Making the Rounds with the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV

Making the Rounds

October 19, 2021 Issue 299

Friends & Colleagues,

When you study the resume of Alyssa Hill, the admissions coordinator for the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, you learn that she helps the admissions office process up to 2,000 applications every year. As the number of applications is pared down by our admission professionals -- given the impressive backgrounds of student applicants, it’s not at all easy -- Alyssa coordinates the interviewing of 320 applicants, which goes a long way toward the annual admission of 60 students (with an additional waitlist of 60). What she enjoys most in her work is learning why students want to attend our medical school, why they want to help and serve people, why they want to help transform healthcare in Southern Nevada. “I’m just happy that I get to play, with the rest of the staff and faculty, a small part in growing the number of physicians in Nevada,” she says. In today’s newsletter, with UNLV Rebel Homecoming this week, we also learn that Alyssa is happy just being part of UNLV. How happy? Well, let’s just say her office decor could easily be mistaken for a UNLV Souvenir Outlet Store.

Marc J. Kahn, M.D.

Dean, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV

Medicine By The Numbers

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder caused by unusual nerve cell activity in the brain.

Each year about 150,000 Americans are diagnosed with this central nervous system disorder that causes seizures.

In addition to age -- more people are diagnosed with epilepsy in early childhood and after age 55 -- risk factors for developing epilepsy include previous brain infections and head injuries, family history, dementia, and vascular diseases such as stroke.

Over a lifetime, 1 in 26 U.S. people will be diagnosed with the disease.

Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disease after migraines, stroke, and Alzheimer’s.

According to the Child Neurology Foundation, about 50 to 60 percent of children with seizures will eventually grow out of them and never experience seizures as an adult.

Source:

healthline.com

Kerkorian School of Medicine Employee

Celebrates Her Rebel Spirit All Year Round

Alyssa Hill has always been proud of being a UNLV Rebel, from performing as a little girl at halftime for some of the games, to becoming an undergraduate student, to now working for the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV.

With Halloween and Rebel Homecoming both taking place this month, it only seems appropriate to discuss someone possessed.

At first blush, you’d never guess Alyssa Hill, the admissions coordinator for the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, learns the time from her UNLV clock and that she has the wherewithal to offer you cheese and dip from her replica of a UNLV football helmet or muffins from her UNLV replica muffin pan.

Nor would you assume when she’s not in her office that she leaves a cardboard cutout of herself in her chair that shows her in a UNLV T-shirt holding a giant UNLV #1 foam finger.

Nor would you understand that she’s the kind of woman who artfully paints store-bought gnomes into lovable UNLV characters.

No, just seeing her walk down the medical school hallways wouldn’t make you immediately conclude that colleagues of Hill have diagnosed her with, or claim that she’s possessed by, a UNLV spirit yet to be reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But walking into her office on the fourth floor of the 2040 Building on W. Charleston Blvd., well, that’s another story. She’s well on her way to having enough UNLV paraphernalia to open her own souvenir shop.

Alyssa Hill wearing her UNLV cap and gown for graduation

You quickly understand that this native of Las Vegas, a first-generation college graduate, is wonderfully over the top in the feeling that she has for the university she graduated from in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in art -- study that was concentrated in graphic design.

You don’t need an MD to appreciate that she’s possessed by the Rebel Spirit.

“If you can’t tell from my office space decor, I love UNLV,” says the UNLV alumna who feels most comfortable when she’s wearing a scarlet blouse and gray slacks. “I think from growing up and going to the different sports events of basketball, football, soccer and baseball, to performing as a little girl at halftime for some of the games, to going there for undergrad, to now working for UNLV, how could I not have Rebel spirit?”

And so yet another question about American life is left for a PhD dissertation to ponder.

The truth is, after you go to her office that highlights everything UNLV, you have to force yourself to remember there are 22 other letters in the alphabet.

In this sad Age of Covid-19, Hill is far from pollyannish. But she believes we must find the time to make the glass half full, not half empty. Joy, she says, is critical to living a life with hope, where cynicism doesn’t find a happy, unhappy home in our psyche. She finds joy in celebrating the school that gave her and her brother the chance to become the first in their family to experience a college education, a school that has the games and events that provide “the level of excitement (that) makes me just really happy and excited...I get that same feeling just being on campus as well.”

