EPISODE 22: SIVANNA SHUSTERMAN

Interview by Julia Slyer

May 24, 2020

My mom and dad have always been my role models. They both immigrated from the former Soviet Union in the 80’s. Neither of them had easy lives growing up, and they both went through a lot. My mom lost her dad when she was a kid, and my dad’s family didn’t have a lot of money, like a lot of people in Russia at the time. They both struggled a lot, so they wanted better opportunities for their family. They got married in Russia and had my oldest sister, and when she was about 4 years old, they moved here. They came here with absolutely nothing, pretty much the clothes on their backs and that’s about it. My dad went right to work, to try to support our family and put food on the table. They really worked so, so hard to give us what we have now. They pushed us to go to school and get good educations, and to have the opportunity to do all the things that they didn’t really have the opportunities to do.
 
Growing up, my dad would always tell me that the most important thing is to just work hard. If there’s anything you want to do or achieve, there’s nothing that’s going to stop you here. You have all the opportunity in the world, it’s just about whether you’re willing to take it or not. Are you willing to work for it? Good, you’re going to get somewhere. If you’re not willing to work for it, you’re not going to get what you want. Those are your options in life. Kind of a harsh way to see things, but it worked. It pushed me in the right direction. My parents really gave up a lot of their own opportunities and put everything into my sisters and me, so that we could do what they couldn’t. I look up to them every day. It’s really what pushes me when school gets hard; I remember that’s it’s not as hard as what they went through. To know that I have everything that I have now because of what they did and what they sacrificed…it’s the biggest gift and biggest privilege to be their child.
 
 
When I was 10, my dad had a heart attack. That was my first real exposure to health care and to being in a hospital. When that happened, as a kid, I was terrified. Seeing your parent, who’s always been fine and healthy, all of a sudden in a hospital bed, is not how you think things are supposed to be. He’s done very well and now he’s healthy and acts like he’s 19 years old. He wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for the doctors and nurses who were there that night. They acted fast and treated him well. To this day, my dad still talks about that team. There was one nurse who loved my father, and he loved her and still talks about how warm she was, how sweet she was, how good she was to him. That’s something that I always keep in mind, thinking about what you can do for another human being.
 
I want to do for other people what those doctors and nurses did for my father. They gave me back my family member, and knowing that I’ll have the opportunity to help other families and do that for someone else is what gets me through all the hard times and difficult moments. I hope one day that someone will talk about me around the dinner table and say that I helped them and treated them well. That to me is the true testament to a physician, to know that patients see that you didn’t just treat them like a bag of problems, you treated them as a person and you cared about them. That’s what drives me.

What are your 5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify? 
Ava Max, Beyoncé, Lindsey Stirling, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
Teleportation. I commuted 2 hours each way to the city for 5 years, and teleportation would have made my life so much easier.

Pick something or someone from NYMC to give a shout-out to!
All the Faculty and EdTech, especially Juan – without him Zoom would be a disaster.

If someone wants to talk to you, they should lead with:
Whatever's on your mind!