Ben Croll, MD Student
Ben Croll graduated from Muhlenberg College in 2014 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry and Philosophy. After graduation, he took a gap year in between undergraduate and medical school. During this time, he worked full-time at Cetronia Ambulance Corps as an EMT. He will be completing his residence at Emory University in urology. He is also a reservist in the US Air Force. Through the Health Professions Scholarship Program, the Air Force pays for his medical training, and in return he will serve as an active duty attending physician to pay back the scholarship.
I first met Ben at a talk held at Muhlenberg that I found out about from the Pre-health advisor through an email. He gave a presentation on life support, and ethically what putting a person on life support means for families, what the actual outcome of brain death is, and where there is a lot of misconception. This intrigued me, and I then found Ben on The Muhlenberg Network and he was happy to plan a phone call interview.
Ben advised that I do the following in my undergraduate years at Muhlenberg: obtain a leadership position, become well-rounded, and go through EMT training. He highly recommends EMT training because working in a high intensity job like that involves critical scenarios, giving CPR, giving medications, and bagging people. All of these things are basic skills that you will need to know down the road if becoming a health professional, so they are good to learn early and see if you really like the medical field when put into those critical situations. He also explained to me how he decided on what medical school he wanted to attend, and he mainly focused on a balance between academics and community based (more hands-on). Something that he really enjoyed was learning the public health side of things, and Ben compared going to a medical school where it is very community based as well is like going to a liberal arts college. One of his best memories from USF is when they learned about the end of life by bringing in a panel of ALS patients.
Chris Raab, Pediatric MD
Dr. Raab obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Muhlenberg College in Biology and History in 1993. He attended Temple Medical School, did his internship and residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He is board certified in Pediatrics, and currently works at the Nemours/ duPont Hospital for Children. He is also an assistant professor at Jefferson University. He is involved with International Medicine, and when I spoke with him, he told me that he was traveling to Gambia, Africa the following day. Since 2009 he has been the Haiti Village Health Team Leader, and is a Medical Director for Nemours.
When speaking with him, he assured me that having good grades is not going to make someone a good doctor. It’s who they are as a whole person. He struggled GPA wise his freshman year at Muhlenberg, but that did not stop him from becoming the successful person he is today. He assured me that medicine is not for everyone, but when considering the stressfulness of the job, it can be easily compared to anyone else with a career who comes home and complains about their stressors. There are tough situations he has to deal with, and the example he used was parents coming up to him and telling him that he gave their kid the wrong diagnosis. Dealing with critical situations like that are not going to be solved with good grades, because becoming a physician is much more than that, it involves you as a whole individual who must face many tough situations.
Dr. Raab assured me, being an assistant professor at Jefferson, that when students are applying to their medical school, being on an athletic team is something that medical schools look for and realize is like working a commited job while being in school, considering how much time it takes up. He also spoke with me about the rough and long journey that medical school is, but just like any other job, it has its pros and cons.
