Akhil was raised in the Greater Chicago and Philadelphia areas. Beginning in high school, he worked as a tutor for Kumon Learning Center, performed hepatocellular carcinoma research at the Baruch Blumberg Institute, and became certified as an EMT. He then attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and graduated with a degree in Economics and Biological Sciences with a Concentration in Neurobiology as well as a Certificate in Leadership. During his time at Northwestern, he participated in peer-tutoring, basic science research, and was the President of the largest cultural organization on campus. In addition, he was an active member of the dance community, serving as the captain for the University’s bhangra dance team. During his senior year, he worked as a Business Analyst for ExplORer Surgical, a surgical startup in Chicago that solidified his passion for pursuing orthopaedics in the future. Following graduation, he matriculated to the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and obtained his MBA at the Fox School of Business at Temple University.
In medical school, he continued to teach, mentor, and advise undergraduate students. He currently serves as a USMLE Step 1 tutor for Inspira Advantage. He conducted interviews for prospective undergraduate applicants and served as an advisor for prospective medical school applicants. Throughout medical school, he pursued orthopaedic surgery research at the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute and Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, and was able to publish his research and abstracts. He has over 20 abstract presentations and publications, many of them as first author. He received a 257 (~95th percentile) on USMLE Step 1 and is currently on his clinical rotations.
Altogether, he has been teaching a wide range of subjects for more than 10 years and has tutored for several board exams including the SAT, MCAT, and USMLE Step 1. He has a strong commitment to education and mentorship and believes that hard work, passion, and a willingness to ask for help are the keys to reaching one’s goals. He understands the complexities of the medical school admission process, and wishes to work closely with his students to form an individualized plan and provide personalized attention and guidance.
He is currently a third-year medical student and is interested in pursuing a residency in orthopaedic surgery. He recently completed a prestigious orthopaedic research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. In his free time, he enjoys basketball, trying out new recipes, rooting for the Sixers and Bears, and discovering new coffeeshops in Philadelphia. BEAR DOWN!
Andrew is a fourth-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai pursuing a career in Anesthesiology who has a startup valued at $12 million which focuses on providing affordable vision care across the US, has >20 peer-reviewed publications, and is looking to continue to help others in their medical careers. Originally from the greater Pittsburgh area, Andrew went to public school for all his life, and attended the University of Pittsburgh where he majored in computational chemistry with a focus in biology. He conducted research through the Department of Biomedical Informatics where he published a paper in Scientific Reports on long non-coding RNA SNHG7 and its impact in breast cancer. He graduated in 3 years from Pitt and went straight to medical school at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. During his first year there, he joined multiple research labs focusing on large-data analysis and machine learning. He also co-founded Retina Technologies Inc., a company aimed disrupt vision care by leveraging virtual reality, retinal imaging, and machine learning onto a portable platform to provide affordable, accessible, and accurate vision screening across the country. He served as the CTO for the company, spearheading 4 clinical trials, submitting 3 provisional patents and 1 non-provisional PCT patent, and built both the hardware and software from the ground up. He has continued his involvement in both his research and the company throughout all 4 years of medical school and is applying to residency programs for Anesthesiology.
After finishing his undergraduate degree in computer science at UNC-Chapel Hill (Go Heels!), Anil attended the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Following dental school, he completed General Practice and Oral Medicine residencies. Afterwards, he practiced in hospital, community health, and academic settings. Anil has served on the admissions committees at both Harvard and his residency program.
In addition to my dental training, Anil also completed a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and has technical certifications in Data Science and Business Analytics. In 2020, he transitioned out of teaching and patient care to pursue a career in Healthcare Analytics.
Anil feels that his experience applying to dental school was quite stressful and lonely, as he did not have any support in the form of a pre-dental advisor for guidance and advice. He looks forward to serving as a mentor so students do not have to feel isolated during the application journey.
Audra is a GMAT/GRE tutor based in Brooklyn, New York. With over six years of experience teaching hundreds of students both one-on-one and in the classroom, Audra helps business school and graduate school applicants maximize their testing performance with personalized instruction focused on their areas of need. Audra has achieved a 98th-percentile score of 750 on the GMAT and a 335/340 on GRE. She loves sharing her knowledge and helping each client reach their potential!
Audra received her B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland in 2013. The degree is equivalent to a double major in Philosophy and the History of Mathematics and Science, and a double minor in Classics and Comparative Literature. She is currently attending the online Master of Computer and Information Technology program at the University of Pennsylvania. In her free time, Audra enjoys reading and performing with the sketch comedy group Punchline Loading... in New York City.
