We were lucky to catch up with Elias Hilaire recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Elias thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I started my Youtube channel in April 2021, a few months before starting dental school. I really knew nothing about cameras, editing, Youtube, and since it was a few months before I started school, I barely knew anything about dental school, which was the content my channel was supposed to be focused on. It definitely took me some time to learn what I was doing, and even today I am still learning a lot. What is most important is just picking up the camera and learning as you go. Now that I have started school, I have less time to learn the craft, but I still do my best to work on it in my free time.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Elias Hilaire, I am a 2nd year dental student at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and I started a Youtube channel to document my dental school journey with the hopes of increasing minority student’s interest in the profession and to disseminate information to the students that need it. As an undergraduate, I feel like they pushed medical school and being a “pre-med” so heavily that I didn’t explore other options, and the lack of information definitely contributed to that. Now that I am in the position to change that, that’s what I want to do for the people who come after me.
I’m most proud of my consistency. Dental school is demanding, time-consuming, and many people have tried what I am doing now before and just couldn’t handle both, which I totally understand. Consistently posting on Youtube is demanding enough in itself and causes consistent internal battles, but I’m glad that I’ve been able to stick with it.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Helping people. Whenever someone comments under a video, sends me a DM, or anything that shows me they have benefitted in some way from the content I post on my channel, it fuels me to keep going. I can think of at least 5 people who reached out to me for help and are now in dental school. Honestly 1 person was enough to keep me going, but I truly just love helping people.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I plan to carry my channel far past dental school. Youtube is a lucrative business if you can foster a supportive community, and I eventually want to give back to that community by starting a dental school scholarship.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.youtube.com/c/StudentDoctorEli
- Instagram: @_bookofeli
- Youtube: Student Doctor Eli