Episode 7: Adriana Szpynda

September 4, 2024

Interview by Erica Thomas

Photo by Ivan Dominguez

Edited by Amar Gopal

Tell me about your family. 

My parents are from Yonkers and all my grandparents are from Ukraine. I have two sisters. One is my identical twin, Emy, and I have one younger sister, Vika, who’s three years younger than us. We grew up in Somers. It’s not too far from here - about 20-25 minutes away!

Shout out to my fellow Yonkers folks!

Oh yeah. There’s a very large Ukrainian community in the area. We grew up going down there at least three times a week for Ukrainian things. 

What kind of things?

I did Ukrainian dancing when I was younger. I was part of a Ukrainian youth organization where we had these group meetings where we learned history, learned the language, learned the culture. I went to Ukrainian school on Saturdays. And Ukrainian church too! I won’t lie, I wasn’t the biggest fan of having to get up and go to school on the weekends. It was also definitely a struggle for my parents to get us to go. But my siblings and I got a lot out of it. We made a lot of friends and I’m super grateful now that I know the language. I feel like I’m able to appreciate that experience more now as an adult. 

What’s it like growing up and going to school with a twin? Were you in the same classes and stuff?

We were actually never put in the same classes growing up. We never had anything together until middle or high school when we just, like, happened to have classes that overlapped. I think that was good. It just allows you to develop your own individuality. And I got to be like, “Oh, these are my friends,” and she got to be like, “Oh, these are my friends.” And then we all have even more friends! 

How did it feel when your younger sister came along? Do you remember it? 

Apparently all Emy and I wanted to do was hold her. There's a couple of home videos that we have and my twin and I are just like, “Can we hold her? Can we hold her?” And my dad is just like, “No…no…” I feel like my younger sister completes us. It doesn’t feel like it’s me and my twin, and then there’s her, you know? I feel like it’s the three of us, together, if that makes any sense. 

What was your favorite thing to do as a kid? 

Probably read. My mom would threaten to punish us by taking away our books. Like, we were never told to go to our rooms because we would have loved that! That’s where all our books were! We were always reading. I don’t know if you’ve seen the trailer, but they’re making a TV show adaptation of one of my favorite series growing up, The Uglies. I’m so excited about it! Highly recommend. Loved the Hunger Games. Loved Divergent. Was a big fan of Harry Potter. I wish I could find more time in medical school to read more. I’ve definitely gotten better about it over the last year or two but I still have a big stack of books on my desk that are waiting for me. There’s a queue. 

Who's your fictional character crush?

Oh, that's a good one. Let’s see. I would say growing up, it was definitely Percy Jackson.

Did you have a fantasy career growing up as a kid? 

Yes! I wanted to be an author for a really long time. I still kind of think in the back of my head that that’s on my bucket list of things to do in my life - write a book. I think that would be cool. That would definitely satisfy the kid in me that always wanted to be an author. I used to love fantasy but now sometimes I feel more of an impact from books that are basically realistic fiction? I’m not sure if there’s a term for that. Almost like a “normal day” genre where it’s just a snippet of someone’s regular life but there’s something poignant about it. I kind of really like that. Where there isn’t really anything extraordinary happening per se, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have meaning. I feel like I’ll for sure have so many experiences in my medical career so maybe I”ll write something about that. We’ll see! 

Tell me about your stint as a swimmer. 

Oh man, I love swimming so much. We always had a pool in our yard growing up. During the summers, I would go to camp or we’d go to the beach, and I loved swimming in the water. We didn’t join a swim team until middle school but then continued with school teams and club teams until the end of high school. I would say I was a decent swimmer. I think what I’m really proud of was how much I improved throughout the years. Swimming is tough! Especially in the beginning because it’s unlike any other sport you might have tried before. Breath control is important in a lot of sports, but like, the water physically restricts you from breathing. It’s definitely a hard skill to be able to coordinate everything. But once you figure it out, it’s really cool to see such big strides in your progress. I also really like that it’s a team sport but also individual at the same time. Like you practice as a team and compete as a team but you’re only ever really racing against yourself and just trying to be better every day. 

What do the cool kids from Somers do after school? What’s there to do if one were to visit?

Okay so there’s a couple things. There’s a sandwich shop called Froggy's that was a hot spot after school because it was right down the road and the sandwiches are really, really good. But the biggest thing I want everyone to take away is King Kone. 