Having grown up in the rural Midwest followed by attending University of Iowa for undergrad, Callie is now a student at Yale School of Medicine and will be pursuing a career in psychiatry. She has five years of tutoring experience and has been involved with curriculum reform and health justice advocacy. Her research interests include qualitative research on the lived experience of having mental illnesses as well as health disparities research. Along with Inspira, Callie is involved in Yale's first generation-low income student group as well as the LGBTQ affinity group and is passionate about helping prospective students with diverse backgrounds discuss these parts of their identities in their applications.
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Carmen is currently a 3rd year medical student at Yale School of Medicine. While studying human physiology and Hindi as a Boston University Kilachand Honors College student, Carmen pursued her passion for medicine and public health by working in underserved communities as an EMT, physical therapist assistant, and research assistant. These opportunities greatly influenced her to pursue her Masters of Public Health in biostatistics and epidemiology at Boston University, where she received training in SAS/RStudio coding as well as quantitative global health research.
During her medical school application cycle, Carmen ultimately was deciding between University of Michigan’s full tuition Dean Scholarship, Baylor, Boston University, and Yale, finally choosing Yale for the research opportunities, Yale System, and desire to stay near family and friends. As the former premed liaison for the Yale Student National Medical Association/Latino Medical Student Association, Carmen has extensive mentoring experience through Yale’s Program to Advance Training in Health & Sciences (PATHS), where she helped organize the framework for the first PATHS cohort to receive mentorship from Yale medical students. Moreover, she has mentored dozens of premedical students, helping students obtain interviews and acceptances to medical schools such as Johns Hopkins, NYU, Yale, UTSW, University of Pittsburgh, University of Chicago, Brown, Dartmouth, Boston University, and more. As a seasoned mentor, Carmen brings her experience with AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS applications as well as early assurance medical school programs to Inspira. Carmen’s strengths include helping students convey their unique strengths and narratives as well as helping students formulate a holistic, insightful application.
Catarina graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Davis with a B.S. in Animal Science and minor in Italian in 2020. She is currently finishing her first year at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine where she plans on tracking small animals. During her undergraduate career, she was involved in two research labs where she worked on correlating CRISPR knockout mouse model phenotypes to human associated diseases.
During this project, Catarina presented her research at an undergraduate research conference and completed a manuscript. She also performed research on dairy cattle in understanding how certain feed additives can mitigate greenhouse gases produced by dairy cattle. Along with her research experience, she was heavily involved with a student run veterinary clinic that provided free service for the pets of the homeless and co-founded a club with friends that served to collect veterinary medical supplies and then donate them to underprivileged clinics abroad. Moreover, she also earned more veterinary experience as a technician at a specialty hospital over the summers and got exposure to wildlife veterinary care in Australia during a summer internship.
Currently, Catarina is the president of the Mercer Veterinary Clinic for Pets of the Homeless that she was a part of during undergrad and she also is the vice president for the Student American Veterinary Medicine Association for her veterinary school. This summer, she will be conducting orthopedic research on a specific breed of dog that suffers from a disorder called chondrodystrophy by analyzing their vertebrae geometry and disc mineralization. Catarina is a recipient of the Students Training in Advanced Research (STAR) award which is a program for veterinary students to receive grants in order to conduct their own research project and become more involved in the research aspect of veterinary medicine.
She is particularly interested in pursuing a speciality in small animal orthopedic surgery. Throughout her undergraduate career, she was a tutor and mentor within the Italian department at her university along with being a mentor for younger students pursuing veterinary medicine. She is very passionate about helping the incoming generation of vetmed doctors and sharing her knowledge of the process. Having recently gone through the application process herself, She is dedicated to aiding others navigate the application process. Catarina is eager to work with students and is looking forward to it!
Celeste graduated Cum Laude from Carleton College (Northfield, MN) with a B.A. in Biology and a minor in Biochemistry in 2020. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted research on hormonal inputs on bull snake fertility at Carleton, received the Kolenkow-Reitz Fellowship to tide-pool research at UC Irvine, served as the captain of Carleton's NCAA DIII volleyball team and founded the school's first Pre-Veterinary Club.
During the summers, Celeste volunteered at a small animal clinics, equine rescue and wildlife rehabilitation center to acquire a well-rounded experience of veterinary medicine. In addition, her job at Carleton's primate psychology lab exposed her to laboratory medicine. She is now in her 2nd year at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, where she plans on tracking small animal with intentions of specializing in small animal surgery post-grad.
