Plexus 2021: Emergence
Abstract
Editor's Note
PLEXUS is a student-organized publication that showcases creative work by medical students, physicians, faculty, and others in the UCI medical community. Through the universal language of art, the journal aspires to connect those who seek to heal and to be healed. We hope that PLEXUS will always be a creative and welcoming space in which we can all reflect and share our experiences in medicine and in life.
This year, more than ever, we hope that PLEXUS can provide solace to those who contribute to and view its pages. The unprecedented challenges of the last year have brought us incredible hardships and sorrow, but also inspired newfound strength and profound kindness. In this year’s 22nd edition of PLEXUS, we embrace and celebrate all of this as part of the process of Emergence.
In this issue, we highlight the past year as a time of new things coming into being – whether good or bad – and to hold hope for the possibility of change for the better. Emergence is a process of coming to view and bringing things to light as well as the philosophy that greater things may arise which are unexpected and far better than any of the parts we see.
We are incredibly grateful to our amazing community for their support in sustaining PLEXUS. This year we are lucky to have a wonderful team of MS1 associate editors led by Celina Yang: Riya Bansal, Aaron Frank, Kathleen Powers, and Kelsey Roman. We would like to give special thanks to our faculty advisors Dr. Johanna Shapiro, Dr. Tan Nguyen and Dr. Frank Meyskens. This journal would not have been possible
without their continuous support and guidance.
We hope you enjoy PLEXUS 2021: Emergence.
Editors in Chief: Ashley Hope, Kenneth Schmitt
Congratulations to the winners of the 2021 medical student competition!
Visual: Breaking Wave by Tammy Tran (MS3) Bloom/Plume/Bloom by Qingxing Liang (MS2)
Written: Dragonfly in Amber by Bethlehem Tesfaye (MS1), A Little Soda for Thought by Anna Cardall (MS3)
Performance: Emergence (Darkness) by Alex Richardson (MS3), On My Way remix by Harrison Lam (MS2)
(front cover) Egg By: Sam Vesuna (MS3)