King Kone?

King Kone is an iconic ice cream stand in Somers. They’re located off a busy main road and it’s always packed no matter what time or day of the week it is. They have the best soft serve. After every sports game, you’ll see hordes of kids there. After every event or practice, we’d always try to convince my dad to stop by on the way home. Even now, I’ve been bringing my medical school friends there as often as people will allow me to drag them twenty minutes away for ice cream!

I’ll add that to my list of places to check out. Did you guys have any pets growing up?

We had two dogs - both Rhodesian Ridgebacks. One of them was a dog that my parents got before we were born so we kind of grew up with her. She was a gentle giant but she was also so funny. She loved food and there were two toddlers who were easy targets. My mom said that she would come give us a nudge sometimes and we’d, like, drop a cupcake or something for her to gobble up. Or she would just park herself at the bottom of our chairs when we were eating because she knew she could vacuum up whatever we dropped. She passed away around 2008 and then we got another dog later on. Another Ridgeback but this time a boy because we were three daughters and my mom was like, “We’ll get this one for dad.”

What was he like?

Remi had such an attitude but in the best possible way. He was incredibly smart and fun and we had so many good memories with him. It was also nice because we were older and it was our first dog that we got to train from a puppy so we really saw everything. He was definitely a headache sometimes because he was super big and strong so he never did anything he didn’t want to do. But we loved him so much. 

What’s your favorite memory of Remi? 

Okay, this is gonna make him sound crazy, but he loved our Uggs. Remember when tall Uggs were in fashion? He would wrap his paws around our Uggs and just take us down sometimes. If we were running for the bus or something, he would just come and wrap his paws around your feet and just bring you down. It was genuinely hilarious. He also loved food and he was tall so if you left anything on the table, he would get to it. I remember one time we made a dozen cupcakes for a party or something and we left them on the dining room table. At some point, my mom came in and she was like, “Who moved the cupcakes?” and we were like, “No one touched them…” Remi had eaten a dozen cupcakes and the wrappers whole! That’s definitely what being around him was like. He died last January which was tough. But I think he had a pretty good life. 

How did you decide on Notre Dame for college?

So I applied to a lot of schools in the Northeast just because I’m from the area and didn’t think I wanted to go super far. At the same time, I didn’t want to keep living at home so there was also a part of me that was comfortable applying to places like Boston and New York City. I remember one day my dad was like, “Oh, you know that movie, Rudy, about the Notre Dame football player? I love that movie. That’s a good school. You should apply there.” And I was like, “Sure, okay.” So I applied and got in. I think it was the furthest school I applied to but we flew out there to visit. I don’t know how to really describe it, but there’s nothing that comes close to the experience or feeling of what it’s like to be at Notre Dame. I went to one of those accepted students days and just felt like I fit in there from the start. My parents loved it too compared to some of the other schools I was considering. 

Were you scared to be that far from home?

For sure. I was definitely nervous to go somewhere that was further away. It was also the first time I was going to a separate school from my sister. She ended up going to Cornell. We had done everything together up until that point. 

So when you guys were in the college application process, what were those conversations like between you and your sister?

I think from the get go we kind of knew that we were going to decide on and pursue whatever schools we each liked the best. If we ended up going to the same school, that would have been great. But I don’t think we were going to stick together completely, you know? Like it's hard because you're starting something new and you would want something familiar to hold on to, especially in a place where you don't know anybody. But I think we both knew that it would also be better to do it alone without a sort of crutch, you know? Ultimately, I think we both loved where we went and are happy that we went to two different schools. It almost felt like both of us got to have two college experiences. We visited each other every year. She would come in the fall for a football game and I would go over to Cornell during our spring or Easter break. We got to know each other's friends and we got to know a little bit about each school. 

What did you major in? 

I always wanted to do medicine from the beginning. But I didn’t feel like I wanted to major in just one science, like biology or chemistry or physics. I loved all these sciences and I also really loved math. I ended up picking chemical engineering. There was a combination of factors that went into that. My dad’s an engineer and my sister decided to pursue chemical engineering. So I was like, “That sounds good. I’m going to do that too.” 

That’s pretty unique! I don’t think there’s a lot of medical students out there with a chemical engineering degree.

I actually felt like the things I learned apply to medicine in more ways than people may think. I feel like it’s just a different system with the same underlying mechanisms or principles. Like I took a whole class called Fluids about water or fluids moving through pipes. That's basically blood running through your veins. That's like cerebrospinal fluid flowing through the ventricles. And we took classes about electricity. That’s like signals running through nerves. It’s the same ideas and principles. I also took classes on separations and thermodynamics. We learned about heat transfer through a plane and materials moving through membranes and filtration. Our bodies do all of those things—like the kidneys or the blood-brain barrier—just on a cellular level. So it helped me understand physiologic functions of the body on a deeper level rather than just memorizing facts when I started medical school.

What was your favorite memory from college in general? 

It was our senior year and it was during COVID. We had gone back to school, but there were a lot of restrictions, obviously. Some classes were virtual, but they still allowed us to attend the football games. They had us spread out across the entire stadium. We had these little groups—like two or three friends each—that we sat with, but they spread us out to try to prevent infection as much as possible while still giving the football teams an audience since they were going to play anyway.

It was the last home game of the season, and we were up against Clemson, who was ranked number one. And just to preface this, I’m not a ride-or-die football fan, but this was such an epic experience and that’s why it stands out to me. I think it had been years since we’d beaten a number one-seeded team or something. The game ended in a tie, so we went into overtime. They scored, then we scored, so we went into double overtime.

I don’t think I have ever screamed like we did in that game. The energy in the stadium was just incredible. It felt like all the stress, all the worry, all the sacrifices people were making during the pandemic—it all kind of exploded in that one game. That feeling we all had of, like, the inability to be completely free like we had been before, was just all coming out in this one moment.

When we won in double overtime, the energy was unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my life. It felt like we won more than just the game, you know? It was our last football game as seniors, the last home game of the season. That was one of the standout memories for me because I remember this huge rush of emotion being released. It was dramatic, to say the least, but it was really something special.

Are either of your parents in healthcare?

My mom works in finance and my dad's a civil engineer. Neither of them are in healthcare. They're learning along with me [laughs]. Every step of the way. They’re always like, “What's next?” And I’m like, “I don't know! I'll let you know when I figure it out.” 

Why did you decide to pursue medicine?

I don’t think there was, like, an ‘aha’ moment or anything like that. When I was little, my grandpa told me to be a doctor. He came from Ukraine and he just wanted something that would always put food on the table. He wanted us to be secure in life. My grandparents worked so hard to provide, and I think he was just like, “Be a doctor because doctors will always be able to put bread on the table and provide for their families.” So I was like, “Okay” you know? I was nine years old, so I just said, “Sure.” As I got older and learned more about science and stuff, the pieces started coming together. I also had surgery when I was in high school, and I think that kind of helped confirm it for me. I got a lot more exposure to it and even though it’s different when you’re a patient, especially a pediatric patient, it was just a combination of things that fell into place. Every new experience just confirmed it, rather than one big moment where I knew, “This is what I want to do.” It was more like, “Oh, I learned this new thing, and yeah, I still want to do it, I think.” And then I’d have another experience and be like, “Yep, I still want to do it.” 

What's your favorite thing about medicine so far? 

It's cool - like, these things are just so cool! The fact that we can figure these processes out and that they work this way is amazing. It's also endlessly complex, which I know can be frustrating, especially when there are diseases we can't figure out or can't really treat. But just think about how incredible it is that we have all these systems in our bodies. A lot of things can go wrong, but so many things can go right too. It's mind-blowing to think about how many parts are working together, and that we, as soon-to-be doctors, can help make some of those parts better. Like, “Oops, this one piece isn't working that well,” but we can step in and help address it.

How did you decide on neurology?

I originally wanted to do surgery because it felt like a natural extension of engineering. I thought it was important to do something hands-on, and when you're not in medicine, you think hands-on means surgery. It wasn't until my third-year neurology rotation when I was like, “Wow, I actually like this.” I hadn’t really considered it before. I was pretty neutral about our neurology course in terms of interest, but being on the floors, seeing the neurologic problems, and realizing how hands-on you are with the exam really spoke to me. At first, I thought I just liked being in hospitals for rotations, but as I did more and more, I found myself always drawn to the neurological aspect of every case. Whether it was the neuro cases in pediatrics or the neurologic complications in surgery, I just kept coming back to it. That's when I knew neurology was what I was supposed to do. And everything I've done so far in my fourth year has completely confirmed that this is the field I'm meant to be in. 

