You spent time before med school living in New York City where you were a social worker at low-income apartment building. What was that like?

Dr. Linares: It was an old Times Square hotel that was being renovated to house low-income people. There were very ill people living there, squatting there and there was a lot of mental illness, some addiction and they were living in very poor circumstances. It was a perspective that I had never seen growing up in a small town in Ohio.

To see the depth of need in that place consolidated my desire to help people and my drive to become a doctor.