As freshman Maya Lee reflects on the MED club’s meeting with a former surgeon Dec. 19, she said she found the speaker very inspirational and gave validation for her future aspirations.

“I have been wanting to be a surgeon except I’ve always wondered if it’s too much for me or if I would be able to handle it,” Lee said. “I have never actually been able to talk to an actual surgeon about that, so to be able to ask him helped me figure out that this is what I want to do and that I can do it.”

According to MED club adviser Casie Budolfson, the MED club speaker was retired Hennepin County Medical Center chief of surgery Mark Odland.

“He came and talked about what you need to do in your undergrad and medical school to become a surgeon and went over the path he took to become a surgeon and some of the challenges of being a surgeon and some of the positive things of being a surgeon,” Budolfson said.

Senior MED club president Hannah Wolk said the opportunity to hear from a surgeon does not happen very often.

“We hadn’t had a surgeon all year, and I don’t think we had one last year either, just because they’re really hard to get in, so it was really interesting to hear from someone in surgery,” Wolk said. “Also to hear about his position as chief of surgery was really cool. It went really well.”

According to Budolfson, she met Odland through through her volunteer role working with foster care children.

“Honestly whenever I meet someone that is in the medical field I ask them to come speak,” Budolfson said. “That’s how we get a lot of our speakers, just through people knowing people in the medical field.”

Lee said one of her biggest takeaways from the meeting was the speaker’s confidence in his journey to ultimately becoming a surgeon.

“One of the questions I asked was if he ever regretted taking the path that he did and he said that there was never a point where he wished that he did something else,” Lee said.

Budolfson said she felt Odland conveyed an important message to the club members.

“I think one of the things addressed was that there are a lot of different pathways you can take even when you decide to become a surgeon,” Budolfson said.

According to Wolk, the meeting’s increased attendance was likely due to the speaker.

“We definitely had one of our higher amounts of students and members of the club come to the meeting because I think people are really interested in surgeons in general and surgery and also since we don’t have them in as much, a lot of people came,” Wolk said.

Wolk said she hopes to continue growing the club and gaining dedicated members throughout the year.

“There’s kind of a notion that if you don’t want to go to a meeting it’s not a big deal, but we really want to make it known that it is important to be going to these meetings because the speakers are always hard to find, just people in the medical field are very busy,” Wolk said.

According to Lee, the MED club provides many advantages that prove beneficial after high school.

“I think it will be helpful when I’m applying to colleges because I know I’ll have a group of people who are also trying to do the same exact thing and they can help me through that,” Lee said. “Also it will be helpful when I am starting a career, to be able to have heard what people who have succeeded doctors think.”

According to Wolk, the MED club’s next meeting is Jan. 18, where the club founder Kaylee Chamberlain will be speaking about her experience in medical school.