College of Health Solutions grad has medical school in his sights

Editor’s note: This story is part of a series of profiles of notable fall 2023 graduates.

Coming from a family of doctors, College of Health Solutions graduate Asim Osman knows he wants to be involved in medicine.

From a very young age, it seemed like his destiny.

“Medicine is something really prevalent in my family,” Osman said. “A lot of my family members are doctors, so I was kind of around it at a very young age.”

Osman, who earned a bachelor’s degree in medical studies, was born in Saudi Arabia but raised in Atlanta. His family is from Sudan.

Osman is also a Moeur Award winner. The award is only granted to those who graduate from Arizona State University with a 4.0 GPA and meet other criteria. To qualify, graduating students are required to complete all of their courses at ASU within eight consecutive fall and spring semesters with no transfer hours.

The award is a great honor, one Osman to his support system at ASU and the professors around him. He also said the award is a tribute to his family.

Osman plans to start medical school after taking a gap year. During that gap year he will work on building his resume.

“In that gap year, hopefully research, volunteering, scribing,” Osman said. “Hopefully I'm going to start EMT training”

Osman is also studying for the MCAT, the tough test required to be admitted into medical school.

Something that piqued Osman’s interest while in the medical studies program is the macroeconomics portion of medicine and the costs that go into health care systems and analyzing developing countries’ medical standards.

“The drug companies’ raising (costs),” Osman said. “I was looking at cancer therapies, and a lot of the immunotherapies are extremely expensive and it's incentivized for them to be expensive.”

This is something that Osman is passionate about changing.

Question: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in?

Answer: I love science. I liked taking science classes in high school. So that's kind of what led me down that path.

Q: Why did you choose ASU?

A: During the pandemic, that's when high school kind of stopped, so I decided to come to ASU because I have family here, and I thought medical studies was a really great program.

Q: What’s something you learned while at ASU — in the classroom or otherwise — that surprised you or changed your perspective?

A: I would say that the experience itself is what you make it. Since it's such a large-scale university, I feel like it kind of empowered me to not feel shy to look towards certain experiences.

Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU?

A: Dr. Ian Gould. He said something really profound that like, it's like something that I'm even applying now with the MCAT. He said that it's like riding a bike — you wouldn't read theory on riding a bike. You would just ride your bike to practice.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?

A: I would say definitely take risks, and I would recommend for people to really apply themselves to whatever field they want. Especially in medicine. You can't boggle it up in theory. I think like, even through shadowing, through scribing, through all these experiences, what they're really doing is reinforcing that passion for things.

Q: What was your favorite spot on campus, whether for studying, meeting friends or just thinking about life?

A: I would mostly study in my room, and I think even this semester I was juggling (classes) and the MCAT, so like I would be in my room a lot of the time. My favorite place to study would be the Noble Library, upstairs in that silent study room.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

A: I have to apply in May for medical school. So, that's kind of why I’m taking the MCAT, preparing, basically, to apply.

Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?

A: One thing that comes to mind for me personally just being from Sudan, one of the problems that I would solve is definitely funding (to help people in Sudan). Right now, they're kind of going through a civil crisis.

Written by Aidan Hansen, communications assistant, College of Health Solutions.