by Jason Kornwitz

Theo Bowe’s co-​​​​op jobs in campus labs and far-​​​​flung coun­tries have pre­pared him for the next phase of his aca­d­emic journey: Har­vard Med­ical School. Here, Bowe,S’16, reflects on his past five years at North­eastern and offers some keen advice to other students.

You studied biology at North­eastern and plan to enroll in the MD pro­gram at Har­vard Med­ical School in August. What will you focus on, and how will your area of study dove­tail with your career ambitions?

I am entering Har­vard Med­ical School with a mindset sim­ilar to the one with which I entered North­eastern: I don’t know exactly what area I want to focus on, but I do know that I will go in with an open mind and a plan to talk to people who are doing things that I find inter­esting. While I do not have a spe­cific career path in mind, I have begun to deter­mine things that I value in a career, such as an oppor­tu­nity to make a dif­fer­ence in my com­mu­nity through public health and policy advo­cacy and the chance to be a leader in my field. I plan to find a career that encom­passes all of these things, and I am sure that HMS has the people as well as the resources to help me do that.

Your under­grad­uate accom­plish­ments run deep, from receiving the Barry M. Gold­water Schol­ar­ship in 2014 to being named to Northeastern’s Hunt­ington 100 in 2015. What would you say is your biggest achieve­ment at Northeastern?

I would say that my biggest achieve­ment at North­eastern was man­aging to bal­ance all of the demands on my time needed to meet the aca­d­emic and extracur­ric­ular goals I set for myself, while still man­aging to explore inter­ests unre­lated to these goals and to have fun. I am proud of some of the more objec­tive accom­plish­ments, but I wouldn’t be happy if those accom­plish­ments were the main ways I defined my col­lege expe­ri­ence. So, I guess I would say that finding a great bal­ance, which was dif­fi­cult at the begin­ning of my time at North­eastern, is my biggest achieve­ment during my time here.

How did your research expe­ri­ences in campus labs and far-​​flung countries—including your posi­tions as an oph­thal­mology research asso­ciate at Boston Children’s Hos­pital and as a cit­izen sci­ence research assis­tant at the Uni­ver­sity of Cape Town’s Animal Demog­raphy Unit—prepare you for the next phase of your aca­d­emic journey?

My research expe­ri­ences were rel­a­tively varied in type and location—basic sci­ence versus clin­ical, domestic versus abroad—and I think that the com­bi­na­tion of breadth and depth of expe­ri­ence has led to the devel­op­ment of a self-​​confidence that I can excel in unfa­miliar sit­u­a­tions. The next phase of my aca­d­emic journey will begin in the fall at HMS, where I antic­i­pate I will reg­u­larly be thrust into unfa­miliar sit­u­a­tions. My time at North­eastern has pre­pared me to face these unknowns with confidence.

You served as a res­i­dent assis­tant for almost three years. What did working with stu­dents in this capacity teach you about what it will take to work with patients as a doctor?

As a res­i­dent assis­tant, I devel­oped a number of skills that I believe will be trans­ferrable to my future as a physi­cian. I have worked with people from all dif­ferent back­grounds, helped stu­dents with con­fi­den­tial and sen­si­tive issues, and devel­oped a com­fort with ambi­guity. The RA posi­tion put me in sit­u­a­tions that forced me to grow, but did it in ways that were not over­whelming. All of these aspects will likely have analogs over the course of my med­ical training, and I believe that having had expe­ri­ences as an RA that are sim­ilar has made me more pre­pared to face these chal­lenges in the future.

Describe your fondest memory of the past five years at Northeastern.

This is a very dif­fi­cult ques­tion to answer, but if I had to pick one I would say that my fondest memory over my time at North­eastern would be going to Opening Day at Fenway Park in 2014 with my dad and two of my brothers. The pregame cer­e­mony was an amazing cel­e­bra­tion of this city that I have come to love—the Red Sox received their 2013 World Series rings, but more impor­tantly there was a lengthy tribute to the vic­tims and sur­vivors of the Boston Marathon bomb­ings and to the med­ical and law enforce­ment per­sonnel who so valiantly served our com­mu­nity at that time. The cer­e­mony was a pow­erful cel­e­bra­tion of the good­ness and bravery of the people of this com­mu­nity, and as a stu­dent who was here during the bombing, I was grateful to be there to add my voice to that celebration.

What advice do you have for other students?

My gen­eral advice would be to make the most of their time here, with the under­standing that this will look dif­ferent for every single stu­dent. Your expe­ri­ence at North­eastern will absolutely be what you make it. There are incred­ible fac­ulty, staff, and other stu­dents here, some of whom will be inter­ested in the same things you are. Find those people and get involved. Also, I highly encourage taking courses in a field out­side of your major—I was a biology major and two of my favorite and most for­ma­tive classes at North­eastern were offered by the his­tory and phi­los­ophy departments.

All of the things I have accom­plished at North­eastern were made pos­sible through the help and sup­port of men­tors. Talk to your pro­fes­sors. Often­times they are incred­ible people who are eager to help stu­dents excel in the class­room and beyond.

Originally published in news@Northeastern on May 10, 2016.