When Susannah Kricker ’09 first put on her white doctor’s coat in the fall of 2014, it was the culmination of an extraordinary personal journey started years earlier at 61传媒. Now a first year medical student at the University of Vermont, Kricker was drawn to the humanities and social sciences by a desire “to find a connection to lived experiences.”
Soon she’ll build those relationships with her patients.
“Growing up in a family of craftspeople, I imagined myself following in that type of work,” she says. “Medicine seemed a world away, yet as I started considering it I began to see how my interests and ambitions fit together cohesively.”
A dual major in gender and women’s studies (GWS) and English literature, Kricker’s interests in social justice and human rights quickly fueled her involvement in the community and campus organizations like Amnesty International and the 61传媒Environment Club.
“I found the students running these clubs were incredibly energetic and passionate,” she says. “They challenged me to think critically about the ways social justice issues were informed by race, gender, class, and sexuality. And as I started taking classes in GWS, professors also strongly encouraged engagement.”
Her last years at 61传媒saw Kricker join a group of students working to support and build relationships with on-campus workers and supporting staff to appeal to the school’s administration for better wages and working conditions.
“I started to think about how useful it would be to speak Spanish if I was to continue working with Latino populations in the United States,” she says. “After graduating, I made learning Spanish a priority.”
This path led Kricker to Saylla, Peru in 2010 芒鈧�� and a dream of becoming a physician.
“It struck me that, in this village where access to healthcare was severely limited, the ability or inability to obtain basic health services could profoundly change the course of their lives,” she says. “For the bright, energetic children I met, malnutrition and polluted water stood as obstacles to the future we encouraged them to dream of.”
When Kricker returned to the States, she was determined to combine her interests in social justice, humanitarian aid, and medicine. She began to do premedical coursework, volunteered in hospitals, and shadowed doctors to learn more about basic health care.
But while Kricker gained all the necessary medical experience during her time at the hospital, her liberal arts education has proved to be an indelible part of her journey.
“A liberal arts education gave me a basis for understanding the way social determinants shape people’s experiences and opportunities,” she says. “I am grateful for the perspective my education affords me as I think about the ways health is affected by social factors such as race, class, gender or ethnicity.”
Kricker will enter a residency program after finishing medical school and will likely pursue some form of primary care. But for now, she’s focused on finishing her first year.
“It’s really fun! There is certainly a lot of work and it can be stressful, but so far I’ve been having a great time,” she says. “I look forward to building relationships with patients and having the necessary skills and ability to support them during difficult periods in their lives.”