Professional Experience

As a member of UCF Neuroscience Alliance, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to shadow Dr. Aaron Wagner at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Orlando Regional Medical Center. Dr. Wagner is a board-certified clinical pathologist who leads biweekly brain dissections at Arnold Palmer alongside other physicians and medical students. While slightly unnerving at first, these brain dissections were my first exposure to clinical cases within a real-world medical setting. Not only did I find myself captivated by the brains being examined, but I was also surprised to learn about how the state of the brains post-mortem could reveal the lifestyle and situational factors of the patients at hand. I was also able to shadow Dr. Wagner outside of these brain dissections to explore a potential career in medicine within the pathology specialty overall.

In addition to the shadowing I did at Orlando Health, I also shadowed Dr. James Manzanares at the Lake Underhill location of American Spine & Orthopaedic Institute. Dr. Manzanares is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery. These surgeries are typically performed to stabilize an unstable spine and its associated vertebrae and discs. Throughout my time shadowing Dr. Manzanares, I was able to witness the ways in which a trust-based relationship between physician and patient can benefit patient health outcomes in a positive way. Not only did Dr. Manzanares empathize with his patients and their experiences with chronic pain, but he patiently walked them through potential treatment options as well. Additionally, I also had the opportunity to shadow physician assistant (P.A.-C.) Selena Machia, who provided her insights regarding the lifestyle of P.A. compared to that of a physician. P.A. Machia also explained how various diseases of the spine can arise through the use of gross anatomy textbooks and models. I hope to emulate this compassion and culture of care mentality with my future patients as a whole.