Learning the strains of Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo on her beloved cello just may have been the perfect prelude to Veronika Blinder’s education as an osteopathic physician.
The hands of the 25-year-old first-year student at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine are already finely tuned, courtesy of 22 years devoted to practicing and performing.
“Hopefully I’ll be quickly able to adapt to this osteopathic technique,” said Blinder recently as she prepared to begin her NYIT medical school career. “I understand the concept that your fingers and hands are very sensitive and can do so many things. I’m excited to use my hands.”
The power of touch and sensory perception are familiar lessons, honed since the age of three, when her mother, a piano teacher, first introduced her to music.
“My mom tried to give me a piano lesson but she stopped because she said it was impossible,” said Blinder.
She chose to learn cello instead, and as a teenager, was named principal cellist in the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. While she always knew she wanted to be a doctor, Blinder continued musical studies and pursued a minor in music at Wellesley, where she majored in biology. She recently brought her cello to her new off-campus apartment in Sea Cliff.
“You form this really intense bond with your instrument,” she said. “It becomes your companion and how you express yourself when you play.”
Blinder chose NYIT, she says, after having receiving successful “trigger point therapy” for a shoulder injury and hearing a medical professional speak highly of OMM, osteopathic manual medicine.
“I think it’s going to be really interesting,” she said, referring to the special techniques and training in OMM and the “whole body” approach followed by osteopathic physicians.
The mother of a two-year-old boy and wife of a professional cellist, Blinder hopes to specialize in internal medicine as a primary care physician but is also interested in emergency medicine. She has worked as an EMT, and has spent time researching Alzheimer’s disease at Harvard Medical School.
Blinder described her orientation as “kind of like being on a cloud,” but was quickly impressed by NYIT COM’s faculty and her fellow students. She was happy to receive a high grade on her first anatomy quiz.
“I’m really, really enjoying myself,” she said. “This is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life.”
About NYIT
New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) offers 90 degree programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees, in more than 50 fields of study, including architecture and design; arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing sciences; health professions; management; and osteopathic medicine. A non-profit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 13,000 students attending campuses on Long Island and Manhattan, online, and at its global campuses. NYIT sponsors 11 NCAA Division II programs and one Division I team.
Led by President Edward Guiliano, NYIT is guided by its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, offer access to opportunity to all qualified students, and support applications-oriented research that benefits the larger world. To date, more than 95,000 graduates have received degrees from NYIT. For more information, visit nyit.edu.
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Elaine Iandoli
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