Fourth-year UMass Chan Medical School student Kendall Burdick, one of 149 soon-to-be graduates of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2023, is excited to match into her first choice as a pediatrics resident at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“Pediatrics has always been my passion. I love the opportunity to work with children and their families and get them set up for healthy living and healthy lives ahead of them,” Burdick said. “Children hold an incredible potential that can be realized or lost. Pediatrics comes with a special sense of responsibility to consider my patients’ health beyond the hospital.”
When she was in middle school, Burdick’s father was diagnosed with cancer; his course of treatment got Burdick interested in oncology and exposed her to the field of immunology.
“It was unfortunate circumstances, but it was the best outcome we could have hoped for. He’s healthy because of the treatment he received. And it got me to UMass Chan and interested in pediatrics. So, I think we’re all doing okay right now,” Burdick said.
Toward the end of high school, Burdick became interested in pediatric research and learned the implications of social determinants of health. Her interests grew from the biology of cancer and immunotherapy to the large-scale impact of social medicine and public health. Following high school, Burdick attended Vanderbilt University where she majored in neuroscience, biology and Spanish.
At UMass Chan, Burdick is in the Population-based Urban and Rural Community, or PURCH, track, focusing on population health, health care disparities and health issues specific to urban and rural populations.