Currently, Celeste serves as the Co-Director for the UC Davis Knights Landing One Health Clinic, whose mission is to bring the values of One Health to a disadvantaged community through free monthly veterinary clinics. In addition, she is on the board of the Canine Medicine Club, Behavior Medicine and Wellness Club and holds the role of IM Sports Chair for the class. She also serves as a Student Ambassador for the school through the Office of Outreach and Admissions.
This last summer, Celeste gained a wealth of knowledge as a veterinary technician at a specialty/emergency clinic in Orange County. When she is not studying for school, I'm hanging out with her cats and dog (Frank, Beans, and Milo), going to the gym, lounging at the beach or eating out at new restaurants with friends. Celeste remembers being confused and feeling alone during the process of applying to vet schools, and wishing that a consulting program like Inspira existed.
Celeste loves helping people with a passion and can't wait to guide her clients through the process of achieving their dream of becoming a veterinarian.
Dave is currently an Emergency Medicine physician in his second year of residency at the MGH/Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency. He is passionate about global health, healthcare technology, and entrepreneurship. He also enjoys a good breakfast burrito and getting outside as much as possible.
Before medical school, Dave co-founded an agricultural social enterprise in Uganda, which has improved the incomes of many small-holder farmers and strengthened food security in East Africa. He completed an MD-MBA at Dartmouth, where he was elected to the A.O.A. Honor Society as well as nominated by his peers to the Gold Humanism Honor Society.
During medical school, Dave evaluated the effectiveness of new vaccine introductions in Rwanda as a Healthcare Policy Fellow at the Rwandan Ministry of Health. He also received the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Award to develop an after-school mentoring program for at-risk youth. Drawn to the potential for technology to improve access to care and healthcare quality, Dave began consulting for digital health and tech-enabled healthcare delivery companies during his MBA and continues still today. He has also worked in healthcare venture capital and impact investing.
In residency, Dave has continued to pursue his interest in leveraging innovation to improve health. He teaches a workshop on healthcare start-up formation and early-stage fundraising, in addition to researching how machine learning can improve ED operations. He has kept his global health interests alive by serving on the organizing committee of American College of Emergency Physicians’ (ACEP) International Emergency annual conference and conducting research to improve the integration of humanitarian disaster responses with longer-term development objectives.
Dave has served in both form and informal advisory roles to medical school applicants, healthcare entrepreneurs, and residency applicants. He enjoys meeting new people bent on improving healthcare and helping them accomplish their goals.
David is currently a neurosurgeon in his seventh year of residency at Vanderbilt University. David graduated from UCLA as a Regent’s Scholar with a B.S. in Neuroscience and subsequently attended the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine on a full-ride, merit-based scholarship. At The University of Chicago, David was awarded a two-year Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) research grant and, at Vanderbilt University, David was awarded a two-year NIH/F32 NRSA research grant to study the molecular biology of GBM, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer.
During his time at The Pritzker School of Medicine, David was heavily involved with the medical school admissions process. Throughout his first five years, he interviewed hundreds of medical school applicants and, in his final year of medical school, he was selected by faculty to be one of three students to serve as a voting member on the admissions committee. During his time at Pritzker, David reviewed 500+ applications, interviewed over 750+ applicants, and worked closely with the Office of Admissions in coordinating interview days, organizing revisit weekends, and fine-tuning the application process.
Since graduating from The University of Chicago, David has mentored 60+ students throughout their medical school admissions process. His knowledge and experience go beyond simple application and essay completion. David helps applicants perfect their interview skills, create strategic medical school application lists, obtain the highest quality letter of recommendations, navigate waitlists and multiple admission offers, and helps applicants construct application stories that truly highlight their best and most appealing attributes. Simply put, David has the insider knowledge and mentoring experience to help applicants put together their best application package.
Dylan is a 2015 graduate of Williams College with a B.A. in Chemistry and Comparative Literature. He led the peer-tutoring program for his junior and senior years and received the Frederick C. Hagedorn, Jr. Premedical Prize, which is awarded annually by the premedical adviser at Williams College to one premedical student in the senior class in recognition of academic achievement and the embodiment of the principles of the medical profession.
Dylan spent three years at Stanford Medical School, where he was the first student to play a varsity sport (baseball) while enrolled in the medical school. He founded the Global Surgery Interest Group and was Co-President of the Neurosurgery Interest Group. He interned at the World Health Organization in Geneva after his first year, and took a leave of absence to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Neurosciences at Cambridge University on a Gates-Cambridge Scholarship. He is a third year Ph.D. student and will return to Stanford next year to complete medical school.
