A Blast From the Past!

During last Thursday’s meeting we had the pleasure of being visited by some of our alumni. The message of their visit: FAMILY. 

They came to remind us of the importance of family, unity, and the utilization of our resources. Each of them shared their stories from when they were in PhiDE, and how PhiDE helped them get to where they are now.

From left: Oswaldo Rivas, Diana Naderi, Bianca Rivas and Kevin Guillen

Bianca, a member of the Gamma Class and our 2009 VP of Programming, graduated in 2011 majoring in Biology and minoring in Central American studies. Her involvement in PhiDE came from her desire to become more involved on campus. As a member of PhiDE, she learned how to work as a team, built management skills and met lifelong friends. 

Since early last summer, Bianca began the application process to medical school. After having gone through the process, Bianca shared some of her tips for doing well on interviews. In her opinion, the best advice is to be yourself and to market yourself. During the interview process you are, in a sense, selling yourself to your medical schools. You have to condense yourself and everything you did in your undergraduate career into a small package, and show your medical schools your best side. To do that, Bianca made a theme for her interviews. That theme was serving the underserved Chicano community. Being Central American played a big role in her success, and looking back at how her ethnicity influenced her community service made everything click and come together. 

Bianca ultimately gave this piece of great advice, “You are in one of the best organizations here on campus. Don’t be afraid to get out of your shell, and get out there.” 

Diana Naderi, a founding member of the CA Theta Chapter, is currently a second year medical student at Chicago Medical School. Diana gave a presentation last semester on her experiences applying to and surviving medical school. She has since become the godmother of this fraternity, and has emphasized the importance of friends, family and the numerous resources that PhiDE has brought to her. She is a great role model for many of us that are currently undergoing the struggles and hardships she faced during her undergraduate career. She emphasizes that no one can tell you when to give up but yourself. Her motto is, “Don’t give up until you know you don’t want to do it anymore.”

Kevin Guillen, another founding member, graduated in Business and is now helping his father start a health clinic in Palmdale. He had no problem showing off his fun and quirky personality as he cracked jokes and gave everyone a good laugh. Kevin has a lot of insight in the medical field. He stressed the importance of not only knowing the scientific side of medicine, but the business side as well. Having a father that has studied and graduated in so many fields within healthcare has come with its benefits. One of the most important messages he delivered was to remember to take things lightly, “Yes you are all pre-med, and yes you are all dressed up nice. But it’s not all business. Enjoy your time here and enjoy PhiDE. This is what makes it fun and what makes it worth it. It’s the backbone of this whole college experience.”

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Oswaldo Rivas graduated in 2011 with a major in Spanish. During his undergraduate years, Oswaldo did more exploring than Lewis and Clark made in their Expedition. Oswaldo changed his major 5 times, and battled himself over all the options he had to choose. For him, while “going through this roller coaster [school], my best choice was joining PhiDE. My initiation was more exciting than my graduation.” In the end, he learned that one-on-one patient care and interaction was his passion. He graduated from UCLA’s post graduate program, and is now pursuing a career as a Chiropractor. He is expecting to hear back from the D.O. schools he applied to soon. The only thing he regrets about his college experience was not joining PhiDE sooner. With all of the support and connections he made, Oswaldo managed to find his way.

These four alumni are perfect examples of the people you come to meet in Phi Delta Epsilon. We see our members grow from the time they join up until the time they graduate. That is the beauty of it all. We have all been in the same boat, we have all had tough classes and impossible professors and we have all spent long hours in the lab and long nights at the library. Although we are all from different backgrounds, the drive to, one day, become physicians brings us together and makes us a family.

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All of us decided to take a big step in our undergraduate careers and rush Phi Delta Epsilon. We have all been nervous, and, at some point in our lives, naive. With induction coming up, we should prepare ourselves to welcome the new Mu class and remember that, not too long ago, we were in their shoes taking that giant step forward that has led us to where we are now. 

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This article was authored by Phi Delta Epsilon Technology Committee Member, Edward Hernandez. If you would like to contact Edward, you can reach him at edward.hernandez.511@my.csun.edu.