experiences of a Medical Trainee from Nigeria

This Blog post represents a partnership between the Women in Medicine Summit and Healio Women in Oncology. An excerpt appears blow, and please find the full length piece at Healio’s Women in Oncology blog.

In Nigeria, the journey to medicine starts immediately after high school, where it takes 8 years to graduate with a medical degree. I graduated secondary school at the age of 16 and moved to the U.S. by myself for college. As a naive teenager, I had no idea that the journey to become a physician was going to be more complicated.

With restrictions from undergraduate institutions, medical school requirements and the uncertainty of changing U.S. visa rules, becoming a physician in the U.S. as an international student required far more than the steps I had researched. I knew that I’d have to take the infamous MCAT and carefully demonstrate hours of physician shadowing, community service and volunteer work. I had a timetable to complete a compelling personal statement and gather strong letters of recommendation — all of which had to be ready the summer after junior year to gain acceptance and matriculate into medical school right after college.

‘An immigrant’s path’

An immigrant’s path is especially challenging when they are the first in their family to move to a strange land to pursue their dreams. They have no one to guide them in the field. To gather enough shadowing hours to convince the admission committee of your passion to become a physician, you either need to know someone or cold email physicians begging them to allow you in their clinic outside of a formal program.

About the author: Eniola Otukoya is a second-year medical student (OMS-II) at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine.