Maya Srkalovic '19 plans to attend medical school next year, but until then she is working as a medical scribe at a urologist office in Ann Arbor.
Kalamazoo College definitely prepared her for her future endeavors.
While in school, she learned to work on individual projects as well as with teachers and other students in K's small classes. She also did her internship at the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network the summers before her junior and senior years, which inspired her Senior Individualized Project.
"I did my SIP, which was titled "Idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease: TAFRO lymph nodes demonstrates increased phosphorylated-4EBP1" in the biology department," she said.
Academics weren't her only focus at K. The Okemos (MI) High School graduate was on the tennis team all four years, earning MIAA Academic Honor Roll and ITA Scholar-Athlete honors her senior season.
"Being a student-athlete taught me how to time manage and how to be a well-rounded person," she said.
Dr. Stephen Ferguson, Karika Parker and Dr. Blaine Moore were instrumental in her success as a biology major at K. She calls Moore, whose focus is on cell and molecular biology and neurobiology, her "most valuable professor." In addition, "Dr. Ferguson is an incredibly kind and intelligent professor, always looking to improve and learn from his students, and he genuinely enjoys teaching," she said. Karika, health science director, "genuinely wants her students to succeed and will always be there to talk and go the extra mile for anyone who needs it," Srkalovic said.
Kalamazoo College prepares its graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world. The College's 1,467 students come from 39 states and 28 countries. Through the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College provides an individualized education that integrates rigorous academics with life-changing experiential learning opportunities, including study abroad, career internships and externships, civic engagement and social justice work. K's student-faculty ratio of 13-to-1 allows for small classes and personal attention to individual needs; student-faculty interaction goes beyond the classroom to include working together on research projects, college committees, and community projects. At Kalamazoo College, we do more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.