Follow the intellectual and emotional journey of a group of medical students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Captured through verité scenes and personal video diaries, the film offers an inside look at America’s healthcare system through the eyes of these aspiring practitioners as they learn what it takes to become a doctor in one of the country’s most underserved communities.
Filmed over the course of a year, The Calling: A Medical School Journey follows the
students as they share the humbling challenges they face, their crises of self-doubt and
exhaustion, and the moments of encouragement that inspire them to go on.
The film follows the journey of eight remarkable students, including:
- Alexandra, a fourth-year student and the youngest daughter of Dominican
immigrants, who hopes to find a family medicine residency that will allow her to
stay in the Bronx and serve the community she loves.
- Andrew, a Haitian American first-year student from Queens, who hopes to
mentor other aspiring physicians from underrepresented backgrounds.
- Chetali, a third-year student from the Detroit area, who feels called to emergency
medicine, a field that links the social side of medicine to a wide range of
specialties and embodies her desire to care for patients of all backgrounds.
- Cameron, a third-year student from Yonkers, who comes from a family of nurses
and hopes to become the first doctor in his family, with a specialty in orthopedics
or sports medicine.
- Cory, a third-year student from New Jersey who is driven by a life-threatening
childhood illness that required multiple brain surgeries and is interested in
pursuing a career in pediatric neurology.
- Ghaith, a first-year student originally from Syria, who credits his parents — both
doctors — with inspiring his decision to pursue a career in cardiology.
- Jordan, a first-year student from New Jersey and a second lieutenant in the U.S.
Army Reserve, who is attending medical school through an Army scholarship
program. His father, a New York City firefighter who perished in the Sept. 11
attacks, inspired him to serve.
- Le’Shauna, a fourth-year student and the first in her family to attend college,
who dreams of leaving the harsh urban environment that has shaped her family’s
past and hopes to secure a radiology residency at a top hospital in the South.