Features

Spring 2024 Featured Alum Ali Mirzazadeh

When someone shares advice with you from experience, it is a great starting ground to trek that journey on your own and find an opportunity.

Ali Mirzazadeh

Medical Assistant at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health

Ali Mirzazadeh graduated from UW Bothell in Spring 2023 with a BS degree in Biology and a minor in Neuroscience. He is pursuing an MS degree in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University. You can connect with Ali on LinkedIn.

Tell us more about what you’re doing currently.

I am currently working in the rheumatology clinic as a medical assistant at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. In this job, I take patients’ vitals, schedule, and room set up, and closely work with doctors. I am working this job currently to gain more experience as I am applying to medical schools this cycle. In order to keep myself busy academically during my gap year, I wanted to pursue an M.S. in Biotechnology. The reason for this was that I wanted to get involved in this field later on as it is a growing industry and introduced me to a whole new world in molecular biology. We learn things from how to create cancer drugs and therapies, to how you can open and run a biotech/biopharm company. On the side, I am participating as a research assistant at the REED lab at UW Medicine looking at patients with Alzheimer’s and how it affects the blood-brain barrier. I also spend my weekends teaching refugees English classes through the We Speak NYC program created by mayor Eric Adams.

What resources did you find most helpful when it came to career or graduate/professional school exploring, preparing, and applying?

One of the best resources was definitely Husky Landing. I was able to meet people who had graduated from UW and were in the industries that I was interested in. They had told me the dos and don’ts of how to set myself up for applying to medical school and the benefits and risks of doing a masters during my gap year. I also benefited from working with the Pre-Health advisors like Kristen Labrecque in planning out my time at UWB and making sure I was on track to get my classes done in time.

What was your favorite thing about being a UW Bothell Husky?

I think it really revolves around the supportive and caring staff, the perfect size classrooms, and being able to be in an environment where students support each other. You hear stories from universities with 400+ kids in a classroom and in my personal belief, you are not fostering any cohesiveness with the teacher or the students, which can lead to a lack of motivation. Whereas at UWB, it was easy to know your class and you were heard by your teachers.

If you could go back to your first day at UWB, what advice would you give yourself?

To not be afraid to try more clubs and to ask as many questions as I can of the teachers and advisors. There were so many opportunities I could have been involved in if I had just asked someone, but instead, my quietness inhibited me from that. When someone shares advice with you from experience, it is a great starting ground to trek that journey on your own and find an opportunity. UW has so many opportunities from club officer positions to summer research programs, it is important you don’t let it go to waste!

Thank you, Ali!

You have so much going on! We are grateful that you took some time to share a bit about your journey with us. Good luck with your medical school applications this cycle!


Past Featured Alumni

  • February 2022 – Casey Cummins – Spring 2020 BA in Health Studies with minors in Biology and Chemistry
  • March 2022 – Sebastien Khoutxaysana – Spring 2020 BA in Health Studies with a minor in Health Education & Promotion
  • April 2022 – Van Nguyen – Spring 2020 BS in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Neuroscience
  • May 2022 – Yasmin Guzman – Spring 2020 BA in Health Studies with a minor in Health Education & Promotion
  • June 2022 – John Masembe – Spring 2020 BA in Health Studies
  • July 2022 – Raday Gonzalez – Spring 2020 BA in Health Studies
  • August 2022 – Andrew Marimon-Cabamalan – Spring 2009 BA in Business Administration with concentrations in marketing and management
  • September 2022 – LaShanta Sealy Mahanti – Winter 2020 BA in Health Studies with a minor in Health Education & Promotion
  • October 2022 – Atif Bhatti – Autumn 2018 BS in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Neuroscience
  • November 2022 – Monserrat Morales Miranda – Spring 2020 BA in Health Studies with minors in Global Health and Health Education & Promotion
  • December 2022 – Kiana Imani – Spring 2020 BS in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Neuroscience
  • Winter 2023 – Keita Shimizu – Spring 2021 BA in Health Studies with minors in Global Health & Policy Studies
  • Spring 2023 – Lilia Matevosyan – Winter 2023 BA in Health Studies with a minor in Neuroscience
  • Summer 2023 – Andrew Collins – Spring 2018 BS in Biochemistry
  • Autumn 2023 – Toluwani Oluwa-Tofehinti – Spring 2020 BS in Biology
  • Winter 2024 – Ngoc-Vy Mai – Winter 2022 BA in Health Studies and Science, Technology, & Society with minors in Global Health and Health Education & Promotion