Cristhian Martinez '19

Name: Cristhian Martinez

Graduation Year: 2019

Major: Biology

Your Story: Hey all! My name is Cristhian and I was originally born in Honduras, but grew up in Richmond, Virginia. I came to Gustavus undecided between political science or biology. With a political science degree, I wanted to go into non-profit or government work, whereas with a biology degree, I was going to go into the healthcare field. My end goal has always been a career where I can help people every day, which both degrees would have allowed me to achieve. I decided on the pre-health biology track because of the ability to have more of an immediate and individual impact on someone’s life.

My journey to dentistry was not a linear one at all. I graduated from Gustavus in the Spring of 2019 and was on a completely different path - I was on the MD/PhD track then. Post graduation, I worked at the Mayo Clinic as a full-time researcher. It was in this capacity that I realized that I needed to drop the PhD track. I dropped it because, although I love research, it was not something I was interested in going to school full-time for during the MD/PhD training. It was during that research job that I realized I mostly wanted to be working face to face with patients. 

After that, I started to do more shadowing than I had done at Gustavus and realized that the lifestyle of a physician did not match the life-work balance I was hoping to have. I had originally told myself that I was only going to take two gap years before starting an MD/PhD program, but by the end of six months post-graduation I had dropped the MD/PhD track. So what does one do when they know they want to work in healthcare, but not as a physician? You shadow!! So I did just that. I shadowed general dentists and got to ask and inquire about their education, lifestyle, and career. Throughout my shadowing experiences, I realized how rewarding and life-changing a career in dentistry could be.

Throughout my pre-health journey at Gustavus, I was exposed to many different opportunities, which all helped widen my perspective and allowed me to learn about different careers. You could name any career that is pre-health (other than dentistry) and I probably considered it at some point during my time at Gustavus. However, if I had never shadowed more medical specialists and had done the post-bacc research, I might have never ended up applying to dental schools. I would encourage anyone with vast interests to shadow and take opportunities to explore and see what you are truly passionate about. Gustavus has plenty of opportunities available for you to explore your interests, so do not be like me and please take advantage to learn about ALL the possibilities. Overall, I am very happy that I ended up in dentistry and that throughout all of the changes I had people at Gustavus help and encourage me to explore and learn.

Top Five Activities/Experiences (in no particular order):

1: My fruit fly research experience at Gustavus with my advisor!

2: Gustie Greeters

3: Student host for Nobel Conference 53 - Reproductive Technology: How Far Do We Go?

4: Student Senate

5: My research experiences at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic

Advice:

1: I would encourage you to be open and do the things that may not look normal in your application. I know that if I had said no to some of the opportunities I did, I may not be heading into dental school this fall.

2: Find people that will help and do not be afraid to use the help! That help can possibly come from the career development staff and resources, department faculty, or forming a core group of friends that will encourage you each step of the way (shoutout to my core group, H^3)!

3: If you are interested in exploring research - reach out!! Reach out to people at Gustavus and to people at other institutions. There are a lot of programs that you can apply to, but there are also opportunities if you simply reach out and show that you are interested in working with a specific lab!

Future Plans: I will be attending the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry starting Fall of 2021. I am keeping my options open, but as of now, I am interested in a pediatric dentistry residency afterwards. I would also love to end up working in academia as I am very interested in the intersection between dental research and community health.