As a physician, you will have special standing in whatever community you occupy with those who are on the outside looking in and you'll have a special understanding because you are on the inside, looking out.

Plain and comforting talk does not require a white jacket or a stethoscope. It requires heart and empathy to go with all the knowledge that you gained here at the Mayo Medical School. Whatever your specialty, as a physician, you do have standing and a voice, twin attributes that should be employed to make us a healthier society.

I think Mayo Medical School gives you a comprehensive knowledge of health care and how patients navigate health care. And such that we don't just get the medical facts, we get experiences in social work, and hospice, and rural medicine care, which benefits us in that we get a better understanding of what the patient is going through and how best to help them through the various hoops that they have to jump through to get the best care. Caring for soldiers is very important to me and is a passion of mine. I think the Mayo model of the needs of the patient come first is a great thing that they've taught us here and I'd be happy to bring that into the military because they've done so much for the rest of us that I just want to be involved and help out as best I can.

One of the reasons I choose Mayo Medical School would be just the option to learn from world class physicians and that honestly played a huge role in my decision to attend this medical school. So benefactor support has been so incredibly influential and the opportunities we have here at Mayo Medical School. One of the big things we have is small class size. Being able to have 50 students but in addition, all the faculty to come in so we have that one-on-one teaching has really changed the face of our educational process here at Mayo.

I chose to come to Mayo for many reasons but I think the most important one is I knew that this place would train me to put patients first. People really do live by that needs of the patients come first. And I wanted to be in a place where patients came first, where I would be trained to put them first in everything I did.

I think that our patients come to us with needs that are beyond physical. And I think it includes spiritual needs. I think that having training in divinity will allow me at least the background to be able to have those conversations without any awkwardness. So hopefully, I will be able to better serve my patients.

I'm interested in more rural or small town practice because, mainly because of the experience I had working in rural Wisconsin with a former graduate of Mayo Medical School, who served as my mentor for a couple of weeks. And I just fell in love with the town and I enjoyed seeing how the physicians in that clinic were engaged in a number of levels in their community.

I think that Mayo Medical School has given me a lot of opportunities to really explore how I will be able to influence and be able to make a difference in the world. My most memorable experience here at Mayo Medical School is actually the opportunities that MMS has provided me for doing work in under-served areas. A specific example of this is that their funding and their support has enabled me to have much less debt than I would have otherwise. And this enables me to pursue a career that I'm really passionate about, which is global health, regardless of how lucrative it may or may not be.

Once your practices are established, you would find some time to leave your comfort zones and take your considerable skills to a place where medicine is not a given, it is a miracle. Together, we are stewards of our individual and collective commitment to good health, which is an underpinning of any stable and secure society.

Sept. 29, 2022