Cañada Alum Isaiah Roggow Prepares for Med School
Mon, 8 April, 2013 at 8:53 am
Roggow will
focus on primary care for the needy
Former Cañada College student Isaiah Roggow has been accepted to the UC
Riverside School of Medicine where he will study to become a primary care
physician.
Roggow will be part of UC Riverside’s inaugural medical school class. The
UC Riverside School of Medicine is California’s first new public medical school
in four decades.
“My intention is to become a primary care physician, likely in family
medicine, and work in a medically underserved area,” Roggow said. “I will be
able to leverage my training in nutrition to better serve my patients.”
Roggow attended Cañada for several years before transferring to UC
Davis in 2010. “Cañada has a strong honor society, Phi Theta Kappa, and the
leadership and interpersonal skills I gained were put to good use at UC Davis,”
he said. “It was through PTK and my subsequent projects that assisted me in
preparing for medical school.”
In addition, Roggow said faculty and staff at the college were eager
mentors. Cathy Lipe, coordinator for the Math, Engineering, Science,
Achievement (MESA) Program worked with Roggow to make thoughtful choices about
his academic path towards a career in medicine.
Roggow was part of the MESA program and was a tutor for the school’s
award-winning Math Jam program. He also tutored biology, English, and economics
and was the co-founder of the Latino Empowerment Alliance, which worked toward
increasing awareness in the school’s Latino population about the opportunities
available at Cañada.
As a member of Cañada’s Pre-Med Club, Roggow helped promote the
American Medical Student Association’s annual conference held in Davis, which
he would later work for when he transferred to UC Davis. “Working for the AMSA
Conference greatly enhanced my networking and organizational skills, which
played an important role in being accepted to UC Riverside’s School of
Medicine.”
If Roggow could offer one piece of advice to current Cañada students it
would be to sit in the front of class, study hard, and find a faculty mentor.
“There are so many resources available to help students succeed and the faculty
is willing to help students. I had about seven mentors at Cañada, and each had
a unique perspective, but they all helped me achieve my academic goals.”
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