by Elise Goitia '18

Six first-year pre-medical students have taken the initiative to prepare for their field, forming a team that writes, edits, and publishes articles on PreMedLife.com, the largest print and digital publication for students pursuing admission to medical school. The goal of PreMedLife: Knox Chapter is to share advice, knowledge, and support with other pre-medical students at Knox.

Knox College is one of just five schools with a  PreMedLife.com campus edition. The online magazine has published several of the students' articles, covering topics such as resilience in pre-medical study, the best medical colleges that are less well-known, and the differences between psychologists and psychiatrists.

When Reshma Rajan '19 realized she wanted to pursue a pre-medical education, she knew the road to becoming a doctor would be a challenging one. "I used to go to PreMedLife.com a lot to kind of guide me through what I wanted to do in life," said Rajan.

Before starting her first year at Knox, Rajan reached out through the Knox College Class of 2019 Facebook page to other pre-med first-year students, asking if they would be interested in working as a team on articles. From there, PreMedLife: Knox Chapter was formed, with Rajan as the club president, Bob Lallky '19 and Valarie Varanese '19 as editors, Joel Vargeese '19 as publicity chair, and Jyotsna Seesala '19 as secretary.

"We're going through the same thing," Rajan added. "It's a group effort and it's because of this great group dynamic we have that we've published a few articles already."

As for the online magazine, Rajan said there's a lot more to writing articles than reading them. "When you're reading about something, you learn a lot," she said. "But when you're writing it, you learn more because you had to research it. It's not only an experience, but an amazing learning opportunity."

Pre-health program advisor and advisor to PreMedLife: Knox Chapter Mary Jane Shroyer said that she was impressed by how organized the team was when they first approached her about the publication. "I think it speaks to their confidence and motivation that they were able to organize themselves to take on this project," she said. "This is an interesting niche that Knox's student publications haven't explored."

Bob Lallky '19 plans on becoming an emergency room doctor. He hopes to spread advice to other aspiring pre-medical students through the Knox Chapter. "I think it's going to be something that we can pass on to generations of Knox pre-med students."