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Mapping a Course With Surgical Precision

At the young age of 3, Justin-Siena junior Neha Sidhu ’17 set her sites on a career path and has been blazing a trail ever since. At that young age of 3, Neha asked for a doctor’s play set, and while the toy has long since been shelved, Neha has been motivated in her medical pursuits ever since.
Neha feels lucky to have identified her calling at such a young age. Her mother is a nurse; her father a businessman and her 5th grade brother an aspiring athlete and Neha feels called to the medical field. At the encouragement of her parents and as part of her own discovery, Neha has tried other pursuits. She’s currently a stand-out pre-trial attorney on the Justin-Siena Mock-Trial team—a team she has helped win County and advance on to state level competitions over the past three years—but she knows she doesn’t want to be an attorney. She enrolled in Engineering her freshman year, and although STEM subjects pique her interest, she felt engineering wasn’t for her. She has also held an administrative summer intern position for the past 4 years with the March of Dimes in San Francisco.
 
Most recently, acting upon a Schoology post from our Director of College Counseling, Neha discovered The Perry Initiative and was drawn to their mission of “inspiring young women to be leaders in the exciting fields of Orthopedic Surgery and Engineering.” The Perry Initiative offers hands-on outreach programs across the country for female students in high school, college, and medical school.

Last weekend, before an evening serving at the Justin-Siena annual Crab Feed in her role as Student Ambassador, Neha participated one of these outreach programs. Just 35 applicants out of 300 were chosen for this one-day, hands-on surgery intensive designed to expose future med students to orthopedic surgery. Neha participated in six simulated surgeries and met with renowned Stanford and UCSF orthopedic surgeon at the San Jose Kaiser, Dr. Katherine Gray (also a team physician for the San Jose Sharks): scoliosis treatment; suturing wounds; rotator cuff repair; external fixation; plate replacement; intramedullary rod repair. Neha spoke very enthusiastically about her time and training and knows she is on the right path for her future.

After this amazing experience, Neha knows that surgery is the area of medicine she wishes to pursue and has already begun the college research process—identifying schools that offer a B.S. to M.D. program, an 8-year program that blends undergraduate with medical school training. Only a handful of schools in the country offer this program and it’s highly competitive. For now, while taking a rigorous junior year course-load and working on Mock Trial arguments, Neha plans to continue learning and finding opportunities in medicine at a high school level as she journeys toward college and med school with the plan to be a surgeon one day. We hope Neha brings her toy doctor’s set with her as a visual aid when she visits her alma mater on a future Vocation Day!
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Justin-Siena High School

4026 Maher Street
Napa, CA, 94558
United States
T: 707.255.0950 
F: 707.255.0334
Justin-Siena is a Lasallian Catholic college preparatory community that serves young people in grades 9–12.