{"id":135010,"date":"2025-06-09T16:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T20:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/?post_type=bu-article&p=135010"},"modified":"2025-06-27T13:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T17:54:17","slug":"kristen-segars-md-phd-student","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/bu-article\/kristen-segars-md-phd-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristen Segars, MD\/PhD Student"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Kristen\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudent Stories<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKristen Segars, MD\/PhD Student\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

BU encourages students to explore interests and develop varied skill sets<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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June 9, 2025<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tTwitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\tFacebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n

Kristen Segars was not one of those medical students with an early and all-consuming focus on medical school and becoming a doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At BU, you don’t get pigeonholed. \u201cThey let you explore and engage in multidisciplinary research. It really encourages us to get out of our comfort zones, to develop a lot of different skill sets.<\/p>Kristen Segars, MD\/PhD Student<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI actually wanted to be a fashion designer,\u201d said Segars, an MD\/PhD student, who has completed the research portion of her combined degree, successfully defended her doctoral thesis, and is now in her final year of her medical education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally a business major as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Segars found herself drawn to her science classes. She also found she enjoyed interacting with patients and staff in a job at UNC University Hospitals and her focus shifted to becoming physician\/scientist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Segars chose the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine because there were great research opportunities, and its primary teaching affiliate Boston Medical Center provided opportunities to work in a safety net hospital and serve marginalized and underserved communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She liked that the school\u2019s clinical and research programs were integrated, and she appreciated that BU supported student exploration of varied research interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt BU, you don’t get pigeonholed,\u201d said Segars. \u201cThey let you explore and engage in multidisciplinary research. It really encourages us to get out of our comfort zones, to develop a lot of different skill sets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Segars appreciated the support the school provided to MD\/PhD students especially during stressful transition periods from academic medical education into research and then back into the clinical years of the MD program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe good thing about this program is that they are aware that those are challenging times for students,\u201d said Segars. \u201cStudents struggle a lot with adjusting to a lab, or adjusting to being back in clinic, and they have a lot of resources to help us transition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BU encourages students to explore interests and develop varied skill sets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":135011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"Student Research","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":"Student Stories"},"tags":[457],"bu-publication":[],"medicine-article-category":[],"medicine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[448],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/135010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135010"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/135010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135816,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/135010\/revisions\/135816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135010"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=135010"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-article-category?post=135010"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-topic?post=135010"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=135010"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=135010"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=135010"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=135010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}