This is my first time writing a blog and I am excited to embark on this new endeavor!

My name is Jamie Lauren Zimmerman, and I am a current senior at UC Los Angeles studying Anthropology and pre-medicine… at least for the next three weeks.  After graduating on June 14th, I will move to New York, where I will begin a summer program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.  I still am deciding whether I will begin medical school in the fall… a choice complicated by my many different passions and interests.

I grew up in many regions of the country—from Santa Barbara to Denver, New Orleans to Washington D.C., and San Francisco to Los Angeles.  I believe this offbeat and nomadic childhood instilled in me a passion for new experiences, and a taste for—and comfort with—the unfamiliar.  

My past jobs have included newspaper columnist, frozen yogurt shop server, intern at the National Endowment for the Arts, and actress on such shows as 7th Heaven, Boston Public, and The Practice.  Additionally, I helped construct a community health center in the Amazon basin of Peru, directed a documentary film in refugee camps in Zambia, and served on the U.S. Campaign for Burma's delegation to the Thailand/Burma border.  Currently, I am teaching a seminar entitled “Multimedia Exploration of the World’s Refugees” (with the incredible Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel).

Rather than starting off with too long of an introduction, I thought I would just say a big hello and invite you to post your comments.  In coming blog posts, I'm eager to share some of the school, career, and life decisions I'm facing—perhaps you're facing similar ones, too.

Until the next time…