Pinch Me

"You are physically manifesting a vision." 

Michael J. Gaeta, President of the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine

I am officially a full-time medical student of the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM). 

During my search for the best school (for me), OCOM stood out in a quiet yet powerful manner.  It doesn't have a big, fancy campus (not yet... Wait until 2012!) and it didn't give a flashy admissions presentation.  In fact, the school catalogue is a plain, white booklet and a quote at the bottom, "The science of medicine, the art of healing."

However, it was the first to...

• Be nationally accredited by the AAAOM
• Develop a doctorate program
• Be the first school to receive funding from the National Institute of Health to research the effects of acupuncture 

As I plan to further my education/career into research, it was important for me to find a school that offered a doctorate program; and prepped its graduate students with a research foundation. 



Menucha - Washington & Oregon view


Aside from all its educational brownie points, OCOM (out of 5 schools I visited and multiple others I researched) was the only school which required its students to attend a 2-day orientation at an off-site retreat center.

Schools typically have an hour-orientation but this very act of gathering its incoming first-year students and faculty at Menucha, which is located near the Gorge River with views of Washington and Oregon, laid out the values of its school - Community. 

As a quintessential New Yorker and a typical Type-A, the idea of community is foreign; however, it is a concept I want to desperately embody.

In 2012, OCOM will be moving its location from the Middle-of-Nowhere to the City Center.  At the orientation we were presented with photos and floor plans of the new building purposefully located in the historical section of Portland, Old Town Chinatown. 



Pres. Gaeta Relocation Presentation


The $15M, LEED Gold-certified (!!!), 5-story building will be nearly 4,000 square feet larger with 17 private treatment rooms, 1 community treatment space, LEED Gold certified, a rooftop garden and feng-shued to the wha-zoo by Yale-graduate, Alex Stark.

Like a typical Portlander, the school opted to purchase a historical building and renovate it; which not only means it saved a gorgeous architectural staple but a good chunk of the renovation is being paid for by Uncle Sam. 

My class will be the first and only class to have the opportunity to experience the transition, growth and journey of OCOM expanding from beginning to end. 

I can't help but get excited at how honored I am to attend this school at this very moment of its own vision taking form right before my eyes.

As our health care system continues to fail us and we consistently become a mockery of the Western world, I honestly feel this medicine will grow.  However, I'm a firm believer it can only grow with the intent of educating the community on re-evaluating the true definition of "health".  

President Gaeta ended his presentation with the emphasis on our personal journeys.  Every single one of my classmates, including myself, have come to this point in our lives to not only dream of serving people but to courageously take the steps to manifest the vision. 

It's the wildest feeling to have my dreams slowly take form outside of my mind.  No matter how many times this happens, it still feels unbelievable.  It truly is an awesome feeling; and it makes me want to keep doing it.



Me & MOCO

 "There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other."

- Douglas H. Everett