For M1 Gloria Nashed, Tuesday afternoon means heading into clinic at the VA hospital, where she gets a chance to practice her physical exam skills and interact with patients.

Even though the clinic doesn’t fall exactly within her specialty interest, Gloria says it’s been a mind-opening experience.

“There are going to be a lot of people that know right away what they want to do, and that’s not a bad thing. But I also want to encourage future first-year medical students not to get worried or fret if you don’t know what you want to do,” Gloria says.

“Having that open mind is very, very valuable. You could fall in love with something you never thought that you would fall in love with.”

And there’s plenty of time to shadow your specialty interests, too.

“Shadowing at Vanderbilt is wonderfully easy. You can contact any faculty member in the specialty that you’re considering or that you want to know more about and you can go and shadow them whenever you have free time,” Gloria says.

Ask Gloria any questions you have by emailing mdambassadors@vanderbilt.edu.