MEGUMI SUGIMOTO

AED helped me confirm my ambition to become a physician, and assisted me in taking one step closer to achieving my goal. Through AED, I learned about ways to participate in various extracurricular activities such as becoming a tutor, shadowing a surgeon, and going on medical mission trips abroad to provide free medical care in underserved communities. I was inspired by wonderful clinicians and was motivated to push myself through the challenges of being a pre-med as my interactions with patients reminded me of why I want to become a physician.

Throughout medical school application, I had all these people from AED who were willing to help me with every aspect of the application from editing essays to practicing interviews. Many were already in medical school, who had gone through it all – and succeeded. Special shout out to my big sis Karissa who edited my entire application and spent hours with me over the phone and online giving me advice. I stepped in hoping for just a single acceptance, but was fortunate enough to have options to decide on a school that is a perfect fit for me, and would best aid me in getting most out of the medical school experience. I am currently in my first year attending Drexel University College of Medicine and I am enjoying every moment of it. I can say that I would not ask my first year of med school to be any other way, and this could not have happened without the enormous amount of help I received.

And the best part! It’s been more than two years out of college, and my closest friends that I still hang out with are from AED. It’s pretty nice to see on social media that you’re not the only one studying all the time but your friends are going through the same thing all across the country.