Dean Paz had always wanted to be a doctor. The Los Angeles native had his heart set on health professions since graduating from De Toledo High School in West Hills.
After completing his bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, where he studied neurobiology, physiology, and behavior, he set his sights on enrolling in medical school. Dean originally thought he wanted to specialize in heart health: “At first, I actually thought I wanted to go into cardiology just because I have a lot of family history that struggle from cardiovascular disease.” .
During his final year of undergraduate studies, Dean helped start a medical clinic for people who don’t have access to medical care. He became passionate about teaching and educating people who don’t really know too much about health care or health management.
“When my family first moved here, my dad didn’t have access to proper medical care and I truly believe that if he did, he might be a little bit healthier and might had the resources to actually achieve a healthier lifestyle and so I think is my goal, my privilege to be able to not only to learn about all this, but to be able to teach other about how to better manage their health so they can prevent future health consequences,” explains Dean.
Then, he had a taste of emergency room medicine.
“I was working in the emergency department in northern California as a medical scribe., I got to work with a lot of different doctors in the emergency room in different cases, learning all the medical terminology and different treatment modalities that were available to patients. It kind of showed me what it really means to be a doctor,” Dean said. “ I actually did a rotation, clinical rotation, just a couple of months ago in an Emergency Room and it kind of solidified my passion for the emergency side of it.”
Dean, a recipient of the Simms-Mann Scholarship, is in his third year at Rocky Vista University in Colorado. Our Scholarship Program provides qualified Jewish students whose primary residence is in the Greater Los Angeles area with need-based financial aid, in the belief that education represents the first step to career success.
In Dean’s case, the scholarship has been a vehicle to let him pursue his dream of becoming a doctor at a time when the average private out-of-state medical school tuition can top $60,000 per year. He hopes to take an active role to become a role model, mentor, and advocate to help patients better understand and manage their health.
“It’s been incredibly beneficial and important to me,” adds Dean. “As medical students and graduate students in general there’s always a little bit of financial aid outside the scholarship, but it’s not always enough to completely cover the expenses. I think with the fact that I do get this scholarship it’s really decreased the financial burden the school poses on me and decreases the amount of time I have to worry about finding different financial supplemental programs to help my academic program.”
Dean’s values, which are the guiding light of his future career and life, are deeply seated in his religious background. His family came to the United States from Israel, growing in a Jewish household where Hebrew was the first language, practicing all the Jewish holidays and having regular Shabbat dinners on Friday nights with family. When he starts a family of his own, Jewish values are something that he wants to instill in his children.
“I want to send my children to a Jewish school. It’s just how I grew up. It’s very beneficial, not only to know about the Jewish religion, to speak another language as I want my children to be able to speak Hebrew. I think it’s a very important aspect of family life that’s brought us all together, to grow closer together,” adds Dean.
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