M1 Student Reflects on SEMSS
M1 Student Reflects on SEMSS
Last fall, a few of my M1 MSTP classmates and I decided to forgo a weekend of studying hematology and instead attend the 2016 Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium (SEMSS) hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. SEMSS was initiated by a handful of southeastern medical schools, including Vanderbilt, in 2010. It has served as an annual meeting for MD/PhD, MD, and undergraduate students to discuss career goals, share research accomplishments, and foster an environment of collaboration and education within our region.
My classmates and I made the quick drive Saturday morning from Nashville to Birmingham and arrived for the beginning of the meeting and first keynote speaker, Dr. Steve Rowe, a Vanderbilt MD graduate conducting cystic fibrosis research. Following his presentation was the first breakout session, where undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students went their separate ways to sessions focused on their level of training. While my classmates went to the session pertaining to research opportunities during residency, I did some recruiting in the undergraduate session. Each MD/PhD program was represented in a Q&A session for undergraduates from several schools. After reliving the horror of the MCAT and the medical school application process for an hour, everyone headed to the first poster session. The conference cycled through speakers, breakout sessions, and poster sessions for the next day and a half. A weekend highlight was having a conversation with our second keynote, Dr. Robert Satcher, a MD/PhD who trained with the Space Program in his spare time and performed two space walks. This was just a humbling reminder that in case being a physician-scientist isn’t enough, being a physician-scientist astronaut is always a possibility.
Although the weekend was highly academic, the conference provided plenty of opportunities to meet students from other programs. Everybody stayed in the same hotel and went to a networking dinner event on Saturday night. Additionally, the UAB students invited us out to their favorite bars to experience the downtown Birmingham nightlife. When we started driving back to Nashville on Sunday afternoon, I began looking forward to the next conference which will be November 18-19, 2017 at Emory. Considering this weekend of networking and career development in a different city is fully funded by our MSTP, I am looking forward to attending with a big group next year. Plus, you could always meet an astronaut if you go!