Her Story
About Alexis
She is a pre-med biology student with experience in healthcare career preparation, clinical exposure, mentorship, safety, first aid, and emergency response. She participated in the AAMC Minority Student Initiative Program, gaining medical school pathway guidance, academic enrichment, and professional development experience. She also worked as a Lifeguard with American Pool, where she monitored safety, responded to emergencies, and supported patrons. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Biology at Howard University.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Alexis
01What do you attribute your success to?
I have everything I need, I just need the time, the days to go on, to continue to keep putting in the research and keep making the platform for it. I have all the information I would need on Google and I always reach out to the superintendents of my high school if need be. At Howard, there's a lot of people in a whole bunch of different fields. Honestly, I feel like I've got everything I need. The only thing I guess I would need is time.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Comparison is the thief of joy. It's something I have to remind myself a lot, because often, especially being on the pre-med path and being a student athlete, you're seeing people with better times than you, you're seeing people doing a whole bunch more volunteer hours than you. I don't always have the time because of my schedule, but I have to remember that everyone's path is different and that I need to put the focus on me.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
First I tell them to make sure that this is what you want to do, because it's a lot, the schooling, even in undergraduate, it's a lot of hard classes, and then after that, you're in school for another 4 years, and then you have training for another 4, 5, 6 years. So make sure that this is what they want. I'd have them look into clinical research, clinical hours and shadowing hours. And after that I told them to just stay focused, and remember the why, because it's going to get tough, but they have to remember why they're doing it, and when people try to steer them from that path, which people do to pre-meds a lot, they have to be able to ignore that.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
For me, I would say specifically for collegiate athletes, it's getting, finding volunteer opportunities and clinical hours that work with our schedule. Our schedule is so sporadic compared to a normal student.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Perseverance, because life is tough, but I always find a way to get around it. Discipline, that's what it is, if you don't want to do it, you know you have to do it anyway. I would say the third value is compassion, because there's a lot of bad in the world, but I feel like if we had compassion to others it could fix a lot of things.
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