{"id":169,"date":"2022-10-26T16:14:03","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T16:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/?p=169"},"modified":"2024-03-05T15:49:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T15:49:00","slug":"from-the-runways-of-milan-to-med-school-in-tennessee-serendipity-leads-alumna-to-wcsu-on-first-step-to-fulfilling-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/2022\/10\/26\/from-the-runways-of-milan-to-med-school-in-tennessee-serendipity-leads-alumna-to-wcsu-on-first-step-to-fulfilling-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"From the runways of Milan to med school in Tennessee: serendipity leads alumna to WCSU on first step to fulfilling dream"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Olivia

Olivia Kelly Sosnoski on the runway<\/p><\/div>\n

Westport resident Olivia Kelly Sosnoski was living an exciting life immersed in the New York fashion industry. As a recent graduate of Staples High School, Sosnoski found herself walking the runway at New York Fashion Week and in Milan. Despite the travel and experiences associated with her life as a model, Sosnoski said, \u201cI missed learning. I wanted to feel more fulfilled.\u201d Because her career was based out of Manhattan, she enrolled at Hunter College to pursue a degree in Nutrition.<\/p>\n

Her perspective quickly changed when her grandfather became extremely ill. Sosnoski spent countless hours at his bedside watching the medical staff and physicians who attended to him trying to alleviate his suffering. After he succumbed to his illness, Sosnoski moved to Danbury to live with her grandmother in order to help her. In all of these life changes, Sosnoski realized she was so inspired by what she had witnessed in her grandfather\u2019s hospital room, she decided to change her life\u2019s direction to seek the greater challenge of pursuing a degree that would lead to medical school.<\/p>\n

Sosnoski enrolled at WCSU as a Biology\/Pre-Med major<\/a>. She applied for and received financial aid, commuted from her grandmother\u2019s house and worked the entire time she was in school. She also found time to join the WCSU Women\u2019s Volleyball Team and Swimming & Diving Team, where she loved the camaraderie with her coach and teammates. What she enjoyed even more was getting patient care experience as an undergraduate.<\/p>\n

\"Olivia

Olivia Kelly Sosnoski on the WCSU Swimming & Diving Team<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMy primary care physician told me about diabetes research going on at Yale,\u201d Sosonoski said. \u201cI was diagnosed with Type I diabetes at Yale at age 7, so I was personally interested. I reached out to the physician running the study as a pre-med student at WCSU and asked if I could shadow her. Not only did she say yes, but she made me a second co-author on a paper, which was huge!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sosnoski said that opportunities like the one at Yale, coupled with the support of the WCSU Biology Department<\/a>, made a major impact on her studies. \u201cThe small student-to-faculty ratio at WCSU was highly influential in my success,\u201d she said. \u201cI was always asking questions, utilizing the faculty office hours. The resources and knowledge in that department are amazing and surprisingly underrated. So many professors just go out of their way to be encouraging and make you feel supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, Sosnoski re-enrolled as a graduate student in WCSU\u2019s Master of Science in Addiction Studies program<\/a>, from which she graduated in 2021. She was hired by Bristol Myers Squib as a Clinical Research Coordinator conducting leukemia research at Yale New Haven\u2019s Smilow Cancer Hospital.<\/p>\n

The promise she had made to herself in her grandfather\u2019s hospital room was not forgotten, and Sosnoski took the next step \u2014 applying to about 15 medical schools. Some, she said, she was cautioned against applying to and instead of conceding, she \u201cplayed chicken\u201d and applied anyway. One of those programs was at the University of Tennessee, the number one trauma center by volume in the country. And it was UT that was the first school to respond and make an offer of acceptance.<\/p>\n

\"Olivia

Olivia Kelly Sosnoski at her Medical School White Coat ceremony<\/p><\/div>\n

Now in her first semester of medical school, Sosnoski said courses like \u201cMolecular Basis of Disease\u201d that she took at WCSU totally prepared her. \u201cThe genetics and cell biology I had as an undergraduate student are areas I am able to review now as opposed to learning about them for the first time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sosnoski said she made the decision to study to become a trauma surgeon because she wanted to see a wider demographic in patient age groups than she would have in oncology. She will graduate in four years, followed by a five-year general surgery residency and one-to-two years in a trauma fellowship. \u201cI\u2019m going to be a student for the rest of my life,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is not anything I want to be doing more or anything else that is worth investing the time in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, Sosnoski said, \u201cI worked in Milan and walked in Fashion Week. I wasn\u2019t supposed to be at WCSU. It was luck; it was serendipity. In hindsight, it was where I was meant to be. Between the faculty, the athletics and the resources, the university is like a hidden little gem that is not on everyone\u2019s radar. I\u2019m really grateful for my time there. It helped me grow as a person and I\u2019m heading into med school with a lot less debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Westport resident Olivia Kelly Sosnoski was living an exciting life immersed in the New York fashion industry. As a recent graduate of Staples High School, Sosnoski found herself walking the runway at New York Fashion Week and in Milan. Despite …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}