North Vegas Times

A resident physician at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas's Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine said her time at the school made her a standout doctor.

Dr. Sadaf Fakhra has accumulated numerous accolades throughout her academic career. Fakhra was named intern of the year by the internal medicine faculty and chief resident of internal medicine by her peers. She also graduated from medical school with honors and was salutatorian of her Las Vegas high school, according to a UNLV news release. 

Becoming a physician, however, proved to be more than she bargained for. 

“I wasn’t equipped with the best study habits for undergraduate work and I took too many classes at first,” she said. “That was hard for me to admit at the time. I didn’t do well in my classes the first few semesters of school and my GPA dropped for the first time.”

However, she attributes emigrating to the U.S. as a child, because her parents believed that she and her sister could have a better life and her family's religion was not approved by their country's Muslim leaders, as her biggest obstacle. 

Once Fakhra learned her study habits, nothing could hold her back. 

“I dug a hole so deep before I learned to study correctly that I knew it would be difficult for me to get into medical school," she said. "It was very difficult for me to deal with emotionally. I went through a lot of personality changes.”