Amie | Health & Human Biology; Economics
Biography
Amie is a swimmer on Brown’s Varsity Swimming and Diving team. She also competes internationally as part of the Gambian National Team, so balancing athletics and academics has shaped much of her experience at Brown and within the PLME. She serves as one of her team’s representatives for Bruno Cares, a peer-to-peer mental health initiative supporting student-athletes, and as a Meiklejohn Peer Advisor, a program centered around mentoring first-year students. She also explores her interest in finance and economics through the Brown Derivatives Investment Group.
As a high school student, I knew that pursuing sport at an NCAA Division 1 and international level simultaneously with medicine would require a level of flexibility and understanding that traditional pre-med tracks often lack. The PLME stood out to me because it allows students to excel academically while still engaging in other integral parts of their identity. My identity as an athlete has made my PLME experience rather unique, most clearly reflected in how I’ve spent my summers. I was able to dedicate my first two undergraduate summers almost entirely to swimming—training for and competing at my first World Championships (Fukuoka 2023) and Olympic Games (Paris 2024). In my later summers, I shifted my focus towards research.
PLME, combined with the Open Curriculum, has allowed me to pursue a concentration in economics while remaining committed to a career in medicine. Most of my concentration focuses on economic theory, but I have found several classes that link back to healthcare, such as Healthcare in the U.S., taught by Dr. Wilson. This course sparked my passion for healthcare economics and helped me develop the tools to think about medicine through an economic perspective.
The most compelling aspect of the PLME is the freedom it offers. At Brown, and especially within the PLME, students are the architects of their education. Designing my own pre-medical education is a unique experience that has taught me to take ownership of my learning, make intentional choices, and define my priorities. These skills are invaluable for medical school and beyond.