With over 40 peer-reviewed publications, Dylan’s research interest is in improving neurosurgical care in low-and middle-income countries and is currently in Cali, Colombia leading a study on implementing resource-stratified guidelines for treatment of severe traumatic brain injury.
Prior to joining the Inspira Advantage team, Dylan independently spent time consulting students during the admissions process with students being admitted to medical schools at Brown, U. Penn, USC, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Dartmouth and UCSF. He has consulted for a Fulbright Award winner and current PhD student at Berkeley, a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and two Gates Cambridge finalists.
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Fatuma Rinderknecht is a current 3rd year medical student at UC San Francisco, hoping to go into the field of dermatology. She grew up in Davis, CA and attended Davis Senior High School. She then attended Harvard University, where she graduated cum laude with a BA in Human Evolutionary Biology and a secondary in Global Health and Health Sciences. While at Harvard, Fatuma conducted atherosclerosis research at the Harvard School of Public Health and Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany. In addition to her research, she also spent her time in college volunteering in community clinics and working as a tutor and college counselor. After college, Fatuma worked as a clinical research coordinator at the UC San Francisco Department of Pediatric Cardiology and volunteered as an eligibility specialist at a free clinic. She then began medical school and concurrently pursued a Masters of Science, where she focused her thesis research on a dermatological condition known as Hidradenitis Suppurativa. While in medical school, Fatuma has started an organization to provide mentorship to pre-medical students from underrepresented backgrounds and has received a Deans Award for Public Service. She is very passionate about helping students reach their full potential and achieve their dreams of becoming physicians and hopes to do the same at Inspira.
Harrison graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA from the University of Alabama in the spring of 2021. During his four years in college, Harrison completed his undergraduate degree while simultaneously enrolled in an accelerated master's program, enabling him to earn both a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and a Master of Science in Biology in the same four-year stint.
Additionally, Harrison was awarded the University of Alabama’s Presidential Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship; the Grantland and Louise Scholarship for outstanding performance as a microbiology student; and full funding for his graduate research project. Throughout his time in college, Harrison was both involved in and led a variety of integrative research projects that investigated topics such as deforestation and the neuroendocrine stress response, sex change in hermaphroditic fish, and the interplay of disease and microbiome assemblage.
His participation in these projects earned him first, second, and third authorship in prep on three different publications. Outside of the classroom and laboratory, Harrison co-founded an organ donation awareness club, obtained an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) license while enrolled in classes, and tutored local students ages K-12. Over the course of his preparation for the MCAT, Harrison focused on collecting a variety of high-value, low-cost resources and crafted a study plan that was unique to his needs.
After achieving his goal score in the 97th percentile on the MCAT, he decided to pursue tutoring as a professional endeavor. Harrison’s tutoring system centers around open communication with his students that allows them to work together to diagnose problems, curate detailed MCAT preparation plans, and compile pointed content review. He looks forward to working with you, side-by-side, as you achieve your goal score and gain admission into your dream medical school!
Howard obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biology, magna cum laude, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He then moved to the healthcare mecca of Boston, where he received my MD degree from Harvard Medical School (HMS). While at HMS, Howard was on the HMS admission committee where he read applications, interviewed candidates and attended meetings where candidates are selected. While in medical school, he also enrolled at Harvard Business School, and graduated with an MD/MBA degree in 2019. Howard is currently at Stanford Hospital for his residency in Interventional Radiology. Howard has extensive experience working with both traditional and non-traditional candidates.
Jennifer is a 4th year medical student at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. She is originally from Ohio, and graduated with honors from the University of Chicago in 2013 with a degree in psychology and biology. After graduation, Jennifer served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay. After completing her service, Jennifer worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the Univ. of Washington on various projects in general surgery and vascular surgery.
During her time at the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, Jennifer was elected national president-elect of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), has published seven peer-reviewed publications on women’s health and medical education, and was interviewed by Reuters Health and ABC News for her curriculum on Human Trafficking for medical students. She pursues her passion for education and mentorship as an academic tutor for the Mayo Clinic, leading multiple lectures for medical board review courses and privately tutoring students.
Jennifer’s strengths are in service, advocacy, and education. To further explore these interests, she completed a Master’s in Public Health between her third and fourth year of medical school. Jennifer gained acceptance into every public health school to which she applied, including Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley, Emory, Johns Hopkins, and the Univ. of Washington. She ultimately chose Columbia University for its wealth of research and networking opportunities. She is currently applying for residency in OB/GYN at top ranked programs. Her interests are in minimally invasive surgery, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and global health.
