Fabio Bondar, MD, an ophthalmology resident at the Santa Casa da Misericordia Hospital in Porto Alegre, Brazil, completed a four-week observership at Kellogg in April 2016.
Fabio’s great grandparents on both sides immigrated to Brazil from Kishinev, Moldova, a former Soviet Republic, to escape the pogroms visited upon the Jews. Starting as peddlers, they became small store owners, giving the opportunity to the next generation to complete their studies. Fabio’s mother is an architect and his father is an engineer.
After graduating with an excellent scholarly record from a private high school, Fabio was able to gain admission to the Federal University as a medical student. He paused for six months in his training to work on a kibbutz in Israel, where he became fluent in Hebrew, besides speaking English, Spanish and Portuguese.
When he entered medical school he had no special interest in ophthalmology, but during the six years’ course his experiences were so favorable that he chose it, despite the fact that it is one of the more competitive specialties in Brazil. After finishing Med School, he served in the Brazilian Army as a doctor for one year, before entering the Ophthalmology Residency Program.
He has spent much of his time at Kellogg in Cornea Clinic and in the operating rooms.
He rates his experience here as “spectacular”, with special acknowledgment of how academics are woven into the clinical training. He has convinced his brother Gabriel, a medical student in Brazil, to come to Kellogg for a four-week elective rotation in August 2016.