Summary: <a href="https://media.blubrry.com/admissions_straight_talk/p/cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/58291/IV_with_David_Elkin_2017.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a><br> Our guest today is a fourth year medical student at Stony Brook who graduated from UC San Diego with a bachelors in Physiology and Neuroscience. Nothing too unusual there for a medical student. However, things start to get interesting, maybe even enchanting, when we learn a little about his hobby: magic. He has been performing magic since middle school. He performed at the well-known Magic Castle in Hollywood and at parties and events in the LA area. He retired from performing magic at age 20, but by then had founded MagicAid. <a href="https://media.blubrry.com/admissions_straight_talk/p/cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/58291/IV_with_David_Elkin_2017.mp3">Let’s learn more about that initiative now.</a> Welcome, David!<br> Can you tell us a bit about your background – where are you from? [1:25]<br> I’m a fourth year at Stony Brook. I grew up in LA, and did my undergrad at UCSD.<br> How did you come to medicine? [1:55]<br> I actually had a pretty circuitous path. Since a young age I knew I was interested in science and medicine, but I wasn’t sure in what capacity.<br> I was actually a dance major my first three years in college, and then switched to physiology and neuroscience in my fourth year. After graduation, I worked in entertainment (casting, etc.) and in tech, before <a href="http://reports.accepted.com/medical/get-in-to-medical-school">applying to med school</a>.<br> How many years were you out of college before coming to med school? [2:58]<br> I graduated in 2011, and took three <a href="http://blog.accepted.com/who-should-take-a-gap-year/">gap years</a>. I took the MCAT my senior year and applied to med school in the last year of my MCAT eligibility.<br> How did you get into magic? [4:06]<br> My mom would buy me magic tricks when I was a kid. And I had a magician perform at my Bar Mitzvah – and I was hooked!<br> I had a group of friends in middle and high school who would play card games and do magic. Later I auditioned for membership in the Magic Castle.<br> What’s MagicAid? [5:30]<br> It’s dedicated to relieving stress and anxiety for the pediatric population (in the hospital setting) through performing magic and teaching them magic. We call it “magic therapy.”<br> It started when I was in high school. I was volunteering as an orderly at a hospital. I saw a girl crying in her room – she was anxious about an upcoming surgery. I had a deck of cards on me, because I often carried cards to practice magic tricks. I spent time performing magic for her, and she completely forgot about her surgery.<br> I went to my supervisor and asked if, in addition to my other volunteer duties, I could spend time each week performing magic for the patients.<br> How has MagicAid grown? [7:30]<br> One of the nurses on the peds floor nominated me for a “cool kids” segment on the local ABC news. And later I was invited by the head of Magic Castle to be on his innovation committee.<br> But it wasn’t until I started med school that I revamped it and started performing magic for kids at Stony Brook Hospital – and training other med students and healthcare providers to participate as well.<br> We now have 60 med students trained to perform magic.<br> Are the participants all from Stony Brook, or are you branching out? [9:50]<br> Right now, all from Stony Brook. But we’re getting a lot of media attention (we were featured on the NBC Nightly News), and interest is spreading.<br> Looking back at your med school application process – what was the hardest part for you? [11:20]<br> The essays – you have to write a lot! The <a href="https://reports.accepted.com/medical/personal-statement">personal statement is challenging</a> – edit after edit, revision after revision. And every school has their own secondary essays.
