UMHS 2018 graduate Dr. Ga-ram Han was born in South Korea, grew up in Africa and did her undergraduate studies in the USA before finally applying to UMHS and heading to St. Kitts to study medicine. Dr. Han's story of the long road to residency and now a fellowship is inspirational indeed.
Dr. Han had an unusual journey to becoming a doctor, but she managed to match in a prestigious general surgery residency at Mayo Clinic Arizona in Phoenix. She is now one of the general surgery chief residents and will soon leave Phoenix behind to start a fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.
The UMHS Endeavour caught up with Dr. Han on a Saturday afternoon when she took time from her busy schedule to talk about her amazing journey, why she chose UMHS over other medical schools, how her father's generous friend—now a successful businessman—back in South Korea helped pay her tuition, her interest in surgery and treating colon and rectal diseases and why she loves this special area of medicine, and more.
Dr. Ga-ram Han presenting a poster at the ASCRS (American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons) Annual Scientific Meeting in Tampa, FL in 2022. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
General surgery residency at Mayo Clinic Arizona
UMHS Endeavour: Dr. Han, good afternoon and welcome today. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing right now in residency?
Dr. Ga-ram Han: Thank you for having me. I'm currently one of the general surgery chief residents and in my final year of residency here at Mayo Clinic Arizona. The unique thing about our program here at Mayo is that the chief residents get to run their own service, almost like junior faculty. So, I'm one of four chief residents and we see all of the acute care surgery consults that come in through the hospital.
In August, you're going to be starting a really awesome fellowship. Can you tell us about it?
Yes. I was very excited to get into the Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. They have a fantastic program. They do a wide variety of cases as far as using the robotic platform, having laparoscopic procedures, and big open cases as well. I've heard great things about all of the faculty there, so I'm very excited to be joining them.
Dr. Ga-ram Han (in peach dress, far right) with fellow Mayo Clinic Arizona friends & co-workers. Photo: Used with permission of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, all rights reserved.
Can you tell us a little about what you will be doing in this fellowship?
Yeah, so during general surgery residency you do a fair amount of colon and rectal surgery, but the actual fellowship itself is only one year long and there's a lot of variety of cases and techniques you have to become very adept at as a colorectal surgeon. My hope is that in this next year, I’ll get to refine some of the techniques that I've learned throughout residency and build on my comfort level with especially some of the more complicated cases. So, I'm really looking forward to that.
Dr. Han (in green dress) with Mayo Clinic surgical oncology attendings, a co-resident and a Mayo medical student at the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons Annual Meeting in Hawaii in 2022 Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
How UMHS made a difference
Can you tell us one or two things that you really liked about studying at UMHS and how UMHS helped you become the doctor that you are today?
I love how flexible UMHS is. I feel like they do a great job in tailoring the medical school experience to each individual. I was in kind of a unique situation where I was an international person coming from South Korea originally, but I grew up in West Africa and got my undergrad education in the American system, and UMHS allowed me to fulfill my dream of becoming a doctor. And UMHS also—I feel like the school works very well with students as far as how expensive it is to go through this process. Unlike a lot of the Caribbean schools, the tuition is much more affordable and UMHS had scholarships based on academic achievements, your GPA during your undergrad, that were really helpful in making this a possibility.
Also, I developed lifelong friendships while studying in St. Kitts. You're removed from your family and friends, which kind of sucks, but it also opens up the window for you to find your own group of people. And I feel like the bonds that you develop in a circumstance like that are ones that don't go away. I was actually just meeting with one of my best friends from the island for dinner just last week when I was in Michigan trying to look for a house and it hit me that it had been 10 years since we first met.
I had a great experience at UMHS. Everyone was wonderful and working with me and my specific goals. I loved that we have some flexibility in our clinical rotations. We get to work with a lot of different hospitals and a lot of different attendings. That networking is key in trying to get into residency. UMHS really works well with the students in helping them try and meet as many people as possible to get those letters and get those opportunities.
Dr. Han, I know that small class sizes and the low tuition were two of the main reasons you chose UMHS. Any other reasons?
I feel like the relatively small class size really makes a big difference in your learning experience and how well you actually learn the material. The other thing that I liked about UMHS was that it was a more affordable place because I didn't have any money essentially. I actually got very lucky. A week before the tuition deposit for UMHS was due, I didn't have any money to make that payment, so was preparing to withdraw my acceptance. My parents just happened to be back in Korea at the time. My dad ran into one of the people he mentored back when he was a youth pastor. He had grown up to become a very successful businessman in South Korea and is involved in a lot of charity and philanthropic work. During the course of catching up on their lives, my dad mentioned that I wanted to become a doctor, and that I had gotten into medical school but that we didn’t know how I would pay for it. The family friend then offered to pay for my entire medical school expenses.
That’s such a great story. What a generous man.
Yeah, it was huge! It allowed me to actually make it to UMHS and allowed me to graduate debt-free. I wasn’t eligible for any loans because of my unique background. If he hadn't paid for my medical school education, there's no way I would've been able to become a doctor. On the flip side, I also didn't want to ask him to pay a ton of money for my education. I loved how financially affordable UMHS is compared to some of the other Caribbean schools, and I loved that UMHS has academic scholarship opportunities.
I also liked that UMHS was founded by the Ross family because I knew that they had the experience necessary to take students and guide them successfully through this process because they already knew the system. And although UMHS was relatively young back 10 years ago when I started there, I knew that they knew what they were doing, so that was really reassuring to me.
