This week’s HerCampus Celebrity is Emily Chung, who’s a junior in the Pre-Med program at PhilaU, an avid baker, and has been a member of the PhilaU Rams Women’s Tennis team for three years.
HerCampus: Where are you originally from?
Emily: I’m originally from Manhattan Beach, CA. I’m like 30 minutes away from downtown LA.
HC: Definitely a bit of a commute! What made you decide to come to PhilaU?
Emily: I originally applied for the Physician’s Assistant program and got in. PhilaU was one of the few schools that had an undergrad/grad school combination. Later, I was accepted into ake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) 3+4 medical program, which PhilaU had an affiliation with. I dropped out of the PA program and switched to pre-med because of the med school program. It also doesn’t hurt that I was offered a tennis scholarship.
HC: Can you talk a little bit about what the LECOM 3+4 program is?
Emily: The 3+4 program is an early acceptance program. They accept high school students into medical school. It’s three years undergrad and 4 years of medical school. Usually to go to medical school, you have to take the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). In this program, I just have to meet a certain GPA and I don’t have to take the MCAT. I pretty much have a guaranteed spot into medical school.
HC: That’s awesome! So what got you interested in a medical related field?
Emily: I was interested in the medical field since I was like 10 years old. My dad is a perfusionist (he runs the heart-lung machine during open heart surgery) so that really helped with my start in medicine. I remember he brought me into the hospital with him and I saw the heart beating on a monitor and I was completely mesmerized by it.
HC: What’s it like being a pre-med major?
Emily: Not going to lie. It’s really hard. I think pre-med has a bad rap for being hard, which is true. But I think no matter what you’re studying, the classes are hard. The difficulty level will depend on the type of work. Pre-med is a lot of sit down and focus and memorize facts and information. Majors, such as architecture or fashion design, may not have to sit down and cram in a lot of information but these people with these majors have a lot of work designing and redesigning and building and sewing. I think the biggest thing is that as long as you enjoy what you’re studying, it doesn’t really matter how hard the subject is.
HC: So switching gears a bit, I know tennis has been a big part of your life here. How long have you have been on the PhilaU Rams Tennis team and what’s your favorite part about playing tennis?
Emily: I’ve been on the tennis team for 3 years now, and I’m a super competitive person so I love the competition. I feel like I don’t play as well in practice as I do during matches. But of course, as much as I love the competition, I love winning too. Who doesn’t?
HC: Do you have a best moment or memory from tennis?
Emily: It was my freshman year on the tennis team and I was playing number 3 singles for the team. During the spring, we were playing Chestnut Hill, which is a school that, at the time, we would lose 9-0 to. Shawn, our coach, had to take the guy to their match away so our assistant coach had to stay with the girls. I was in the middle of a super tiebreaker and I see Shawn driving the van like crazy and rushing out of the van to catch the reminder of my match. No one knew the score of my tiebreak so when I won, everyone was super confused to what just happened. I turned around to put my stuff away and then I see Shawn running full speed to me asking me if I won or not. I told him I won and I have never seen him so excited before.
HC: That definitely sounds like an exciting moment! So I’ve heard that you may be moving on from tennis here, at least for now…
Emily: This is my last year playing on the team. But I’ve been suffering from a back injury so I’ve been pretty limited in playing time. Hopefully I will be able to play tennis again soon but right now, I don’t really see it happening.
HC: As you move on, would you say that you learned or gained anything from tennis other than tennis skills?
Emily: I think I was able to understand more cultures and experience different international things because of my international teammates. And I definitely got a lot of friends from tennis.
HC: What are three things/moments/achievements you’re most proud of?
Emily: My number one achievement I’m most proud of is that I got into medical school. I’ve worked day and night during high school and now to get to where I am so, I’m glad that all my hard work has paid off, especially since I missed out on a lot of fun things just so I could study. The second one would be winning the Most Valuable Player award last year for tennis. I honestly didn’t really expect the award but I was super cool to be recognized for my achievements in tennis. And lastly, what I’m most proud of isn’t an achievement that I had. Rather, I’m proud of my younger brother. My brother and I have always fought but I’m incredibly proud of him. He was able to overcome a lot of things that people his age would probably not understand. During my freshman year here, my brother was having a hard time in his sophomore year of high school. He was failing almost all of his classes and he was later diagnosed with acute stress disorder and mild depressions, which explains his grades. He was able to get back up onto his feet, with the help of some antidepressants, and do better the next semester and the next year. He is still doing so well in his senior year now and he hasn’t had to take his medication for more than a year now. Mental illness is something that is really hard to overcome and I’m so proud of him for not only overcoming his illness but also getting back upand hit the ground running and do awesome in tennis and with schoolwork.
Huge thank you to Emily for taking time out and opening up to HerCampus! xo