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Our residents are a diverse group that come from a variety of backgrounds and have unique experiences and interests. We look forward to getting to know you as well!
Hometown: Coeymans Hollow, NY
Medical school: Touro University California
Why did you choose Spectrum Health for your residency/fellowship? I was really drawn to the great learning opportunities provided at Spectrum, in adult medicine but especially in pediatrics with the free-standing DeVos Children's Hospital functioning as the main pediatric referral center for western Michigan. Also, it feels cliché to say it, but when I did an away rotation here the people were incredibly friendly and welcoming. I concluded that I would get the education of a major teaching hospital, but still with the community/family feel.
What are your clinical interests? I am still deciding, but I'm currently leaning towards becoming either a med-peds hospitalist or subspecializing into critical care or infectious disease (or maybe rheumatology). I like inpatient medicine, teaching, and global health and I hope to incorporate them all into my career.
Hobbies: I am an avid birdwatcher, to the extent that I enter competitions for it! Otherwise I like being outside, traveling, and reading books and occasionally I find myself on a soccer field.
Hometown: Temecula, CA
Medical school: Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine
Why did you choose Spectrum Health for your residency/fellowship? I love West Michigan and I want to serve the people here!
What are your clinical interests? I'm not completely sure yet. But, cardiology has always had a special place in my heart.
Hobbies: I always say that if the sun's out, I'm out. I love anything outdoors - gardening, hiking, tennis.
Hometown: Fishers, IN
Medical school: Indiana University School of Medicine
Why did you choose Spectrum Health for your residency/fellowship? I chose Spectrum Health because of the mutual respect and camaraderie shared between current residents and the willingness of program leadership to collaborate with residents to make their training experience even better - these qualities were palpable even through a virtual interview! Grand Rapids was also the only program site I visited in-person during the interview season, and I fell in love with the small town feel and abounding outdoor activities. The vibe reminded me very much of the regional campus in Bloomington, IN where I spent my first two years of medical school. I am so grateful to be a part of such a great program in a great location!
What are your clinical interests? In classic internal medicine/pediatrics fashion, my clinical interests are numerous and varied; however, I am currently especially interested in transitional care for adolescents with complex medical conditions.
Hobbies: Some of my favorite hobbies are hiking, testing new gluten-free and allergy-friendly recipes, binge watching the Great British Baking Show, exploring local coffee shops and farmer's markets, and adventuring with my rescue dog, Greg.
Hometown: South Bend, IN
Medical school: Indiana University School of Medicine
Why did you choose Spectrum Health for your residency/fellowship? Applying to internal medicine/ pediatrics programs is difficult because you have to balance the strengths of both categorical sides. Spectrum Health was one of the programs that made this easy. They have a broad patient population on the adult and pediatric sides that are pulled from throughout the western and northern parts of the state along with an ability to serve a wide array of different patient conditions. As a result, you have the opportunity to treat nearly every type of patient and disease. This, in combination with being a smaller program that allows for more hands-on time with procedures and simulations, is what drew me towards Spectrum Health for my residency.
What are your clinical interests? My future goals are still up in the air. Thankfully there are plenty of opportunities with early electives to gain more insight into what specific clinical area I'm meant to be in. If I had to guess early on, I lean more towards hospital-based medicine. T
Hobbies: I'm really interested in just about anything outdoors, which makes Michigan such a great place to live! If I had to choose my favorite hobbies it would be backpacking and hiking. I have a goal to eventually get to hike through all of the National Parks. So far we're about a fourth of the way there!
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Medical school: Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine
Why did you choose Spectrum Health for your residency/fellowship? I choose Spectrum Health because of the kind, welcoming, and friendly atmosphere! I am also very excited about living in Grand Rapids and the opportunity for global health experiences!
What are your clinical interests? I am interested in global health, rural health and underserved medicine.
Hobbies: I enjoy the outdoors and love to travel! I like to run, bike, hike, and kayak. I also love watching Big 10 football, specifically, The Ohio State University Buckeyes! Go Bucks!
