First-generation medical student forges her own path in osteopathic medicine

For first-generation medical students, the path to becoming a physician often requires navigating unfamiliar terrain without the guidance of relatives who have traveled it before. Those experiences can cultivate resilience, empathy and a perspective that ultimately strengthens patient care.

Vani Ganesh, a third-year osteopathic medical student at Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, knows that journey firsthand.

“It’s hard when nobody in your family is in medicine,” she says. “Navigating med school without any advice from a family member has been very challenging.”

With her extended family living in India, Ganesh has relied on determination and the support of her immediate family as she forged her own path into osteopathic medicine.

This interview with Ganesh is part of the AOA’s video series highlighting first-generation DOs and osteopathic medical students. Watch the full segment below.

Your background shapes your future

For Ganesh, the principles of osteopathic medicine align naturally with the values she was raised to embrace. Growing up, she learned to see health through a whole-person lens—an approach that made pursuing her DO degree feel like a natural fit.

“I’ve always been raised on the whole idea of treating everybody as they are and respecting anybody no matter where you come from or what your background is,” she explains. “The message of my DO school amplified all the things I’d already grown up with.”

Her cultural heritage has also shaped how she envisions caring for future patients. She believes that understanding different backgrounds fosters stronger physician-patient relationships and encourages meaningful conversations built on trust and respect. She hopes to learn from every patient she meets while bringing cultural humility into each encounter.

The importance of representation

Representation, she believes, is equally important. “Sharing your story about where you come from is so important,” Ganesh says. “If students get to see somebody who looks like them or has a similar story, that will make them feel empowered.”

As osteopathic medicine continues to grow and welcome learners from different backgrounds, stories like Ganesh’s remind us that first-generation physicians-in-training bring more than perseverance to the profession. They bring lived experiences that enrich the osteopathic commitment to treating the whole person—benefiting their colleagues, their communities and the patients they will one day serve.

Related reading:

First-generation medical student: Listening matters in uncharted waters

How mentorship helped this first-generation DO become the first Vietnamese-American dean of a medical school