Veronica's Medical School Qualifications

10+ people coached for Medical School

Open to working with clients outside the U.S.

Veronica has helped clients get into these schools:

I have gotten to where I am with the help of many mentors along the way and I am all for paying it forward! I started tutoring elementary school kids when I was in middle school and since then have always had a passion for helping others on their educational path. I continued to tutor in high school and college, and went on to become a teaching assistant in medical school. Since getting into medical school, I have coached many other students into acceptances at Stanford, Columbia, UCSF, Michigan, Emory and other medical schools. Some of my coaching tactics come from having been trained to become an interviewer at Stanford Medical School, other come from having helped to proofread many application essays along the years. As a prior rowing coach, I am very invested in the success of those I train. I am very excited to get to know your story and help you share it with others in a way that makes you shine!

Veronica can help with:

Personal Statement

Financial Aid & Scholarships

Letters of Evaluation

School Selection

AMCAS Application Edit

Application Strategy

Multiple Mini Interview

Traditional Interview

Activities List Edit

Secondary Essays

Waitlist Strategy

TMDSAS Application Edit

View all of Veronica’s categories

Why do I coach?

The BIG truth is I have not gotten to where I am by myself... There has been an innumerable number of people along my path that have helped me in my professional, athletic, and personal accomplishments. When I was in high school I asked a trauma surgeon who came to give a talk at my school how he dealt with when patients died in his operating room. We spoke for a while and then he asked me to come shadow him in the operating room and the rest is history- I fell in love with surgery, he mentored me through the years and now I am a cardiac surgeon in training at Cedars Sinai. After joining the rowing team at MITI saw an article in a Puerto Rican newspaper about the Puerto Rico Rowing Federation so I contacted and I asked how I could become part of the tem. Eight years later, with the help of many coaches that trained and mentored me along the way, I qualified to the Tokyo Olympics as the first Puerto Rican female Olympic rower. The biggest thing I have learned from these experiences, and something I teach all of my mentees is to never be afraid to ASK - ask when you don’t know something, ask for help when you need it, ask for guidance to achieve your goals, ask because you are curious of something, ask so you can get to know people, ask so you can find opportunities for yourself. Coaching is my way of paying it forward for all those times someone answered yes in my path.

Work Experience

MD

Cedars-Sinai

June 2023 - Present

Resident in the Cardiothoracic Surgery Integrated Residency Program

Professional Athlete

The Olympic Games

June 2013 - Present

First Puerto Rican Female Olympic Rower • Competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Other International Competitions: • World Rowing Beach Sprints Finals 2022 • World Rowing Championships 2019, 2018, 2015, 2014 • Lima 2019 Pan-AmericanGames • Baranquilla 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games • Veracruz 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games

Study Coordinator

Stanford University

December 2021 - June 2023

Interdepartmental Collaboration at Stanford University • Designed, coordinated and executed animal studies to test an implantable device designed to mechanically induce ventricular growth in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. • Performed surgery on rabbits to implant the device onto the epicardial surface of the ventricle with the guidance of Dr. Michael Ma. • Contributed to the design process of the device led by Professor Alison Marsden, Professor Mark Cutkosky, Dr. Michael Ma and Dr. Daniel Bernstein. • Additional Ventures Innovation Fund Single Ventricle Disease Research Program

Principal Product Designer

Stanford Health Care

December 2021 - June 2023

Cardiac Surgical Arrythmia Research Lab: • Lead engineer in the design of a minimally invasive device to map arrythmia pathways on the epicardial surface of the heart, directed by Dr. Anson Lee. • Mentored two Stanford undergraduate engineers involved in the project

