Life as a Mission: Becoming a doctor

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My name is Aleksandra Michalak. I am Polish. I have a degree in emergency medicine and another in nursing. Currently, I am a medical student at the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, and in 2026 I really hope my dream of graduating from Medical School will come true. The only thing holding me back is my financial situation.

Making dream of life

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to be a doctor. From drawing nerve cells at the age of six and trying to read the household medical encyclopedia, to volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity, the order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in Albania, as well as working as a Care Assistant in England, learning that the most important thing in medicine is to know how to be with patients. These experiences eventually led me to study nursing at the Medical University of Warsaw, meanwhile, with an Erasmus scholarship, I also studied in Portugal, Spain, and the UK, then become a paramedic and a nurse. After completing my first year of medicine in Poland I transferred to the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome. The decision to study there didn’t come about by chance. Once I had discovered it, I had no doubt about the way to follow. The Campus Bio-Medico is a place that trains doctors to treat patients holistically. For that reason, I remain sure that it is the right place for my formation.

It is not just my dream to make medicine as a discipline more humane, it’s my desire, my mission, and a calling that has been very strong in my heart for years. The dignity of patients is at the heart of medicine. It is the cause that causes my heart to burn. In Rome I have been privileged to find many mentors, however my financial situation continues to hold me back from graduating. For that reason, I decided to reach out to friends, family and even strangers through this personal fund-raising campaign.

From dream to reality

Currently, I am working on a thesis project at the Perinatal Hospice, which is part of the Gemelli Hospital, in collaboration with The George Washington University Institute for Spirituality & Health (GWish). I hope this project will concretely help children and families in need of Pediatric and Perinatal Palliative Care. My journey with palliative care for children began with a 5-month-old child, Sophie. I witnessed her last breath in 2015, while I was a volunteer at the Warsaw Hospice for Children. This experience showed me that working in Paediatric Palliative Care is beautiful – it is a window on all of medicine, showing that it is possible to consider and embrace the whole person and to care for the patient in every aspect: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. It is a chance to follow the natural flow of life and understand it better. That is real medicine!

I long to arrive at the hospital early every day, and leave tired at the end of the day. Why do I think it is worth it? After two very practical medical degrees, and after what I’ve seen in hospices, hospitals, and patients’ homes, I am sure that, if a patient is accompanied in a concrete and professional way, everything changes, both for the patient and for those who are privileged to accompany them. To be next to a sick person, to look patients in the eye, listening to them, talking, truly meeting them where they are is a gift for a doctor. That is why, for me, studying medicine is such a privilege.

Learning the art of asking, receiving and giving

I find it very difficult to ask for help. Someone once told me that only through the art of asking can we learn the art of giving. I long to be a doctor to do just that: to be in order to give. However, I am struggling to cover my tuition fees of last year which are very high (13,340 euro) and my basic living expenses (15 months x 1000 euro). Up until recently I have been holding down three different jobs to make ends meet, but I can’t continue to support myself in this way, since it makes it impossible to focus on my studies.

Please consider supporting me in this crowd funding campaign. If you’d like to support me without going through the platform (transaction fee. 2.9% + €0.25 per donation), here are my bank details: IT49X0306905153100000003478.

If you would like to receive the letters that I write with updates for my benefactors, or if have any questions, feel free to contact me on my profile here.

If you are able to help, even if I don’t get a chance to thank you personally, please be assured of my sincere gratitude.

If you would like to share this request with someone you know, I would also be very grateful.

Sincerely,

Aleksandra

Make your life a dream, and your dream a reality.

(Pierre Curie)