BLOG: ‘A stranger in a strange land’ — the experiences of a medical trainee from Nigeria
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In Nigeria, the journey to medicine starts immediately after high school, where it takes 8 years to graduate with a medical degree.
I graduated secondary school at the age of 16 and moved to the U.S. by myself for college. As a naive teenager, I had no idea that the journey to become a physician was going to be more complicated.
With restrictions from undergraduate institutions, medical school requirements and the uncertainty of changing U.S. visa rules, becoming a physician in the U.S. as an international student required far more than the steps I had researched. I knew that I’d have to take the infamous MCAT and carefully demonstrate hours of physician shadowing, community service and volunteer work. I had a timetable to complete a compelling personal statement and gather strong letters of recommendation — all of which had to be ready the summer after junior year to gain acceptance and matriculate into medical school right after college.
‘An immigrant’s path’
An immigrant’s path is especially challenging when they are the first in their family to move to a strange land to pursue their dreams.
They have no one to guide them in the field. To gather enough shadowing hours to convince the admission committee of your passion to become a physician, you either need to know someone or cold email physicians begging them to allow you in their clinic outside of a formal program.
There are a limited number of summer internships available to international students, and these slots became even harder to get due to a new policy that came into effect when I was about to graduate college — international students are not allowed to seek out internships unless it is a part of their program’s explicit requirements.
Since I was unable to accomplish what I needed to by my senior year, I knew a gap year was inevitable. My visa only allowed me to stay in the country if I was an active student, but thankfully I was eligible for a STEM extension.
I worked in a research laboratory while perfecting my personal statement on why I wanted to continue pursuing this long medical journey even after everything that seemed like a setback — like having to take the MCAT three times.
Sometimes I doubted the validity of this harsh path myself. Teenager me had it all planned out, but adult me has since realized that nothing is as easy as it looks on paper.
I felt like a prisoner running out of time given visa restrictions; after 2.5 years, I took the leap of faith and applied to medical school and thankfully was blessed with an admission.
Black American
Being a first-generation immigrant without friends and family in the states has made it challenging to find my community.
I remember during my freshman year at my HBCU undergraduate having a conversation with my classmates. I used the words, “as a Black person,” and was instantly rebuked and told “I was not Black because I am from Africa.”
Looking down at my skin, I was immediately confused. Honestly, I am still as confused as I was that day. Even though I may not have grown up the descendent of chattel slavery as a Black American, my experiences in Houston, Texas, and now in New York City reflect similar struggles with racism.
People have always attributed my success to affirmative action or diversity politics, not to my hard work and fortitude. Sadly, my experiences in college taught me that, even surrounded by other faces that look like mine, I can still feel like an outsider.
Despite the isolation, I work hard daily to make my family proud. I realize how privileged I am compared with the other brilliant students I grew up with who can’t afford an international education. I have benefited from both the educational funds and the faith my family has placed in my future. I know that female children are rarely given this opportunity in my community.
Pursuing a dream
Of course, my privilege was checked when my parents could not attend my graduation.
I was the first in my family to receive a bachelor’s degree from a U.S. institution, but the U.S. embassy was not as sentimental and denied their visas.
I finally got to see my mum only this year after 6 years apart because my visa expired during the pandemic. Though I could leave the country freely, I would be risking everything I worked hard for if I was barred from reentry.
International students trying to become competitive applicants for medical school face many obstacles. I was able to get through all the hurdles, red tape and restrictions only by God’s favor — this is the only answer I can give without pouring out all the effort that it took.
I’m proud of my accomplishments, my hard-earned internships at University of Pennsylvania and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and my current space in medical school where I help build community by guiding other international students through the tortuous path into medical training.
As a freshman, I would tell people that I wanted to be a physician and they would say that I had better chances of succeeding as a nurse than getting accepted into medical school.
Now as a second-year medical student, I look back and realize how strong I was at 16 to leave my family and country to pursue an impossible dream. Although I am still on this journey — which is far from over — I know that all my effort has not been in vain.
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Eniola Otukoya is a second-year medical student (OMS-II) at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. She can be reached at eotukoya@student.touro.edu or on X (formerly known as Twitter) @otus_valentina. She wrote this blog post under the guidance of her mentor, Fumiko Chino, MD, radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
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