Dan Tilden
Eastern North Carolina '08
Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St. Louis
Health & Medicine
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Washington University in St. Louis
Dan had was accepted to both medical school and TFA after earning a biochemistry degree, and decided to defer his entry to medical school for the opportunity to join the corps.
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Teach For America: Eastern North Carolina Corps
Dan taught high school science at his placement school and built relationships in the under-resourced communities where he plans to serve as a doctor after residency.
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Vanderbilt University Medical School
Dan says leaving the classroom was tough, but he was eager to continue to serve his community by providing quality healthcare services to young people and their families.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center
As a Med-Peds resident, Dan serves as the primary care doctor for over 100 children and families and has taken on roles as a peer educator and in creating and shaping curricula for the medical school.
Q & A
What led you to apply to Teach For America?
I was applying to medical school, but TFA was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had gone straight from my parents’ home in a nice suburb to a university in a nice suburb, and I had a strong sense that there was a lot more to life than what I had seen. TFA was an opportunity to work with like-minded people on a shared vision of our collective future.
What were some of the major lessons you learned during the corps? When you think about yourself before and after the corps, what changed?
Teaching showed me what I could do, how hard I could work, and the amazing things I could achieve. In college, I had the option to avoid classes that were hard or would challenge me in a way I didn’t want to be. Being a teacher, you have to confront different challenges every day. I also became more disciplined than I ever thought possible.
What do you do today?
As a Med-Peds resident, I split my time during residency between being a pediatrics resident and an internal medicine (adult medicine) resident. Teaching high schoolers helped to form my interest in caring for and improving the lives of adolescents. Med-Peds was a perfect match for me in working to better serve this vulnerable group as they move between the pediatric and adult systems of care.
How has TFA prepared you for your current position?
There is so much overlap between being a teacher and being a doctor. Ultimately, to be successful at either you have to be able to communicate and persuade. So constantly draw on what I learned as a teacher. Everything from knowing the social context of my patients to different teaching strategies I used in the classroom helps me to be a better doctor.