New program is a 'perfect fit' for Rockville Centre native

A Rockville Centre native was one of 40 students to enter Hofstra University’s North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine’s inaugural class Monday.

For Daina Blitz, 22, becoming a doctor was a sure thing given her life experiences. She likened it to the beauty of seeing the pieces in a kaleidoscope fit together. “There is nothing else I could be besides a doctor,” Blitz said.

Hofstra’s new medical school, a joint partnership with North-Shore LIJ, will have an experimental and innovative program based on the “importance of teamwork and communication in health care delivery,” Michael Dowling, president and chief executive officer of the North-Shore LIJ Health System, stated in a press release.

From the beginning of the program, the students will be trained as emergency medical technicians and work in ambulances. “The combination of meaningful and instructive clinical experiences and academic learning is designed to create compassionate and creative physicians who understand how to think quickly and without all the answers at hand,” the release read. “This is critical to medicine today.”

Blitz was a philosophy major at Boston University and graduated magna cum laude in May 2010. She applied to 17 medical schools and was accepted by five, but was drawn to Hofstra’s new program.

“This is the program right now, the most up-and-coming,” she said. “The curriculum, there’s nowhere else in the country where it is as innovative as it is here.”

According to the press release, there were more than 4,000 applicants for the inaugural class, and more than 700 were interviewed over a five-month period.

Hofstra’s proximity to Rockville Centre was not a factor in Blitz’s decision. In fact, she said, her first thought was to return to the Boston area for medical school. “I would actually prefer to be farther from home,” she said with a laugh. “That’s how much I liked this school.”

Since graduation, Blitz has kept busy: She teaches an EMT class for North Shore-LIJ and said she will continue to do so while taking courses. And, she said, “I was also waitressing in Great Neck at a French restaurant called Jean Marie. It wasn’t my favorite job.”

Despite a variety of jobs and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, Blitz’s path still led her to the new medical school. “It’s the perfect fit,” she said.

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