Dr. Ga-ram Han speaking at the ASCRS (American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons) Annual Scientific Meeting in Tampa, FL in 2022. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
From South Korea to Africa to St. Kitts
Dr. Han, could you just tell us a little bit about yourself? Where did you grow up and how did you become interested in medicine?
I was born in South Korea. My parents are missionaries, so they moved our family to The Gambia in West Africa when I was almost a year old. I went to boarding school in Senegal which is the neighboring country. The Gambia doesn’t have a great educational system and my parents wanted us to have a solid education. My sister and I would go back to The Gambia for the holidays. My parents help organize medical teams which come out a couple times a year to offer free medical care in The Gambia. My interest in medicine began while volunteering with these medical teams during my childhood, as I saw what a great impact you could have on someone's life in the medical field.
That's amazing, Dr. Han.
While they were there, they also taught me basics about wound care and they would leave behind the wound care supplies. For an hour every day when I was home, I (along with some of the other volunteers) offered free wound care at our home. There was kind of a general understanding around the town that we had supplies, so people would come to our house for dressing changes and stuff like that. It was really satisfying seeing those wounds get better and a privilege to be able to help. And I think that’s probably where my interest in surgery began, but I didn’t recognize it at the time.
Were you thinking of becoming a surgeon when you came to the USA and started college?
No, I didn’t know at that time that I would want to go into surgery. I did know that I wanted to be a doctor, so I did the pre-med track and got a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from Carson-Newman University in East Tennessee. I knew getting into medical school was going to be challenging since my parents are nonprofit workers and we have no money and because I don’t have US citizenship or a green card. I tried to take advantage of every opportunity to make my application to medical school as competitive as possible since it is extremely difficult to get into medical school in the US as an international student. UMHS gave me the opportunity to get my MD.
Were you hoping to obtain a residency Match in surgery?
When I first started at UMHS, I thought I wanted to do pediatrics because I always loved kids. It was during my first surgery rotation as a third-year medical student with Dr. Jill Buchanan in Augusta, Georgia, that I realized that I wanted to be a surgeon. Working with her one-on-one and seeing the kind of immediate impact she had on people's lives with her general surgery job was amazing. I really admired what she does and realized that I wanted to be her when I grew up.
You mentioned the Ross family. Do you remember any great experiences with anybody in the Ross family or professors while in St. Kitts?
I did meet President Warren Ross and some of the Ross family members while I was on the island and they seemed like generally nice people. I really enjoyed going on the hikes that Dr. Prakash Mungli would organize for the students. He also did a great job teaching and was just a genuinely kind person. I thought Dr. Anoop Jalan did an excellent job teaching pathology and he was very passionate about what he was teaching.
Absolutely. I'm sure you know Patrick McCormick in Academic & Student Affairs, who gives all the great advice on matching. Anybody else that you'd like to mention?
Yeah, Patrick McCormick was great. My situation was a little unique in that getting a J-1 visa, which is the most common visa that you can get, was not an option for me. It really narrowed down the options I had as far as residency programs. Patrick was great in helping me navigate the whole system, figuring out how to optimize my chances for getting into residency.
Even now, I appreciate how prompt UMHS is in helping me with things, especially recently with getting my medical school transcripts sent for my fellowship applications. I think that part of that, again, goes back to the fact that it's not a huge school.
Dr. Ga-ram Han in surgery at the Mayo Clinic Arizona. Photo: Used with permission of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, all rights reserved.
Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship in Michigan
Let’s discuss your current general surgery residency and also your upcoming Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship. What interests you the most about these specialties?
Like I referred to before about growing up doing wound care, I like being able to see the difference that you can make with these hands-on specialties. I think that's one of the first things that drew me to surgery was that you take a patient who has a problem and then you go and fix it. There's something very special about surgery and physically doing something with your own hands to help make someone better. It’s such a privilege being able to do that.
I love colon and rectal surgery in particular because it's one of the most diverse fields in terms of pathology, in terms of the patient demographics, and in terms of technique. You can do anything from a short anorectal case to a complicated multidisciplinary surgery for a rectal cancer. And then as far as platforms, you're doing everything from colonoscopies to transanal, minimally invasive surgery, to laparoscopy, robotic, and open procedures.
Dr. Han's photos from St. Kitts to socializing to general surgery residency
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Dr. Ga-ram Han poses for a class photo at UMHS in St. Kitts. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
Dr. Ga-ram Han (sitting, far right) with fellow UMHS classmates during a soccer game in St. Kitts. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
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Dr. Ga-ram Han (far left) with UMHS classmates during an internal medicine rotation. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
Dr. Han in surgery. Photo: Used with permission of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, all rights reserved.
Dr. Ga-ram Han with friends from UMHS in St. Kitts. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
Dr. Ga-ram Han with friends at her home for a Christmas party. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
UMHS YouTube interview with Dr. Ga-ram Han
Dr. Ga-ram Han can be reached via email at garamhan09@gmail.com
(Top photo): Dr. Ga-ram Han. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Han.
Scott is Director of Digital Content & Alumni Communications Liaison at UMHS and editor of the UMHS Endeavour blog. When he's not writing about UMHS students, faculty, events, public health, alumni and UMHS research, he writes and edits Broadway theater reviews for a website he publishes in New York City, StageZine.com.
