This speech was given by Student Body Vice President Cecilia Chou at the Second Look Luncheon to the incoming Class of 2022. We are printing for the benefit of incoming students who were unable to attend and for the enjoyment of the entire UACOM-P community.
I want to start with a question that most of us are familiar with: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When I was 5, I wanted to be a cashier — I thought nothing could be more fun than the handheld scanner and “ka-ching” of the moneybox. But I have a gripe with that question, and it’s this: it implies that our worth lies in what we choose as a career, that our success has nothing to do with the journey we take to get there, but everything to do with whether or not we obtain that goal.
For many of us, the label of “premedical student” has perhaps been a necessary stopping point on the way to being called a doctor. But to me, it was years of feeling like a number: 1 of 500 in an organic chemistry class, a percentile of an MCAT score, the right GPA, and so on. Now there is value in these numbers (even more so in medical school), but in the last ten months, I’ve seen how easy it is to begin caring only about the numbers — the hours spent studying, the scores on exams, and the sheer number of exams that never seem to end — if (and when) you find yourself at that point, I hope you remember this truth: at the UACOM-P, you are more than your numbers.
Here, the goal is so much more than to produce medical students who just look good on paper (even though ours definitely do). But it’s the values that can’t be measured — resiliency despite adversity, courage despite uncertainty, camaraderie despite competition — it’s these values that will absolutely determine your ability to navigate the difficult years ahead. That is what our admissions team looked for when they read your application and invited you to interview. That is what they saw when they decided to choose you.
Personally, I never wore the title of “pre-med” comfortably — I was a piano performance major balancing hours in the practice room with hours in the lab (which were on opposite corners of campus at ASU). I was a humanities grad student and a second-time applicant to medical school. I spent years thinking that success meant having the title of “medical student” and eventually “doctor.” But here, in the amazing community built by our faculty, staff, administration, and fellow colleagues, I’ve realized that titles mean very little compared to the richness of our human experiences (yes, especially the failures and struggles), our ability to learn from them, and our ability to connect with others because of them.
On behalf of the UACOM-P, I am thrilled to welcome you, our future first-year medical students and class of 2022. But even more so, I applaud your unique experiences and stories that have brought you to this moment. They set you apart, add inherent value to our collective lives, and mold us to become the best lifelong students and physicians we can be. It really has been a dream come true to grow up to be a Wildcat (which is saying a lot, because I went to ASU). I absolutely believe that throughout this semester, if not already, you will feel the same way.
Cecilia Chou is a proud member of the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix, Class of 2021. In her former life at Arizona State University, she majored in music performance and global health, followed by a Master’s degree in Biology and Society, focusing on bioethics and the intersection of culture and medicine. Ceci will forever be a fan of froyo, Disney channel original movies, and road trips up north.