Hometown: Riverview, MI
Medical School: Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Why did you choose Spectrum Health? I chose Spectrum Health because it is an amazing program at at tertiary care hospital.
What do you like most about your program? The people are the best part of the program!
Clinical Interests: My clinical interests change monthly, but right now I am interested in adult and pediatric hospital medicine.
Living in West Michigan: I love living so close to Lake Michigan! West Michigan beaches are beautiful in the summer!
Hobbies: I craft, do home renovation/home improvement projects, binge watch TV, and snuggle my daughter and my pup in my spare time.
Hometown: Grand Rapids, MI
Medical School: Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Why did you choose Spectrum Health? I wanted to train where I grew up, and stay close to my friends and family. I rotated at spectrum as a student and had a really great experience.
What do you like most about your program? I'm excited to develop my clinical skills and get to know my co-residents.
Clinical Interests: My interests are quite vast, which is why I chose Med/Peds! A couple of things I'm interested in are culinary medicine, transitional medicine for young adults, and working with underserved populations in medicine who have difficulty accessing care. I am also interested in being a dual hospitalist, but still want a some amount of clinic time as well.
Living in West Michigan: I love being so close to Lake Michigan! I like all of the opportunities to get outside and bike, hike, swim, kayak, ect. There are also a lot of great restaurants to eat at!
Hobbies: Volleyball is my favorite sport to play. I also enjoy being outdoors, weight lifting and cooking.
Hometown: Herndon, VA
Medical School: Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine - Virginia Campus
Why did you choose Spectrum Health? I did an away rotation here during my fourth year and enjoyed it. As I got to know the program, faculty, and residents a little bit better through the rotation and interview process, I found a warm and welcoming group that I could see myself learning with and growing with for the next few years.
What do you like most about your program? I am looking forward to being able to form more and more intelligible answers to my friends and family's questions regarding their health. In other words, I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn a lot about a lot.
Clinical Interests: I am not entirely sure at this point.
Living in West Michigan: The summers are quite pleasant and the food I've eaten so far has been pretty good. Also, I'm a big fan of Meijer.
Hobbies: I spend most of my time hanging out with my wife and dog. Other than that, I like to read, watch TV, and play board games.
Hometown: Grand Rapids, MI
Medical School: Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Why did you choose Spectrum Health? My husband and I have lived in Grand Rapids our entire lives and we absolutely love it here. In addition, Spectrum checked every box on what I was hoping for in a residency program. They have a lot of opportunities for research and to pursue different specialties as well as connections to a lot of ambulatory offices for outpatient experiences. There are also opportunities to "create your own rotation" if you want to pursue something that may not already exist. I was looking for a program that supported global health and there are several physicians at Spectrum involved in various global health programs that allow residents to travel with them. Lastly, the people really made this residency program the best choice! Everyone is incredibly friendly and supportive and it really feels like one big family.
What do you like most about your program? I'm looking forward to being able to craft my residency experience around what I hope to practice as an attending including several outpatient med/peds experiences and global health opportunities. I'm also really looking forward to getting to know the other residents in my program better and make life-long friends!
Clinical Interests: Currently, I am interested in combined Med/Peds outpatient practice as well as global health and I hope to find a way to assist with the healthcare of victims of human trafficking in some capacity.
Living in West Michigan: My husband and I enjoy visiting the many local restaurants in Grand Rapids, especially to attempt to find our favorite Grand Rapids cheeseburger. I also really love the beautiful beaches of Lake Michigan on a warm summer day.
Hobbies: My hobbies include traveling both in the United States and internationally; and baking, especially attempting recipes from the Great British Baking Show.
Hometown: Lincoln, NE
Medical School: University of Nebraska Medical Center
Why did you choose Spectrum Health? The Med-Peds program at Spectrum was the right choice for me because I knew there would be a good balance of academic rigor with time for self-care and family. Residents in the program were clearly able to meet the demands of residency while either starting or caring for their own families. The other big factor for me was connecting with the current residents at my pre-interview dinner. They were friendly, warm, and genuine in responding to our questions and perhaps more importantly, were friendly and supportive to each other. I knew having a camaraderie like this with the other interns and senior residents in my program would be important during my first year.
