Humanizing Geisel: The Podcast

 
 
 
Name (pronouns): Steve Kwaku Antwi-Boasiako he/himHometown: Edweso, Ghana and Columbus, OhioYear at Geisel: MS4Career interest: Plastic SurgeryThe best thing about Geisel is: Many diverse opportunities/rotations outside the Upper Valley. This gives students exposure to how different systems of care for their patient population and can be informative for specialty planning and patient population selection.Favorite spot in the Upper Valley: Four Aces DinerFavorite activity in the Upper Valley: Soccer at CCBAFavorite book/poem: The Wretched of the Earth – Frantz FanonFavorite song/piece of music: Obaa Ben Ni – Daasebre GyamenahFavorite quote: “Do not be too mesmerized by the beauty of your flowers that you forget your roots” -Steve Antwi-Boasiako, White Coat Ceremony circa 2021Most treasured travel: Ghana December 2019, IYKYK!Guilty pleasure: My Instagram reel algorithm at 4am in the morning. Probably the funniest thing in the world.Unknown fact about you: I am a GREAT dancer. Unmatched and unchallenged on the dance floor.
Anything else: Nope, Stay hydrated!
 
Short Bio: Steve Antwi-Boasiako is an MS4 at Geisel School of Medicine. He was born and raised in Edweso in the Ashanti region of Ghana. He is a part of the Asanteman tribe, a tribe of the Akan people. Interestingly, his fourth great grandmother fought in the Anglo-Ashanti wars in the early 1900s. He immigrated to Columbus, Ohio in 2007. Steve did his Undergrad at Vanderbilt University where he majored in Neuroscience and Medicine, health & society. The bulk of his research has been in exploring novel genetic causes of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. Due to his curiosity for innovation and passion for serving his community, steve is pursuing a career in Plastic Surgery where he hopes to offer sustainable surgical care to  his communities both near and far.

Name (pronouns):  Liah D'sa (she/her/hers)
Hometown: Gilbert, AZ
Year at Geisel: MS3
Career interest: Don't know yet!
The best thing about Geisel is: The community
Favorite spot in the Upper Valley: To eat—Turmeric Kitchen. To get away for a minute—Mink Brook Nature Preserve.
Favorite activity in the Upper Valley: Finding new walking trails
Favorite book/poem: This is so silly but I loved "The Phantom Tollbooth" growing up, and it holds a special place in my heart
Favorite song/piece of music: "Time" by Hans Zimmer 
Favorite quote: "Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion" - Rumi
Most treasured travel: Nicaragua with college friends
Guilty pleasure: Reading fantasy novels 
 
Short Bio: Liah is from a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. She went to Santa Clara University for college, where she studied psychology and political science. Prior to starting med school, she spent time working in the nonprofit world, in hospital administration, and as a 4th grade teacher.

Name (pronouns): Ian Lichtenstein (he/him)
Hometown: Portsmouth, NH
Year at Geisel: M4
Career interest: Emergency Medicine
The best thing about Geisel is: The Community
Favorite spot in the Upper Valley: The Norwich Inn’s Porch
Favorite activity in the Upper Valley: Skiing (uphill/downhill)
Favorite book/poem: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Favorite song/piece of music: Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen
Most treasured travel: Monhegan Island
Guilty pleasure: Scream singing just about anything in the car
 
Short Bio: Ian Lichtenstein is originally from Portsmouth, NH and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of New Hampshire majoring in Microbiology. While at UNH he worked as an EMT, developed a passion for global health completing research abroad in the Ashanti region of Ghana studying transfusion transmitted malaria, and was a leader in the New Hampshire Outing Club. Upon graduating from UNH, he moved to Boston to work in an infectious disease lab at Boston Children’s Hospital researching invasive Group A Streptococcal infections. He has now been at Geisel since 2021 and is a fourth-year medical student applying into an Emergency Medicine residency. Looking towards residency he hopes to continue pursuing his passions in Global Health and Infectious Diseases while also exploring new interests such as those in Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

