Hey there friends! This is Michael Le. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Pass the Mike where I have the pleasure of sharing the narratives of imminent or current medical professionals. In short, my job is to build you a community of mentors from the folks that have come before you. I am STOKED to record another episode with one of my closest friends, Nicolas Cevallos. That's N-I-C-O-L-A-S space C-E-V-A-L-L-O-S. Nick and I graduated from UCLA in 2019; he did so with a major in Human Biology and Society and a Minor in Global Health. Although the Bruin family is sad to be losing him, he'll be joining his family up north studying medicine at UCSF. The two Cevallos brothers are going to be making some noise up there for sure.

To date, Nick has been involved in a variety of activities—I'll make sure we touch on those today—but they include serving as a Special Olympics Coach, a Public Health Intern for the Flying  Samaritans, an Intern for TEACH which stands for Together Educating and Advocating Community Health, a CPR & First Aid Instructor, a Clinical Research Volunteer within the Assessing Residents CI-CARE or ARC Medical Program, a Recreation Aide at his home community's Parks and Rec Center. Finally, and these two activities are where I have had the pleasure of interacting with Nick the most—he's also served as a Peer Learning Facilitator for the Academic Advancement Program at UCLA and as a Lab Manager for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

But, I'd be doing him a disservice if all I did was read out a list of all that he's been involved with. What you won't see on paper are the times that Nick is in the first person in lab, often before 6 AM to prepare for big surgery days. What you also won't see on paper is Nick's love for mentorship—he and I co-authored "Your Bruin Guide to All Things Pre-Med," a 40-page e-book that discusses what students should be focusing on in every year of their journey and discusses frequently asked questions like: "How do I get involved with research," or "how do I choose the right extracurriculars?" Lastly, you won't see the number of IM Championships the guy has won. I'm only aware of his ridiculous speed on the basketball court and the flag football field, but I'm sure there's more where that came from.

You can find Nicolas if you want to say hello, ask a question or race him (although I wouldn't advise it) on e-mail atNicolas.cevallos@ucsf.edu, that's N-I-C-O-L-A-S-DOT-C-E-V-A-L-L-O-S-AT-U-C-S-F-DOT-E-D-U. I'm personally grateful to carve out some time to have a nice conversation with my forerever friend today. Nic, welcome to the show.