Rachel Jaber Chehayeb, MD Student

I was born and raised in Lebanon, in a city called Aley in the Mount Lebanon province, about a 30-minute drive from Beirut. My parents both come from large families, with my father having eight siblings and my mother having five. With several of my aunts and uncles living close by, my two brothers and I were raised in a very communal environment and spent a lot of time with our extended family. Several hours-long Lebanese dinners with grandparents and first cousins were a staple of our childhood. During the summers, we spent a lot of time playing outdoors and swimming in the beautiful Mediterranean.

My parents both work in health care, my mother as a pharmacist and my father as an anesthesiologist. Growing up amidst the Lebanese civil war, they both experienced several obstacles while pursuing their education. My mother had frequent stretches of interrupted school and my dad left Lebanon for Ukraine to pursue his education. Their experiences led to them valuing and prioritizing our education over all else. They enrolled my brothers and me at an international school, the International School of Choueifat, which equipped me to apply abroad for college. I was fortunate enough to receive an acceptance to Yale College in 2016. Arriving for international student orientation was my first-time stepping foot in the US.

I committed to the premedical track early on in college. Growing up watching my parents’ dedication to serving our community in an under-resourced setting initially sparked my passion for medicine. In addition to being an anesthesiologist, my father also was the acting primary care doctor for several members of our community. He frequently performed home visits, at times using his car as an ambulance. As a pharmacist, my mother worked with local NGOs to provide patients in need with their chronic disease medications.

During my college, years, I majored in molecular biochemistry and biophysics, worked in a structural biology lab, and was very involved with the Yale Arab Student Association and Yale Undergraduates for UNICEF. I also worked as an Arabic translator and pharmacy volunteer at Haven Free Clinic, the Yale student-run free clinic, and performed hypertension screenings at local soup kitchens. I did not take any gap years between undergraduate and medical school, and hence was living in New Haven and was halfway through my senior spring at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. That summer, I remained in the city awaiting the start of medical school.

Several factors influenced my decision to come to Yale. Yale School of Medicine has an extremely supportive and nurturing culture—a major factor that drew me to the school. I got the sense early on that Yale is committed to making medical school an inspiring, enjoyable, and personalized experience and supporting student wellness without compromising the quality of the world-class medical education students receive. I loved the flexibility of the Yale System that treats students as adult learners and accommodate everyone’s diverse learning styles and interests, hence creating an extremely collaborative learning environment. Students here are all very passionate about what they do, and very kind and supportive of one another.

I was also drawn to the flexibility of the curriculum: we can completely customize our schedule after clerkship year. There is also a massive amount of support provided to students—for instance, the funding and resources available for research through our Office for Student Research. Yale faculty are also very accessible and dedicated to student mentorship. Coming in interested in academic medicine, the extent of mentorship and research opportunities were very important to me. As an international student, how accessible and supportive Yale’s Office of International Students and Scholars is also played a role in my decision to attend. Yale is one of very few schools that offers financial aid and loans to international students, making it feasible for international students to attend medical school without significant financial burden.

We have a lot of flexibility during the Advanced Training Period that starts after your clerkship year—spanning the last 1.5 years of medical school, or 2.5 years if you take a research year.

As a current fourth-year medical student, my schedule has looked very different each month for the past year. Currently, I am on an elective radiology rotation to gain more comfort reading images prior to intern year. This rotation is a one-month rotation where we rotate through different imaging modalities and organs. This week, I’ve been in the chest reading room, reading chest X-rays and CT scans. Last month I was on a research block, during which I wrapped up and submitted my thesis while working on other manuscripts and preparing a poster for an accepted abstract. Prior to that, I had two months of residency interviews.

Regardless of what block I’m on, I always aim to fit in a workout at the Payne Whitney Gym, one of the largest university gyms, after work and spend time with friends in the evenings.

For the first three years of medical school, I lived in Downtown New Haven a 10 minute walk from the hospital. Earlier this year, I moved to East Rock, a residential neighborhood around a 30 minute walk from the hospital, with three classmates. Most of our class lived Downtown in the beginning of the medical school, so it was nice living close to everyone and also convenient being so close to the hospital during clerkship year. I’ve also really enjoyed living in East Rock this past year—the neighborhood has a lot of charm and the apartments are quite spacious and affordable.

I love running in East Rock Park and along the Farmington Canal Trail. I also really love exploring the New Haven food scene. My favorite New Haven pizza place is Next Door—my friends and I love going there on Tuesday nights for trivia and pizza. Other favorites include Arethusa’s ice cream and September in Bangkok, which has amazing Thai food.

Current students are the most valuable resource to find out more about a school and its culture. Definitely talk to as many current students as possible when deciding where to go and go where you feel you’ll be happiest!