steps to be a doctor

Finding aid for STEPS TO BE A DOCTOR
Date range: 2009-2018

Finding Aid created by Karen Linares, 2018
Copyright Karen Linares

 

Extent: Website

Storage location: https://linareskj12.wixsite.com/selfish

Language(s): The material is in English and Spanish.

Abstract: The records of the STEPS TO BE A DOCTOR include email correspondence, images, resume, screenshots of an interview transcript, and an edited poem.

History: The STEPS TO BE A DOCTOR Archive is a vision board for my path to become a doctor. This archive includes accomplishments, denials, personal experiences, positive and negative advice, failures, and more through photos, screenshots, and short anecdotes.

 

Junot Díaz mentioned in the POC writing workshop I attended that as students of color we have a tendency of focusing on either too much on the past or future, but not the present. It hurts to live in the present. He connected this sentiment to what it means to be a POC at a predominantly elite white institution like Williams College and proceeded to ask us how many of us yearn to leave Williams and go back home to help our communities. All eighteen of us raised our hands. He said, “Home don’t need your ass. That bench is full. We need you graduating and bringing that privilege to help your community.” I knew the bench was full by the end of eighth grade when my mom and I decided I would not attend my neighborhood’s public school because we knew the quality of education would be extremely low. The realization of privilege occurred by the end of my freshman year at Williams – I knew my life would not be the same had I stayed home in Los Angeles.

 

Like several students here at Williams, I am a light-skinned Latina, first in my family to soon graduate college, low-income, and so many more intersecting identities. I have come across one person who I can vaguely identify with who has gone through similar experiences. However, oftentimes the pervasive thought of not knowing if someone like me can become a doctor makes me feel alone and discourages me of following through with my goal.

 

My ideal audience consists of women and femmes of color who have been discouraged by people or experiences in their life to maintain a healthy balance between the past, future, and present. By this I mean to foster the resilience and grit of recognizing how much we have accomplished and endured. The recognition and validation from within is beyond difficult to reach for me and I am grappling with how much of that is connected with living in the present and having to feel all the pain I have held in. I hope that my audience sees my experiences not as losses, which is how I first interpreted them as, but as lessons that taught me a different depth to my weaknesses. These lessons slowly became strengths by the simple recognition of identifying them as weaknesses. It is an ongoing non-linear process for me, but my ultimate aim is to have my audience not feel lonely.

Scope and Content: The records of the STEPS TO BE A DOCTOR include email correspondence, images, resume, screenshots of an interview transcript, and an edited poem. The strength of the collection is found in the words from the various people who contributed to the archive. This archive attempts to provide a range of “negative” experiences and spin them in a way that highlights the growth that happens in each apparent negative experience.

The items in the archive are categorized under tabs which include my own introduction and the three different steps: be selfish, be teachable, and be adaptable. The items were categorized according to the message I wanted to relay and how best it fit that section.

 

For example, under the tab “Bienvenidos a mi casa” there is an edited poem that speaks about what, where, and who I consider home and there is an image of my neighborhood taken from the internet.

Under the tab “The 3 Steps > Step 1,” the quote by Dr. Gutierrez shared during a Skype conversation, spoke about being selfish which best fit under Step 1: Be Selfish.

 

Subjects:

• Lesson-Learning—Medicine

• Life Hardships—21st century

Works Cited

 

TAB 1: Bienvenidos a mi casa

 

“Alliance Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science: Full Guide.” Prep Scholar, https://www.prepscholar.com/sat/s/hs/alliance-marc--eva-stern-math-and-science-los-angeles-ca. Accessed 14 May 2018.

 

Eriksarni.com. “East Los Angeles renews its Christmas Spirit.” Eastsidemedia.tv. Nov. 26, 2017, https://eastsidemedia.tv/2017/11/26/east-los-angeles-renews-its-christmas-spirit/. Accessed 7 May 2018.

 

Lyon, George Ella. “Where I’m From, When Poems Come From.” Where I’m From, When Poems Come From, Absey & Co., 1999. Template of poem used.

 

 “Robert Louis Stevenson Middle.” Ed-Data: Education Data Partnership, http://www.ed-data.org/school/Los-Angeles/Los-Angeles-Unified/Robert-Louis-Stevenson-Middle. Accessed 14 May 2018.

 

“Student Profile 2016-17: We Are Williams.” Williams College. 2017, https://admission.williams.edu/files/Student-Profile-2016-2017.pdf. Accessed 14 May 2018.

 

TAB 2: Step 1: Be Selfish

 

Gutierrez, Diana, Skype conversation with author, February 26, 2018.

 

Gutierrez, Diana, Email message from author, November 22, 2017.

 

TAB 3: Step 2: Be Teachable

 

Linares, Karen. Photograph of 666 Rowing Boat. 26 Oct. 2014. Author’s personal collection.

 

Linares, Karen. Photograph of Karen Linares (left) with Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez (right). 15 Oct. 2016. Author’s personal collection.

 

Linares, Karen. Resume. 2017.

 

Linares, Karen. “Williams College Supplemental Essay.” 26 Dec. 2013.

 

Rodriguez, Prisca Dorcas Mojica. “Dear Woke Brown Girl.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/prisca-dorcas-mojica-rodriguez/dear-woke-brown-girl_b_9209662.html.

 

TAB 4: Step 3: Be Adaptable.

 

Anonymous. Personal Interview. 5 April 2018.

 

Vega, Edgar. Photograph of crashed minivan. 20 Feb. 2016. Edgar Vega’s personal collection.