Medical Researcher

Stanford Health Care

March 2018 - June 2023

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery: • Collaborated in multiple retrospective studies led by Dr. Joseph Woo investigating surgical techniques in type A aortic dissection, heart transplant and mitral valve repair performed at Stanford Department of General Surgery: • Performed all statistics for a study investigating the effects of COVID-19 on the presentation and outcomes of acute surgical conditions (see publications and abstracts). Publications: • Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Toro Arana, V., Williams, K.M., Shudo, Y., Oyer, P.E., & Woo Y.J. (2021). The Stanford experience of heart transplantation over five decades. European Heart Journal, 42(48): 4934–4943. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehab416 • Farber, O.N., Gomez, G.I., Titan, A.L., Fisher, A.T., Puntasecca, C.J., Toro Arana, V., Kempinsky, A. Wise, C.E., Bessoff, K.E., Hawn, M.T., Korndorffer, J.R., Forrester, J.D., & Esquivel, M.M. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on presentation, management, and outcomes of acute care surgery for gallbladder disease and acute appendicitis. World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, 13(8): 859-870. doi:10.4240/wjgs.v13.i8.859 • Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Tao, J.J., Toro Arana, V., Khoo, J.W., Williams, K.M., Al-Rahman Traboulsi, A., Hammond, H.C., Lee, A.M., Hiesinger, W., Boyd, J., Oyer, P.E., Stinson, E.B., Reitz, B.A., Mitchell, R.S., Miller, D.C., Fischbein, M.P., & Woo, Y.J. (2020). Type A Aortic Dissection-Experience Over 5 Decades: JACC Historical Breakthroughs in Perspective. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 76(14): 1703-1713. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2020.07.06 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery: • Collaborated in multiple retrospective studies led by Dr. Joseph Woo investigating surgical techniques in type A aortic dissection, heart transplant and mitral valve repair performed at Stanford Department of General Surgery: • Performed all statistics for a study investigating the effects of COVID-19 on the presentation and outcomes of acute surgical conditions (see publications and abstracts). Publications: • Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Toro Arana, V., Williams, K.M., Shudo, Y., Oyer, P.E., & Woo Y.J. (2021). The Stanford experience of heart transplantation over five decades. European Heart Journal, 42(48): 4934–4943. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehab416 • Farber, O.N., Gomez, G.I., Titan, A.L., Fisher, A.T., Puntasecca, C.J., Toro Arana, V., Kempinsky, A. Wise, C.E., Bessoff, K.E., Hawn, M.T., Korndorffer, J.R., Forrester, J.D., & Esquivel, M.M. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on presentation, management, and outcomes of acute care surgery for gallbladder disease and acute appendicitis. World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, 13(8): 859-870. doi:10.4240/wjgs.v13.i8.859 • Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Tao, J.J., Toro Arana, V., Khoo, J.W., Williams, K.M., Al-Rahman Traboulsi, A., Hammond, H.C., Lee, A.M., Hiesinger, W., Boyd, J., Oyer, P.E., Stinson, E.B., Reitz, B.A., Mitchell, R.S., Miller, D.C., Fischbein, M.P., & Woo, Y.J. (2020). Type A Aortic Dissection-Experience Over 5 Decades: JACC Historical Breakthroughs in Perspective. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 76(14): 1703-1713. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2020.07.06 Skills: Scholarly Research · General Surgery · Cardiac Surgery · Clinical Research · Statistica

Research Scholar

Stanford University

April 2017 - June 2023

Cardiovascular Biomechanics Computation Lab: • Studied the right-ventricular outflow tract and pulmonary artery geometry in patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot and the associations between this geometry and their outcomes after pulmonary valve replacement surgery. • Worked on the construction of patient specific models from angiography for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery planning. • Investigated the association between aneurysm hemodynamics and wall enhancement on 3D vessel wall MRI. Awards/Funding: • Stanford Medical Scholars Research Fellowship • Dorothy Dee and Marjorie Helene Boring Trust Award Publications: • Khan, M.O., Toro Arana, V., Najafi, M., MacDonald, D.E., Natarajan, T., Valen-Sendstad, K., & Steinman D.A. (2021). On the prevalence of flow instabilities from high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics of intracranial bifurcation aneurysms. Journal of Biomechanics, 127:110683. • Khan, M.O., Toro Arana, V., Rubbert, C., Cornelius, J.F., Fischer, I., Bostelmann, R., Mijderwijk, H.J., Turowski, B., Steiger, H.J., May, R., & Petridis, A.K. (2020). Association between aneurysm hemodynamics and wall enhancement on 3D vessel wall MRI. Journal of Neurosurgery, 134(2): 565–575. • Toro Arana, V., Chan, F.P., Schiavone, N.K., Reddy, S., Hanley, F., Marsden A.L., & McElhinney D.B. (2021). Right Ventricular Outflow Tract and Pulmonary Artery Geometry in Patients with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot Prior to Pulmonary Valve Replacement: Characterization and Longitudinal Association with Bioprosthetic Valve Function. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 77(18; Suppl 1): 1410. • Toro Arana, V., Chan, F.P., Schiavone, N.K., McElhinney, D.B., Reddy, S., & Marsden, A.L. (2018). Pre-Operative Right Ventricular Outflow Tract and Pulmonary Artery Geometry Predicts Pulmonary Valve Replacement Outcomes in Patients with Tetralogy of Fallot. Circulation, 138: A17390.

