Hello everyone! My name is Colleen O’Malley and I am a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. I am currently a bioengineering major at the Swanson School of engineering on the premed track with the intent to also graduate with a chemistry minor and a certificate in Health Humanities. Since I intend to go to medical school, I do have to take courses outside of the regular engineering curriculum, such as two semesters of chemistry lab and general chemistry instead of chemistry for engineers. I also have a focus on research. I am not currently in a lab, but starting next fall I will be working at a soft tissue biomechanics lab. Outside of the classroom I am apart of various clubs and organizations. I am on the club cheer team and apart of several clubs such as AMSA, Days For Girls, SWE, and BMES. When I am not in the classroom, at practice, or at a club meeting, I am either running around campus, at the gym, reading a book, or hanging out with friends exploring Pittsburgh.
My goal in life is to help people and improve lives through providing care to patients and being behind the scenes creating the medicine and machines that could help save someone’s life. My plan is to continue research as I go on to be a doctor. So I hope to obtain either my MD with research on the side or a MD-PhD. This is the reason behind choosing bioengineering as my major. I hope to one day open my own private practice and patent a medical device of my own.
The study abroad program that I am apart of is the Plus 3 Germany program. You may ask why a bioengineering premed student would want to learn about cars. Well, I always believed in expanding my horizons and found that this program was the most interesting to me. I also have a personal interest in the business side of companies and think that having a background in business could be beneficial to me if I open my own practice. I found that this program was a great opportunity to jumpstart my career on the business side. Another reason I chose this program was because it is only two weeks. I have always wanted to study abroad but have yet to travel outside of the country. I thought that spending two weeks in a foreign country is a good way to be introduced to studying abroad. Especially if I plan to study abroad for a longer time at a later point in my undergraduate career.
From this program, I hope to learn more about the German history as part of my family is from Germany. Academically, I hope to gain insight on the business side of companies and the mechanics behind manufacturing a car that I would not have gained from my set courses here at Pitt. Finally, I am excited to get the opportunity to visit companies in a professional setting to help get experience in a formal setting. Also, by collaborating with the business students and students from the University of Augsburg will help me enhance my collaboration skills which is important in both engineering and medicine.
I am beyond excited to have this opportunity to study abroad and broaden my knowledge about the business and engineering side of manufacturing cars and learning about the life in Germany. I think this program will help lead me closer to my goals in life and gain experience I would have never gotten elsewhere. See you in May Germany!
Colleen