Mark Yurewicz
2009 BA in Religious Studies
Student at UT Southwestern Medical School
I majored in Religious Studies at Rice, although I knew that I would go to medical school afterwards. I picked the major because I knew my time at Rice would be my last time to seriously pursue and dive into an area of interest formally outside of science and medicine, possibly for the rest of my life. I was pretty set on medicine by the time I had come to Rice. I had already shadowed physicians and surgeons for more than 130 hours and had done laboratory research for a summer. If I had not had this experience, I could have pursued it there, as some of my friends did. Instead, I was able to pursue other interests.
I actually came into Rice with no real interest in religion that I can remember, but happened to take a religious studies class on a whim my first semester instead of a class I should have taken. I found the religion class fascinating and totally unorthodox, talking about eastern mysticism, hippies and out-of-body experiences, quantum physics and massages and “the zone” in sports. I loved the course, which inspired me to take a course the next year in Buddhism, something that I felt I would find interesting. It turns out that Buddhism became an academic and personal passion even deeper than my passion for medicine. I thoroughly pursued Buddhism in my studies at Rice and through a study abroad program in Bodh Gaya, a rural town in India and the pilgrimage site where Buddhism was founded some 2500 years ago. Not only was I able to finish half of my major while abroad, but I also got the chance to totally immerse myself in contemporary Buddhist culture in a beautiful and intense town. I feel that the knowledge I’ve gained studying Buddhism as well as religions in general will shape and sustain my approach to medicine while in school and especially “in the field”; my studies have deepened and informed my motivation to enter medicine in ways that may seem improbable at the surface to others.
Though I really focused on Eastern religions at Rice, I also took two classes in sociology. Urban sociology with Dr. Klineberg was an incredible glimpse into the evolution and contemporary structures that define our social networks in the context of Houston, a city I have known my whole life. The second class was Medical Sociology, which I feel all pre-health professionals should be required to take, to help doctors recognize their roles as servants of communities, not just individuals.
I am taking the summer and fall of 2009 to travel throughout India and Nepal. My research skills and Tibetan language skills will definitely come in handy over the next few months as I study Tibetan medicine and hopefully translate (part of) one of the core medical Tantras in their tradition.
My plan is to graduate from UT Southwestern in May 2014. Although I do not know what I will focus on, I have a feeling it will be something more general than specialized; I enjoy having to cover many various subject areas, and would like to have flexibility in where and with which groups I serve and volunteer. Rice offered me the chance to explore how healthcare professionals can serve abroad, and can serve diverse populations at home. I definitely have developed a sensitivity to the many socioeconomic, geographic, historical, cultural, and spiritual factors that influence a person’s needs, goals, and concepts of health, illness, life and death through my humanities classes and my atypical chances to serve the community, such as through the Loewenstern Fellowship to study Indigenous Medicine in Puyo, Ecuador.
Definitely pursue what your passion is in. If you are interested in the humanities, dive fully in while leaving time to do your pre-requisites for medical school if you are pre-med. You will be satisfied with your learning experience and will end up showing that dedication to others and looking good on your transcript as long as you study what you love. No matter what you decide to major in, you will be studying a lot at Rice. You won’t be able to pull through if you aren’t enjoying that work! My specific advice to pre-meds at Rice is definitely to take one course like Medical Sociology, Medical Anthropology, Medical Ethics, or Healthcare Policy, whichever one you would find most interesting. Seeing medicine as something other than a puzzle between patient and physician is essential, and it definitely does not come across in the science lecture hall or laboratory class. And don’t think that as a Humanities major you are denied summer research and fieldwork opportunities. Humanities research and internships and jobs are definitely out there, but they are a little less advertised than for your S&E colleagues.
