- An outside perspective helps clarify the true nature of a specialty, offering insight into what life is like as a thoracic surgeon beyond a single institution, city, or state.
- Inspiring mentors who are willing to candidly share their journey to becoming thoracic surgeons attract prospective applicants and help students outline their residency and career plans.
It was truly an immense honor to be selected as one of the Looking to the Future (LTTF) Scholars this past year. This experience reinforced my passion for pursuing thoracic surgery and solidified my decision to apply to general surgery residency this cycle.
While the support this program provided in attending the 61st Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons would have been impactful in itself, it was the amazing mentor I was assigned, Dr. Ravi Rajaram, who elevated this experience.
As a third-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, I was fortunate to have solidified my interest in general thoracic surgery because of my mentors there, Dr. Raja Flores and Dr. Andrea Wolf, and my research work with Dr. M. Blair Marshall and Dr. Hassan Khalil. However, like most third-year medical students, I was warned about pursuing surgery. I was constantly told “don’t choose this training unless you cannot see yourself doing anything else,” and “do not just choose a specialty just because you met a few good mentors”.
As I rotated through my core clerkships, I regularly questioned my decision to pursue surgery. I hoped the opportunity to attend a leading specialty conference like the STS Annual Meeting would provide clarity. It did.
About a month before the conference, I was assigned Dr. Rajaram as a mentor. He quickly reached out to congratulate me and learn about my goals and background. As I planned to finalize my decision to apply to surgical residency, I realized I needed an outside perspective.
I wanted to speak with someone who had not worked with me before. I wanted to hear about their experiences, struggles pursuing thoracic surgery, and what continued to bring them back to the operating room. While I was deeply grateful for the incredible mentors I already had, I wanted to know if my passion for thoracic surgery would hold firm when viewed through a different lens, outside the familiar environment that had nurtured it.
Dr. Rajaram provided the outside perspective I was seeking. As a former LTTF Scholar, he walked me through his journey, academic training, and path to becoming faculty and establishing a practice at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Throughout the STS Annual Meeting, he connected me with other accomplished surgeons, allowing me to learn from their experiences and journeys. He coordinated a group dinner with three LTTF mentor-mentee groups, and I got to hear about their journeys to becoming an attending thoracic surgeon, the difficulties of training, and the joys of this career.
It was inspiring and made it clear that while the journey may be difficult, if we pursued thoracic surgery, we would become excellent clinicians and academicians. Most importantly, we would be able to shape our future practice and find ways to balance life outside of surgery.
The takeaway of that dinner was that in thoracic surgery, we would all be able to find an excellent community of colleagues and shape our practice to meet our academic and lifestyle goals. Personally, it helped me confirm that in thoracic surgery, I could find a home and solidify my plan to apply to general surgery residency.
Since the annual meeting, Dr. Rajaram has remained an amazing mentor and resource I feel comfortable turning to. Recently, as I neared the general surgery residency application deadline, I hopped on a call with Dr. Rajaram. Here too, he provided me with the outside perspective I was looking for, sharing what he knew about programs, his experience training residents pursuing 4/3 and traditional training programs, and his own perspectives having gone through a traditional general surgery to thoracic surgery fellowship training model. He also provided valuable feedback as I chose programs to apply for.
I was extremely fortunate to have been selected as an LTTF Scholar and assigned Dr. Rajaram as a mentor. The outside perspective he provided, the opportunities to hear from other thoracic surgeons that he coordinated, and the entire program’s goal of providing us scholars with all the resources and guidance we could ask for helped me decide to continue pursuing thoracic surgery. I look forward to becoming a surgical resident and, one day, a thoracic surgeon!