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Stanford Medicine

March 2022 - June 2022

Course taught: Science of Medicine I - Cardiovascular Block (INDE 221) This is the cardiovascular physiology and pathology course for all first year medical students at Stanford Medicine. During the course I was responsible for organizing weekly office hours and review sessions for the exams.

Project Engineer

Stanford Biodesign

May 2020 - December 2020

• Designed and built a hardware and software prototype for a system that automatically regulates oxygen flow from an oxygen tank based on a patient’s oxygen saturation with a team of 3 other engineers. • Biodesign Summer Extension Grant • Provisional patent application filed 06/2020

Assistant Editor

Stanford Health Care

June 2020 - September 2020

Stanford Medicine’s COVID Surge Handbook • Wrote and edited sections of the “subspecialty care” and “clinical care for providers” pages. https://icuhandbook.notion.site

Clinical Data Analyst

Stanford University

January 2018 - December 2018

Stanford University & San Francisco State University Collaboration • Worked in conjunction with members of Russ Altman’s Lab and Dragutin Petkovic’s graduate students on the prototype for a mobile application for adverse event reporting to the FDA. • Conducted research on mobile technology features that improve the completion rate and accuracy of the reports.

Course Coordinator

Stanford Medicine

March 2018 - June 2018

Organized the following courses: • Introduction to Cardiac Image Processing Techniques, Stanford University School of Medicine •Introduction to Cardiac Surgery Skills, Stanford University School of Medicine

Teaching Assistant

Stanford Health Care

June 2017 - July 2017

Taught in the Cardiothoracic Surgical Skills and Education Center's Summer Internship

Intern

Fundacion Dr. Garcia Rinaldi

June 2017 - July 2017

Clinical rotations in Cardiothoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Cardiology, Radiology, Urgent Care at the Mayagüez Medical Center, the Hospital HIMA Fajardo, Centro Medico de Puerto Rico, and small community clinics around the island. Clinical rotations in Cardiothoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Cardiology, Radiology, Urgent Care at the Mayagüez Medical Center, the Hospital HIMA Fajardo, Centro Medico de Puerto Rico, and small community clinics around the island.

Undergraduate Researcher

Massachusetts General Hospital

January 2013 - August 2016

Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Organ Fabrication: • Studied the effect of recombinant Dentin Matric Protein I on Mesenchymal Stem Cell differentiation to bone and its application to synthetic bone scaffolds Publications: •Toro, V., Grottkau, A., Pong, Y., Grottkau, B., & Neville, C. (2014). Enhancing Synthetic Bone Scaffolds with Dentin Matrix Protein I.

Product Designer

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

August 2015 - June 2016

• Designed and prototyped a novel surgical ultrasound debridement tool with a group of 5 students and a mentor. • Created a fluorescent Staph. Aureus biofilm model to test the efficacy of the device. • Patent pending: No. 62/592627.

Math and Science Tutor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

September 2013 - May 2015

Tutored MIT students in biology, organic chemistry, and biological engineering through the Office of Minority Education.

Tutor

Cambridge Community Center

September 2013 - May 2015

Reading and literacy tutor for underserved elementary school students at through the MIT ReachOut program.

Undergraduate Researcher

USP - Universidade de São Paulo

June 2014 - August 2014

Cell and Molecular Therapy Center: • Investigated the expression of metalloproteinases, MMP2 and MMP9, in fresh biopsy samples from patients with endometriosis.

Undergraduate Researcher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

September 2012 - January 2013

Hammel Chemical Engineering Lab: • Worked on the optimization of the production of Avastin (Bevacizumab) from Chinese hamster ovary cells in a bioreactor.

Education

Stanford University School of Medicine

MD, Medicine

2016 - 2023

Teaching Assistant for the Cardiovascular Physiology and Pathology first-year course Scholarly Concentration in Biological Engineering Research in Cardiovascular Medicine and Cardiothoracic Surgery Completed several courses in Stanford Biodesign Worked on Medical Device Development Founded the Cardiovascular Student Interest Group at Stanford Medicine

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BS, Biological Engineering

2012 - 2016

Majored in Biological Engineering Humanities Concentration in Portuguese TBP Honor Society Member Women’s Crew Varsity Rower Tutor for Organic Chemistry, Biology and Biological Engineering Courses