Meet Kaitlyn Malek
As the Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) Class of 2027 starts their journey, we wanted to learn more about the students from this incoming group.
We invited them to share their stories. Here is one response:
Meet Kaitlyn Malek, who begins her first year in the College of Medicine.
Hometown: Stow, Ohio
Previous Institution: I received my undergraduate degree from Indiana State University and my master’s degree at Cleveland State University.
Q: Why did you choose NEOMED?
A: NEOMED emphasizes a community atmosphere, from its curriculum to the service-centered extracurriculars, and that, alongside its close vicinity to my family, reassured me that’s where I was meant to be for medical school.
Q: What specific career do you hope to pursue? What inspired your choice?
A: There’s a plethora of different subspecialties that I’m interested in currently, but no matter what direction I head in the future, I hope to be a compassionate and personable physician that patients feel they can confide in during their toughest moments.
Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: When I was little, I wanted to be in interior design or even culinary but quickly learned that creativity wasn’t my strong suit and fell in love with STEM.
Q: What book or movie are you currently recommending to friends? Why?
A: I’m a big reader and typically enjoy a good fantasy fiction book, but lately I’m in my non-fiction era, so I’ve been recommending Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke. It’s a refreshing, digestible read about how people each have their “dopamine stimuli,” whether it’s social media or something else, and how we can work to be a less indulgent society and enjoy life’s simplicities. It was recently published and made the New York Times Bestseller’s List in April. In terms of movies, I highly recommend the Hundred Foot Journey, which is a captivating story of a cook who immigrated with his family to France and his journey to becoming a world renowned, Michelin-star chef.
Q: You are handed a plane ticket to anywhere in the world. Where are you going? Why?
A: If I was handed a ticket to anywhere in the world, I honestly couldn’t decide between a European adventure to Italy and Spain or Egypt. Maybe this imaginary donor would be super generous and provide a few tickets
Q: If time and resources were no object, what skill or hobby would you pursue? Why?
A: If time and resources were not a factor, I think I’d pursue cooking as a hobby! For now, I’ll stick to meal prepping as my own sous chef. Speaking of food though, I think everyone should try sushi at least once.
Q: What’s your hype song? Why?
A: It’s impossible for me to choose just one song, so I’ll choose the entire 1990s-2000s music era as my hype music. They may be oldies but they are goodies.
Q: What would people be surprised to know about you?
A: A fact someone would be surprised to learn about me is that I played D1 soccer at Indiana State University.
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New students are welcome to introduce themselves in The Pulse. Email thepulse@neomed.edu for a list of prompts. Or find them on the Class of 2027 Facebook group page!