 
Name (pronouns): Abby Marshall (She/Her)
Hometown: Williston, VT
Year at Geisel: 6th year
Career interest: Probably oncology
The best thing about Geisel is: The people
Favorite spot in the Upper Valley: Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Park
Favorite activity in the Upper Valley: Running
Favorite book/poem: “Hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson
Favorite song/piece of music: This is too hard! I have too many favorites and it also depends on my mood/the vibe of the day
Favorite quote: Live in the present (which has been said in many ways by many people so it’s not an exact quote)
Most treasured travel: Acadia National Park with my husband for our honeymoon
Guilty pleasure: Chocolate
Unknown fact about you: I have an extra vertebra (an L6 or lumbosacral transitional body) but it doesn’t make me any taller
 
Short Bio:Abby was born and raised in Williston, VT. She attended Endicott College on the North Shore of Boston, where she double majored in Biology and Psychology. Outside of classes, she ran varsity Cross Country and Track and Field. After graduating in 2019, she joined the MD-PhD program at Dartmouth and started medical school at Geisel. Abby is currently working towards her PhD in Dr. Aaron McKenna’s lab in the Molecular and Cellular Biology program. Her thesis work focuses on creating genomic tools to trace cellular lineages in various cancer models. While she still has diverse interests, she’s leaning towards a future career in oncology (either radiation or medical) where she can intertwine research and clinical medicine. She enjoys exploring the Upper Valley with her husband (Zach), daughter (Everly), and their two dogs (Sadie and Chase).

In this episode, we take you back to some of our conversations with current medical students at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. We asked them to share a piece of advice and wisdom, as they reflect on their experience. Listen to: 
1. Rob Sandhu
2. Michael Nguyen
3. John Emery
4. Nicholas Fuller
5. Matthew Goff
 

 
Short Bio:
Rob Sandhu is a M2 Student at Dartmouth. He was born and raised in Los Angeles to two Panjabi parents. For college, he attended the University of California, Irvine, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Omega honor societies. Upon graduation, Rob received the Chancellor’s Award of Distinction and Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. In college, he served as first-author on one of the first studies in the nation to examine the e-cigarette use epidemic amongst young Latino college students. At Geisel, Rob is involved in student government as DICE Rep and serves as the president of several student interest groups. Outside of academics, Rob enjoys spending time with his family, practicing martial arts, and working with his MCAT students.

 
Name (pronouns): Connor Bridges, he/him
Hometown: London, UK
Year at Geisel: 2025
Career interest: General surgery
The best thing about Geisel is: The people!
Favorite spot in the Upper Valley: The rail trail
Favorite book/poem: Mountains Beyond Mountains
Favorite quote: “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
Most treasured travel: Summer spent in China and Japan with high school friends
Guilty pleasure: Cheesy rom-coms
Unknown fact about you: I have a scuba diving license!
 
Short Bio:
"Hello, everyone! My name is Connor Bridges, and I am originally from London, England. I came to the U.S. in 2015 for my undergraduate studies at Princeton University, where I studied Operations Research and Financial Engineering with a minor in computer science. I then spent two years working in D.C. for an educational nonprofit that helps underserved students access and persist in college.
I am a current fourth year at Geisel and I am applying into general surgery. While here, I have served on the student government and the medical school admissions committee, led groups for first-generation and international students, and researched inequities in healthcare with a focus access to lung cancer screening.
Outside of school, I love playing and watching soccer and taking advantage of the natural beauty the Upper Valley has to offer!"
 
 

 
Name (pronouns): Danette Flint (she/her)
Hometown: Alexander, NY
Year at Geisel/Dartmouth: 2009-2013
Career focus/interest: Cardiovascular Critical Care / Inpatient Cardiology
The best thing about Geisel/Dartmouth is: An academic center located rurally!
Favorite spot in the Upper Valley: Anywhere I can sit in the sun and dip my feet in the water
Favorite activity in the Upper Valley: Spending time outside with close friends and family
Favorite book/poem: Nowhere Else on Earth (Josephine Humphreys)
Favorite song/piece of music: Ten Years Gone (Led Zeppelin)
Favorite quote: “All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost” (kind of a poem, kind of a quote – Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien)
Most treasured travel: I love national parks and have been to many. When I was 15 my family traveled around the US for 7 weeks (road trip/camping) visiting many of them. The last trip I took with my husband we flew into Salt Lake City, rented a car and drove through the Grand Tetons to Yellowstone, Big Sky, Snake River Plain, the Sawtooth Mountains, Columbia River Gorge, Mt. Hood and to Cannon Beach OR (where The Goonies was filmed) and then flew home from Portland OR.
Guilty pleasure: Mani/Pedi
 