What do you like most about your program? I like that the residents in our program are helpful and supportive of each other, especially in times of need. When one of our interns had a family emergency this year, we all helped out as much as possible, including dog-sitting at her house while she had to be out of the country. We also enjoy spending time together at the beach, trivia nights with other classes in our program, or just meeting for dinner at someone’s house.
Clinical Interests: My clinical interests include primary care, mental health in primary care, and working with underserved and low-income patient populations. Our residency clinics, which include two half days each week in each discipline, have given me direct patient care experience in these areas. In our clinics, social workers are available to meet with patients directly to introduce mental health resources in the community. Based on our interests, we can also spend additional electives in primary care at different clinics throughout Grand Rapids or in other parts of Michigan.
Living in West Michigan: What I enjoy the most so far about West Michigan is the summer. The weather is warm but never too hot for outdoor activities. I like going to Lake Michigan at Grand Haven and walking out to the lighthouse next to the beach. There are also many golf courses and bike trails in and around Grand Rapids, along with many breweries and relaxing outdoor spaces.
Hobbies: I like to do different projects at my house, especially landscaping and maintaining my yard, and grilling out afterwards. I am also a huge poetry and literature nerd, which goes back to my English major in college, and love to talk with anyone who will listen about Shakespeare to Langston Hughes to the latest and greatest in slam poetry. I occasionally find time on Wednesday nights to join a writing workshop that meets in Grand Rapids to share new work. I also love sports – I will watch just about anything, but especially Nebraska Cornhusker football – and I love to play soccer, basketball, and golf.
Hometown: Spring Lake, MI
Medical School: The University of Queensland - Ochsner Clinical School
Why did you choose Spectrum Health? I felt like Spectrum Health was a great combination between a university and community program. It has the resources of a traditional university program through Michigan State University (MSU) (i.e. research, MSU med students, a bunch of fellowships, etc), while also having the team/family oriented atmosphere of a community program.
What do you like most about your program? I love the diversity of pathology that we get to see. Patients get flown in from all over the state and it makes for some really interesting cases and great learning opportunities.
Clinical Interests: I'm most interested in transitional care for children/young adults with lifelong pathologies that are transitioning from pediatric to adult subspecialty care.
Living in West Michigan: It feels like there is something for everyone here. We have the restaurants and shops of a major city while still being only a short drive from awesome beaches and hiking.
Hobbies: I love checking out all of the new restaurants and breweries in Grand Rapids. I also love getting out to one of the many golf courses in the area (ball or disc golf), or going to the beach with friends. In the winter I like to ski and watch the Griffins (GR's minor league hockey team).
Hometown: Grand Haven, MI
Medical School: Univeristy of Wisconsin in Madison, WI
Why did you choose Spectrum Health? The thing that stood out to me about Spectrum was that it was a community hospital with a great reputation that saw the same diversity and volume of patients without being bogged down as a huge University institution.
What do you like most about your program? The personalities and support from my co-residents. We have a great time at work and I always spend a portion of it laughing. We love to tell stories and job, but everyone also knows when people need help and are willing to pitch in. For not only clinical duties but things at home as well. I had a family emergency during intern year and was overwhelmed by the support and love from covering shifts to meals at home.
Clinical Interests: I am interested in inpatient medicine. I would like to find a career that allows me to provide care for both children and adults in a high acuity hospital.
Living in West Michigan: I love the beach! After living in Wisconsin this [west Michigan] is the RIGHT side of the lake. I also love the diversity of outdoor and cultural activities without having to deal with the traffic, price, and headache of being in a big city. Grand Rapids offers shows, concerts, restaurants, trails, parks, and all that to West Michigan at a reasonable size.
Hobbies: I have a lot of hobbies and have been able to find ways to do all of them in West Michigan. They include mountain biking, road biking, climbing, yoga, gardening, camping, hiking, backpacking, basketball, frisbee, volleyball, cooking, extra long dog walks and of course THE BEACH!