As a non-traditional med student, Jennifer brings a wealth of life and work experience to her perspective as an admissions expert. As a first-generation medical student, she is also personally familiar with scholarship application processes.
Jennifer has mentored many pre-medical and medical students on research, academic writing, networking, career planning, and medical school and residency applications. Her last mentee interviewed for medical school at several ivy league programs. She has experience with school selection, primary and secondary applications, essay editing, and mock interviewing. At Inspira Jennifers gets to do what she enjoys most, which is helping other students identify their own passions and highlight their strengths to put together the best application package possible.
Jinnu is currently D2 at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. His alma mater was NYU, and he had an amazing term as president of the Pre-Dental Society. Jinnu finds inspiration in helping his peers and other students realize their dreams of pursuing dentistry. During his college years, he juggled two part-time jobs, managed to excel academically, and contributed to a research team. Receiving a 24 on the DAT he believes that with professional guidance and resources, everyone can achieve great performance on the DAT, ensuring a greater chance to attend their dream dental school.
Jonathan is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University where he majored in in Neuroscience. While an undergraduate, he did extensive basic and clinical research in the fields of Neurology, Orthopedics, and Anesthesiology. After graduating with Honors, he completed his MD at Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine, where he performed research in Anesthesiology and participated in a healthcare administrative internship.
Jonathan also served as a member of the Admissions Committee while at the Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine, both for the MD and BS/MD programs. He was intimately involved in the application process, where he interviewed numerous candidates and gained extensive training in application review. Jonathan is currently a resident in Anesthesiology at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell. He has published papers on infection prevention and quality improvement protocols during residency.
Jonathan has spent time in healthcare administration and intends to pursue this extensively after completing residency, giving him a unique perspective of the high-level changes in healthcare applicable to incoming applicants. Jonathan has also founded his own start-up company dedicated to infection prevention in the healthcare setting. The company has filed patents, raised seven figures in investment dollars, and is bringing product to the market at large. He was the winner of Innovate LI, Innovator of the Year award for his work on the company.
Joseph grew up in a small town in Kansas, where he was the only student from his graduating class of ~70 to “make the leap” to a legitimate, 4-year university.
Fast forward four years: Joseph graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Neurobiology, addended with an awkwardly long list of honors. For instance, in his junior and senior years, he received the annual award recognizing the biology department’s top student, per faculty consensus. In addition, he was also honored with more than a handful of semi-redundant accolades for “excellence in biomedical research”. Outside of the biology department, Joseph was named as 1 of 20 University Scholars in my graduating class of >5,000 students. Concurrently, he worked jobs as a teaching assistant in biochemistry and physiology courses, and played an integral role in establishing a pre-med advisor faculty position within the university’s honors program. Joseph also published a first-author study elucidating the molecular mechanism underlying a phenomenon of paradoxically prolonged vasoconstriction largely responsible for downstream infarctions secondary to vascular insult.
Three months after graduating from KU, he began medical school at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. This is where Joseph felt he really refined a lot of the studying and test-taking strategies he expects to explore en route to masterminding an individualized game plan with every nuance uniquely dedicated to identifying and exploiting the challenges (aka, opportunities) wedged between you and your full potential- which, in his experience, frequently exceeds students’ initial goals.
He has also been an MCAT tutor for three years; helping over hundreds of students crush the overly lengthy exam and, ultimately, get into medical school. All these years of MCAT tutoring have uniquely positioned him to guide future physicians along what is ubiquitously regarded as the most treacherous segment on the truly lifelong journey of medical education.
Katherine graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2020. She is currently in her first year at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Katherine was inducted in the engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi, and received the Robert Edward Reiss Award in Chemical Engineering for outstanding promise in biochemical engineering.
In college, Katherine conducted clinical research at the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center and the New York Presbyterian Neurological Intensive Care Unit. Katherine was a teaching assistant for chemistry lab and lead a clinical research program at the Mt. Sinai hospital system. She also served as president for her Greek organization and was a pianist in a classical chamber ensemble.
In medical school, Katherine has already joined clinical research projects, community clinics, and interest groups. She is interested in pursuing a career in a surgical subspecialty. Katherine is actively involved in the admissions process as an interviewer and has spent much of her time mentoring others applying to medical school. Over the years through tutoring, teaching and mentoring, Katherine has been passionate about helping others. Having just recently gone through the medical school admissions process herself, she is dedicated to helping others navigate applying, and she is very excited to work with students.
In December of 2021, Kayla graduated with distinction from The Fredrick Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University, with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science with an emphasis in Microbiology and a minor in Spanish. While there, she was accepted as a junior at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D School of Medicine, through the early acceptance partnership (EAP) track. She was the only student in her cohort to be accepted to the EAP class of 2026.
