Welcome to the Hidden World of Mayo Clinic and Diversity
Mayo Clinic is known around the world for its great practice of medicine and ground breaking research. One aspect of Mayo Clinic however seems to be a hidden secret, its second shield…..Education. Yes, the Mayo Clinic’s logo contains three shields and these represent “Patient Care, Medical Education, and Research”. It seems that the education here at Mayo is overlooked by many. This is quite unfortunate due to the high quality and opportunities that one can obtain from getting an education here. It is one of the few schools that unite all three aspects to increase the knowledge and experiences of each student. This is where I come in. My name is Jessica and I am from sunny, hot South Texas. I had also never heard of Mayo Clinic’s schools until I was searching for an internship when I was in college. I came across the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) where I was able to gain research experience then learned about its graduate school and here I am a second year student and hanging on. I also joined the Initiative to Maximize Student Diversity (IMSD), which focuses on increasing the number of researchers among underrepresented ethnic minorities. This outlook gave me the idea that Mayo Clinic is not only a medical and research facility but also an educational and diverse one.
This now leads me to introduce the goal of our blog. We as graduate students, medical students, residents, post-docs, and enthusiasts want to introduce you to the world of Mayo Clinic’s education and diversity from our eyes. This of course came about with lots of hair pulling and nail biting from our ‘Mother Mayo.’ However, since we are a research and educational facility it has been shown that you would preferably hear about Mayo from someone at Mayo. It makes some sense doesn’t it? So get your minds ready and your questions rolling because we are here to open the lines of communication and answer any of your questions about diversity, education, living in Minnesota (or other sites), science updates, what it is like to be a student at Mayo, and any other topics your little heart desires J. We have intelligent, serious, intense, knowledgeable, and hilarious bloggers that are inspired to give you their honest opinions/experiences.
I will begin by asking how did you learn about Mayo Clinic? As I explained earlier, I knew they had an amazing medical practice, research, and medical school, however had no clue they had a graduate school, continuing medical education school, graduate medical school, and school of health sciences. I found it quite impressive how there was a close interplay of the schools with the clinic and research. For instance, I am currently in a cancer genetics lab and we work very closely with residents and medical doctors who share an interest in our research. Many people learn about Mayo Clinic’s schools from previous students, residents, attending national conferences, other research facilities, and unfortunately, from friends or loved ones who are admitted to the Clinic. One thing is true however, many do not know what great education Mayo Clinic has and what doors will open when you come here. For this reason, we are here to open your eyes and share the nicely hidden secrets of Mayo Clinic.
¡Adios!
Jess
Tags: Jess, Jessica Silva, Mayo's Hidden Secret, Welcome Note
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April 30, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Well done team! Glad I can be a part of such inspiring and certainly ground braking project. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Keep up the great work.
April 30, 2008 at 3:22 pm
First, thank you to all who made this blog possible!
I recently received a poem that I think is appropriate for this forum and to help readers understand what the Mayo Clinic is. Unfortunately, I don’t know who to attribute authorship. If anyone knows who the author is, please share that information so they can receive appropriate credit for this great work of art!
I am different.
I am hope.
I am compassion.
I am experience.
I am medicine’s true north.
The patient is my star.
My course was set by giants.
I am different.
My journey began by wagon and riverboat.
I was born from a desire to ease suffering.
By a man who mortgaged his house to buy a microscope.
I am a family tradition that continues to this day.
I am the silver lining of a tornado.
I am different.
I have healed presidents and world leaders.
I have healed plumbers and kindergarten teachers.
I discovered what benched Lou Gehrig.
I was the first to open the heart.
I have signed the Nobel book in Stockholm.
I am different
I do not rest on my laurels
I never stop learning
I put the needs of the patient above all else
I embrace teamwork. I don’t care who gets the credit. I care who gets well.
I am over 50,000 strong. And over 50,000 smart.
I am a union of forces.
All striving for the greater good.
I am different.
I have returned farmers to their fields.
And the famous to their footlights.
Thanks to me, grandfathers have fished with grandsons.
Fathers have danced with daughters.
And couples have celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
I am different.
I am a calling.
A call to serve.
A call to heal.
A call to see hopes realized.
Loved ones reunited.
And lives well lived.
I am different.
I am Rochester.
I am Scottsdale.
I am Jacksonville.
I am the science of medicine.
I am the art of healing.
I am the Mayo Clinic.
May 1, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I wanted to answer Jess’ question, since my story of “finding” Mayo may be similar to what others experienced.
First let me congratulate the team for this blog. If you are reading from outside Mayo Clinic, we’re delighted to welcome you. “Diversity” means many things. At Mayo we want our patients, our medical and research staff, our support team and our patients to reflect the diversity of our country. This enriches all of us and allows us to make our research into basic science and health care as relevant as possible.
As one of the leaders of Mayo’s NIH-funded grants to advance student diversity at Mayo, I’m proud of what is being accomplished and eager to do better.
I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, just a bit more than 3 hours from Rochester, Minnesota by car. I had heard of Mayo as a world-class clinic and hospital. As a high school student with cancer more than 30 years ago, I’d even had my own tumor samples sent to Mayo for analysis. I never thought about Mayo as an academic medical center, or a venue for basic research, or a graduate school for training future Ph.D. leaders in biomedical research.
In 1994, two of my scientific friends from my postdoctoral days at Caltech both visited Mayo in response to ads for faculty positions in basic research. Both are now famous biochemists at leading universities. They both were pleasantly surprised with what they found at Mayo- an excellent basic science research infrastructure, excellent colleagues, generous funding, an attitude of discovery, and a graduate school with excellent Ph.D. students. They had no idea these assets existed at Mayo Clinic. These two suggested I take a look.
I submitted my CV out of curiosity and I was also pleasantly surprised by what Jess accurately called the “hidden world” of Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. It was 13 years ago that I moved my research lab to Mayo. I didn’t expect to become an Associate Dean assisting in leading Mayo Graduate School’s Ph.D. program, and I didn’t expect to end up helping to lead the graduate school’s nationally-recognized diversity programs to increase the diversity of Ph.D. scientists in America. These joyful activities were added to my journey while keeping most of my focus on how cells manage to enhance the flexibility of DNA and trying to engineer RNA aptamers to artificially control gene expression.
At Mayo we do lots of experiments. I am proud to be part of our experiments in diversity. We want to understand principles to enhance the recruitment, retention and success of diverse students. We want to understand how to make them successful biomedical researchers while they are here, and how to support their career success. Sure, we’d like to understand how to recruit some of our underrepresented trainees to become long-term Mayo researchers and physicians. However, I’m most excited about investing in sharing Mayo’s style of research and medicine with future leaders- of all backgrounds and colors- and letting those trainees follow their paths across the country and across the globe. Their Mayo experiences will influence them permanently, will influence their own students, and will eventually pay dividends by making diversity a vibrant hallmark of the Mayo legacy. We think it starts by sharing the secrets of this very special “hidden world.”
This blog is part of that story.
Jim
August 6, 2008 at 4:41 pm
It’s good to read how well-recognized Mayo is for its reputation as a leader in the medical field as well as for its carefor their patients. I also didn’t know about its hidden secrets of education. That’s wonderful!
August 11, 2008 at 10:00 am
Thanks! This is actually one of our goals for this creating this blog. Mayo is well recgonized for their outstanding patient care, however is not well recgonized for their outstanding mentorship and education. Personally, I beleive any student who has had the opportunity to do a fellowship, internship, rotations, or receive their degree (masters, doctorate, nurseing, etc.) understands how dedicated the professors are here at Mayo. This of course is the 3 shields concept: Patient Care, Education, and Research!!