Is there a particular area within neurology that you think you want to focus on? 

I'm not really sure yet! I feel a lot like a kid in a candy store with so many options. I'm excited for residency to help me figure that out. It's one thing to do a week-long or month-long rotation as a medical student, but once we get into it and have a little bit more exposure, I think that'll help me decide. Regardless, I love so many aspects of it so far that I don't think there's a way in which I wouldn't end up happy in neurology. 

What kind of doctor do you want to be known as?

It’s pretty simple but I want it to be known that I care. I feel like sometimes medicine makes it hard for us to come across that way with how busy we are and patient load and all these other factors. But that’s what I’d want my patients to take away - that I care and want to support them. 

What’s been your proudest moment?

So I'm part of a bigger Ukrainian community and we have a lot of summer camps. I used to go to camps in New York, but there are also camps in Canada, Wisconsin, Chicago, basically all over. After our M1 year, about a week before one of the camps in Montreal was supposed to start, I got an email saying they needed more staff because they were hosting a lot of refugee kids who had just come to Canada. They had double the usual number of campers and needed extra help. So I thought, ‘Sure, why not? I'll go.’ And then I found out, not only was I going to be a counselor, but I was also going to be the sports director—LOL. Like, what do you mean? I’m going to be running sports for all these kids? Crazy. 

When I got there, I didn’t know anyone. None of the other counselors or staff were people I knew because they were all from Canada. Plus, most counselors are usually 16 to 18, so I was on the older side as a staff member.

The biggest challenge though, was communicating with the kids. Most of the refugee kids didn’t speak English. Some didn’t even speak Ukrainian - they spoke Russian. I speak Ukrainian, but I’d say I’m at an intermediate level, not fluent. And my dialect is very “village Ukrainian” with a Polish influence because of where my grandparents are from. So I had a lot of trouble understanding these kids and they didn’t understand me at all if I spoke English.

It was definitely a struggle at first. Everything I said had to be in Ukrainian, and I hadn’t spoken it that frequently in a while. Plus, I was running sports and had to figure out what games to play with kids aged 6 to 14. You can’t do the same activities for six-year-olds and 14-year-olds! I was in charge and trying to make it work, but it was tough. Thankfully, people helped me, but by the third day, I was like, “I can’t do this. This is too much. They don’t understand me, they’re little, and I’m trying to be firm, but it’s hard.” Eventually, with the help of some really great people, I got more comfortable, found my way, and by the end of the first week, I was like, “Okay, I’m going to stick it out.” I finished the camp after two weeks and felt so proud. I didn’t want to leave. 

I was really proud of myself for working through something that was such a challenge - especially the language barrier. I connected with the kids, worked through it, and my Ukrainian improved so much because that’s all I spoke for two weeks. It was a really proud moment when I finished because it was a true hurdle to get through.

You know, there are academic struggles, but we’ve faced those our whole lives - hard classes, tough tests. But a challenge like this, it’s not something we deal with every day. It was one of those moments where I had to be strong and push through and in the end, it was incredibly rewarding. 

What kind of music gets you dancing?

Right now, it’s Chappell Roan for sure. She’s really doing it for me right now. Her music is intoxicating and a lot of it is just really happy, you know? I feel like sometimes when things are hard, it’s nice to just listen to music that makes you want to dance and roll down the windows. I feel like it’s very obvious through her music that she’s not afraid to be herself, which is a message that we can all take home. 

What's one of your future goals that’s not medicine or career related? 

One of them is that I kind of want to give a TED talk! I think that would be super cool. I’m not sure what I would give a TED talk about yet. I want it to be something I care about. But I feel like it'd be right up my alley! 

The second thing is that I want to have a nice big family and I want to keep all of our holiday traditions alive. I really want to live fully. I feel like sometimes as we get older, things start to fall off - people show up late, leave early, or things like that. But I want to be present and really celebrate the holidays. I know there are going to be years in medicine where we might have to give up some of those things, but I also think there will be plenty of years where I can make it a priority if I want to. Like Thanksgiving - my favorite holiday - there’s no leaving early! We’re starting at two o’clock and going all night, and we’re going to celebrate, you know? Yeah, that’s important to me for sure.

Contact Adriana at aszpynda@student.nymc.edu.

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