Prior to switching to the school of medicine at UNLV in 2017, Hill worked for the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine’s clinical operations in Las Vegas.

“It was hard to show my UNLV spirit then,” she says. “Now working for UNLV, my Rebel pride has just kind of exploded all over my office with different memorabilia and spirit items. It all ranges from bobbleheads, gnomes, flags, popcorn tins, office decor, homemade items, and more. At home, I have even more UNLV gear. My collection probably started in high school, but it really grew when I attended UNLV for undergrad and is still growing as I work here. My truck is even red with UNLV plates and license plate frames.”

Hill’s parents, though not born in Las Vegas, grew up here as young children. They followed UNLV sports and took Hill and her brother, even as toddlers, to a variety of athletic contests. During elementary and middle school, Hill was part of a dance/cheerleading group called the Starlets and they performed during halftime at UNLV basketball and football games.

You could make the case that Hill may have picked up her rabid support for all things UNLV from her father. Bless his heart, he once got a little too excited when UNLV was playing Duke in the 1991 NCAA Basketball National Semifinals game (UNLV lost 79-77).

He taped the game over his wedding ceremony. “I don’t think my mom was too happy about it at the time,” Hill recalls. “It’s a funny story now. Fortunately, my grandparents had another copy of the wedding tape.”

Hill, who believes she tops her dad in Rebel spirit, shares her UNLV enthusiasm with applicants to medical school. “I have the giant UNLV foam finger that I bring for their in-person interview days with faculty and administrators,” she says. As you might expect, no one has ever complained about being given the finger during the admissions process.

As an admissions coordinator, Hill likes to read the personal stories each applicant makes as part of the application process. “Each one is so different. Each has their own story of why they want to be here, why they want to help and serve people, and why they want to help the Las Vegas community and grow the number of physicians in Nevada.”

“No matter how hard or negative something may be, I think I do a really good job in trying to find the positive in every situation. It’s something my coworkers have even commented on and I’m proud of that. If I can provide a smile or a little positivity to someone’s day, then I’m happy.”

Alyssa Hill

Her graphic design background -- her work has been shown in gallery exhibitions -- frequently comes into play at the medical school. She’s part of a team that makes flyers and presentations for applicants and students. Her experience with photography and video allows her to end up at many student events with her camera. Her work has been used by the marketing and communications department through Facebook, Instagram and other social media. Last year, she created the Shadow Lane Campus virtual tour video and logo sequence. She and her coworker Robert Aguayo filmed the campus and then pieced it together. It can be found on the website here: unlv.edu/medicine/campus or on Youtube: youtu.be/oG_nUDnjW64.

Admittedly having the taste pallet of a 5-year-old, Hill gets her zest for life, in part, from eating only a handful of things -- chicken fingers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, mac and cheese, quesadillas, pasta with butter and cheese only, and a few other things that she doesn’t readily remember. “I’m not fussy,” she explained without having to.

When she’s not supporting UNLV, Hill loves “watching and partaking in motorsports and anything that goes fast with a motor.” In 2006, she was driving an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), wearing a helmet and other proper gear, when she says she collided with another ride and hit the ground so hard with her head “it knocked the sense of smell out of me.”

Given her penchant for accentuating the positive, it isn’t all surprising that when Hill analyzes the accident today she says, “Not having that sense has actually come in handy multiple times.”

Hill says she enjoys finding the positivity of life. “No matter how hard or negative something may be, I think I do a really good job in trying to find the positive in every situation. It’s something my coworkers have even commented on and I’m proud of that. If I can provide a smile or a little positivity to someone’s day, then I’m happy.”

Try not to smile when you stand at Hill’s desk and see that you’re surrounded from floor to ceiling by UNLV memorabilia that includes bobbleheads, UNLV gnomes, flags, popcorn tins, football helmets used for eating and whatever else UNLV Hill can dream up.

It’s not gonna happen. You’re gonna smile.

And one Alyssa Hill is going to be happy.

“It’s the little things in life,” she says, “that can bring some sunshine to your day.”