Kayla earned the Grand Valley Award for Excellence and The Presidential Scholarship, which covered the full cost of attendance. She was nominated for the I Am Grand Valley Award, which highlights students’ commitment to leadership and on-campus initiative, three years in a row. In addition, she was selected by the faculty of the Department of Biomedical Science as a graduate of distinction - an honor attributed to less than 2% of the graduating class.
During her time as a student, Kayla served as the president of the Ethics Bowl Team, and was proud to represent her university at national competition twice. She was actively involved in undergraduate research, and completed her honors thesis on role of carbonate in mediating yeast to hyphae conversion in the pathogenic fungus, Candida albicans. She then went on to conduct immunology research at The University of Iowa.
Kayla has been a tutor for over 6 years, and is passionate about crafting personalize success plans for her students. After taking the MCAT in September, 2020, she went to develop a six-week study program, which she taught online during the height of the COVID19 pandemic. She also offered numerous one night CARS crash course sessions, in addition to tutoring college biology, microbiology and genetics. She was the top tutor at The Grand Valley Tutoring Center in 2021, having conducted over 250 sessions in one semester. She has served a diverse range of students, including veterans, adult-learners, and those with disabilities.
Once in medical school, Kayla plans to pursue an academic distinction in global medicine and public health, as well as continue research in infectious disease and immunology.
Leela graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College with dual degrees in Biology and Studio Art in 2017. She is currently in her fourth year of dental school at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM). Leela will begin Residency in Prosthodontics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry in 2021.
At Swarthmore College, Leela worked as a Teaching Assistant, Dean's Tutor, and Science Associate for the Biology Department. She conducted research on plant genetics funded by the NIH and HHMI, served on the Board of the Swarthmore Hillel, and worked as the Director of Advertising at Swarthmore's Paces Café.
In dental school, Leela has been heavily involved in dental education research and entrepreneurship. She is the CEO and a co-founder of My Dental Key, an EdTech startup, an Art Editor of the Harvard Medical Student Review, and has produced numerous concept videos for the Harvard Medical School and HSDM curricula. Leela mentors Harvard students on dental school admissions as a Non-Resident Tutor for Harvard College's Dunster House.
Leela is excited to apply her extensive experience with education, peer-to-peer learning, and dental school to help applicants craft and refine their own dental school admissions narratives.
Luke is currently a psychiatrist at Harvard Beth Israel in his first year of residency. He is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship in medicine which led him to complete a dual MD/MBA degree at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Stern School of Business. He was 1 of 5 applicants selected to be a Silverstein Scholar and receive a prestigious full cost of attendance scholarship.
In business school, he worked for a healthcare venture capital firm, performing due diligence on medical device and diagnostic companies, as well as tech-enabled healthcare services, leading to several multimillion dollar investments. Prior to medical school, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University where he studied Neuroscience and Behavioral biology and Applied Mathematics. He was an Advanced-EMT with the Emory EMS service which helped solidify his path to clinical medicine. Prior to matriculation he conducted basic science research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, investigating cocaine addiction and restless leg syndrome, resulting in multiple publications in Molecular Medicine.
At Emory, he was a founding member of the Pre-Health Mentoring Office Peer Mentor program, helping underclassmen prepare medical school applications. At NYU, he served on the admissions committee, reviewing applications and selecting interview candidates, and he currently interviews candidates for residency at Harvard.
Micah is originally from New York and grew up in New Jersey. He is a 2019 graduate of the University of Michigan, where he obtained his Honors B.S degree in Neuroscience. Micah excelled in his studies, receiving Honors recognition for his neuroscience thesis, and graduating at the top 3% of all graduates. He worked alongside Dr. Tim Bruns in the Peripheral Neural Engineering and Urodynamics Lab which combined his two interest, urological medicine with neuroscience pathophysiology. In his research, Micah focused on identifying associations between neural stimulation therapy and sexual dysfunction, earning the Underwood Alger Scholarship for his research, and presenting to the Society for Neuroscience. He also worked alongside Dr. Joph Steckel, Vice Chairman of Urology at the Smith Institute for Urology as a research fellow.
While in college, Micah volunteered as a teaching assistant for elementary school students and worked as a private tutor for organic chemistry and biochemistry. He served as an executive member of the Sports Medicine Club where he focused on mentoring premedical students. He continued his efforts to teach and mentor students during his gap year where he worked as the primary biology, chemistry, and physics teacher at a middle school in New York City and continued working as a private tutor and premed mentor. Micah has experience in school selection, primary and secondary application writing, and interview preparation.
