Atlantis (Pre-Health Summer) Reviews

Shadowing physicians in a global health care setting was such an invaluable experience that has shaped and will continue to shape the kind of physician that I hope to someday be.
I have never travelled outside of the US before, and yet Atlantis prepared me so well for this fellowship that I felt no anxiety whatsoever about traveling alone in a foreign country. My Site Manager made it so that I always felt safe and so that I also got the most of my experience, both in the hospital and during excursions/exploring the city.
I learned so much of value while shadowing in the hospital. There is so much about global medicine that you can only experience; that you can’t be taught without firsthand experience. In Greece, I had the opportunity to see medicine practiced in manners both similar and different to that in the US, and it forced me to consider the pros and cons of both our healthcare systems. Furthermore, with the vast number of hours of shadowing you obtain, not only is it good for your resume, but it gives you a chance to decide if a career in medicine is really the right path for you. The shadowing isn’t easy; the language barrier and often long hours on your feet can be exhausting, but the life-changing learning experience is a reward well worth it.
This program isn’t just an opportunity to explore global medicine. It’s an opportunity to explore a new country through weekly excursions and group dinners and to make meaningful lifetime friendships with fellow pre-meds. It is an experience that you will reflect on for the rest of your life and will shape your future career in medicine.

I did the shadowing program for 4 weeks in Pontevedra, Spain and it was truly life-changing. We were treated practically like residents in the hospital and got to see the surgeries up close and personal, treated like locals in the city, living right by the major plaza, and each of us felt like we built incredible friendships. The excursions were breathtaking and my site manager is one of the best people I’ve met in my life. I recommend this program to anybody, even if they’re unsure they want to do medical school because the experience is incredible and it will tell you for sure if it’s what you want to do. I came in wanting to be an obstetrician and during my obstetrics round, I confirmed that it is exactly what I want to do. I know many people with similar experiences or some who thought they wanted one thing but now they want another. Truly spectacular experience.

I just completed my fellowship with Atlantis and it was one of the best experiences of my life! I was able to shadow in on some interesting surgeries and meet some amazing people. I loved getting to know the other fellows as well as the Atlantis staff and hospital staff during the three weeks I was in Thessaloniki! The site managers on this trip did everything in their power to make our experience incredible! I really enjoyed getting to live like a local in the city center in Thessaloniki; it is a beautiful place and the people are so nice! I definitely recommend it! In addition to a great hospital experience, we got to go on some really cool excursions and see some incredible places! I also enjoyed having the weekends free to travel! It was great being able to see more of the country on my own time! Overall, this was a really great experience!

If you are even slightly interested in pursuing a career in healthcare, Atlantis is for you!! I have shadowed countless times in the United States, and I can honestly say that Atlantis proved to be the richest and most valuable of all my shadowing experiences thus far! This fellowship challenges you to escape the comfortable perimeters of your own medical culture and teaches you that healthcare is such a beautiful universal language! This fellowship taught me so much about myself, about my host country, and about medicine. Although I missed home, three weeks came and went far too quickly! I cannot recommend it enough! If you are considering doing an Atlantis fellowship, please GO DO IT!!!!! It will be one of your best decisions, I promise!

The Atlantis Fellowship is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not only are you able to shadow intelligent and outstanding doctors, but you are able to immerse yourself in a new culture that teaches as much as it does enlighten you. I am so glad I took a new step toward my medical career and went with the Atlantis Fellowship. The doctors are kind, encouraging, and genuinely care about your learning experience. I was able to see many operations and the doctor-patient interaction that is held in Spain. I plan to take some tips from these doctors as they were very reassuring and kind to their patients. The activities outside of the program left me speechless such as Park Guell, the Sagrada Familia, and Paddle boarding. I was also able to travel to Costa Brava for a weekend adventure and I have never seen such clear water. The program offers a lot of opportunities that I wouldn't give up for anything.

This fellowship was absolutely life-changing. It really affirmed my love for medicine and the future success I will have in my medical career. If you know you have a passion for medicine, or even if you aren't sure, Atlantis Fellowship will answer any concerns and questions so you leave knowing what you want to do with your career! During this fellowship, I was able to shadow surgeries while being in the OR with the surgeons performing the procedures and I was treated with respect as physicians were eager to teach so that I could actually learn while observing. The content I observed during this fellowship simply could not have been done in the United States, through the consults, to the Emergency Department, to the Operating Rooms, the obeservations were incredible and life-changing to witness.

At the beginning I was very skeptical. Really all the way until my very first day of shadowing I was nervous about the program. It was pretty expensive to be honest and it toon a lot of time and energy to prepare for the program. So I was worried that at the end of it all it wouldn’t be worth it. It was my first time ever traveling alone and out of the country. The first day of shadowing really opened my eyes to see how beautiful it can be when science and care really come together. Not only are Atlantis staff really helpful but also the doctors and nurses in the hospital. On days where it was slow and I felt like I wasn’t getting the most out of it, I could go to anyone and ask to change that and they would. I would do it all again if I could. It was such a beautiful experience and so worth everything I put into it. You meet such amazing people along the way and make incredible connections. There are sometimes where you light not click with everyone either in your group or out, but it builds your social skills and your team building skills which is so important for the field of medicine. After just a week you become known in the hospital if you do it all right and you have people who ask you to come to their departments. The hours seem long on paper but my four weeks flew by and I feel like I still didn’t see and learn everything I could have. Atlantis has a lot to offer if you take the time to make the most of your time overseas.

Atlantis is hands down one of the best things I have ever done. I loved the places I visited, the doctors I shadowed, the medical and cultural knowledge I gained, the life-long friendships I developed, and so much more. I have definitely grown as a person and student and learned so much about medicine through my fellowship! I also learned how to overcome language barriers with other people which will help in the medical field when I have patients without the same language. It was great to see other cultures and as a World Traveler, I was able to compare the health care systems and cultures of different countries not just to the United States but to each other as well! I am so grateful for Atlantis and I definitely think it helps to prepare fellows to be the best and most well-rounded health care professionals they can be.

Going on a fellowship to Zagreb, Croatia for 3 weeks was one of the best decisions in my professional career! I have gained priceless skills and professional connections while on this fellowship from the doctors/surgeons during shadowing hours to the colleagues that I met during the fellowship. This experience has enlightened me in culture diversity, adapting to new environments, confirming that I am going to become a surgeon by watching surgeries everyday during my first rotation in ENT, and how different other countries health care systems are/how they operate. During the free time on the weekends my colleagues and I decided to travel to Split and Budapest and this enhanced the fellowship immensely by being able to experience the old towns by the sea and seeing a whole different culture in Budapest than from Zagreb. I highly encourage you to travel to near by cities or countries during this free time on the weekends and to apply to Atlantis to complete their fellowship program! It was the best decision in my professional career and I would do it all over again if I could.

It was awesome and a unique experience! All the doctors are kind and very helpful. You get to see a lot of stuff especially in te surgery area, it was amazing! It’s a little different than in the US and sometimes there is a language barrier but all the staff try their best to help you out and to explain everything to you. Besides shadowing, you have the opportunity to visit the city and to travel to other cities. You go in a group to a near city and spend the day there. You have also free time in which you’re free to go wherever you want as is another city, etc for a whole weekend! There is also group dinners and activities in the city which really helps you to connect with other fellows. This experience was more than I expected. It was awesome!