Fort Lauderdale

This is the main medical building at Nova Southeastern University where I interviewed last Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Overall i was impressed with the school. The facilities were very nice, labs modern, individual patient rooms, huge library, huge exercise facility, and a huge OUTDOOR swimming pool... and everyone was very friendly. I got the impression that they have a strong commitment to the students which impressed me. From what I saw of the school I would love to go there. My interview though just went okay. There was an older gentleman and a middle aged women who interviewed me at the same time. It was hard for me to understand the man who was from Asia and he asked specific questions that where to me, subjective, such as "who is the leader of the Foundation?" Well turns out the Foundation is an LDS humanitarian organization and in his opinion I should have known that since I went to BYU. Both interviewers thought I was still at BYU which made me frustrated and gave me the impression they only glanced over my application rather than really read it. That was the most negative aspect of the day. The Dean was awesome though, and had done incredible things in his career and is a powerful force for the school. I should know in another week whether or not I am accepted.

Pier at Dania Beach

Ocean Side Dr in Fort Lauderdale

A little bay opening along the inter coastal water way in Hollywood just south of Fort Lauderdale
The same Bay
Ocean Side Dr. and my toes

A home I liked with a their boat parked out back. Much of Fort Lauderdale is interlaced with these salt water canals causing most of the homes to have a water front in there back yards with access to the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful! Fort Lauderdale is nicknamed the Venice of America for this reason.

Just another canal
And a large bay connecting many of these canals in Fort Lauderdale with freaking amazing homes surrounding it!

Standing on a bridge over a canal looking toward downtown. I really thought these waterways were beautiful!

A street view of the homes, the canals are on either side in their back yard.
Sadly I did have to spend some time in the Hotel doing homework :(

This sign was at Dania Beach... was this meant to be a funny joke or is this for real lol, I cracked up for at least an hour!

The first Jelly Fish I have ever seen!!! There were quite a few stranded on the beach. They felt just like plastic. They were pretty though.

Standing on the inter coastal water way searching for alligators. I really wanted to see one but never did :(

Doing what I love best. Just laying on the beach!

Pine trees from Australia that are taking over Florida and killing off endemic species. Kinda cool looking though

Coconut trees and the beach, life couldn't get much better.

The man pictured here is Dr. Koshrow Semnani. He came to speak to us in my Introduction to Medical Professions class. I was deeply impressed with his presentation, his words, and what he has done. Dr. Koshrow Semnani grew up in Iran and came to America on a scholarship and didn't speak a word of English. He taught himself English as he attended Weber State University and graduated at the top of his class in Biochemics. He then attended the University of Utah medical school and has sense established the ONLY free medical clinic in the Salt Lake Valley. There is one other free clinic but to qualify, you must be homeless. The clinic Dr. Koshrow Semnani established is called Maliheh Free Clinic, and is aimed to treat the non homeless without insurance in Salt Lake. Every doctor and person that works there are volunteers and are paid nothing. Supplies are donated or paid for by donations. Check out the website at http://www.malihehfreeclinic.org/ One of my favorite things he said was when he read a Muslim proverb about a man praying to God asking how to best praise him. God then replies to him, "you can sing praises to me all night, or give away all your money, but the single thing that pleases me the most is when you open the door to someone who is hopeless." His efforts are highly commendable and in my mind, helped establish a standard against which I can measure myself and what kind of doctor I want to be. I want to be opening doors to the hopeless, and give them new hope and a better life... and in my case a more colorful one :)

For my international health class I had to pick a disease and country to study and write three researcher papers on during the semester. The topic I chose was cataracts in Indonesia where 4 million people are blind due to cataracts. The paper I was working on this week was about what Indonesia or other organizations are doing to prevent and treat the disease. While doing research I came across this incredible story of a man named John Fawcett, an Australian potter from Perth. He is clinically dead and comes back from the dead with amnesia and doesn't remember his wife or anyone and was given one week to live. I don't know the full story because I have not seen the documentary, but he gets this uncanny drive for humanitarian work and sets off to Bali to treat cataract blind. He converts an old bus into a mobile medical facility and gets an ophthalmologist to come perform surgeries. Bali has an endemic genetic problem with children born with cataracts who, if they don't receive surgery before 6 months of age, are permanently blind. John has to overcome strong religious beliefs that cataracts are curse for those who sinned or that the person is possessed by evil spirits and convince them that it is in fact a curable disease. To date his organization has given sight to over 25,000 cataract blind! WOW! What an amazing person. Check out the site at www.balieye.org Learning about him and what he has done makes me want to be an ophthalmologist right now and fly over and volunteer and perform surgery for thousands of people and give them there life back if old, or give them a life full of sight if young. Giving them sight will make them productive members of society, influence the economy, and help a struggling Indonesia overall. I can't think of anything else I would want to be more apart of and the tangibility of it makes my desire to study medicine and become and ophthalmologist even that more fierce. And if I get to sail around in a yacht to remote islands of tropical Indonesia to perform surgeries.. all the better :)
I am truly grateful I have chosen a profession where I can serve others and make a significant impact in the lives of others and even improve our global community. I have interviews in Ft. Lauderdale, LA, and Phoenix this month and should hear back from the U medical school. I hope I am accepted somewhere!