Student Doctor and Resiliency Champion

Student Doctor and Resiliency Champion

From Our Voices, Our Future by Meghan Etsey, Rhea Manohar, Meenu Immaneni, and Laura Uricoechea

February 27, 2026 · 19 min · Season 2 · Episode 45

About this episode

Jacqueline Hidalgo shares her journey through medical school, discussing challenges like misogyny and imposter syndrome while redefining resilience.

In this episode of Our Voices, Our Future , host Rhea Manohar sits down with Jacqueline “Jackie” Hidalgo, a third-year medical student at St. George’s University and member of the Gender Equity Task Force within the American Medical Women’s Association. Born and raised in Long Island, New York, and a graduate of New York University with a degree in Psychology, Jackie shares her deeply personal journey through medicine, one marked not by perfection, but by perseverance. During this episode we talk about what it feels like to be told to quit by a professor, the subtle and overt misogyny that can shape a student’s confidence, and how imposter syndrome can blur with internalized bias. Jackie opens up about academic setbacks, repeating a term, and the internal dialogue that followed, challenging medicine’s culture of perfection and redefining what resilience truly looks like. This conversation is an honest reflection on failure, identity, mentorship, and the strength it takes to stay when others expect you to leave. For anyone who has ever questioned whether they belong, this episode is your reminder: resilience is not weakness, it is power. You can find more information about the…

People in this episode

Host: Rhea Manohar

Guest: Jacqueline Hidalgo

Topics covered

  • resilience
  • medical education
  • gender equity
  • imposter syndrome
  • mental health

Keywords

  • perseverance
  • academic setbacks
  • mentorship
  • identity

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Our Voices, Our Future

Places: Long Island, New York

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