Angie entered medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) in 2012 after completing her B.A. in Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. Going to medical school by the beach was totally rad, even if it was Galveston. The water was brown most of the year and Whataburger was considered fine dining, but Angie and her classmates learned how to create fun there. At one point, Angie was a princess in a big yellow house (palace) on the corner of 14th and Market with fellow princess and medical student, Petra K. Some nights, they would call a gathering of the UTMB kingdom at a Tiny Stairwell Concert and serenade the island inhabitants with their ukuleles. Everyone learned to play and sing. Manny Two-Hands was crazy amazing at the guitar. Jessica T. could make your heart cry with the heavenly beauty of her harmonies. Lauren L. would play songs so sweet the moon would glow red. Alexi B. was master of mashes, including Ain't No Mountain High Enough with Ingrid Michaelson's You and I. It was a beautiful, melodious time.

When Angie wasn't making music or crashing Beyoncé Beach (a real place), she was studying. There was a time when Angie and Petra woke up every morning at 6AM, practiced yoga from 7-8AM, and studied from 8AM-10PM under the watchful eyes of Sir William Osler, the patron saint of medicine. It was 14 hours a day, 5 days a week, and they worked half-days on Saturdays. It was the most she ever memorized in her life. She got so used to it, she sometimes would memorize license plates in the parking lot as she left school at night-- just for fun. This was all Petra and Angie and the rest of UTMB did for 6 months in preparation for Step 1 of the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam. It's the exam that determines your FATE for residency, and by extension, the rest of your life. So, you know, no pressure.

BUT THEY GOT THROUGH! With the help of Dr. Sattar sweetly whispering the principles of pathology in their ears, the adorable characters at Picmonic.com, and the cringe-worthy dad jokes courtesy of Doctors-In-Training, they did it. They passed and went on to live in Austin for their clinical clerkships.

After her 3rd year of medical school, Angie decided she wasn't done getting educated. She realized there was a whole other aspect to healthcare that wasn't covered in medical school. It was called public health and in order to be the best possible doctor to her patients, she would need to learn it as well. So in June of 2015, she decided to pursue her Master of Public Health (MPH) at Columbia University in New York City.

Angie had a BLAST! She was working hard there too, not in the same way as medical school, but by imagining solutions to national public health issues. She met amazing humans who shaped the way she viewed the world and medicine. In a way, Angie woke up to the asymmetrical systems of power that impact people and lead to poor health. She went to a lot of protests, which her parents weren't super thrilled about, but it was all in the spirit of New York! She learned how to conduct effective research and the ways in which she could rectify the wrongs committed against humanity. Angie began to dream bigger and bigger with the knowledge she was building from her years of education.

After Angie graduated from her master's program, she returned to Texas to complete her FINAL. YEAR. OF. MED SCHOOOOOOL. She began applying to residency programs in the best specialty of all: Obstetrics & Gynecology!

Ok, we need to take a moment to appreciate just how amazing this specialty is. It's the perfect combination of primary care and surgery. You can perform hysterectomies by day and deliver babies by night. You're there for your patients through the most joyous and trying times of their lives. Cervical cancer used to be the most common cancer in half the population, but it's not anymore and that's thanks to the preventative care offered by ob/gyns. There is not a more glorious way to celebrate the resiliency of uterus-owning people and I just love it a lot, ok?

Back to the story... After coming back to Texas, Angie applied to residency programs across the country and spent a few months traveling for interviews. One place captured her heart in particular, and it was located at the heart of healthcare policy: Washington, D.C.

Despite her hopes, Angie still doubted she would be able to get into her dream program. She traveled to Galveston on Friday March 17th, 2017 for Match Day. That's the day when medical students all over the nation learn which residency program they have 'matched' to. When her name was called, Angie walked to the stage and retrieved the envelope which would reveal her fate for the next four years. And when she opened it, she screamed. Subhan Allah... It was meant to be. She was accepted to her dream program at Georgetown University.