The Explorers
Walk along with us and explore the steps University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences students take on their journey to discovering their education, careers and themselves.
Committed
to giving
back
Step Into Innovation
“I know the things that brought me to medicine. I know what I can do to contribute and to help my future patients.”
Alan Cuevas Villagomez
When Alan Cuevas Villagomez was a junior in high school, his mother, a Mexican immigrant who had been working toward a better education for her children, was diagnosed with lung cancer. She had her left lung removed.
Not only did her surgeons help save her life, but her care team helped the whole family through it.
“I knew that in one way or another, I wanted to do something similar,” says Cuevas Villagomez, now 25 and a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine graduate. “I wanted to help families, I wanted to help individuals, and that was the first time that I thought maybe I could do medicine.”
He applied to Pitt’s School of Medicine after a positive experience in the Summer Premedical Academic Enrichment Program.
The First Step:
Seek mentorship
While in college, he participated in the Summer Premedical Academic Enrichment Program at Pitt, working with Chenits Pettigrew, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion and for student affairs, School of Medicine. Cuevas Villagomez especially appreciated that the program encouraged students to find medical schools that were the right fit, whether that was Pitt or elsewhere.
For him, it was Pitt, where he was accepted early decision. Once here, he was drawn to physical medicine.
“I wanted to work with people with disabilities, and my mom’s experience in health care showed me what a person in the margins of society could experience seeking care. I knew I wanted to find a way to get involved with that community,” he said.
“One of the first people I reached out to here was Dr. Brad Dicianno in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) department, and I talked to him about possibly doing research,” said Cuevas Villagomez. “He was instrumental in terms of learning more and getting involved in research early. I also led the PM&R interest group here, for which he was the faculty advisor, so I’ve worked with him in many aspects. I would consider him one of the mentors I look up to the most here at Pitt and I hope that I can be as good of a mentor as he was to me.”
Cuevas Villagomez continued, “I helped establish a program called CHAMP [Career Help, Advancement, & Achievement Mentorship Program] with a few physicians in the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Dr. Noel Spears and Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, that provides mentors to underrepresented minorities in medicine as well as students with nontraditional backgrounds.”
The Second Step:
Advocate
“Being the first doctor in the family, I never had anyone that I could turn to and say, ‘Hey, well, how do I go about doing this?’” said Cuevas Villagomez.
If he had a question, whether about equipment, curriculum or licensing exams, he learned to find the right people to ask. “I think really just asking and getting yourself out of your comfort zone is going to make sure that you get the adequate resources you need to maximize your learning.”
The Third Step:
Give back
Cuevas Villagomez received his bachelor’s degree at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, with several scholarships, including one from the Guadalupe Center in Immokalee, Florida, an organization focused on breaking the cycle of poverty through education.
As part of his mission to give back, for the past two years, he has been mentoring a high school student through the same charity.
“She’s thinking about dermatology, maybe primary care work or health care in general,” he said. “She wants to help other people.”
He appreciates the chance to “work with someone who was in my shoes: same high school, same program and same sort of aspirations.”
The Next Steps
Cuevas Villagomez, a 2023 School of Medicine graduate, is a resident in physical medicine and rehabilitation at McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University in Chicago.
If he could go back and give advice to himself as a younger student, it would be that everything happens for a reason. “I would tell myself that the adversity my family faced with my mother will allow me to better understand some of the situations my patients are in.”
About the School of Medicine
The School of Medicine’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of individuals, communities and populations through cutting-edge research, innovative educational programs in medicine and biomedical science, and leadership in academic medicine.
We strive to implement this mission with the highest professional and ethical standards in a culture of diversity, inclusion and cultural humility. Our commitment is to foster an environment that enables all students, faculty, staff and the communities we serve to develop to their fullest potential.
