Chelane Garcia-Herrada, CU Denver History Department Alumni, was recently accepted into a Post-Baccalaureate, Pre-Medical Program at Mills College. Garcia-Herrada graduated from our history program Summa Cum Laude in 2017. Garcia-Herrada has planned to go to medical school since graduating high school. With the help of her undergraduate degree in History, MCAT preparation courses, and professor mentorship, she will be able to make this dream a reality by 2021. However, along the road Garcia-Herrada remembers having to explain numerous times why someone who wants to be a doctor was majoring in history rather than Biology. In reality, medical schools accept any major as long as you have completed the prerequisites. Some studies show that liberal arts majors stand out amongst the thousands of biology majors. Garcia-Herrada believes that having majored in history helped her understand people on a human level, a skill she thinks many in the medical profession lack. She also believes that studying history helped her recognize that everyone has a story worth telling and plans to work this understanding into applying medical and scientific principles. 

Last Year, Garcia-Herrada served as a panel member for the Phi Alpha Theta club's (National History Honors Society) event, "What To Do With A History Degree?" The event was divided into two parts. To begin, each panelist, all alumni of our program, spoke about their professional experiences taking on the world with a history degree. The second portion was question and answer. At the time of the event, Garcia-Herrada was applying to pre-medical programs. Since then, it has become clear that the critical thinking and writing skills she gained through her history degree have paid off. Though medical professions are not often the choice of history majors, the CU Denver History Department strives to support its students by preparting them for any career with skills that last. We are excited for Garcia-Herrada and her future career in medicine and continue to agree that the study of history prepares students for anything.