{"id":6271,"date":"2016-02-02T15:57:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-02T20:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=6271"},"modified":"2016-03-08T10:01:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T15:01:00","slug":"student-spotlight-alex-tarabochia-its-personal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2016\/student-spotlight-alex-tarabochia-its-personal\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight – Alex Tarabochia: It\u2019s Personal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alex
Alex Tarabochia \u201819<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Within minutes of meeting Alex Tarabochia \u201819, don\u2019t be surprised if you find yourself revealing intimate details of your life. He has that affect on people. \u201cI\u2019m always being told how comfortable people feel telling me everything about themselves within five minutes of meeting me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The first-year Geisel student, who is open and cheerful, says he doesn\u2019t feel burdened by what people tell him. He views their immediate comfort and trust as a gift that enriches his life and credits their ease to his innate curiosity and empathy.<\/p>\n

Given his warm personality, it is easy to imagine Tarabochia has led a charmed life, but that\u2019s not the case. \u201cAs a child, I had a gut feeling there was a lot wrong both in the community and in my family,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was, and as I got older, I realized I wanted to soften that for everyone, not only for my own family, but also for the community. I decided medicine was the best way to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of an extended family of intergenerational commercial fishermen, life in the small fishing town on the banks of the Columbia River in rural southwestern Washington was chaotic\u2014disputes over fishing grounds, police harassment<\/a>, and family conflicts contributed to Tarabochia\u2019s feelings of unease. He and his siblings learned early to be self-sufficient and by the time he was 14 years old, he and his twin brother co-captained their own commercial fishing vessel. During fishing season the demands of his family\u2019s lifestyle resulted in numerous missed school days.<\/p>\n

While out working on the boat, he took advantage of minimal free time to keep up with his schoolwork and to wrestle with questions about the town\u2019s high level of hostility toward his family and its unwillingness to accept those who were different.<\/p>\n

This experience spurred Tarabochia\u2019s interest in the dynamics of creating community harmony and the effort it takes to forge strong ties. He viewed his acceptance to Columbia University as the first step in living and learning in a place where people co-existed without hostility.<\/p>\n

Our lives are intertwined and we should feel safe to celebrate our differences\u2014this is how it\u2019s supposed to be. We can all live together.\"<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

- Alex Tarabochia \u201819<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As a first generation college student, he knew the transition would be academically challenging. And it was, but drawing on the survival skills he learned growing up he persevered and his life improved. Tarabochia says if he had stopped short and given up, he would never have known what he was capable of, \u201cto keep going in the face of hardship felt really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes New York City\u2019s diverse population as beautiful, and Columbia was everything he thought it would be. \u201cWhen you are a little fish, you are always forced to reevaluate how you live, to confront any biases you may have, which results in a much better life,\u201d he says. \u201cOur lives are intertwined and we should feel safe to celebrate our differences\u2014this is how it\u2019s supposed to be. We can all live together.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating, Tarabochia postponed medical school and spent several years in Florida working as an AmeriCorps volunteer in the Magnolia Project, which sought to reduce the high infant mortality rate in Jacksonville, and as a researcher in the Center of Neurogenetics at the University of Florida\u2019s medical school.<\/p>\n

Historically oppressed and lacking resources, pregnant women in Jacksonville were at risk. \u201cHigh levels of domestic violence, STDs, and poor nutrition along with drinking and drugs, resulted in increased infant mortality rates,\u201d he notes. \u201cMany of these embedded cultural attitudes were very difficult to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarabochia\u2019s role in the project was to provide support to the women\u2019s partners. Given the array of deeply ingrained behaviors, he wasn\u2019t sure how to begin helping them confront their problems. Determined to grasp what drove their decisions, he dug in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically it came down to helping partners without jobs find a job, and helping people without housing to find housing\u2014many weren\u2019t aware that the way they were living had to stop,\u201d he says. \u201cSome were receptive to help with figuring out how to stabilize their lives and making it better for their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Tarabochia\u2019s experience it takes something radical to happen, such as eviction or homelessness, in order to break the cycle and become empowered\u2014to realize there are options and support available to help make changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking at the women\u2019s clinic was fascinating,\u201d he says. \u201cYou see the front line of everything in women\u2019s health and your patients share intimate details of their daily lives with you. I really value that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a future doctor, awareness of a patient\u2019s personal situation is of critical importance to Tarabochia. It may seem to be a minor bit of information, but it\u2019s not. Understanding what they are going through makes it easier to provide good care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not shocked when somebody tells me something a little bit off the wall\u2014for me the shock factor has long worn away,\u201d he says. \u201cOr, if a patient mentions they are struggling with bills, the electricity has been cut off, or they don\u2019t have transportation, I know what that means and how it affects their health,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

All of these experiences have influenced the kind of doctor Tarabochia wants to be and he says Geisel will help him achieve that, \u201cI feel like I\u2019m in the right place everyday that I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Within minutes of meeting Alex Tarabochia \u201819, don\u2019t be surprised if you find yourself revealing intimate details of your life. He has that affect on people. \u201cI\u2019m always being told how comfortable people feel telling me everything about themselves within five minutes of meeting me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[682,683,257],"class_list":["post-6271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-alex-tarabochia","tag-med-student","tag-student-spotlight","post_format-post-format-aside","author-12"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/02\/Alex_Tarabochia-crp.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-1D9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6271"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6297,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271\/revisions\/6297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}