Erik is from New Hampshire. After graduating with a BA in, Erik moved to Washington, DC, and worked as an Associate Producer for National Geographic.

“I came to Bennington from the Natural History Unit at National Geographic. As a cameraman and associate producer I had the privilege to travel, see many different environments, and study a range of topics. After working on forty different shows, however, I began to crave the expertise that I saw in the subjects of our documentaries. I began to think about what I would want to study for the rest of my life and eventually realized that my interests were mostly in medicine.

“Choosing to leave National Geographic and DC after three years was not an easy decision, so I knew it was important to find the right program. I looked at Harvard, Georgetown, Columbia, USC, and several others, but ended up applying to Bennington first. I chose Bennington because they seemed best prepared to not only teach me the material, but also to facilitate the transition from my old career to medical school. It was important to me that I had the support of a structured program - I did not want to be one face out of two hundred in a lecture hall. At Bennington, I was one of just ten or twenty students in a classroom and we worked with the same professors throughout the year. The professors not only know my name, but were also actively engaged in helping me find internships at the local hospital, designing a Field Work Term, and scheduling my MCAT prep course.

“Aside from the coursework, my favorite part about the program is Bennington itself. The modern facilities, situated on a bucolic New England farm, was the ideal environment for me to focus on studying while allowing me to escape into the Green Mountain National Forest when I needed a break.”