Victoria Boggiano, a fourth-year medical student, was first introduced to family medicine by her mentor Erika Schillinger, MD, clinical professor of primary care and population health, and she fell in love. As Boggiano explains in her recent profile with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), her passion for the discipline was ignited by one class.

Boggiano says she was “extremely lucky” in her mentorship with Schillinger, which began when Boggiano took a research course at the beginning of her first year in med school. Schillinger, whom she calls “one of the most amazing family doctors ever” piqued her interest in family medicine; Schillinger’s project on medical student reflections on family medicine core clerkships was “very transformative” for Boggiano. People like Dr. Schillinger and some of the other really strong, present and vocal family medicine doctors here [at Stanford] have helped to change my heart and mind,” she explains.  “I aspire to be that kind of family medicine advocate. I've learned so much by seeing what they do. If I've been able to change any minds, it's been because of them.”

Boggiano, whose parents are both psychiatrists, appreciates the variety that comes with a family medicine residency, which she calls “a good thing for all of us who like to bounce around.”

“Literally, in every single rotation I think, ‘This is the most amazing thing,’” she says. “…When I spend the day with a family medicine doctor, we're putting in an IUD, seeing a 5-day-old newborn, and counseling a 90-year-old about her medication list -- it's just so exciting.”

As a doctor, Boggiano wishes to be “reliable, present, consistent and creative.” In the future she hopes to balance clinical and research work with global health work, particularly in Vietnam.The former AmeriCorps volunteer’s number-one priority for the future, however, is her relationships with her patients: “Most of all,” she says, “I hope 10 years from now I have some patients I know really well and who know me.” She intends to focus on “those physician-patient relationships that I covet so much.”

View the full Q&A here.