SOFIYA KOSOGLYADOVA (1999)
After graduating from high school I enrolled at Adelphi University, where I majored in Biology. Adelphi is a small university, with about 6,000 undergraduates, located on Long Island. I selected the school primarily because it had a joint program with SUNY College of Optometry. At that time I wanted to go to medical school, but wasn't sure if that was going to work out, so I decided that Optometry school would be my safety net.
I lived on campus at Adelphi, which I both loved and hated. I hated being away from my family and friends. Adelphi's student body was not made up of people that I was used to: my roommate dyed her hair blue and there were very few people with a Russian background. However, I loved the independence. My parents finally could not control what time I went to bed! I learned to be responsible and became more outgoing. It was a little frightening being on my own in this new environment after coming from a place as sheltered as BHI. But after I got accustomed to my new surroundings, I became extremely grateful for that shelter.
One advantage of Adelphi was its small class sizes. This allowed my professors to get to know me personally, which helped me a lot when I needed recommendation letters for medical school. In a sense, Adelphi also reminded me of BHI because my professors really cared. I graduated from college in 3 years, primarily because I found it too hard to be away from my family and friends, and I wanted to move on.
Right now I'm a 3rd year medical school student at Stony Brook University. Ironically, Stony Brook is even further east on Long Island than Adelphi but I love it! Even with all the long weekends of frenzied studying and the stress of medical school, I would absolutely do it again. I love the medical profession: being able to help others, educate patients about their bodies and hopefully implement changes that will help people live and feel better.
I have always wanted to be a doctor and I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. Now, at the end of my third year of medical school, I feel on top of the world (maybe it's because I just got done with an exam and don't have to study this weekend). However, my advice to those considering medicine is: think long and hard about your decision. If there is anything else that you might enjoy, explore it before committing yourself to medicine. You do not want to be looking at slides of intestine cells at 3:00AM, trying to figure out whether you may have made a mistake. There are a lot of opportunities in medicine that do not require as much sacrifice and still allow you to make a tremendous impact on people's lives. While physicians have more autonomy, they have to deal with insurance companies, malpractice, and less generous financial rewards. If you're not sure about medical school, volunteer at a hospital to see what doctors, nurses and therapists really do - this will help you decide whether the profession is for you.
I got married in October 2004. I was introduced to my husband, Dmitry Milman, by one of my BHI classmates, Kate Chernov (Supranovich). We live near Stony Brook, which allows me to be close to the hospital where I do my rotations. My husband is very supportive and helps me out a lot. This is especially comforting when I have a lot of studying to do. My husband is a software engineer, but he is always interested in hearing about medical phenomena and I love talking about them!
I often reminisce about our wonderful Shabbatons. My classmates will remember the Shabbosim at the White Plains hotel and the Pennsylvania Shabbos Miss Lichtenstein organized in 11th grade. I remember feeling so close to my classmates during those times. I also miss the haggigahs. I sometimes wonder how we managed to have all those parties and prepare for performances during school hours without a negative impact on our education. I wish we could prepare a skit for Chanukah in medical school during the time designated for anatomy.
In Retrospect
I used to complain that BHI shelters and isolates us from the real world. I continued to think that during my early college experience, until I realized that shelter was a good thing. Then I learned to embrace it. I have the rest of my life to be in the "real world" and, frankly, sometimes I'm not sure that I want to be exposed to everything around me. Being sheltered during the most critical and impressionable years of my life allowed me to become a strong person with firm values and a developed sense of self. That is priceless, and I owe a lot of it to BHI.
To My Fellow Alums
I love reading updates about what everyone is up to. It allows me to reconnect with all of you and to re-experience the BHI bond. I hope that you will all continue to send in up- dates and that in the near future we can all meet up to reminisce, and to talk about the present and the future. I want to thank all the BHI teachers and principals who devoted their time and energy to make BHI such a wonderful school. If any of you have any questions about college, medicine, or if you just want to say hi, please email me at: Songelic@yahoo.com
