From Physicist to Physician: Meet M1 Halina Tran
By Kyra Letsinger
Following your dreams is a phrase so often repeated it can lose its impact. It seems simple: you listen to your heart and pursue the path to get there. In reality, achieving one’s dreams is not for the faint of heart. It is for those who are strong in their convictions, confident in their abilities, and prepared to push through hardships. People who are brave. People who are passionate.
People like Vanderbilt University School of Medicine M1 student Halina Tran, Ph.D.
Many people assume that everyone follows a similar, traditional path toward a career in medicine: A biological sciences undergraduate degree, immediately beginning medical school post-grad. While many medical students choose to follow this direct path, others decide to take a more scenic route, collecting outside knowledge and experience before deciding to pursue their passion for medicine.
This was the case for Dr. Tran. From starting college at age sixteen (the youngest student at her university) to pursuing a medical degree after a decade-plus career in laser physics, Dr. Tran is no stranger to taking the road less traveled. Rather, risk motivates Tran, so much so that it has become a mantra she has carried with her throughout her academic and professional career.
“If you want it, you just have to take the risk.”
Now, starting her second semester of medical school, she holds these words closer than ever.
Finding Direction in Defying the Odds
As fantastic as Tran’s journey has been, it has not come without obstacles. Challenging the status quo never does. As a high school student in Germany, she thrived in math and her first true academic passion of physics. In expressing her desire to pursue physics in college, a new obstacle would arise doubt from those who were supposed to support her.
“I asked my high school physics teacher if I should consider studying physics [in college],” said Tran. “His response was, ‘You know what? I don’t think you have what it takes. I don’t think you’d be good enough.’ Immediately, I was like, ‘I will show you’.”
And show him she did. Not only did she receive her undergraduate degree in physics, but she would also go on to graduate with a master’s degree in the subject, and eventually a Ph.D. in Femtosecond Infrared Laser Spectroscopy. The pursuit would take her to three different countries across Europe before she met her husband and, after three years of long-distance, the two settled in Los Angeles, California.
What she didn’t know then was that her move to L.A. would be Tran’s first step toward the decision to attend medical school, and the starting point for her passion for helping others. While working with Intellisense Systems, Inc., a manufacturing solutions group specializing in defense and space, Tran began focusing on safety research. As a company scientist, she conducted research on the use of the UV Raman Spectrometer for the purpose of incendiary device detection. In simpler terms, Tran was working with her team to determine how a robot equipped with laser sensors could determine the presence of small traces of explosives. Findings from this research could prevent the need for direct human interaction when testing for possible explosives and save countless lives.
Around the same time, Tran would face several heavy personal losses and began spending a significant amount of time in hospitals and around physicians. Inspired by the doctors’ tireless efforts, Tran would have a realization about her own work. While her job with Intellisense Systems and its potential to help others were encouraging, the lengthy timelines involved in researching tools, implementing them, and seeing positive, real-world outcomes left her feeling like something was missing.
“While [the work I did] intellectually was extremely fulfilling and fun, it’s difficult to see from the research you do who you are actually going to be benefiting in the future,” Tran said. “From the research that I did, which is just a teeny, tiny piece of the process, to actually seeing the effects of that work reaching someone is probably longer than my lifetime. You want to see how you’re actually impacting someone’s life.”
As she pushed through adversity once again, she would also come to find clarity: she was being called in a new direction—one of not just helping others but healing them.
The Pandemic Inspires a New Path
The opportunity to act as a healer would come far sooner than Tran expected with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing the opportunity before her to both learn and serve her community, Tran took the risk of a lifetime and became a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with the Pasadena Fire Department Reserve. In what could be considered the most harrowing of circumstances to learn in, Tran thrived, fulfilled by the ability to aid people at their greatest times of need.
“As an EMT, you meet people on the worst day of their life, and they expect you to fix it,” Tran said. “And because you’ve seen emergencies so often, you have the capacity to think critically about what’s happening. What can we do next? What are the steps we need to take? It’s the coolest thing I have done, and I got so much out of it.”
Having little educational background in biology due to the German education structure, Tran decided to strengthen her skills as an EMT by taking biology classes at the University of California Los Angeles, all while continuing to volunteer as an EMT. The next risk she would take was clear with her combined experience in the field, the classroom, and her personal life.
“Meeting people in terrible situations and then hopefully being able to improve their outcomes, to me, is the most rewarding thing I could be doing with my life,” said Tran. “I got a bit carried away and ended up taking all of the prerequisites for medical school, so I said okay, I’m doing it. I’m applying.”
Embracing a Community of Support at Vanderbilt
When determining where to attend medical school, Tran found herself in a unique predicament. Despite being a United States citizen, all of her education came from international educational institutions, making her ineligible to apply for a spot at several different United States medical schools. With its commitment to nurturing the growth of clinicians who will serve and lead their local, national, and global communities, VUSM is one of the few institutions uniquely positioned to embrace and support students with diverse educational experiences.
“Vanderbilt is really open to people with diverse backgrounds,” Tran said. “They don’t need you to fit into a neat box in order for you to be considered. The fact I could apply was in and of itself huge.”
After receiving her acceptance from Vanderbilt, she reflected on her educational and professional past and what she sought most for her next chapter. What she desired, above all, was an environment that would both challenge and support her in her training, both on an academic and personal level. After a positive application process and interactions with faculty, Tran was confident in Vanderbilt’s ability to provide the support she was looking for; she accepted her offer and moved across the country with her husband to join VUSM’s MD Class of 2028. Tran found her instincts about Vanderbilt were right in her first semester as she found a world of endless support, even as a non-traditional student.
“I feel extremely supported [at Vanderbilt. If something goes wrong, I know who to talk to; I know that they’ll try their best to figure out how to move forward on the academic side of things without sacrificing me as a person.”
“I think Vanderbilt is really unique because I feel extremely supported,” said Tran. “If something goes wrong, I know who to talk to; I know that they’ll try their best to figure out how to move forward on the academic side of things without sacrificing me as a person. I’ve seen fellow students who are going through a tough time working with the deans, and it’s very encouraging to know that if something happens to me, I will have that opportunity, too.”
After her first semester, Tran says her experience has been nothing short of eye-opening. The highlight, she says, has been the clinical education opportunities, a chance to apply in-class learnings to real-world situations, and a reminder of the patient connections that drew her to the field in the first place. She further taps into this passion by volunteering with Vanderbilt’s student-run free care clinic, Shade Tree Clinic, within the patient assistance program, helping patients apply for low or no-cost medication. She also channels her time as an EMT in her plans for the future, interested in a career in emergency medicine and the fast-paced environment that comes with it.
Reflecting on her path to following her dreams, she offers prospective students one core piece of advice, a mantra similar to the one that has guided her own journey: “If you think it’s worthwhile to consider taking a risk, take it. You never know what’s going to happen, and it’s better to take the risk and fail than it is to never have tried.”