Micah was accepted into several top medical school programs and decided to attend the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where he is currently a second-year student. There, he volunteers as a high school mentor and currently serves as the Public Outreach Coordinator for the Medical Discovery of Careers program. He focuses on mentoring students in their efforts to pursue careers in medicine. He is a member of the Urology Minimally Invasive Surgery research group under the leadership of Dr. Michael Palese. He has authored several publications and presented his research to the American Urology Association. Along with his other work, Micah is an avid musician who composes, records, and performs music in New York City.
Mimi grew up in Orange County, CA, where she was heavily involved in the local Vietnamese community through volunteer work, cultural performance, and event organization.
She then attended UCLA, and went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology. As a first-generation low income student, she funded her education entirely through a full cost of attendance merit scholarship: the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program (GMSP). During her time in undergraduate education, she conducted research on Chagas disease under the Pathology and Immunology Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which was funded by a grant through the The Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP). Mimi also studied physics abroad at the University of Sussex through the UCEAP program, and lead several service organizations focusing on public health. During this time, she had also worked as a medical assistant and clinical research associate.
After graduating, Mimi took one gap year to apply to medical school, during which she also worked as a medical assistant at a podiatry clinic in her hometown. She is now a first-year medical student at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM), having received scholarships to cover the full cost of attendance through the Distinguished Student Scholarship as well as the Melvin DeHovitz Scholarship.
As of recent, her interests include Cultural Health, Community Wellness, Mental Health, and Women’s Health. She is passionate about serving underserved communities, and looks forward to helping prospective physicians at Inspira, especially disadvantaged ones, put their best foot forward.
Pearl's previous experiences include working in Health Economics and Outcomes Research at Pfizer Oncology, and at the diabetes information company Close Concerns. She has spoken as a patient advocate at the FDA, conducted research at prestigious institutions including the National Institutes of Health, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Perelman School of Medicine/Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Northwell Health Cohen Children's Medical Center, and JFK Hospital Hackensack Meriden Health. Pearl has published numerous abstracts and manuscripts in multiple journals, and presented at National Conferences including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Neurological Association and American Society of Radiation Oncology Annual meetings.
At ZSOM she is part of the selective IMPACcT and KLAR Leadership programs, President of the American Medical Association chapter, is in charge of the Education and Local Outreach/Partnerships for the Community Service Committee, and a youth mentor in the Medical Science Youth Program. She is pursuing a Humanities in Medicine concentration through the GOLD foundation, and is an EMT.
During her undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania, she was involved in tour guiding, the Professional Women's Alumni Alliance, Fox Leadership Fellowship Program, Puentes de Salud bilingual after school literacy program, was a Calculus tutor, and a part of Penn's Global Initiatives Abroad Team, as well as a member of the Penn Association for Gender Equity. She is a life-long Girl Scout and has earned her Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards.
At Inspira, Pearl is excited to work with pre-medical students through the challenging yet rewarding journey of becoming a physician.
Rahul earned his undergraduate degree with College Honors in Biology and Spanish from Washington University in St. Louis, where he was also a member of the Lock and Chain Honorary Society. His love for teaching began in high school where he tutored children from underprivileged areas in Chicago, but he formally expanded on this in college at WashU where he served as a Teacher’s Assistant for introductory Biology and Spanish courses. Rahul also worked in the admissions office as a campus tour guide and an interviewer for prospective students.
After his undergraduate studies, he entered medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in his hometown of Chicago. Throughout medical school, Rahul simultaneously worked in laboratory of John Crispino at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, studying the role of chromosome 21 genes in normal and malignant hematopoiesis; his work was funded by Alpha Omega Alpha (Carolyn L. Kuckein Award), the American Society of Hematology (HONORS Award) , and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Medical Research Fellowship).
During medical school, Rahul also served as his university's representative to the Illinois State Medical Society and American Medical Association, co-founded a Business of Medicine club which included consulting projects with local pharmaceutical companies, served as a TA/tutor for their clinical medicine course and USMLE prep, and continued rigorous research supported by the James Scholar program. He also spent time working with the Washington University in St. Louis pre-health office, helping to compile a database of recent graduates who entered medical and other healthcare-related professional schools with application metrics to better direct prospective applicants.
In 2019, Rahul began residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as part of the Physician-Scientist Track. He will be completing his residency in June 2021 and staying on at Penn to start my fellowship in Hematology/Oncology.