Short Bio: Originally from Alexandria, NY, Dannette Flint is currently a staff Cardiologist and Cardiac Intensivist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. She obtained her medical degree from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in 2013 and her bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in 2009, where she majored in chemistry. Following medical school, she remained at Dartmouth and completed her training in Internal Medicine (2016), Chief Resident (2017), Cardiology (2020) and Critical Care (2021). Additionally, she is currently a course director for cardiovascular medicine course taught to second year medical students at Geisel School of Medicine. 

 
Name (pronouns): Maximillian Kutch, but I go by Max
 
Hometown: Born in Houston and raised in Dallas, TX but I call College Station, TX home
 
Year at Geisel: MS3
 
Career interest: Still undifferentiated but I most like Emergency Medicine
 
The best thing about Geisel is: The genuine goodness of everyone I meet here
 
Favorite spot in the Upper Valley: My little piece of land in Bradford VT
 
Favorite activity in the Upper Valley: Spending time trudging through the woods with my kids
 
Favorite book/poem:  I can't narrow it down to just one favorite so I will give you a few. 
Meditations -Marcus Aurelius, Gregory Hays translation 
Blood Meridian -Cormac McCarthy
The War of Art -Stephen Pressfield
 
Favorite song/piece of music: 
"Atlantic City" Hank Willians III
 
Favorite quote: I also have to give more than one here
“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.” -Confucius
“There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” -Seneca; Letter 13: on groundless fears
Most treasured travel: I can't narrow it down to just one because the act of traveling and the experiences gained is what is most treasured whether it's a small town in the midwest or an exotic tropical location. Everywhere is unique in its own right and everywhere can be amazing if you view it through that lens.
 
Guilty pleasure: raw cookie dough. It's one of the few places I can control myself and most of the time I will open the package in the store and start eating it before I check out.
 
Unknown fact about you: Most people don't know that I have had to relearn how to walk twice. 
 
Short Bio: "My name is Maximillian and I go by Max. I am a 34-year-old father of two wild toddlers, and calling them a handful is an understatement. Cain is my five-year-old son and Scarlett is my four-year-old daughter. Elizabeth is not only the glue that keeps us together, but my best friend. We met at a Misfits concert in 2014 and married shortly thereafter. As a couple we love to travel, and I have visited 49 of the 50 states and 31 countries. I am originally from Texas, but our family now lives in Bradford, VT, about thirty minutes north of campus. Prior to my pursuit of medicine, I served over twelve years in the United States Marine Corps as a Special Operations Scout Sniper. I cross trained as a medic and enjoyed practicing both trauma and clinical medicine over the course of my six deployments. In 2018, I was medically retired from the military which opened the door for me to move to College Station, Texas and pursue my BS at Texas A&M where I studied Exercise Physiology and competed as member of the TAMU powerlifting team. I am a zealous gymgoer with powerlifting and strength sports being my passion outside of medicine. I am also an avid reader with a deep interest in both eastern and western philosophy."

 
Ila is an MS3 at Dartmouth, and member of class of 2026. She is currently on a OB-GYN in California. Though Ila is unsure what she wants to specialize in she is passionate about incorporating health literacy and integrative medicine in her research and eventual practice. In this episode, we hear about her experience during Geisel Pediatric Rotation:
- Inpatient service - 3 weeks at CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County)
- Nursery - 1 week at DHMC (Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center) 
- Outpatient service - 2 weeks South Royalton Health Center
 
You can see the overview of Pediatric Rotation here: https://geiselmed.dartmouth.edu/ed_programs/clerkshipdb/view_clerkship.php/?cid=13