Annual Pub 2023 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 26
K I R K K E R K O R I A N S C H O O L O F M E D I C I N E AT U N LV
DETERMINATION
DEFINES PATH TO
INTERNAL MEDICINE
B Y PA U L H A R A S I M
S
alutatorian of her high school class in Las Vegas.
Graduation with honors from medical school.
Chosen as intern of the year last year by internal
medicine faculty. Selected by faculty and peers as
chief resident of internal medicine for 2023.
At 昀rst blush, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV resident
physician Sadaf Fakhra, DO’s ongoing journey to a successful
career in medicine appears to be following a straight line. Each
accomplishment smoothly following yet another achievement,
with everything seemingly going according to plan.
But, the more you learn about this young woman, the more you
realize that drawing a conclusion based on the limited information
of a formal paper trail only serves to prove once again that
appearances can be deceiving.
In fact, her backstory reveals that it has been grit, determination,
perseverance, and the love of her parents that have enabled her to
ultimately thrive and succeed in a life full of twists and turns, peaks
and valleys, setbacks and obstacles.
Dr. Fakhra’s childhood years weren’t uncomplicated.
Born in Iran, her parents – dad was an auto mechanic and mother
a stay-at-home mom – decided that she and her older sister, who
could attend school as youngsters, should be able to one day have
an opportunity for a higher education, something they couldn’t have
in Iran because the family did not have a religious faith the country’s
Muslim leaders approved of. When Dr. Fakhra was 10, the family
moved to Turkey for two years before immigrating to the United
States and Las Vegas, where her father had the promise of a job.
During those two years in Turkey, neither Dr. Fakhra, who became
昀uent in Turkish as well as her native Farsi, nor her older sister could
attend school because they were classi昀ed as refugees.
When the family moved to the United States, Dr. Fakhra recalls
that she found herself at Sig Rogich Middle School in Las Vegas. “I
had been an all-A student in Iran and now I was in school not even
understanding what subject was being taught … I felt like I wasn’t
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going to excel at school. The toughest part was the pressure I felt even
as a young child to make this move worth it. I could see the challenges
my parents faced moving to a whole new country in their early 30s,
and I wanted them to know they did the right thing.”
With the help of English as a second language (ESL) teachers and her
own studying late into the night, Dr. Fakhra learned English well enough
in middle school – “I spent most of my middle school years adjusting
to this new life in the U.S. and getting back to being a top student” – to
become an straight-A student at Palo Verde High School, graduating
second in her class with a 4.7 grade point average (GPA). It was at Palo
Verde that she found she enjoyed doing dissections and decided that
she wanted a career related to anatomy and science.
While her work in high school earned her scholarships to UNLV, she
soon found that success in the university classroom wasn’t easy for
her to come by.
“I wasn’t equipped with the best study habits for undergraduate work,
and I took too many classes at 昀rst,= Dr. Fakhra says.