Rohan is a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in biology. He completed his MD and MBA from the Tufts University School of Medicine's combined program. He is the recipient of the Norman S. Stearns MD/MBA Award as well as MedTech Boston's "40 under 40" Award. Rohan is currently completing his residency in Anesthesiology at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell where he currently serves as Chief Resident over the 70+ residents at the program. He conducts academic research and has published in topics relating to pain medicine, perioperative care, crisis/organizational management, the economic cost of healthcare disparities and fraud within healthcare organizations. Following residency, Rohan will complete his fellowship in Interventional Pain Medicine at Harvard/Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Rohan served as an appointed voting member of the admissions committee at the Tufts School of Medicine. He has interviewed numerous candidates, gained extensive training on application review, and adjudicated on hundreds of applications. For the last 3+ years, he has worked with dozens of students as a private admissions consultant and has helped clients from all backgrounds get into their top choices including UPenn, Columbia, Stanford and Mayo. As chief resident, he helped organize the transformation to a virtual application process at one of the country's most competitive residency programs within his specialty. Prior to entering medical school, Rohan worked as a media producer and is the former president of the Columbia University debate team, giving him over 10 years of experience in mock interviewing, strategic positioning, and persuasive writing.
Rohil was born and brought up in the city of Kolkata in eastern India. He knew he wanted to be a physician at an early age but his academic interests were in math and engineering. To get the opportunity to marry these interests together, Rohil took a leap of faith and moved to the US to study Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins. After this, he chose to attend medical school at Yale where he did a dedicated year of research on the applications of machine learning in radiology.
Currently Rohil is finishing up medical school and applying for residency programs in diagnostic and interventional radiology. Throughout this journey, he feels lucky enough to be mentored by many and have been fortunate to pass this onto others. Rohil finds mentoring others (in HS, college, and now medical school) very gratifying and he hopes to continue these experiences at Inspira! He hopes to work with ambitious pre-meds/medical students and guide them on their journey to the next steps.
Sarah is an acute care nurse practitioner currently working in oncology at Harvard/BIDMC in Boston. She took a circuitous route to become an NP. After completing her MPH at the Boston University School of Public Health and working on a clinical trial, she missed working directly with patients. She went on to pursue her MSN at the Yale School of Nursing.
She has research experience and interests in oncology, clinical trials, and public health. One of her favorite activities in school includes volunteering for a multidisciplinary free clinic during which she got to provide care for some of the most vulnerable populations as well as to help younger medical, nursing, and PA students hone in on their skills. She also served as a teaching assistant at YSN after being inspired by some of the incredible TAs she was coached by. She has helped guide students through the applications cycles of various programs including nursing, physician assistant, and public health.
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Stephen Yoffie has always been a passionate student and educator. From his time at Washington University, where Stephen studied biomedical engineering, he has excelled in his course work and made it a point to share that knowledge with others. Concurrently with his classes, Stephen engaged in research ranging from colorectal carcinoma to prosthesis development. Additionally, he took on many teaching roles throughout his time in college, including as the Head Program Manager of the First-year Summer Academic Program, as a teacher for the Young Scientist Program, and as a teacher and tutor through Kaplan Test Prep. While Stephen was pursuing his own path toward medicine, he also hoped to help others in their own journeys.
After graduating from Washington University, Stephen enrolled in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Alongside his studies, he continues to invest his time in pursuits such as research and education. Specifically, Stephen has served as a teacher through Mount Sinai's MedPrep program and the Northeast Regional Alliance where he has engaged students to excite them about careers in medicine. Stephen also has served as a student member of the Icahn School of Medicine FlexMed admissions committee, where he has developed an further understanding of the nuances of the application process. Along with his work at Inspira, Stephen is currently between his second and third years of medical school, where he is pursuing a Masters degree in Public Health from Columbia University.
Whit is a 2020 graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School, where he was involved in student government, joined the Path of Excellence in Medical Ethics, and was Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan Journal of Medicine, among other activities.
Prior to medical school, he studied at Amherst College, earning a BA with Distinction while double-majoring in Mathematics and Economics. He conducted research at the University of Michigan's Michigan Cardiovascular Outcomes Research and Reporting Program (MCORRP), played in the Amherst Symphony Orchestra, and qualified for the NAQT National Tournament with Amherst College Quizbowl.
While in medical school, Whit decided to pursue a career in healthcare policy, electing not to continue to residency. While this puts him in a small minority of MDs without further clinical training, his nontraditional path affords a unique perspective on the key decisions facing students who may not know exactly what they want as they head into the medical school applications process.
Whit enjoys board gaming, crossword puzzles, and cooking.
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