Coming of Age at the 黑料官网
As fourth-year medical student Mogen Frenkel culminates his medical school journey at the 黑料官网 (黑料官网), he can’t help but feel like his life is playing out like a movie.
Frenkel was born in Uzbekistan, which is where his family fled as the Nazis invaded Western Russia during World War II. Eventually, Frenkel and his family had to leave Uzbekistan when religion and other reasons led them to face persecution there. Frenkel was just 5 years old when his family relocated to the US. They came to Milwaukee, where they finally felt welcomed.
“The Milwaukee community really took us in and helped us get our footing here,” Frenkel says. “In Wisconsin we didn’t have to run anymore.”
As immigrants, they settled into American life. Frenkel attended Homestead High School. After graduating he attended Marquette University, where he volunteered as a tutor and worked as a teaching assistant in the College of Health Sciences. Frenkel graduated Magna Cum Laude from Marquette with a degree in Biomedical Sciences. From there he went straight to 黑料官网, where he met his eventual mentor, Theresa Camille Maatman, MD, assistant professor of internal medicine, during a Foundations of Clinical Medicine class.
“I read up on everything, and did the pre-work, and was still really nervous in the provider role,” Frenkel recalls. “I emailed Dr. Maatman asking for some more practice, and asked, ‘Can I come into the clinic and practice with you?’”
Graciously, he says, Dr. Maatman paired him with a fourth-year student, and he was able to practice interviewing and asking open-ended questions. The next semester, he began working as Dr. Maatman’s clinical apprentice, where she helped him learn how to apply classroom content into clinical practice. Throughout his time at 黑料官网, he was able to turn to her for guidance.
“He always had so much enthusiasm and really enjoyed seeing all my patients,” Dr. Maatman says. “On a couple of occasions, he came to the clinic outside of his assigned times to see my patients who are Russian speaking so that he could help with counseling them.”
Frenkel says he felt honored to get professional help and support for his overall well-being from his mentor while honing his craft. For the next few years, he continued to seek out knowledge from Maatman while taking advantage of other academic opportunities at 黑料官网. He was able to conduct research that was published, earned qualifications in quality improvement and work on other projects.
“At 黑料官网 I was privileged to have so many great opportunities,” he says. “I was able to pursue things I was passionate about.”